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What was your fasting blood glucose? (full on chat)

Thank you very much Ian

It is very windy outside, hence my stormy seas round the lighthouse...

The wind thought I had put out a new plaything for it...
I had to correct its assumption with rope, bungee cords, and duct tape again. It had to be high on a table (outside, the table legs are also anchored down with heavy metal...) because of the badgers and foxes.

I now have another wormery I want to make today, this one to be outside the kitchen door...I need to find my soldering iron for the holes at the bottom of the dustbin I am going to use...to collect the fertilising liquid...

I will have my rest tomorrow....thank you...
 
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This is an absolutely beautiful walk!!!!
 
dunelm said:
I really is. I think that we saw a Common Redpoll but not sure @lindisfel
Click to expand...
Hi dunelm,
It's the right kind of habitat for Lesser Redpoll,
most birders pick birds up by song or call.

The two confusion species are Linnet and Lesser RedPoll.

The red on a Linnet is less blood red than the crown and breast of Redpoll with a somewhat different distribution
More easily seen with binoculars is the tiny black chin of a Redpoll male, absent in Linnet.

The females are more similar to each other...all the bright colours are diluted or absent.
They are LBJ's or both are little brown jobs
D.
 
I thought Linnet but it looked a bit big
 
I am so envious @dunelm
 
A really nice walk in the woods with a stopping off point for vegan bacon sarnies one hopes with safety koffy finishing off with a trip to the sea side. No I’m not jealous. Much!
 
I was just saying to Neil today that we see far fewer species of birds than we used to. There used to be swans - quite a lot of them - on the saltings about half a mile from us but we haven't seen even one in years. Admittedly, the council did do some work to drain the land a bit quicker when it floods and re-route the road. Maybe that's why. We used to have waxwings eating the berries from our cotoneasters but not for the last 5 or so years. We used to see collared, turtle and rock doves, but no more. No jackdaws, ravens, no chaffinches, no yellow hammers (they were rare anyway). We used to have big black backed gulls nesting on the field opposite us, but not for the last 3 years. We do have geese feeding on that field now. We even see many fewer gulls of any description and many fewer sparrows. We do have quite a lot of starlings, of course, some hooded crows and the occasional heron (once in a blue moon). There do seem to be a few more raptors - usually notice them when hooded crows are mobbing them. I don't know why the bird population has changed. I thought global warming maybe, Neil reckons predation - one population that has grown in the last years is the feline one - and with more raptors around, perhaps he is right.
 
There has not been a good waxwing year for a few years. We had a very good year c.15 years ago and had a roost flock of c.1500 in the village of Dalston near the R. Caldew south of Carlisle.

But true, as pasture is 'improved', birds generally get reduced in number due lack of food.
It's not usually thought avian predators are responsible though the introduction of hedgehogs to some of the Islands has caused large reductions to waders on the Machair.
We can upset the balance quite easily, road kills on a new main road can cause magpies to increase and prey on other species.

It's c.30 years ago since we went to Lewis, via Harris from North Uist, there were more birds then.
If the balance is not upset by man it all runs better.
Everything worked a lot better in Yellowstone when they re-established the Wolf population.
D
 
Not Such a nice day today things may get better later but one has to travel in one's mind eye to places full of good memories.
Artists are privileged how they can recapture them and help them live in time elsewhere.

When Krystyna talks of Holkham I can see the drive going down across the wet meadows to the pine belt on a warm summer's day and the warmth of the water after crossing the sand on the incoming tide.

Have a good Easter Monday everyone.
D
 
Same weather here @lindisfel
Yes, just like you, I travel in my mind many times a day for snippets of memories. I am 'wandering' now as I am painting my lighthouse, and doing my video editing. Then I Google a time and place, or look on Google Earth and have a photographic 'wander'.....

You both have a good day...
 
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