Birdwatching 12/1/10

I felt somewhat fortunate to be a birdwatcher in Manchester last weekend, as I saw a bird which, although commonplace in London parks these days, is still somewhat less numerous in this neck of the woods – the Ring-Necked Parakeet.

The Better Half and I were on a little stroll around Fog Lane Park, where the birds are regularly seen. Between spells of protecting TBH from scary dogs, I started to hear some fairly raucous calls, which TBH thought might be gulls, but struck me as more parrot-like.  Then we bumped into a gentleman toting proper binoculars and standing with the attitude of someone who’d just seen something. So I sidled up for a chat.  He reported three of the parakeets and advised me that I’d hear them before I saw them.

We had a nice chat and watched one of the resident Nuthatches for a while, before TBH and I moved on, without the birds having returned to the trees. Then, as we walked away, I heard the mother and father of all rackets emanating from the trees. There was no way it could be anything but the parakeets, so I dragged TBH back and we monitored the trees – you’d imagine that a bright green bird would be pretty easy to see, but it still took us a while to spot them – a pair, on low branches in trees, not that far above head height.

We slowly walked towards them, sharing the one small pair of binoculars we had with us, getting gradually better views and I have to say, I was totally charmed. When they’d finished yawping, the birds (a male, with the black ring around the neck and a female, without), indulged in some mutual preening, before executing what could well my favourite ever special bird move – a cheeky lateral sidle across the branch.

What a cracker!

It felt so strange and really exciting to see genuinely wild parrots in a park in Didsbury – they add a splash of exotic, bright colour, of glamour even, into our wonderful, but usually more modest local fauna.  That we only saw a single pair somehow made it more special (seeing birds in multitudes feels maybe less intimate, in some ways).  I am sure that the
parakeets will increase in numbers, now that they’ve established a foothold in south Manchester, but for now, there are still only a few of these emerald green beauts here, descended from intrepid escapees and unfazed by the harsh English winters.

As they nest in tree-holes, like many native British birds, their expansion will have to be monitored – and their racket could conceivably become a problem in residential areas – but nobody who sees one in their local park could be anything but delighted that Ring-Necked Parakeets have flourished in this country.  If colourful, charismatic birds like them and my Waxwings keep showing up, I might make a birdwatcher of TBH yet!

Birdwatching 26/12/10

The Christmas break provided more birdwatching opporrunities than I’d expected. On Christmas Eve morning, my first glance out of the back window of my mum’s house revealed three birds up in the trees beyond her wall and a quick scout with the bins was rewarded by another tribe of those unforgettable, unmistakeable Waxwings (Bohemian Waxwings, to give them their full name). And they do look rather bohemian with their rouged faces, dashing flashes of white, red and yellow on the wings and of course, that jaunty crest. I’ve been happily changing the desktop backgrounds on all computers I come across to Waxwing images for the past couple of weeks.

The flock, when they all turned up, numbered around 35. Going outside for a closer look, I heard the birds’ distinctive, light trilling and saw four perched on a neighbouring house’s TV aerial. An even closer encounter followed when they moved to the roof of my mum’s house, before two of the birds hopped onto the roof to eat snow from the tiles.  I was starting to feel like the Pied Piper of Waxwings by this time.

As the birds had been attracted by the red berry-bearing tree behind the house, it was only natural to expect thrushes, but I didn’t expect a ‘full house’. Four Redwings were present for most of the day, along with a single Song Thrush, briefly a Fieldfare and then right at the death, a Mistle Thrush put in an appearance and gobbled some berries.

The Waxwings haven’t reappeared since and there are only a few berries left, so it’s unrealistic to expect them to return now.

I then went off to my dad’s place in more rural Swanwick.  His house backs onto farmland and the family keep well-stocked feeders in the spacious back garden. A quick scan of the garden didn’t turn up anything out of the ordinary, but my stepmum later alerted me to a star visitor on a feeder, a Great Spotted Woodpecker. I hadn’t seen a female before, so was initially confused by the lack of a bright red crown.

