what do you think of when you see a robin and old mates

Common as muck some folk think, nothing to make a fuss of but to others, well.

Someone I know an old work colleague I wont name once told me just a few years ago that whenever one was seen close by wherever they were, they always thought it was granddad come to check up on them to see they were okay.

A nice thought connecting seeing a bird with a lost and missed loved one.

Well blow me down if I don't go to a new garden to work for the first time a couple of weeks ago and speaking to the owner an elderly lady she says; I see the robin followed you about, that's my ex husband who keeps an eye on me.

Speaking of old colleagues, last weekend saw a meeting of old comrades from Milton at a local woodworkers event. Myself, Keely and Steve.

Keely has the pictures to prove it, I just have this one, quite apt really as we were all part of the furniture for a while but none of us quite as handsome as these chairs, well I'm not anyway! Great to catch up with them especially Steve who I have known through work for twenty odd years. A great bloke and a very good ranger.

something less serious

Don't laugh at me too hard please.

So there I was in this bit of Oak woodland somewhere in North Norfolk a week or so ago, when as clear as a ringing thing, you know a bell I heard it, a bird call I cannot for the life of me identify, the bird was moving about in the tops of the trees as I was working away checking some equipment. It never came close enough or gave a clear enough view for me to see it, but it was there calling, was it the call an alarm call, a contact call or what!

Now my bird call ID of the birds we see in this country is not too bad and this was definitely something I have not heard before. In fact it didn't sound like anything british I have ever heard before. Finally before I got a chance to see it clearly it left the wood I was working in leaving me with that unending question, what was it?

The call sounded a bit like, and you will have to forgive my interpretation here; uuupoopuueeoo, nice and clear and loudish from the tops of the trees with a ringing quality almost sounding mediterranean or even a bit tropical. I thought of that nice ringing Golden Oriole call as something similar but not convinced it was one of those little jems. 

Do you know, have you got any ideas, is there something brilliantly tropical loose up there in deepest norfolk???

Politicians you have got to love them or have you........

Also rumbling on locally in Cambridge although quite low on the attention front is the Greater Cambridge question. Should Cambridge be bigger, and if so how big.

It sounds as if the ruling elite of councillors and who knows how many officers support this would like to see Cambridge as a unitary authority, jealous of Peterborough I suppose, and absorbing the areas run by South Cambridgeshire district council as well as some or all of East Cambs. All sounds a bit like the rebirth of the old pre 1970's Cambridgeshire but under City control to me but what do I know.

I can see it now. The Greater Cambridge self ruling kingdom with councillors all wearing the  new clothes from a certain story as well I shouldn't wonder.

The leader of the city council says that the county council is and has been against this instead wanting to perhaps retain its position as the overall and perhaps only local authority for Cambridgeshire, saying that the county council are empire builders. Hang on who is proposing taking over South Cambs and perhaps part of East Cambs and what would you call that then.

Sorry but that all sounds a bit rich to me. Then we have the statement from the leader of South Cambs that the political ramifications of welding authorities together would be  distraction from important issues like where homes should be built and the uncertainty about the political makeup of a new council.

Surely if a unification or simplification of councils occurs it should be to deliver better services or have I missed something!

The headlines you see

Living close to Cambridge there is this never ending clash of interests between car drivers and cyclists, very bitter at times it is. Cambridge is getting more and more choked up with traffic is the problem of course.

This week saw a headline in the local paper which caused me to stop and think and a chuckle as I tried to make sense of it.

'Cyclists will jump red lights to cheat death'

The story is that cyclists will cross red traffic lights to avoid the cars behind them, the statement was made by a cyclist to justify why cyclists often jump red lights.

But think on if there is a red light ahead of you and you cross it doesn't that mean someone else has a green light and the right to proceed, thus rendering the headline useless or perhaps be completed by  the addition of; 'only to be mown down by other car drivers proceeding on green lights' or something similar.

Evening stroll with the toads

Been rather busy of late so time to catch up with the world.

Enjoyed a lovely evenings stroll on the beach at Holme a few weeks ago on an organised walk looking for Natterjack Toads. Given going to Norfolk coast fish and chips from Hunstanton was a compulsory add on of course and very nice they were too.

