28 December 2011
Yesterday we had a day out birding. We left Dorktown at just after 9am and arrived at Slimbridge WWT site at Just after 11am, we like at least one comfort break on the way. On the way down we saw only 15 species of bird, which was a tad disappointing I suppose but we soon made it up when we got around the site. There we saw 39 species but that included a number of birds that were part of the collection, not that it would have helped our year list anyway. The biggest disappointment was that the bittern wasn't showing at all yesterday. As per usual, on Boxing Day it was showing well for most of day we were told. Ah well ... here's a few shots from there ...
Last night I finished reading a book called The Birdman Abroad. It's the story of the far off travels of the Sunday Express environment editor Stewart Winter. I had already read his Tales of a Tabloid Twitcher some time ago and enjoyed that so was looking forward to reading his second offering. The second book starts back in 1970 and his mother putting her foot down with a firm hand and insisting that they Winter's go aboard for a holiday while the World Cup was on. This was not to be a misery over not watching football although I would have agreed if she had done so, but no, it was to protect them all from her hubby's anti-Germany rants. Young Stewart still managed to get himself in trouble over it anyway. But it was while he was away that his budding interest in birding really took a hold on him. He saw a hoopoe, a magic bird I have to see!
From there he goes on to visit places all over the world, many of them on the paper's penny too - bloody good job if you can swing it! He tells of his meeting with a cottonmouth snake and a 1 foot long rattler in Arizona; of being stung by a bullet ant in Panama; of joining the World Birding Series in New Jersey. Winter claims to have seen over 600 species of bird in the States - that's more than there is on the full UK list. But the one story that struck home to me was the last one, the story of the albatrosses. It seems that 19 of 21 species of albatrosses are on the at risk of extinction list. He travelled to the Falklands with John Craven and a BBC film crew who were doing a film for Countryfile. It was there he came face to face with an albatross chick, a bundle of white fluff with big staring trusting eyes. As I read it I thought, "You lucky sod!" But luck has to be on the side of the albatross now so that we don't lose such a magnificent bird. You do see them occasionally here in the UK. I remember reading in a magazine of one being seen down at Dungeness. The writer was saying he pointed out the bird to the only other person in the hide at the time - and he just shrugged his shoulders as if to say, "So what?" I couldn't believe it when I read that! If it had been me I would still crowing about it to anyone who showed any interest at all. Enough of birding for now ...
This morning we had a ride to Asda on our scooters and we both were pretty well fed up of people past us or just ignoring us all together. Jan had to go to Customer services so I got a basket and began doing the little bit of shopping we needed. When Jan finally caught up with me I could see she was angry. A man had knocked into her and then blamed her for it. It was just an accident, neither was hurt but his reaction was over the top. But neither Jan nor me are the sort to allow something like to go by quietly - Jan had a go back. Then she came and told me and as we were there talking about it he saw us an came and began again. He threatened violence - there was no way I was latter that go! One of the staff came to sort it out as we were leaving he was still on about going outside. It wasn't till later that I thought about it but it was as clear a case of 'hate crime' as you wish to see. What I should have done was call the cops and let them sort it.
The things is though, this is not an isolated incident. It happens on a regular basis not only here in Dorktown but throughout the country. The miss-use of disabled parking spaces on car parks is one of the worst manifestation of it. yesterday we saw a Porsche parked in one at the services on the M5. But there was a disabled badge on display so nothing could be done. The security people could ask to see the badge but won't do so for fear of their safety. So disabled people have to walk a lot further so they can do their jobs in comfort. Dropped curds at road junctions being blocked by parked cars are a regular here in Dorktown. I left a note on one such car once and when we came back I also saw that a parking ticket had also been stuck on there. There was a blue badge on display, but they are still required to keep clear of dropped curbs.
Pedestrians seem to think it's OK to walk around with disregard to anyone else and expect people to get out of their way. Texting is a real danger to them but until they get hurt they will not change their habits. Groups of friends meet up and will regularly block pavements and grumble when you say, "Excuse me please?" to go by. Queue jumping is another on that happens regularly. They seem to think that we don't have any rights or should even be considered. Things will continue to get worse as long as disabled people remain meek little lambs and let these people get away with it. I've had enough of it and will now fight back, legally of course, to be treated with respect and consideration. The saddest thing is that we should have to do so! All over with for now though at least.
Back to birding ... we are hoping to get out of Sunday to start our year list off to a good start pretty quickly. Just hoping for good weather now ;-)))
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