Rainham at last

At long last we got to Rainham Marsh on Sunday.  Not a lot birdwise but we still had a good day.  Here's a couple of shots I got while I was there.

I think I said that I'm always on the look out for something different when I'm out with my camera, so here's one I just had to do ...

OK, so there's been lots of shots of pylons over the years but this is the first one have done.  The bright blue sky behind the pylon as well as all the angles stood out well for me and I liked it.

A thistle, a nice combination of coulurs and shapes.

Rainham Marsh visitor centre.  Not a bad building but it takes some working out how to get onto the reserve through it,  Using our sccoters we had to drive them up a ramp sistuated behind and to the left of this view and then enter the reserves down that ramp of the right as you look at it.  The pathways were very good though and we had a good day.  On the way around we heard a really strange bird call and we looked for it but couldn't find it at all.  When we got in the near by hide we heard it again.  It wasn't a bird but a marsh frog, see we learn all the time.  From this hide I got thsi shot ...

I had seen a large plumb of dark someke in the distance as we were traveling around but I was surroised to see that it was coming froma a ship.  Luckily for the skipper they don't have any laws on this sort of thing.  An artic would be taken off the road becuase of the amount of crap this was pushing out!

There I was sat sitting enjoying a 'quiet' pint in Whetherspoons in Dorktown when a row broke out between two young female friends sat near by.  It gradually escallated and as one of them went out for fag she continued to shout abuse at the other one.  At that point the manager came over and told the other one that if they didn't keep quiet they would ahve to leav the pub.  OK, fine.  I finished my pint and went up for a second one and I saw the manager running off towards the door, and there on the floor falt out on her face was the girl who had gone out for a smoke.  Before long an ambulance arrived and they carted the woman off to hospital.  The things is, the only thing wrong with her being drunk and I do object to so many r.esurces being used up dealing with these people.  No-one was standing over her with a gun at her ehad making her drink her pint of lager, she was in that state volentarily.  So in my opinion she should be made to pay for the full cost of the ambulance and any treatment she recieved.

Just as I was finishing my second pint I had a look at the menu in there and i got another idea for a book, that's about the eigth idea this week.  The first one hasn't been released yet though, #2 is nearly finished the writting stage, so hopefully both of them will get done soon enough.

 Whetherspoon pubs I have visited have lots of old books all around the rooms.  I love old books and I wish I had the room to keep more of them and the dosh to bye them.  Anyway, I had a look at one yesterday afternoon after all the fuss had died down and came across this at the start of them book ...

                                    For those who have awareness
                                         a hint is quite enough.
                                  For the mulitude of the heedless
                                      mere knowlegde is useless.

                                            (Haji Bektash Veli)

I'm sure I can find a way to include it in one of my books. 

A day out snapping away

  On Sunday I drove over to Wolverhampton race course for a camera fair, OK, it wasn't bad I suppose and I found a lot of really nice old cameras I fancied buying.  The Nicormat FTN being one such, the Minolta XD7, Pentax SP1000 and K1000, Olympus OM2n ... ... ... ... ...  Good job I didn't have a lot of cash with me.  Oh yes, one other but first a short story.  When Edwards Cameras was still in business their shop used to be in Coventry Street, roughly where the cafe is now.  Anyway, they had a Miranda 1000 in their window in there and I lusted after that camera for months.  It was £90 at the time and I just couldn't afford it.  Then one day it was gone, I was really sad, bo ho bo ho .... but there was one at the camera fair ... at £90!  No, I left it where it was, my lust for that one has gone, but it was nice to see one and to hold it and play with it.
 
From there I drove on to Wightwick (pronounced Whitick we were informed), Manor.   

OK, nice but not as good as some other NT places I’ve been to.  The tea and chocolate and strawberry cake was really good though.

From there I went off to do some pub sign photo’s and got about 60 I think.  On the way I drove past the viewing place for Clee Hill ...  