My dad and I then walked two boisterous Jack Russells over the back fields, but in fading light, didn’t turn up much, except for a tribe of Fieldfares, several Redwings and a pair of Meadow Pipits.

This morning, I was up early (by my standards, but certainly not by my dad’s) for another walk across the fields. Redwings were everywhere.  I turned off the main path and into woodland. Emerging from under a bridge, I was greeted by a bold-as-brass Robin, which I stopped to whistle at. I then spotted a male Bullfinch and a Treecreeper scurrying and lingering briefly on the underside of a branch, before taking wing (watching them walk around on the trees, it doesn’t seem right that they can fly).

Moving further into the woods, I had a Kestrel overhead and a Wren flitting in tufts of snowy grass around me; zooming past me it stopped briefly to ‘scold’ in buzzing tones, before disappearing under another grassy tuft. Wrens are so charismatic, such tiny little hyperactive things. It’s incredible that there are actually smaller British birds – the kinglet species, Goldcrest and Firecrest. It also surprises me to learn that the Wren is the most common British breeding bird, but then, as a city dweller, I spend much more time in the company of Magpies, Black-Headed Gulls and Feral Pigeons.

Refreshingly, in all my time in Swanwick, I never saw one Feral Pigeon, although a colony of about 250 Woodpigeons were in residence on the slightly thawed farmland as I walked towards the woods.

Birdwatching, 20/12/10

This year, I have rekindled an interest which stretches back to my childhood by doing quite a lot of birdwatching. Close to where I live is a nature reserve, which includes two Water Parks (Chorlton and Sale), woods and grassland, which attracts an admirable variety of birdlife.

So far this year, I have managed to identify 75 different species of birds, mostly but not all at the Chorlton nature reserve.  Any committed birdwatcher would be able to tell you a year list of 75 means I’ve not seen quite a few reasonably common residents and visitors, but with the help of the authorities on the Manchester Birding website, I’ve managed to see at least a couple of species not regularly seen in this part of the country.

This week, however, I saw something extraordinary in the middle of Chorlton itself. Generally, if you’re walking down Manchester Road, you’re unlikely to see anything more exotic than a Goldfinch, but Friday and Saturday were a little different.

I was off work on Friday and somewhat off-colour, having stayed up late after playing a King Tree & The Roots gig to watch English wickets clatter Down Under.  By 1pm-ish, I had managed to rouse myself to the extent that leaving the house didn’t seem like total folly. I had also checked my emails, which included a message on the County Bird Forum to say that Waxwings had been sighted at Stockport Train Station that morning.

As the picture shows, the Waxwing is an extremely handsome bird and one not normally found this far west in Britain at all.  However, the severity of the winter has forced this Scandinavian native to migrate in much larger numbers than usual, a phenomenon known as an irruption.

Over the past month, Bird Forum members had listed sightings in various town centres – Wigan, Bolton, Stockport – so when I saw a plump-looking, greyish bird sitting in a tree on Manchester Road, my interest was aroused. It turned out to be a Goldfinch, which was sitting grumbling away with its mate, but I started to look up in the trees with far more interest than usual.

I saw a Mistle Thrush wheeling around on manoeuvres, which piqued me further, as sightings of Waxwings are generally accompanied by reports of grumpy Mistle Thrushes attempting to see the Viking intruders off their territory.

I went back home with milk, The Independent and so on, but my mind was made up to go for a walk later in the afternoon, Despite the cold, it was sunny and I needed fresh air.  The Bird Forum reported a Short-Eared Owl at the Chorlton nature reserve, so I decided I might as well take a stroll that way and see what I could see.  But first, I figured, it wouldn’t harm anything to take the binoculars and have a quick wander down Manchester Road, in the direction of the Mistle Thrush’s patch.

As I walked up towards Chorlton Library, I saw three dark silhouettes alight in the tree directly outside. Starlings, I was convinced, but I carried on walking in that direction. A few seconds later, I figured I might as well take a look, just to confirm that they were Starlings. They were – but miraculously, a tribe of Waxwings were sitting on the branch below. It was one of those golden moments and it took a second look to convince myself that I wasn’t going insane.

