Weekly Chat. Sunday 2nd January, 2011

evening all:

Heron: Hee-hee - Should we also put toilet seats in upright position before landing?  Thanks for starting new thread.   Very clever to employ slurred spelling while sober; then no-one knows how potted you really are.

Caerann: Great to see you!! How's the job?

Diane: I've seen that Morgan Freeman program - very good.

Lynette: It's taking an age to transfer AOL favorite places over (I'll be getting a new e-mail address and don't want to load AOL on this computer).

Went for sit (decided was too tired to walk) at Los Carneros. Lots of bipeds with dogs attached, but not many feathered types.  Did see a lovely Red-winged Blackbird and his lady friend.  And a White-tailed Kite way in the distance. Then came home for light lunch and snooze on couch.  Thank heaven tomorrow is Sunday - plan another buzy day on the couch and in front of new computer.  :-)

Hi Annette.

I'd advise that all toilet seat lids should be closed prior to landing, so as to minimise resistance to a smoothish landing.  Just looked up pics of Red-winged Blackbird, and White-tailed Kite on Google Images.  What brilliant looking birds :-)

Hi everyone.  Just popping in to add my very best wishes to you all for 2011.  Not many weeks until the osprey season starts all over again ;-)

Hi all: Phew! Just spent the evening transfering (oh dear, does that have two "r"s?) Favorite Places to new computer and still a lot more to do, but it's giving me a chance to clean up as I go along.

Emma Peel: What ho there!  Nice to see you. You're up late. Still celebrating the New Year are we?  :-)

Heron:   The Red Winged Blackbird I saw was the "duo-toned" version - just red on the wings; no yellow.  Pretty easy to spot, which is good for people like me who are still at Birding 101.

Snoozed for about an hour today - amazing!  Cloudy and overcast so it was nice and cozy. 

Take care all.

Morning all,

Nice to see Caerann and Emma Peel back on the blog and Happy New Year to you both.

Thanks for everyone elses chat.

Back down to normality today after the excitement of the waxwings sighting yesterday. The sun is shining for the first time since Boxing Day I think and the patio slabs have dried for the first time in a week.

Have to go out now be back later.

News from Norfolk Botanical Eagles:

http://www.wvec.com/news/slideshows/New-eagle-nest-at-Norfolk-Botanical-Garden-112671114.html

Morning Everyone.   A bit brighter here today, and at least its stopped drizzling, for now!

Went to visit Sweetpea with all the Christmas presents yesterday:  will bore you with details later.  Just off out now (when I've dried my hair) to visit Sis in law, who has a stonking head cold, poor lamb.

Thanks for link to the Eagles, Alan - lovely to see them busy in the snow!

Morning all ... just reading the Mail on Sunday and there is an article about Gordon Buchanan's adventures with Lily and Hope!    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1343111/Love-bite-For-second-I-thought-huge-bear-kissed-me.html

Good morning one and all.  I'm having difficulty in deciding what the days are at the moment - oh, yes, I do know who the PM is, but it's so confusing with so much holiday!

Thank you Paul for starting our weekly chat in such a bouncy way.

Gary, your puppy duty must be such a difficult job for you!  How do you manage such hardship?  Is the plough/plow still being used or is everything under control now?

Hello Diane.  What a lovely card.  The weather and nature seem to be misbehaving all over the world at present.  How are things today?

Lindybird thank you for your best wishes (to everyone) and for the lovely reminder of what we are soon to enjoy once more.  Not too long now.  So glad you made it to see Sweetpea!  I am sure a cuddle from Granny made both of you smile!

AQ how awful to have to try to sleep through 28C night temperatures.  I am much happier when it is freezing outside, no heating in the bedroom, but well wrapped up under the duvet.  I used to enjoy high daytime temperatures when I was much younger, but not now.  I think 25C is fine for the summer!

DjoanS many thanks for the article on Gordon Buchanan's experience with Hope and Lily and the other bears.  Fascinating.  I bought my OH Gordon B's DVD Eagle Island - a year on the Isle of Mull.  We have yet to sit down and watch it, but I am sure it will bring back many happy memories of holidays on Mull.  The MoS article led me to Google Nick Gordon, who encouraged Gordon B with his wildlife photography.  He too seems to have been an extraordinary person, spending much of his career in the rainforests of Africa and South America and devoting a lot of time to jaguar.  Sadly he died in his fifties from a heart attack whilst in remote country on the border of Venezuela and Brazil.  The Independent published an excellent obituary: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/nick-gordon-549855.html

Margo I was pleased to hear your positive reports on your sister, but it must still be very worrying for you and your family.

Alan the link to the Norfolk Botanical eagles reminded me of EJ on the nest in March last year!  How wonderful to have seen the waxwing.  It is obviously just a matter of chance.  Our neighbour, whilst on a local bridleway walk, spotted an egret near a frozen pond!  We just have the usual suspects at present, with the highlight being long tailed tits and goldfinch.  We still get small flocks of fieldfare, but have very few berries left.  The freezing weather and the thaw must have made the ornamental crab apples soften, and now most of that source has been devoured.  I worry that our next cold spell will mean far less food for them.  I have been throwing out apples and chopped banana for the blackbirds, but cannot keep that up for flocks!

Nothing really planned for today, and seem to be being extremely lazy.  But on that note, a happy Sunday to you all.

'Lang may all your lums reek' - Happy New Year all!!

Glad all is well with you. A lovely quiet day here, chilly, grey + dreich but not freezing + we can see the grass again, which is a thrill!! Lots of birds still visiting the feeders, including the swarm of bramblings, had a red poll visit the other day but unfortunately no pics, but the smile is still on my face!!

Wishing all the best of birding New Years!!