I eventually got rather tired so drove back home even though I didn’t really want too. 

Liquid refeshments were at the Hen and Chicken ...

A rather nice pint of Town Cryer.  The pub enna bad ... 

Mind you, there's a starnge guy in there that says that he's only booze dependant, not an alcoholic ... yerrrr wotttttt ... ... ... ... ...



So there are worries about what Dithering Daft David is doing to pension.  So what did the moaners expect?   I’d bet the bulk of those moaning now are the ones who voted the prat into government in the first place.  But hang on a minute, the idea of the National Insurance stamp and welfare state was to ensure that EVERYONE was cared for from cradle to grave.  That was OK when it first started up but what they didn’t take into account at that time was the huge increase in the population and the fact that we are all living longer.  Why are we living longer then?

Well, there’s a few reasons aren’t there.  There’s the improvement in our general overall diet which has to be good.  Advances in safety at work have reduced death rates at work.  Improvements in our environment have made great strides in clearing up so many illnesses, like the use of smokeless fuels that lead to the end of the old pea supper smogs we used to have to endure.  But I think the main one is the advances in medicine and health care.

Old ‘plagues’ like typhoid, smallpox, polio, measles and oh so many other such illnesses have more or less been stopped in their tracks.  Annual flu vaccination for the vulnerable has by and large reduced the death rate from flu.  But then there’s conditions like diabetes which although can’t be cured can now be controlled as long as the diabetic follows the doctor’s advice.  And here’s the rub really ...

We as a nation have to decide what we want.  If we want up to date medical research to continue, if we want to benefit from that research and that benefit leads to an even longer life span, then we have to pay for it.  The only other choice really is to stop all the research and let everyone go back to the pre-NHS days.  Of course that just isn’t going to happen.  So whether we like it or not we HAVE to pay for it in some way or other.

As to pensions, there is a lot to be said for both side of the argument, but I would ask what will happen to the money that is saved by cutting pensions?  If it is to be used to fund Trident or to buy more bombs to drop on a strip of north African desert no-one here really cares about, then that’s a big no no in my book.  If it is to be used to help fund care for the elderly in care homes, OK, fine, as long as the government plays its part and put in the same amount of extra cash too.
But we all benefit from a properly funded NHS so we all have to play our part in funding it.  If it means higher taxes, then we pay them – end of story!

The Rochdale Sage has been in touch again ...

 A man doing market research knocked on a door and was
greeted by a young woman with three small children running
around at her feet.

He says, 'I'm doing some research for Vaseline.

Have you ever used the product?'

She says, 'Yes. My husband and I use it all the time.'

And if you don't mind me asking, what do you use it for?'

We use it for sex.'

The researcher was a little taken back.

'Usually people lie to me and say that they use it on a child's bicycle chain

or to help with a gate hinge.

But, in fact, I know that most people do use it for sex.

I admire you for your honesty. Since you've been frank so far, can you
tell me exactly how you use it for sex?'

The woman says, 'I don't mind telling you at all...

My husband and I put it on the door knob and it keeps the kids out.'



And you thought it was gonna be a dirty joke...!



Shame on you
     

 

Bempton, Blacktoft and one in Brum

So then, shame and contrition is now over and it’s time to do a report, so of a report anyway ;-)))

For some time Jan has wanted to visit the RSPV site at Rainham Marshes in Essex and we made up our minds that we would go there on the next decent weather day.  Then clever clogs here suggested that perhaps it might be better to and see some puffins and company because Rainham could be done more or less anytime.  So that is what we did on 6 June. 

 

We set of early and on the way up we swapped over driving on the M1 and as we were east bound on the M18 we passed a fatal road crash near the A1 by Doncaster.  At least I think it was a fatal because the police had screens up around the incident.  The traffic was in chaos with the A1 being blocked solid both directions. As soon as we had passed it though the M18 was clear and we were not held up all that long at all.  Seeing it mind you made us think about just how fragile life really is for us all.

