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Subject Topic: Nature Diary
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16/1/2025 at 9:06am
 Location: Wirral
 Outfit:  Aztec Mardi Gras 3
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Lovely to see the first spring flowers, especially after such a cold snap. My daughter's garden a few miles away (sandy soil) has primroses and snowdrops out already; I'm on colder clay soil and mine are slower to appear.

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Always edited for sloppy typing - when I spot it!


via mobile 16/1/2025 at 10:04am
 Location: Urmston Manchester
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Last week I saw a large bird I have never seen before. Here in Manchester we get what you would normally expect, but a quick Google image search says it was a skylark. Similar markings to a thrush but lighter, and it was the size of a magpie


via mobile 16/1/2025 at 10:12am
 Location: Luton (no jokes plea
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Skylarks are not that big and are only seen in the country.


16/1/2025 at 1:02pm
 Location: London
 Outfit: Lunar Cosmos 524
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Skylarks are not very big, somewhere between a sparrow and a starling, no where near the size of a Magpie!

As to only in the country, we have a long established breeding colony in Richmond Park (London/Surrey), which is very much in suburbia! TBF, it's a huge park (2,500 acres), so may be regarded as a bit of 'urban country'!

From your description, it may have been a Mistle Thrush.

Often difficult to scale the size of a (unknown/unidentified) bird in flight unless something else around that can be positively identified. My Ex was an avid and well experienced bird watcher, and the chatter/debate in a bird hide from fellow birders would often lead you to believe they didn't have a clue! .... but it's just not always easy!


16/1/2025 at 2:37pm
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Many years ago Radio London had a bird phone in with a guest ornothologst from London Zoo. A woman phoned in and asked if he could identify the bright green bird currently in her garden. He paused and suggested it might be an escaped budgie. "I don't think so." said the woman, "It's 3 foot tall and standing in my pond!"

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Enjoy the liveliness of the syntax.


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via mobile 16/1/2025 at 5:43pm
 Location: Cumbria
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Quote: Originally posted by Bramston on 16/1/2025
Many years ago Radio London had a bird phone in with a guest ornothologst from London Zoo. A woman phoned in and asked if he could identify the bright green bird currently in her garden. He paused and suggested it might be an escaped budgie. "I don't think so." said the woman, "It's 3 foot tall and standing in my pond!"



So don't keep us in suspense - what was it???


18/1/2025 at 12:58pm
 Location: Wirral
 Outfit:  Aztec Mardi Gras 3
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Bright green and three feet tall? Wonder what she was drinking? As for the other thrush-type bird, could it be a fieldfare? They're winter visitors; also redwings, but those do have the reddish flash which makes them easier to identify.

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Always edited for sloppy typing - when I spot it!


22/1/2025 at 1:05pm
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Quote: Originally posted by bofs on 16/1/2025
Quote: Originally posted by Bramston on 16/1/2025
Many years ago Radio London had a bird phone in with a guest ornothologst from London Zoo. A woman phoned in and asked if he could identify the bright green bird currently in her garden. He paused and suggested it might be an escaped budgie. "I don't think so." said the woman, "It's 3 foot tall and standing in my pond!"



So don't keep us in suspense - what was it???




What I want to know is was it using a landline or mobile?

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XVI yes?

As well is two words!
How does a sage know everything about everything? or does he? or does he just think he does?
Remember, if you buy something you bought it, not brought it.


22/1/2025 at 2:50pm
 Location: London
 Outfit: Lunar Cosmos 524
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Now in my head, and according to the calendar, we are in the depths of winter, odd weather patterns aside, BUT the natural world has gone barmy, my dog is having her spring moult and I'm knee deep in shed fur months ahead of normal (not just my dog, same with other dog owners I know!), and I've been swatting numerous flies, bluebottles and moths for a week or so now!

In the garden, my Hebe bush really hasn't stopped flowering since the summer, in fact since the summer before! The weeds certainly are still thriving, and even the grass is still growing and desperately needs cutting! Whatever happened to winter being a period of plant dormancy!

Some things are obeying the rules though, being 'serenaded' by randy local urban Foxes, so at least they are being correctly seasonal!

Saw something the other day of someone extolling joy of Britain having proper seasons (as opposed to perpetual 'Summer' found in sunnier climes), but rather beginning to wonder IF we really do have seasons anymore, it's more like a rather erratic uni-season of anything at any time of year! In the past year or so, I've warn shorts and T shirt in balmy late February, yet I've had the heating on in the caravan in Aug when temps dropped to very chilly lowish single figures overnight!

Don't know about Global Warming, more like Global Chaos in my neck of the woods!


24/1/2025 at 8:11am
 Location: Wirral
 Outfit:  Aztec Mardi Gras 3
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There's a hebe on some banking on the sunny side of the road near me (garden escape) which has had some flowers on throughout the winter, though I haven't checked it since the recent cold snap. Some of them are hardier than we give them credit for, though I have lost a couple of variegated ones to frost in the past.

The seasons are less predictable than they were, I'm sure. Just pray we don't lose the mellowing influence of the Gulf Stream - those shorts will be staying in the drawer if we do!

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Always edited for sloppy typing - when I spot it!



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