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Reply | Gerrard1947......Cuckoo day out.
at 10:29 8 Jun 2018
Yes indeed, I see him most days now we always chat, first name terms! He took my wife and I for a 2 hour walk a couple of weeks ago, he showed us a cuckoos egg in a warblers nest. He told me yesterday that egg has hatched and the warbler eggs have been tipped out already by the baby Cuckoo.
We heard a bubbling female, they do this just after they lay their egg. His brand new research suggests this call mimics a sparrow hawk so the warbler keeps her head down and doesn’t spot the Cuckoo as she flies off.
The Cuckoo lays eggs until early July. I find it incredible that the Cuckoo and reed warbler spend their winters in Africa in the same vicinity. albeit a few hundred miles apart. Then come all this way to breed.
Incredible man and a total gent, a great privilege to know him. |
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Reply | RIP Tessa Jowell
at 10:43 13 May 2018
A very dignified lady until the end. |
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Reply | Thanks to gerard1947, I have spent this weekend visiting the graveside
at 11:22 6 May 2018
So glad I was able to help. It is important to remember those that died also the futility of war.
I always grow far more vegetables than I need. I give away loads but still waste too much. Today I have planted 200gms of Flanders poppy seeds. The seeds are tiny, there must be millions. They are in an area 40m x 20m. They germinate quickly there should be a good show in a few weeks. A simple homage to mark the end of that terrible conflict. |
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Reply | Just heard a cuckoo for first time this year!
at 13:25 5 May 2018
My morning with Nick Davies is booked for later this month. There seems a good number at Wicken this year. Yesterday’s walk was good for the soul, Cuckoo, bittern and a nightingale very vocal. I watched a lone crane riding the thermals. I could clearly see his red head when he started, he became a dot in the sky. I didn’t once see his wings move. Amazing. |
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Reply | Laurie Sivell was short but this man was shorter and
at 12:22 5 May 2018
Suffolk boy, lived in Elmswell. I went out with his cousin, his mum asked me to talk to him, he had a West Ham scout waiting to see him and he wouldn’t get up. He signed for them in the end, Ron Greenwood sent him home because he refused to put a fag out when running the line in a practise match. He was a shy lad, he didn’t want to leave home, he told me he wanted to work at the bacon factory and play for Bury.
The fags got him in the end, he died far too young.
Great keeper. |
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Reply | Farewell Rick Dickinson, designer of the ZX Spectrum
at 10:11 30 Apr 2018
I met him several times, Clive Sinclair too. The company I worked for was involved with their distribution and returns. If I remember rightly the Spectrum was assembled at Timex in Dundee. Bizarrely repairs were undertaken in Cambridge in a disused windmill.
By the time they upgraded to the QL they had a large manufacturing facility in Milton, this failed because Acorn was nominated for schools. |
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Reply | Suit advice...
at 16:59 19 Apr 2018
When I was working it was suits pretty much all of the time. I had about 6 on the go, where possible I always bought 2 trouser and 1 jacket. I'd never drive wearing a jacket, always hung it on the hook thingy. Different suit every day, only dry cleaned. [Post edited 19 Apr 2018 17:08]
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Reply | First Cuckoo this year.
at 12:43 18 Apr 2018
It's amazing how predictable they are, I note the dates I first hear them. They last four years have been, 18, 18, 24, 18 April. I read in Nick Davis book that a possible reason for the cuckoo's decline is that their arrivals have been constant whereas their hosts are arriving and breeding earlier. |
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Reply | First Cuckoo this year.
at 10:46 18 Apr 2018
Well worth a trip to Wicken for anyone interested in birds. Best give it 3 weeks and you will see and hear Cuckoo, bittern, hobby will be there soon, harriers etc. There was a chap recording nightingales today. Crane seen on adjoining Burwell Fen this week.
Wicken's about 10 miles from Newmarket on the A1123. |
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Thread | First Cuckoo this year.
at 10:25 18 Apr 2018
Fantastic morning, Cuckoo calling, bitterns booming at Wicken Fen. |
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Reply | Early bird
at 17:00 10 Apr 2018
Mark Barrett favours that spot. Years back I watched that stretch being surveyed for fish, they stunned the fish counted and measured them. Really big carp and bream and lots of eels surprisingly, rumour has it there's a monster wells cat fish there too. |
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Reply | Early bird
at 14:54 10 Apr 2018
We're really lucky to have places like that on our doorsteps I reckon. |
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Reply | Early bird
at 14:38 10 Apr 2018
I look forward to my first swift of the year, fascinating birds. |
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Reply | Early bird
at 14:36 10 Apr 2018
I was walking on the Wicken side of Burwell Lode near where it splits to Reach when I heard him. I'm sure you know it well. |
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Thread | Early bird
at 14:24 10 Apr 2018
Out today with the dogs on Wicken Fen and heard a booming bittern, never heard one so early before. Another week or two and it will be the Cuckoos calling. It's been a bad old winter for me mental healthwise, feeling a bit better now. A walk like today's better than any pills. |
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Reply | 100 years ago
at 19:05 21 Mar 2018
Thank you too, your story brought a tear to my eye, how can you correspond with a child knowing that is about to happen. So sad. |
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Reply | 100 years ago
at 15:24 21 Mar 2018
I've just had a look on the CWGC site. It shows a Henry Harold Easy as buried at Esquelbecq Military Cemetery. It has him as a driver Royal Engineers. The same day of death but aged 21, so might not be him. [Post edited 21 Mar 2018 15:34]
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Site Scores| Forum Votes: | 381 | | Comment Votes: | 22 | | Prediction League: | 0 | | TOTAL: | 403 |
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