The Night Mail

[br2975]

2 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

We always used to know Brains SA as Skull Attack.

 

Probably for good reason.

 

I am quite partial to their Rev James bottled ale.

 

Me too, I occasionally slip a bottle or two into the "Friday night big shop".

.

SA and the up market "SA Gold" are both to be recommended.

.

However, I am increasingly tempted by the increasing number of 'craft' IPAs flooding the market.

 

In addition, we are now blessed with a growing number of "pop up bars" hereabouts.

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"St. Canna's Ale House" in Llandaff Road, Canton is recommended. When first opened, pre-pandemic they had a Dansette record player and shelf full of vinyl, to which the punters were invited to 'play your own'

.

"The Pipe Works" in Pontyclun has developed from a pokey place in a side street, to a lively, bustling venue, with as many ales as they have punters.

[Winslow Boy]

3 hours ago, SM42 said:

I think it may not be in nature's  interest to remove a predator ( man) from the system

 

The balance we have come to know and love has only occurred as man predated on predators that cause problems for agriculture  etc,

 

Take that away and the predators thrive and we lose a lot of species from our daily lives. 

 

Recent changes in the law seem to have had an adverse effect

 

Who has seen a sparrow lately in the UK?  Doubtless they are still there, somewhere, but not as common as in my childhood 

 

All I see now are magpies  gulls, crows, Jay's and the occasional blackbird or robin. 

 

We are part of the natural balance like it or not. 

 

Andy

 

 

 

Yes but it's a question of numbers. If a predator who is at the top of the pyramid of predators becomes to dominate then not only does the prey suffer but also the other predators. Therefore something's gotta give folks and think Mother Nature's started the process whether we like it or not. The real question we need to ask is how much help she gets from us.

Edited February 26, 2022 by Winslow Boy

[SM42]

3 minutes ago, Winslow Boy said:

 

Yes but it's a question of numbers. If a predator who is at the top of the pyramid of predators becomes to dominate then not only does the prey suffer but also the other predators. Therefore something's gotta give folks and think Mother Nature's started the process whether we like it or not. The real question when to ask is how much help she gets from us.

 

This is my point. 

Many species have suffered through the action of man, either deliberately or accidentally.

However the wildlife I saw in my childhood, mostly prey species,  has been replaced to a large extent by predator and carrion  types.

 

Where I live has not changed dramatically in terms of the built environment in the  time that things have vanished from the scene and if anything it has got less polluted and greener, which would suggest more wildlife being around

 

So what has changed?

 

The law on wildlife protections

 

I'm not advocating being able to kill  wildlife without restriction, but it seems nature reserves  are becoming fly through restaurants for the local predatory bird species. 

 

Or perhaps we should just get used to a new balance and seeing less of the cute animals we used to see around our homes. 

 

Plenty of sparrows in Poland BTW and they are a little less protective of wildlife here. 

 

Maybe, just maybe, we in the UK have swung the pendulum too far 

 

And if you want some spiders, there is a plethora  not a dearth, at SM42 Towers. I can send you some cellar spiders. Hundreds of em here and we haven't even got a cellar.

 

Andy

[Winslow Boy]

8 minutes ago, SM42 said:

 

This is my point. 

Many species have suffered through the action of man, either deliberately or accidentally.

However the wildlife I saw in my childhood, mostly prey species,  has been replaced to a large extent by predator and carrion  types.

 

Where I live has not changed dramatically in terms of the built environment in the  time that things have vanished from the scene and if anything it has got less polluted and greener, which would suggest more wildlife being around

 

So what has changed?

 

The law on wildlife protections

 

I'm not advocating being able to kill  wildlife without restriction, but it seems nature reserves  are becoming fly through restaurants for the local predatory bird species. 

 

Or perhaps we should just get used to a new balance and seeing less of the cute animals we used to see around our homes. 

 

Plenty of sparrows in Poland BTW and they are a little less protective of wildlife here. 

 

Maybe, just maybe, we in the UK have swung the pendulum too far 

 

And if you want some spiders, there is a plethora  not a dearth, at SM42 Towers. I can send you some cellar spiders. Hundreds of em here and we haven't even got a cellar.

 

Andy

 

Yes and that I think supports the proposal that mother nature is starting the changes needed in order to carry on. I think the assumption has been that these changes will be done slowly. Mother Nature has decided otherwise.

Edited February 26, 2022 by Winslow Boy

[Pacific231G]

4 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

Interesting story. 

 

I'm surprised that the tunnel was ever built. I presume the bodies were those of the (freight) train crew. A bit thin on detail and he talks about four bodies despite the title of the film.

Interesting Phil, thanks for posting that.

