birdpix

At Blacktoft Sands it would be fair to say that it was quiet from three of the six hides there was literaly nothing to be seen ,notable abscence of some of the taken for granted birds like swans and geese for example ,(no coots! ,there was a water rail though) Caught up with some curlew sandpipers ,trying to hide in amongst the superficially similar dunlin .A welcome year tick then ,missed them at Cley earlier in the month ,they too were probabaly hiding in amongst the vast numbers of dunlin there that day.Spotted redshank seven of ,nice to see.Barny the owl was sat in his box with his back to us ,he doesnt realise that I have been collecting his pellets that are full of vole skeletons ,found some of his feathers lying around too,even individual feathers from a  barn owl are beautiful.Star of the show as always at Blacktoft were the marsh harriers,bird watchers tend to get kind of blase about them in recent years ,what with their numbers being at 250 year high.Anyone remember 1971? there was only one pair of marsh harriers in the entire British Isles in that year .Can the RSPB turn around  the fortunes of Hen Harriers  in the Peak District? Theres a joint RSPB/National Trust 10 year stewardship scheme forthcoming , june next year to be precise to take over 6000 acres of prime peak habitat for these birds in case that you werent aware.Thats one scheme that I want tosee succeed.Good on the RSPB too for doing an apparent u turn on the proposed reintroduction of white tailed eagles in Norfolk -they opposed it .Now the scheme is to go ahead in Suffolk instead ,involving the RSPB.Count me in ,going to Suffolk instead of Mull to see these amazing birds,I should add it wont put me off going to Mull again! The WWF have a similar scheme to the RSPBs letter to the future (Ive signed both) Have you? Both involve an open letter to the government pleading the case for neglecting conservation and cutting carbon emissions at their peril.Excellent stuff.Talking of u turns...However we may as well send it to the Fascist Dictator in waiting Tory boy Cameron -wanker,as the spineless Brown is obviously doomed politically.I cant say the word Cameron without saying wanker by the way.Even when Cameron -wanker appears on the telly each time his name is mentioned I feel the need to say the word wanker -even if there is no one in the room at the time.My wife gets quiet irritated by this ,she just thinks Cameron is a wanker and doesnt feel the same need to say it out loud.A breathe of fresh air was the young man from Buxton  that I was chatting to yesterday ,who wants to volunteer to do some hands on conservation work as a volunteer.If you are reading this ,youre a good un,hopefully you can get to do something rewarding soon as you  are the opposite of the Cameron wanker .