I got closer and became gradually apparent that there were lots of them. Once I’d finished shaking my head, grinning broadly, cackling to myself, ringing my Better Half and texting Phil, I started to count the Waxwings. I got to 20 before a few flew away.  The whole tribe then quickly disappeared over the school playground next to the library, to be replaced in the tree by a heavy mob of six Mistle Thrushes, the most I’ve ever seen in one place.

As I checked on the identity of all the thrushes, a gentleman approcahed me to ask if I was a birdwatcher and if so, was it possible that he might have seen a woodpecker in Whalley Range. I told him it was.

The next day, Saturday, was Christmas Shopping day, but when my Better Half and I walked up towards the library, I heard the light, gentle trilling of the tribe again.  I ran back home through the snow and ice for my binoculars, convinced that TBH should see this – fortunately, the birds were still there when I trotted back; and of course, TBH was delighted with them. How could anyone not be?

A passing couple with an ornithological interest came over and took a look through my bins and we all had a great view of the flock, which on this occasion was monitored by only one speckled thursh, which sat hunched rigidly, outnumbered and unable to dislodge the intruders.

I’ll post up my year list when we get to 2011 (who knows, I might get to add to it before then) and file updates when I see anything of interest.  Highlights of the year are probably Scaup, Tree Pipit, Little Egret and best of all, the Waxwings - but I’ll say more on all this another time.

Diary 6/11/10

Massive congratulations to FC United of Manchester, who progressed to the second round of the FA Cup by beating Rochdale 3-2 away, courtesy of a controversial last-second winner. It’s the stuff cup dreams are made of; FC play in the Evostik Premier Division and none of the players are professional – one is a residential childcare worker, one makes PVC windows, another is a steel erector… Meanwhile, League One promotion contenders Rochdale featured Craig Dawson, who has already been sold to Premier League West Bromwich Albion for £500,000 and Chris O’Grady, who has often been linked with moves to Championship clubs.

The FC story is a wonderful one. Formed by Manchester United fans who could not accept the takeover of their club by the Glazers, FC have very quickly progressed through the tiers of English football and are now three levels below the Football League. Their fans used Friday night’s ESPN coverage as a showcase for their vociferous, boisterous and positive support – singing constantly, with songs by Slade (‘Cum On Feel The Noize’), Sam Cooke (‘Under The Boardwalk’) and The Beach Boys (‘Sloop John B’) all adapted for their needs. Unfortunately, this excitement spilled into a pitch invasion when Nicky Platt scored the opening goal and red flares were lit at certain points.

Behaviour is less closely monitored at lower levels of the game, so there is a fear that certain undesireable elements of the football fraternity might adopt FC United as ‘their’ club, but I applaud the desire to build a United for the community, not for corporate raiders and star players to make millions. FC United welcomes paying members, who have a say on club matters. It’s similar to the FC Barcelona model (‘mes que un club’), which protects the institution from the sort of share-hoovering sharks who have scented blood in the TV money-soaked waters of the Premier League.

On Bonfire Night, FC United fans waved a banner bearing the image of Alan Moore‘s V, from V for Vendetta.  In Moore’s nightmare vision of a near-future Britain taken over by fascists, it is V who revives the spirit of Guido Fawkes and blows up the Houses of Parliament. Doubtless, the Rebels’ fans see themselves in the same light – independent spirits, rising against the tyranny of oppression, greed and vested interests, reclaiming something they see as rightfully theirs – the spirit of Manchester United.

I hope that FC managed to raise the money they need to move into their proposed new 5,000-capacity stadium in Newton Heath – if they do, I will certainly go to see them. The atmosphere their fans generated at Rochdale’s Spotlands was fantastic, in what was essentially a home tie for FC.

Diary 3/11/10

My reply to John Leech MP on the Murdoch issue : -

Dear Mr Leech,

Many thanks for your response.

