Today I shall be Mainly...

[Tripps]

What on earth does that mean? It's definitely a bird and not an insect

[Sue]

Well - I've been through my 'Illustrated Guide to British Birds' (I knew it would come in handy one day) but I'm not much wiser. It seems quite a large bird compared to the height of nut cage and the nearby hovering sparrow. The only one that looks anything like it was the Woodlark which at 6" is a bit small.

I really wanted it to be aLancashire Finch or Twite if only for the name, but maybe not.

The book doesn't mention the Mockingbird at all though.

Send the photo to the Twitcher site - someone there will know - then charge to come in the garden.

Thats just it, every bird someone has suggested there is something just not quite right. The nearest does seem to be the juvenile starling but it seems too large

[Tripps]

Thanks for the grown up reply. I've had another furtle, looking at online pictures, and I think - juvenile starling is the most likely. It's a big 'un though.

I'd have loved it to be a Mockingbird though. Seems there have been several sightings in England this year. Problem is they have very light colour breasts.

[Stanley]

But how about the fat balls?
(I shall be pottering in the shed but that's irrelevant.)

[Cathy]

Could it be a thief, not of a bird variety, more of the two arms and two legs variety?

[Sue]

Could it be a thief, not of a bird variety, more of the two arms and two legs variety?

Morning
Not possible Cathy. Our back garden is completely enclosed and there is a 6 foot high locked gate to the sideway of the house. There is no fat-ball activity this morning. I was awake at 6.00am and could hear the birds so looked out of our bedroom window. The garden was alive with wrens, tits, dunnocks, blackbirds and others that I cannot name. There were no jackdaws in sight . I had hoped to see our other strange visitor but no action. There was another unknown sat on the wooden arch but too far away to recognise. I took a photo on my ipad , but it looks like a cross between a dove and a pigeon on my photo. It was definitely neither. It won’t be on the wildlife camera because it was above it . A pigeon chased it away into the trees behind. It looked a bit like yesterdays visitor but much paler grey. Interesting.

Otherwise yesterday was as planned. The conservatory door locking mechanism was replaced by 11.00 am. I did the ironing and we spent the afternoon at Claire’s where it was 4 degrees warmer than Rochdale and sunnier . This caused me to spend the evening online looking for a house similar to ours over in Preston direction. They don’t exist or at least not in our price bracket. The trouble is we have lived here since 1973 and over the years extended , altered and moulded the house and garden to our like and needs. Who wants to start again at our age. We shall just keep our fingers crossed that we can get to France again soon.

Today I shall be changing the bedding when we get up. After breakfast it will be a zoom art session with Briony. She wants to paint a shoe. I sent her a drawing to copy the other day, and I think I shall try using acrylics with her today. Apparently Ed is in charge this morning as Julia has gone to an open swimming competition in the Thames at Oxford, so no doubt he will have B ultra organised. Bob is at the park this afternoon so I shall sew and Whats app Eve. I have a few more cuttings to do too now I have bought more compost off the market yesterday

We had rain during the night, but not much . Light showers only are forecast. Have a good day everyone



Just seen the jackdaw, two of them flying off with fatballs in their mouthes

[Stanley]

Morning Sue....

You have another busy day planned, I am looking to do as little as possible!



I've finished the staking block and done a bit of cleaning up. There are still thinks to do in the shed. After they are done I shall have to think about the next project.....

[Sue]

My vote would be for a young starling.

After a deal of research you win Wendy. I can only assume colour variations are due to the camera and size discrepancy due to the distance between the young starling and the blackbird. I am somewhat amazed at the answer. So different from the adults

[Wendyf]

My vote would be for a young starling.

After a deal of research you win Wendy. I can only assume colour variations are due to the camera and size discrepancy due to the distance between the young starling and the blackbird. I am somewhat amazed at the answer. So different from the adults

I'm still not convinced Sue but there doesn't seem to be an alternative does there?

[Sue]

My vote would be for a young starling.

After a deal of research you win Wendy. I can only assume colour variations are due to the camera and size discrepancy due to the distance between the young starling and the blackbird. I am somewhat amazed at the answer. So different from the adults

I'm still not convinced Sue but there doesn't seem to be an alternative does there?

Me neither, I sent the photo to a friend who is big on birds. She is nor convinced either and has sent it on to some specialist or other

[Stanley]

Several jobs, putting vise back on mill, investigating why indicators are lazy. Wondering whether I did the right thing ordering another engine kit.

