OneGuyFromBarlick

I've just received delivery of two bags of 20mm gravel to top up the existing stuff which seems to have inexplicably disappeared over the last ten years. The weeds are currently winning.

I've also got lots of river pebbles to go next to the river and its feeder pond. Now just need to persuade my fitter offspring to move it all into place. . .

Offer folding money David.....
Tiz, I don't have room for a puddle let alone a pond!

There was a cuckoo calling from the woods on Kelbrook Moor this morning. I'm thinking of Moh as I write this because she always commented on my posts about cuckoos having heard them regularly when she lived in Kelbrook.

We don't get cuckoos here, lots of others but never heard a cuckoo at all.

This is the new pond I referred to a couple of days ago. The landscape builder made the walls using local sandstone and put in the pond liner. He left extra stone for us to make the rockeries at each end of the pond. We've planted the alpines in the last two weeks. I've mentioned the birds that visit the pond to drink and bathe, including the pied wagtail. Yesterday evening there were sparrows (rare here!), blackbirds, tits, and a goldfinch. Oh, and the inevitable pigeon! The pebbles for the beach were bought at garden centres - the small ones are from the Scottish Highlands and the large are from the North Sea. The slate slabs are local and are recycled from a garden were the pond was removed. The pond water is going through its initial green phase at the moment due to algal bloom. We've put in a small basket of barley straw which is supposed to help clear the water (or might be an old wive's tale!).

Looks great Tize. Once the wildlife see that it is ready to use, it will be Party Central for them.

Excellent Tiz, looks well.

Excellent Tiz. Wish mine looked so good but you're very limited as to what you can do when you're on the roof of a 13 floor apartment and have floor loadings to consider. I stocked mine with koi and now they are too big and I'll have to consider releasing some to join others in the People's Square lake across the road from me.

Thanks for the positive comments!

A field down our lane has had its first cut.

At least 2 pairs of swallows in and out if the barn today, I'm worried that the 3 legged kitten will try climbing up onto the beams!

That Pond looks good Tiz, once the 'newness' has faded it will be even better. The straw does work, widely used strategy I hear.
Not heard a cuckoo in Barlick for a long time. Nice to hear you have swallows. There seem to be insects about....

Gloria wrote: ↑05 May 2019, 18:26 A field down our lane has had its first cut.

Same here, Gloria. The hay was all lying out in the sun drying when we saw it.
A couple of rooks have found a trick using our bird bath. They're picking up stale bread from somewhere, flying to the bird bath, dunking the bread, then flying away to eat it or feed it to young!

Clever birds.
I saw a jackdaw trying to enter the closed louvres of the fan in the pigeon Club. Looks as though they managed to build a nest and the chicks must be dying inside, it had food in its beak. So sad.....

I'd no idea how much gravel to buy - guessed at four sacks, but cautiously ordered just two.
Big mistake. I've spread them, and I think I'll need another three or even four to do a proper job.

Hard luck David.... You need Andrew Camarata. Look him up on Youtube. I watch all his videos and one of his specialities is spreading gravel on long driveways.... (LINK)
Those Siiver Birch look to be in good nick......

Tripps wrote: ↑07 May 2019, 20:25 I've spread them, and I think I'll need another three or even four to do a proper job.

I was once staying will my pal in Canada, he and his neigbours were getting their drives resurfaced. The contractors turned up with enough equipment to build a motorway. A far cry from our wheelbarrow and rake approach.
Tripps, have you put down a membrane to stop the weeds growing through? and how are you going to deal with the leaves and other bits of debris that are attracted to gravel paths.

plaques wrote: ↑08 May 2019, 07:52 have you put down a membrane to stop the weeds growing through?

There is one already, quite heavy duty, and until last years very wet Winter and Spring the weeds weren't much of a problem, but since then it's been a battle - which I've been losing. In normal times a light rake is all that's needed for ongoing maintenance.

I watched the Canadian film - wow how much did that cost? Mine is £55 per bag delivered, and self laying removes the need for Pilates classes.

This is a good source for all things relating to such matters. Pavingexpert

Everyone like the birches. The lady that planted them all visited a while ago and was pleased how her plan had turned out.

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Did you mean Andrew Camarata?

Got this today from our local 'peasant'.

Where are all the swallows


I've not been keeping up with recent reports on here - how are we doing?

Peter Allen (now semi retired) on Radio Five Live interviewing Selina Scott who is now no longer in the media. I think she breeds sheep in Yorkshire somewhere. She has made reference to the situation above - "no swallows this year". She also says the crows are mobbing and eating eggs an chicks of lapwings, so that no chicks have survived this year.

Doe this fit with members' experience?

Tripps wrote: ↑26 May 2019, 20:46 She also says the crows are mobbing and eating eggs an chicks of lapwings,

Our biggest nest raiders are magpies. A murder also applies to crows. But I thought the old adage was.
If you see a Rook by itself its a Crow
If you see a bunch of Crows they are Rooks.

Do Crows 'Mob' .All very confusing.

I know I'll get into trouble but those two posts remind me of the state of politics.....

We have swallows nesting this year and there seem to be more lapwings than ever before. I'm never aware of the chicks or young birds so it would be next year before anyone who isn't an avid birdwatcher would notice any fall in numbers. Ground nesting birds are threatened by so many things, mostly modern farming practices!

Another problem for wildlife is the loss of synchrony in timing between predator and prey due to climate change. Under stable climatic conditions, evolution has made sure that suitable prey appear in abundance at the same time as the predator has young to feed. Our turbulent and shifting climate is now disrupting this synchrony so that, for example, insects appear too early or late for insectivorous birds. Likewise synchrony is breaking down for migrating animals - they are arriving too early or too late and miss the the best time for food or for weather conditions.

I thought the term `temporal synchrony' might be useful in my post but when I looked it up I found that it has already been bagged by people working on vision. I've copied a research paper abstract here and you can see why I've now avoided using the term. You could use this as an aid to falling asleep at night!
`Temporal synchrony is an effective cue for grouping and segmentation in the absence of form cues'
`The synchronous change of a feature across multiple discrete elements, i.e., temporal synchrony, has been shown to be a powerful cue for grouping and segmentation. This has been demonstrated with both static and dynamic stimuli for a range of tasks. However, in addition to temporal synchrony, stimuli in previous research have included other cues which can also facilitate grouping and segmentation, such as good continuation and coherent spatial configuration. To evaluate the effectiveness of temporal synchrony for grouping and segmentation in isolation, here we measure signal detection thresholds using a global-Gabor stimulus in the presence/absence of a synchronous event. We also examine the impact of the spatial proximity of the to-be-grouped elements on the effectiveness of temporal synchrony, and the duration for which elements are bound together following a synchronous event in the absence of further segmentation cues. The results show that temporal synchrony (in isolation) is an effective cue for grouping local elements together to extract a global signal. Further, we find that the effectiveness of temporal synchrony as a cue for segmentation is modulated by the spatial proximity of signal elements. Finally, we demonstrate that following a synchronous event, elements are perceptually bound together for an average duration of 200 ms.'

Now, let's get back to wildlife!