I share your concerns around Mr Murdoch’s continuing efforts to dominate the British media. I am glad that this issue is referred to in the Coalition Agreement, but am only too aware that your Conservative partners are far less worried than we are. I read with interest a Financial Times article, which stated that almost all the senior Tory cabinet ministers were present at Mr Murdoch’s recent Lady Thatcher lecture in London.

In that address, Mr Murdoch (an Australian) clearly sets out his vision for Britain – a neo-Thatcherite vision of small government with low public spending and certainly not a government that would seek to get in his way.  Clearly, a newspaper proprietor is entitled to direct his titles as he sees fit, but when his Conservative ‘fan club’ are then responsible for freezing the BBC’s licence fee for six years – a measure that can only benefit Mr Murdoch’s Sky TV and certainly not the British public – shouldn’t questions be asked?

Mr Murdoch did not quite get what he wanted from the British public at the last election, but he will continue to use his media to work towards this goal – a Conservative government – in the future. I hope that you and your Liberal Democrat colleagues will continue to promote your ideals of plurality and diversity by protecting the public from those like Mr Murdoch who would seek to dominate and distort the media with biased coverage, whatever their political leaning.

Yours sincerely,

Oliver Wright

If Mr Leech is your MP in Manchester Withington, you can email him yourself at LEECHJ@parliament.uk.

We watched an interesting documentary called Twitchers on BBC Four the other night. Principally because I’ve been known to go out birdwatching, I was fascinated to watch the men (and they are all men) who go out not just birdwatching, but actively ‘twitching’ around the UK and Ireland – attempting to build as big a list of ‘ticks’ as possible.  These are men who would drop anything to drive, fly or sail anywhere they had to go to spot a rarity, knowing that if they don’t go, they may never see that bird again.

It’s a hobby which, if taken to such extremes, demands total commitment – financial as well as in terms of time. I felt sad for Brett, the veteran twitcher on the verge of retirement, who had returned to birding after giving up drinking and has one of the longest ‘life lists’ in Britain.  Brett was trying to come to terms with the fact that once he retired, he wouldn’t have enough money to properly pursue his passion any more.

Another man, Garry, had a 7-year old daughter at home, but thought nothing of leaving her with his wife at the drop of a hat, whenever his pager bleeped with details of a fresh rarity, no matter how far-flung.

The strangest of the twitchers is undoubtedly Lee Evans, the self-proclaimed ‘George Michael of birding’.  “I live my life in a similar way; like him, I’m controversial”, he says, without a hint of irony.  Evans’ birding obsession has become his career and he is also the self-appointed ‘judge, jury and executioner’ of other British birders’ claims to have seen a rarity.  His motivation? He hates cheats. Plus, he likes to win the annual ‘yearlist’ competition that he runs – and he usually does win, by seeing more species of birds in Britain than anone else.

I love birds and I would love to see rare birds, but I also like to think that I would not become as obsessive as these gentlemen. I gues I can live without seeing the first ever Yellow-Browed Warbler to appear on these shores and would rather not drive fifteen hours on the off-chance of spotting a vagrant gull in the middle of a crowd of 2,000 of its commoner cousins – on a rubbish tip.

Diary 2/11/10

It’s raining pretty intensely in Manchester. I never can quite get used to it. Especially when cycling home leads to an absolute soaking.

Prompted by the campaigning organisation 38 Degrees, I emailed my local MP, the Liberal Democrat John Leech, about Rupert Murdoch‘s attempts to take 100% control of BSkyB. Mr Leech replied; here’s the full response:

Thank you for contacting me about News Corporation’s bid to take over BSkyB. May I apologise for the length of time it has taken me to reply to you.

I certainly would not be happy to see Rupert Murdoch further expand his media operations in the UK as I feel it would threaten diversity and plurality both of which are essential to a healthy and independent media. The Liberal Democrats have always been committed to a plural media combined with an independent BBC and indeed the Coalition Agreement specifically mentions these commitments.