[Sue]

Morning

Pilates and yoga this morning. I think we are going to buy the stomes for the pond wall this afternoon , that is if we can lock up the house without another door disaster

Yesterday went as planned, i managed to take a lot of cuttings for the railway garden and pot them up in the greenhouse. It will be colourful if they all take once I get them planted out .

Thats all for today , a double pilates yoga session takes up most of the morning and stone buying will take up the afternoon as we have to travel afar to get to a Wicks

Have a good day

[Stanley]

Hold your breath as you lock the doors Sue!



I've been playing with my dial indicators this morning washing them out with lighter fuel, drying them off and then tiny amounts of clock oil on the pivots and rubbing surfaces. What triggered this is they are getting a bit lazy. It worked they are all much better now, a well spent 90 minutes!

[Sue]

My vote would be for a young starling.

After a deal of research you win Wendy. I can only assume colour variations are due to the camera and size discrepancy due to the distance between the young starling and the blackbird. I am somewhat amazed at the answer. So different from the adults

I'm still not convinced Sue but there doesn't seem to be an alternative does there?

Wendy we have had a swarm of juvenile starlings today , smaller than my unknown bird and a different colour, unless the camera was playing tricks on us

[Tripps]

Better than the Mystery Object thread. I await the expert opinion.

Meanwhile I'm trying to get £1 each way on a Woodpecker.

[Stanley]

Mocking Bird.....

[Cathy]

Crows ?

[chinatyke]

Crows ?

How far can a crow fly?

Depends on how hard you flick it.

[Big Kev]

Local 'twitchers' are adamant it's a starling

Screenshot_20210621-184119_WhatsApp.jpg

[Stanley]

I shall have an early walk and then potter quietly in the shed doing useful things. The castings are in the post....
It's a clear morning so it could be a better day. That means a longer lunch time walk.

[Sue]

Crows ?

Morning
Definitely not crows, wrong colour . The general opinions seem to be starlings or green woodpecker , not much further forward. Neither of which match all criteria. Ah well we shall see or not see. For certain the flock of juvenile starlings we saw yesterday were not as big or the same colour. Perhaps the camera was playing tricks.

Yesterday was a dull day, cold too. We fetched our stones from Wicks which Bob had pre ordered but there was no cement at all of any sort, so we drove over to B&Q in Bury where the shelves were also nearly empty and with a limit on how much you could buy. We bought 4 small bags of the only sort they had, so now we ,as in Bob , is all set to finish off the pond. We shall then buy a new pump for a fountain, our old one having expired before the pond leaked. Whilst in B&Q we noticed outdoor garden parasols were back in stock so bought one of those too. The barbecue and seating area of our garden is now looking much better, having been neglected for years whilst we have been spending our summers in France.

Today is sunny. This morning we have opted to go for a walk. We may do the weekly walk to the bank although Bob has not yet collected all the monies from the Sunday train running. Either that or walk somewhere else. He is down at the park again this afternoon. I will plod on with my sewing to revitalise some enthusiasm. Tomorrow I have my first sewing session with Maxine since a year last February , so I do need to sort a list out of what challenges to tackle. I do things with Maxine that I deem too big a task to have a go myself . At teatime today I have a double pilates and yoga session otherwise today I have two phone calls to make. One is to book our golden wedding anniversary meal to spend the voucher our girls bought us, the other is to phone a new commercial covid testing centre to enquire about getting tests done to travel abroad. You don’t use NHS testing facilities. I think these are going to remain with us for some time and we need to know the ins and outs of it all to go to France. Slowly the cost is coming down

Have a good day.

[Stanley]

A shortage of cement? Whatever next.... Glad Bob found enough mix to be able to go on.
We have sun this morning Sue but It's cold enough to trigger the central heating.



I finished sorting my dial indicators and trammed the vise in on the vertical mill using an accurate piece of ground tool steel stock.
An hour and a half usefully spent.

[plaques]

Big outlet cement prices have increased by 10% perhaps people are grabbing what they can while its still at the old prices. Why the price increase ? I have my own ideas but cunning plan Boris and Co are keeping quiet.

I was pleased yesterday when I saw the kiddies learning pool being used at Colne. A private function set up by some enterprising person in Colne. Talked to a young lady afterwards to say what a good idea it was. She was full of praise for the organiser. Just £2 total for herself and two children. Excellent

[chinatyke]

We have sun this morning Sue but It's cold enough to trigger the central heating.

Yikes, it's mid-summer isn't it?

[Sue]

Yes cool breeze Stanley but fine when we were walking. It has to be warmer than yesterday which was barely 12 degrees and yes the heating came on yesterday and this morning.