h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Thank you and happy new year to you too It's hard to believe it's been so long. Things are going pretty well. Christmas and new year were good and I now have a computer that actually works. I'm signed on to my new page so you can investigate it if you feel so inclined. I haven't done much to it except moan about my failure at single sign on. I see your page is looking as interesting and spectacular as ever - well worth a visit! Now I can get back onto my old page I'll probably keep them both ticking over if I can find the time. Time's the usual problem when computer problems aren't the problem. When I got the new computer I drifted over to Amazon and got hooked on reading book and film reviews. Must have had too much time on my hands for a few days. When I saw all the hoo-ha over the Lord of the Rings films, I had to see what other people made of it so I came over here. In the meantime, I'd signed on (some time back) to BBC's nature boards and when I tried to get back to h2g2 they nabbed me as a nature boarder and gave me a new blank page. Anyway, it was a very edifying chat about Lord of the Rings, but now the new, 3rd and last film is out and most of the people on the thread have seen it, I'm out in the cold so to speak because I haven't seen the new film. When I find something else I want to talk about I might manage to generate some more steam. Oh, and there's been an interesting chat about Beowulf but that's showing signs of exhaustion now. It's been a nice break from bird duty. That's a bit of a chore in this weather. It's been hard work over the last few days with the heavy snow and now the pouring rain and howling gale. The garden is revolting: wet, muddy and covered in bird doo (love their little hearts) - but it has to be done. There are fewer birds in my garden this year than any year since I started feeding. I hope that's because our local farmers are being more bird friendly, but who knows? Tut. Talked your ear off.

Shorn

Ears are still firmly fixed ! Time accelerates frighteningly doesn't it.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading Lord of the Rings. That was a while back. i didn't think a movie could possibly do the books justice but I was wrong. They worked for me. They can never match imagination but they gave it a good shot. I've seen part three - I enjoyed it.

I've had a lot of birds around this year but I think it's because first the apples, then the cottoneaster berries, lasted so long. There's been no sign of the blackcap this winter yet though.

Overall there have many more thrushes and sparrows, (so nice to hear then squabbling in the gutters again), these last two years. And buzzards and other birds of prey. In the summer I saw a buzzard most days on the route to work and have seen them over the fields near the village - that's a first in twenty years. I love seeing them, I could watch them for hours. One floated low over the road just a few yards in front of me on the way to work on Tuesday . Bit distracting while driving. It landed in the field by the road. In summer, I often saw them on the ground in that field - don't know what the attraction is for them. I hope it's not someone fertilising the field with chicken bits - as they do.

Have just got back from visiting your new extension. I like the Charles Darwin quote . I saw your sparrowhawk problems - very difficult. They're beautiful birds but it must be hard seeing your garden regulars being driven away. I do believe in the balance between the predators and the predated though and I'd much rather it was a natural predator than a domestic cat. I've taken it as a sign of a healthier balance that there are more birds of prey around. I hadn't thought they might have been driven out of wilder places.

Ah well. Last year I watched ospreys fishing in an estuary on a beautiful summer day. Saw one dive and rise with a fish in his claws. It was unforgettable.
Waz

Hey, another Lord of the Rings enthusiast. I'm looking on the bright side of not being able to watch the film until it comes out on DVD. When all the world has seen it, I still have it to look forward to It was a mystery to me why so many people were ranting about how the films had ruined Tolkien's masterpiece. The films were bound to be different to the books - films always are. There are people out there who think the films should never have been made unless they faithfully followed the books. I think Gradient (one of the people chatting over on the 'what did Tolkien mean' thread put it best. To paraphrase, he said that Tolkien's myth has undergone alterations, as true myths do. That's the nature of proper fire-side story telling. Each story teller alters and embellishes the story. That's how stories live. Glad you enjoyed it

Oooh, do you get blackcaps in your garden? I've never had one in my garden. Well, that is, I sometimes have a visits from a bird that looks like a blackcap but when I looked it up in my bird book, it looked more like a willow tit but then it also looked a bit like a marsh tit. The book's that helpful