On a personal level I do have great doubts about the amount of control and the possibility of undue influence that a single person can have when so many media outlets are controlled by one corporation and by one individual in particular. This would be true of any individual whether I agreed with their political point of you (sic) or not, although it is fair to say that I do not find myself in agreement with a lot of the news and opinion of much of the Murdoch controlled media.

I have passed on my own concerns to Vince Cable and will certainly forward your concerns as well.

It is perhaps worth noting that there is a clear legal framework set out within which Vince Cable will look at this decision. Firstly the European Commission’s competition directorate has to examine the proposals before the Secretary of State can intervene. Even then he must make his decision within the rules laid down by British legislation (the Enterprise Act 2002 and the Communications Act 2003) having taken all relevant information into account. This was laid out to ensure that there is not undue political interference in the media. It is for this reason that Vince Cable will not be making substantive comments at this stage as it would jeopardise any enquiries he will be making in the future.

****

We shall see.

In other news, we took the recommendations of loads of friends and started watching Mad Men (I’m glad of the break from Damages).

Diary 29/10/10

OK, so I am listening to Katy Lied by Steely Dan on repeat while I work today.

The Man Don’t Give A Fuck by Super Furry Animals is based on a Steely Dan sample. Apparently, the Dan turned down the sample request flat, but relented when they were offered 95% of the proceeds….

The refreshing thing about this album is that it’s just so different from what I usually find myself listening to. They’re cheesy bastards and the one with the fruitier voice annoys me at times (his lyrics are too ‘I’ focused), but they’re also capable of producing incredible melodic moments. Plus they focused pretty closely on their harmonies.  From a technical standpoint, you can’t fault them.

Trev has lent me some stuff by a band called Best Coast, so I’ll listen to that and see if I can move on from the Dan….

In other news, finished season two of Damages. Enjoyed the fact that the corrupt energy trader character, a coke, hookers and stiletto-dagger kind of a guy, is the spit of George Osborne. It became so fast-paced and twisty towards the end of the series that I gave up trying to keep up and just went with it. As these things are wont to do, it wrapped up pretty neatly in the end.  Good entertainment.

Diary 24/10/10

Ben bought me the Steely Dan album Katy Lied as a belated birthday present – If I don’t get Aja for Christmas, I’ll be extremely surprised… Ben has fallen way in love with Steely Dan.

My relationship with the Dan is a little more complex. Yes, their name references William Burroughs and yes, they clearly have massive brains, but in a lot of ways, they are the anti-punk band – and punk is still, I think, where my heart lies. At least my definition of punk. I think punk is personal – I’m not a dogmatic punk and don’t really have interest in a lot of the punk canon (such a concept shouldn’t exist, of course). I just think the spirit of self-determination that runs through the heart of the movement is inspiring and empowering.

There’s a lot more that could be said on this topic and I’ll probably say it in the end – for example, now, it strikes me that could you say Steely Dan are more of an anti-punk force than The Eagles? Certainly not.

Ben is with three bands these days, most notably Asteroids!, who have been going since Tim left The Generalissimos. The rest of the ‘mos enlisted Ben, at his brother Tim’s suggestion (Tim Warren, the former Polytechnic and King Tree & The Roots drummer, as well as guitar / bassist for Delicate Hammers). It’s shaping up nicely and I’m looking forward to seeing them play live soon.

We were all out for Wales’ MC Coc Oen‘s birthday recently. For anyone who doesn’t know, he’s the voice of Delicate Hammers and the Insidious Junkbox podcast series, as well as a solo EP named Zombie Autograph Hunter. All fine work. The Junbox series is essentially his homage to John Peel – chuntering in between an esoteric selection of new and old tunes, much in the way that the likes of Ted from Cloud Sounds and Ola from Ola’s Kool Kitchen do. It’s great that people carry the Peel spirit with them in their hearts and continue to put time and effort into supporting bands who don’t have the marketing muscle of a corporation behind them. From an independent musician’s perspective, I can tell you that such shows are like beacons in the dark when you’re trying to find your way. It can get lonely out there, so the airplay these ‘e’-Js (if you will) offer is invaluable.