Sat eating them looking out over the reserve at Holme listening to birdsong and a few early common frogs calling. The walk itself had been organised by the resurected Cambridge and Peterborough Reptile and Amphibian group otherwise evening and night time access to the reserve is a no no.

Walked slowly into the reserve and we were met by a lovely churring call comprising a number of Natterjack males calling at the same time, very reminiscent of Nightjar it was. Closer to it was obvious where the calling males were located around a pond and eventually one was seen, one of not many that evening to be honest, best guess the cooler weather has held them back.

A pretty little fellow with the characteristic yellow back stripe. They are very rare in east anglia Holme being perhaps the best place to see them if you are lucky. Their love of shallow temporary ponds and pools to breed in is there undoing, they need them to reduce competition from other amphibians and predators of their tadpoles. There are references to them being found much closer to me in old county flora and fauna and even in the occasional story; Polly Howats story of the old horsemen, but what with drainage etc all we have left is Holme and a couple of other small sites in this part of the world.

While we were listening though for a short while we also had that other reclusive night caller the Bittern booming away from the reedbeds. So a very pleasant and enjoyable evening out.

varied week

Why?

Well I actually I got some paying work in this week.

Its been too cold as far as I am concerned to go traipsing over folks gardens. Even started work in a new garden and have more new ones to see, Buy with Confidence is starting to pay off. Could have too many gardens afore long but I have a plan for that. he said crossing his fingers.

Ecology work has started allbeit slowly again because of the weather, have set up a couple of sites for reptiles and got an initial bird survey in so far. Newts will have to wait a little bit longer in my book, just a few more degrees at night please.

Then some storytelling a couple of nights ago to a really good and numerous audience that produced some great comments afterwards.Not one of my usual groups but a possible new angle to follow up on.

Finally a bird sighting this week that I thought would never happen, Waxwings in Cambridge, nothing too surprising there you might say they have been all over. over the years though I have always seemed to miss them, not this time. Visiting another new garden and I hear there are there, I smiled they will have left by the time I get there and yes they have, but then, look there they are 31 of the little beauties feeding on mistletoe berries and apples put on the ground and bathing in a bird bath. Lovely views of lovely birds in a new garden. An omen perhaps?

found some bits of paper and the memories they invoked

So I was doing a bit of tidying up yesterday, I know surprising, and I came across some bits of paper all folded up and scruffy looking. Whats this I says, stopping myself from throwing them to have a look at what they were instead.

In June 2005 I went to a workshop in Thorndon Country Park in Essex with Joseph Cornell, not the american artist who died years ago, no, this one is an american but one I have long respected. This Joseph Cornell wrote a very influential book about and called Sharing Nature with Children that was published in the early 1980's, that book was first shown to me in 1989 by my first boss in the world of countryside management Mike Stagg, another man I have long respected. This was at a time when environmental education was trying to move away from what felt like rigid school based scientific activities to a looser more open style, that style accepted that everyone is different and might not want to be involved in outdoor learning but why not try and get environmental messages across in different ways and perhaps have fun in the process. This was the approach we used with children a lot often mixed with other more scientific but still loose activities.

There were two newish approaches doing the rounds then, there are undoubtedly more now, Joseph Cornell's and another which I won't name but which to me appeared to be too restrictive and prescriptive. Cornell's approach appealed to me and still does, its more flexible, doesn't mean I didn't use bits of the other approach, the Cornell approach just feels better.

Anyway there I was with these bits of paper from the workshop, it was a practical day spent outdoors on a warm spring day in the woodlands that make up Thorndon with a small group of people all appreciating that it isn't often that Joseph Cornell comes to this country to talk and show his ideas off. It was a magical day a day of taking part in activities designed to get children involved in the natural world and seeing them through their eyes by taking part in them. I read my notes and my activity sheets and the words I had written in pencil on them in 2005. Did I really write those words, I must have been completely immersed in the day and the activities and smiled to myself cos I know I was. It was a day that gave me hope, filled me again with enthusiasm for working with children and trying but not too hard to enthrall them with the magic that is the natural world.

I looked at the bits of paper, could I throw them away, no couldn't do it, not yet anyway too many memories of good times past and good people.