A couple of weeks ago I saw a long-tailed tit feeding on one of my peanut feeders. I was really excited because I'd never seen a real live long-tailed tit before. The following day there were SIX! of them all bustling over the two peanut feeders. I was beside myself (hmm what a peculiar expression - anyway, you know what I mean) with pleasure. Then the beloved sparrow hawk swooped in and I haven't seen one since. The rest of the birds come and go. It just doesn't seem like February - normally the coldest month of winter around these parts. Normally there would be flocks of birds in my garden at this time of the year. There are usually so many starlings I can't even count them. I lose it at about 18 because they won't stay still. This year I haven't seen more than 2 starlings at any one time. Starlings are usually a blooming nuisance because my next door neighbour gets all nasty about them pooing on her washing. But this year hardly any starlings and not many birds of any description. And the few brave souls who venture in don't seem to last very long. Piles of feathers is all that's left of them. Sparrow hawks. I feel quite guilty about my disenchantment with them. There are so few bird that cats can't be bothered with my garden any more (also there's a catwatch gizmo in my front garden that seems to work quite well). I'd hoped the birds were feeding in the fields but I've walked about a bit over the last week and the countryside seems like an almost bird-free zone too. There is a field nearby that has smelled unbearable and I haven't walked that way since the farmer put some revolting matter that was full of grey/white feathers, all over it. I would guess that's the sort of unhygienic yuk that's made up of dead chickens (or other domesticated birds) and chicken waste.

We sometimes see buzzards flying overhead where I work. One of the men in the office has excellent eye sight. He looks out the window and says look, there's a buzzard. I squint up and say where? There, he says, pointing. I squint again and sure enough, there's a distant dot. How can you tell it's a buzzard, I ask. Well, look at its wings and the way it moves, he says. How can you tell what a tiny, distant dot's wings look like, let alone how it moves, I ask. Then he hands me a pair of binoculars, and sure enough, it's a buzzard. Two of them were nesting over in a wood about 1/4 of a mile away. Every now and then you could see a bunch of rooks hassling them.

Anyway, I agree with you entirely about the balance of nature. It grieves me when it's cats doing the damage. I'm quite fond of the little monsters - they do but follow their natures. It's their irresponsible owners that really annoy me. If you have a pet then you have a responsibility. So many cat owners just don't seem to see it that way. Also, we've had problems with grey squirrels. My next door neighbour usually has around 6 nests of various bird species raising young in his back garden each summer. The summer before last, grey squirrels destroyed every nest and egg. The grey squirrels had a population explosion. That may well have been exacerbated by bird feeders because the squirrels made free with the bird food. So the reason the sparrow hawks are hunting in our gardens is just a symptom of the problems and in the end, all the problems boil down to the way humans have upset the balance. Thank goodness there are still wild places where even now, you can watch ospreys fishing

You really have a problem with those sparrow hawks - is there any natural defence? Cover of some sort, like hanging the food inside a hedge?

I'm not convinced marsh and willow s are different birds at all. I think the powers that be named the same bird twice and are too embarrassed to own up. The fascinating thing I found out about blackcaps was that you get them all year round now but the winter ones fly south to breed thinking it's too cold here while the summer ones have come here for the sun from further north. Doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Either it's warm enough to breed here or it's not.

It's a bit like that daft habit of the martins where the further south of the equator they winter, the further north of it they fly for the summer.

We get buzzards at work too. I usually hear them first. It's just as distracting as when driving. Happened when I was discussing budgets with the boss once. I completely lost the thread and he noticed. How can you do budgets when a pair of buzzards are performing aerobatics outside the window?

I might have a read of the Tolkein thread.
Waz

Oh, I don't know how much of a problem the sparrow hawks really are. In a way it's like the cats. Cats kill lots of birds but then birds have an extraordinarily high mortality rate in any case, so if it was *just* cats, or if it was *just* birds of prey, it wouldn't have any impact on their numbers. It's just that there are so many other things killing them off and stopping them breeding successfully. I see the sparrow hawks and it's easy for me to focus on that and think bl**dy sparrow hawks! (which I do I'm afraid). Yesterday, there was a loud bang on my bedroom window and when I looked out there was a blackbird spread-eagled on the ground below. I picked it up. It was just stunned. Stood on my hand blinking for a minute or so and then I settled it on a twig as it was making a good job of clinging to my finger. It flew off eventually. Happens all the time. Even though I've got stickers all over my windows to warn the birds that there's an obstacle, when the hawks swoop in, they just panic and crash into the windows.

You're probably right about the marsh/willow tits. They look almost the same in the book. They could easily be male and female or adult and juvenile of the same species. Once the "experts" have pronounced, they hardly ever retract.

That's interesting about the blackcaps. I guess there's no room in their small heads for reasoning things out when so much instinct is hard wired.

Buzzards have no consideration do they