Blackbirds have been recorded catching fish to feed their young – mostly Sticklebacks, also Minnows and in one case a small Rainbow Trout. Comments from the link below say that they also take tadpoles and froglets. How resourceful.
Blackbirds recorded catching fish to feed their young – BirdGuides
The image above must be by one of the children from long ago but I am afraid I no longer know which one.
Protect the Wild, one of the most effective campaigners for animals, alongside PETA, the Hunt Sabs and the League Against Cruel Sports (of which Chris Packham has recently been appointed precedent) has made what at first sight seems to be something of a swerve. They have taken Rescue Not Retail under their umbrella.
Sign up to Rescue Not Retail Campaign – Protect the Wild
Rescue Not retail are primarily about domestic animals – I couldn’t agree more that they should not be sold in shops, but of course wild animals, reptiles for example, are victims of retail too. Handling or ‘petting’ (I really hate that word and even the word “pet”) of wild animals should be outlawed too, especially in schools where it is liable to give children completely the wrong idea about animals. I remember my children having an experience like this at their school and it is still going on. A recent post on a family Whatsapp group showed a young family member handling a tortoise and a snake and a hedgehog was thrown into the mix too. It is beyond me that no thought is given to the welfare of the animals in such stressful situations in the 21st century.
PETA has also recently spoken out about the use of animals as mascots at human sporting events, specifically an eagle, bizarrely called Phoenix, at Crystal Palace football club, as well as goats at rugby matches – and in military settings too.
Returning yet again to one of my pet peeves (although that really isn’t a strong enough word), another dog ‘owner’ is allowing their dog to foul my garden on a daily basis. I think I know which dog he or she is since I only see one regularly being walked off lead along the track which separates my house and garden. I will try to have a polite word if I bump into them but it may be that I have to resort, not for the first time, to signs warning of trailcam monitoring.
All dogs should surely be on leads at all times except in specially designated, enclosed areas.
Hot on the heels of my recent post about the fake RSPCA Assured scheme for farms, For All Animals and PETA have just released undercover footage of newborn calves being kicked and hit and otherwise abused at Two Pools Farm, an award-winning dairy farm in Gloucestershire which supplies Marks & Spencer. To their credit, M&S were the first major retailer to source milk from RSPCA Assured farms (of which Two Pools is one), unaware that they were the victims of an RSPCA scam – there is no other word for it. The Red Tractor scheme is even worse since there is not even a pretence of regulation or independence – it is owned by the food industry itself.
One worker at Two Pools is quoted as saying “We’ve got an M&S inspection today… This could really look bad”. Footage shows a hasty clean-up operation, including the removal of a dead calf, shortly before the inspector arrives. He or she stayed for a mere ten minutes and as soon as they had left, the systemic abuse resumed.
The Wildlife Trusts meanwhile confirm in a new report that the rise of mega-dairies is “pushing nature to breaking point.”
Rise of ‘mega-dairies’ pushing nature to breaking point | The Wildlife Trusts
There are more than 40 mega-dairies in the UK – intensive pig and poultry units are at least in theory subject to government monitoring but large dairy and beef farms are not checked at all.
“Analysis by The Wildlife Trusts of recent Environment Agency figures calculated that dairy activity was responsible for 71 per cent of serious agricultural pollution incidents in England alone, damaging rivers, contributing to algal blooms, reducing oxygen levels and harming wildlife.”
There is something about the remnants of buildings like this which intrigues me. This was most likely used for storage, possibly related to the nearby canal. It is just by the newly reopened Red House pub where I treated myself to lunch this week. I have to say that the beautifully presented three cheese soufflé was the best I have ever had, the blatant hypocrisy of my consuming dairy at all notwithstanding.
Jim Dixon writes in The Times about another of my bugbears. The UK government has finally agreed to a ban on the use of lead shot and an EU ban has been approved but as Dixon says, “… you must wonder why it has taken nearly half a century to stop blasting a toxic chemical into our wildest places and wildlife.”
Yesterday’s storm has subsided somewhat but it is still pretty blowy with winds reaching some 30 mph. The ten foot branch below blocked the aforementioned track. My son and I dragged it into the garden where it may possibly deter the dog from entering before I turn it into firewood. In the meantime, it offers some pleasing textures and lichens.
This is apparently a foliose or fruticose lichen, the little cups are apothecia, the fungal reproductive structures seen on many ascomycete lichens.
There has been much in the media about people playing music on trains and Burnham has launched a “crackdown”. It reminds me of John Major and his cones hotline. Is this really such a serious problem that it requires government intervention? It’s a populist move, kicking more pressing matters into the long grass. I don’t really mind music in that context, I find myself able to block it out into the background and read happily just as I can, as a father, the sounds of noisy children, within reason. What does interrupt me and make reading impossible are adult phone conversations, especially loud and long ones, and infuriating, non-informative, patronising passenger “announcements”.
I have a crossword clue to thank for finding out about the dodgy origins of the word “craic” which is described in the article below as fake Irish, pseudo Gaelic and a bogus neologism.
Like the invention of tartan, the appropriation of the word from Scottish and English seems to be a marketing and money-making ploy which may date no further back than 1968. It has been associated with the phenomenon of ‘Irish’ pubs. I like Irish pubs but have travelled with friends to European cities who seem to want to do little else but patronise them, which has frustrated me when there are opportunities to experience say Dutch bars and enjoy their different drinking cultures.
To finish I am yet again indebted to the Lateral podcast. Generally I watch one a day – I suppose I must get out more as writers to Pedants’ Corner in Private Eye often say.
Alphabets are a bit of an obsession of mine and I have referred before to the Cockney Alphabet (“A for orses ” etc.) aka the Surrealist Alphabet recorded in 1936 by the comedy double act Clapham and Dwyer. There is one version here, others have certain variations.
There is also P Is for Pterodactyl: the Worst Alphabet Book Ever by Chris Carpenter and Raj Haldar, illustrated by Maria Beddia, which incudes many other words with silent initial letters such as gnat and knight and other peculiarities of the English Language.
There’s a lovely alphabet in similar vein here:
A New Phonetic Alphabet: For those who don’t like Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, …
Another Lateral question asked how a man called Dan became the most photographed person ever since he started in 2010. The answer is that he is one half of the Slo Mo Guys team whose videos are easily found on Youtube. They use cameras which operate at an unbelievable 1.5 million frames per second.
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