Flying 4; gannets in formation

We always start our day list as we leave home and the 6^th was no exception.  By the time we had arrived at Bempton we had picked up Swift; wood pigeon; crow; blackbird; starling; magpie; rook; mute swan; swallow; dunnock; tree sparrow; jackdaw; mallard which isn’t spectacular really but we were pleased with it.  Our first sighting at Bempton was a linnet just outside the visitor centre.  I’ve said before that we both have mobility problems so we took our scoters that day.  However, I wasn’t sure they would be all that useful on the tracks and pathways around the area.  Consequently we had to walk but by taking it very easy and stopping regularly and resting we did managed to get a fair way along the coastal path to the south.  What we hadn’t anticipated though was just how hot the sun would be ... yes I know, daft as brush eh?  The result was we both burned quite badly, not enough to cause too much discomfort but enough to let us know we had done too much at one go.

A herring gull

Anyway, off we went to that coastal path.  We normally get a lot of puffins there and we were both looking forward to getting lots of photos of them.  Big disappointment there ... we saw just three and we had to work hard to get those!  In the end we still came away with a decent list from there, reed bunting; guillemot; herring gull; fulmar; puffin; razorbill; gannet; stock dove; skylark; meadow pipit; whitethroat; corn bunting in addition to the linnet I mentioned earlier. 

A gannet carrying something to the nest

It’s a good way from Dorktown to Bempton and to visit just one site makes it a bit of a wasted journey so we try to get round to Blacktoft Sands as well.  We got there about 4’o’clock that afternoon and this time we were able to use our scooters thankfully, which we did.  The sunny was still very hot though and as we rode we were in the full glare of it yet again with no way of covering up.  It’s a mistake we will not make again!  Our day list grew while were there and we added Canada goose; lapwing; coot; grey heron; little gull; marsh harrier; black headed gull; avocet; Shellduck; shoveler; sand martin; gadwall; little grebe; garganey; teal; cormorants; black tailed godwits; wren; tufted duck, but sadly no bearded tits.  Leighton Moss is where we normally get those little beauties. 

Another gannet but trying to land, I didn't see it do so either

We stopped off in a pub in Reedness I think it was and had a pint before setting off back home.  We didn’t rush home, there was no need to and so we eventually arrive back just after 9pm totally shattered by a long but enjoyable day  in spite of the sun-burn.  Oh yes, we added buzzard and moorhen on the way home.

Not the pint I had in Reedness but one in a pub in Dorktown, and really nice pint too.

A couple of days later I was watching telly and found out that there is a free photo exhibition on in Birmingham outside Snow Hill Station.  I always like something for nowt, don’t we all eh so I went off for a look.  Off I went north bound on the M6, now I don’t want to give the impression I’m not concentrating on my driving but I did get slightly distracted when a hobby flew straight across in front of me about 10 feet of the road.  AT least it gave me another year tick without really trying ;-)))

            

OUCH!!!  That must have hurt, a bird strike o the window of the car home my Mother was in before we had to move her becuase that home is closing.

The Rochdate Sage has been in touch again ...

One lazy Sunday morning the wife and I were quiet and thoughtful, sitting around the breakfast table when I said to her unexpectedly, "When I die, I want you to sell all my stuff, immediately."

"Now why would you want me to do something like that?" she asked.

"I figure a woman as fine as yourself would eventually remarry and I don't want some other arsehole using my stuff."

She looked at me intently and said: "What makes you think I'd marry another arsehole?"

I hang my head in shame ...

... I haven't posted on here for sooooo long.  Sorry guys n gals, I shall put that right tomorrow with the results from our day's birding at Bempton Cliffs two weeks ago, yes two weeks ago.  I shall blame Springwatch for diverting me ;-)))


Just the one shot for now, my Domestic Supervisor digiscoping at Bempton, she good at it too ;-)))