TUB,wildlife and looking for it from your own armchair

26 April

David Lindo is a bit of a hero for me. David is also known as The Urban Birder or TUB for short; not a very complimentary name really. Whatever, he is very inspirational for me. I look forward to reader to his articles in both Birding Watching and the RSPB magazine Home For Nature (used to be Birds and the name change has caused a bit of stir within the RSPB membership.) I've also read his autobiography, The Urban Birder, charts his beginings as an eight year old birding in his own back garden. Well worth a read if you get the chance.    

The name change of the magazine is part of the widening of the RSPB remit, which is really no different to what they have been doing since it began oh so long ago. TUB's articles have changed their focus as part of the overall change.

Our copy of Home For Nature arrived here this morning and I've just finished a quick first look through it, but did read TUB's piece as well as the Simon Barnes piece too. TUB is saying that urban wildlife is so much easier to see these days than it used to be. Blackbirds were once a shy birds of woodlands but are now seeing very easily throughout the UK. Same with foxes. They are now seen in broad daylight in many cities now; in Glasgow there are deer foraging in a cemetery not far from the city centre. And don't forget the London Wetlands Centre either, one a group of four reservoirs it is now a hot bed of wildlife on the southern bank of the Thames at Barnes.

Thing is, we don't need to travel miles and miles to see wildlife, it's there, right on our doorstep. Our current bird list for our back gardens is now around 40 strong. We are not the only one who feed the birds. June next door but one and Cathy and Val opposite us also feed them. The result can be seen in our bird count.

Jan has released two hedgehogs out there and although we haven't seen them since, I'm sure they are still out there. We have plans of putting up a bat box on the dividing fence between us and the house next door. We have seen birds all over Dorktown as well as foxes and yes, rats! Not the most exciting of wildlife but still wildlife. But perhaps Jan's biggest moment was seeing and snapping what we both hoped was an otter by the river just downstream from Riversley Park. It even appeared in the News a few days after she sent in asking for an ID on it. Sadly it wasn't an otter but a mink. Even so, it was a very good sighting in an urban setting.

Seeing as I'm writing about wildlife, I've found shot ... 

A sparrow hawk Jan snapped on the fence about 10 feet from our back door last year.

Today's funny then ...

Little Gus and Jennie are only 10 years old, but they know they are in love.
One day they decide that they want to get married, so Gus goes to Jennie's father to ask him for her hand.
Gus bravely walks up to him and says, "Mr. Smith, me and Jennie are in love and I want to ask you for her hand in marriage."
Thinking that this was just the cutest thing he'd ever heard, Mr. Smith replies, "Well Gus, you are only 10. Where will you two live?"
Without even taking a moment to think about it, Gus replies, "In Jennie's room. It's bigger than mine and we can fit there nicely."
Mr. Smith says with a huge grin, "OK, then how will you live?  You're not old enough to get a job. You'll need to support Jennie."
Again, Gus instantly replies, "Our allowance, Jennie gets 5 bucks a week and I get 10. That's about 60 bucks a month, so that should do us just fine."
Mr. Smith is impressed that Gus has put so much thought into this.  "Well Gus, it seems like you have everything figured out.  I just have one more question.  What will you do if the two of you should have little children of your own?"
Gus just shrugs his shoulders and says, "Well, we've been lucky so far."