Diary 23/10/10

Am tired, it’s late, but want to stick to doing this every day, if possible.

Been watching Damages a lot. Good stuff, gripping, lots of lovely conspiracies and twists. You end up suspecting everyone and trusting nobody. On the negative side, I’m not a big fan of Rose Byrne, who plays Ellen Parsons.  She’s extremely pretty, but not a particularly strong actress and seems to get carried through the drama by the fine actors around her.

I’ve noticed product placement for the New York Post and Fox News in there, so I assume this is a Rupert Murdoch-backed production.  Murdoch recently gave the inaugural Lady Thatcher address to what the Financial Times described as his ‘Tory fan club’ (most of the Conservatives in cabinet, apart from Cameron and Osborne). Murdoch basically outlined his free market vision for Britain – low taxation, small state getting out of the way, letting the capitalists get on with it – which is why his media will always bang the drum for the Conservatives.

Murdoch applauds the recent spending cuts and that message will be trumpeted in The Times, The Sun and The News of The World.  There’s an breathtaking audacity to his criticism of the ‘unaccountable bureaucracy’ of the welfare state, when he himself quite nakedly uses his hugely influential position to promote the politicians that suit his business interests.

Murdoch, Thatcher, Cameron and Osborne’s position is that some people will just have to suffer and that is simply their hard luck, or, worse, their own fault. Others should be free to profit and enrich themselves and not be held back by the inconvenient fact that not everybody is capable of or interested in joining the corporate rat race.

Tories equate success directly with money. Of course, money is important – ask anybody who doesn’t have any – but to me, there are other measures for success. Off the top of my head, culture, love, friendship, family (although I haven’t done so well on the latter in recent years).  The difference between me and a Tory, I suppose, is that I have no problem with paying my taxes, so long as I’m confident that the money I contribute is making a difference to society. But then, to Murdoch, I am nothing more than a ‘blogger and a bloviator’. And to the world at large, too. I read The Man Who Owns The News recently, Murdoch’s biography, which is well worth perusing for an insight into the mind of this most potent of moguls.

It’s Chorlton on a Saturday night, so I can hear the revelry outside. That’ll go on until about 1:30am, then it’ll be silence, punctuated by a few lairy bellows from passing herds of hammered men. By then, I intend to be fast asleep.

Cultural Diary 22/10/10

Gideon Osborne will be pleased with Wayne Rooney‘s timing. Wazza has taken the attention of a considerable part of the nation off the forthcoming wave of spending cuts. Rooney’s bizarre U-turn is the sort of media sideshow that will temporarily take at least some of the heat off the Coalition.

Can the fans forgive Rooney? Can Fergie ever genuinely forgive him? Will his form suddenly recover once he gets back from his ankle injury?

Went to see the Robin Ince Bad Books Show last night – not bad.  Ince is an old-skool leftie, kind of like a teetotal MJ Hibbett, but with a stack of awful paperbacks instead of an acoustic. He gave over a fair portion of the show to lecturing the assembled students about the dangers of right-wing thinking (he equates the left with ‘compassion’). In the end though, he did get to reading out sections of paperbacks that would otherwise have remained in the dustbin of history for good. Giant Killer Crabs, Sex Is Not Compulsory and classic Mills & Boon all got an airing, amidst the political rants and anecdotes about his toddler son, Archie. Sadly, the book that I suspect started the whole thing, The Secrets of Picking Up Sexy Girls, has been lost – but of course, Ince knows it well enough to recite chapter and verse from it anyway (and jolly disturbing it is too).

The other neat thing about the idea from Ince’s perspective is that it is self-sustaining. Fans approach him to hand over hilariously bad books they have discovered mouldering in their local charity shop and so provide the comic with more potential material. I would love him to do a documentary about these dreadful books, preferably featuring an interview with the author of the giant killer crab series….

Definitely had one too many last night, despite my better half’s warnings.