Weekly Chat, Sunday December 13, 2009

Many Thanks to jsb  for the lovely Christmas Card - what a pretty picture. Happy Christmas to you, too.

patriciat:  You must be proud that Tweed has done so well- have you got lots of rosettes & cups on the sideboard?  Hope Fly is recovering OK.

Sandy:   Thanks for the weather report in distant parts- I often wonder what its like there, & what they are up to. Apparently a lot warmer than here, so no wonder they go off on their hols.

Christmas memories:   My parents wisely always put a few comics in our Christmas stockings (at end of the bed) so that we could read them whilst we waited for the boring grown-ups to get out of bed at last, to see what exciting things were waiting under the tree.  My older brother got the Beano or the Dandy,  & I usually got the Girl comic, which we swapped over if we had read it all!   An orange or a satsuma at the bottom of the stocking, & a fresh packet of Plasticine, as what we had, had usually gone 'grey' from overuse: we were easily pleased & got few presents in those days!  Had a lifelong love of Dan Dare after that, and Sci Fi movies!

Heron77   Know what you mean, at times like that you remember the old days & miss those no longer with us to share our day.

Regards present wrapping:  Last year, I was stumped as gave OH a new Golf Club which was hard to disguise with paper- I gave up in the end, and just put a large bow on it!!!

NEW BLOG - MIXED NEWS

Just read it, Alan:  as these technical things often seem to malfunction, I'm telling myself its just 'no news' rather than anything else.

Thanks Alan

Like you Lindybird I am going to think positive about Mallachie as I do still about Nethy! Technology is great ... until it goes wrong!! 

Just had a look Alan and have seen one sitting on the edge of the nest.

Just to prove that tagged birds can shed their transmitters check out this report on Baldur the whooper swan:

http://www.wwt.org.uk/whooper/blog/latest-news-baldur-seen-at-wwt-welney

More evidence of transmitter shedding on the migration of bar -tailed godwits:

"

Among the 23 transmitters deployed, nine functioned properly during southward flights, comprising those on three females and two males instrumented in Alaska and four females instrumented in New Zealand. Among five other females with implanted PTTs, one did not migrate north to breeding grounds and four had batteries expire before southward migration had begun. Nine external PTTs fitted to males stopped reporting before southward migration, although several of these birds were subsequently resighted. Some males were found to have shed their transmitters, probably owing to migration-related changes in body mass and shape. Other transmitters may have ceased to function when they shifted into a position that did not allow solar cells to recharge."

Well if people want precedents then Raefael is one. See http://www.bioweb.uncc.edu/bierregaard/maps09/Rafael-2009.htm