I did a little googling and found a 2020  NBC report from the 95th anniversary including an interview, by the sealed off west portal. with Richard Glenn whose father and grandfather were working on renovation of the by then disused tunnel, which was being repaired for reopening. They both survived but four of the men on the train - which was a work train- didn't. The fireman was one of those who managed to get out of the tunnel alive but had been scalded by steam  and died in hospital. By sinking shafts down to the tunnel  they got out the body of the engineer (driver) but two workmen, possibly more, were never recovered. It seems that about 200ft of the tunnel collapsed onto the train. 

https://www.nbc12.com/2020/09/28/this-week-history-train-tunnel-collapses-church-hill-killing-least-men/

The NBC report includes a photo of the locomotive (identiifed as "the same train",but clearly not so the common confusion between a loco and a train)

There's also a longer audio piece on that webpage.

Edited February 26, 2022 by Pacific231G

[PhilJ W]

Reminded me of the Penmanshiel tunnel collapse, they were unable to recover the bodies of the two men killed in that incident either.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penmanshiel_Tunnel#Tunnel_collapse_(1979)

[AndyID]

2 hours ago, simontaylor484 said:

We usually have loads of sparrows here 

 

Barras fu' a sparras.

[AndyID]

5 hours ago, AndyID said:

 

Barras fu' a sparras.

 

I pinched it from Duncan Macrae (Whisky Galore). He was a contemporary of my mum. She knew him  (I think) when he was at Irvine Academy.

 

 

[jamie92208]

11 hours ago, pH said:

They’ve all emigrated! Apparently the house sparrow is the most widely distributed bird in the world.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_sparrow

 

I’ve noticed them on Vancouver Island off the west coast of Canada, on Hawaii and in the onboard garden of a cruise ship in the Caribbean. I’m sure I will have seen them elsewhere, but they’re so common that you’re inclined to overlook them.

We have plenty of sparrows at Chateau  92208. In fact Enedis the electricity distribution company erected a sparrow hilton in our garden with 4  2" square tubes attached at the top, thise supportb8 families with about 2 broodsva year. The pigeons also appreciate the longer tubes for courting rituals. And the 11,000v cables attached to the tubes don't serm to put them off.

 

Jamie

[SM42]

Sparrows and dunnocks are a rare sight here now. 

Even the large blue tit population has been reduced to the occasional sighting. 

The nest boxes are empty and have been taken over by wasps.

 

What we have is more gulls than is healthy ( and a flippin nuisance squawking all day and night) and magpies by the dozen.

 

If I did the RSPB birdwatch ( which I keep forgetting) it would mostly be gull, magpie, gull, gull, gull, magpie  pigeon, gull ,magpie and so on.

 

Andy

[Oldddudders]

Loadsa sparrows here, and tits great and blue. The odd finch or two, robins, blackbirds and a wren occasionally. Wood-pigeons and a pair of magpies. Birds of prey are about, but seldom in the garden. 

 

I am not one for computer games, although in my Windows days I might occasionally play patience/solitaire, which came with the package. Apple doesn't seem to do that, although no doubt the App Store has a zillion games, if I looked.

 

A couple of weeks ago Sherry got me onto the five-letter game Wordle, free online but now owned by the New York Times, and I am happy to try it every day.  Sadly, like teenage sex, it doesn't last long, and there is only one game per day. [The teens may be better at that bit.] So now I am slaking my thirst with Quordle and Octordle. The latter seems to have some sort of timer mech attached, but if I solve most of the 8 5-letter words in 13 goes I am pleased. I got 7 this morning. As a way of getting the grey matter started for the day, it is quite suitable if you don't want to read of that chap Putin's latest atrocities.

 

Bright, sunny weekend with maybe 10 degrees later. I might, just might, see if the lawn-tractor can do anything this afternoon. The battery was charged last week, so fingers crossed. 

[PhilJ W]

Oops.

 

[iL Dottore]

18 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

…Ideally it ought to be Brains Dark

Isn’t that racist? Surely all brains are equal?

Are you a Zombie Hippo by any chance?

[Tony_S]

20 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

Isn’t that racist? Surely all brains are equal?

Are you a Zombie Hippo by any chance?

Brains on toast was my grandfather’s meal at teatime every Monday. 

[iL Dottore]

Predator-prey dynamics are rather complex, but basically adhere to the following:

The prey population is, numerically, much greater than the predator, but a minimum amount of prey is needed for each predator animal (which is why most predators are very territorial and some have very large territories in order to have enough prey to permit the survival and reproduction of that predator)

As seen from the graph above, there is a distinct lag between the apex of the prey population and the apex of the predator population. This lag will vary in time depending on predator and prey; in some cases this can be years. But whatever the predator and prey, there will come a point when the prey population is too small to support the large predator population and the number of predators will decrease to the point where the prey can support the predators that remain. Once the predator population has reached its nadir then the prey population will start to increase again and so the story repeats and continues.

To be honest, I am far more concerned about removing predators from the environment than prey species. The predators that I can think of at the moment all hunt diverse prey species not just one, but removing the predator from the environment is disastrous for any prey species as then there is nothing keeping that species in check which leads to significant over population which in turn results in starvation of, and rampant disease, in the prey population. A good example of this is to be seen in a number of eastern US states that have severe restrictions on deer hunting and at the same time have no natural deer predators. The result is a mammoth explosion of the deer population with the animals being half starved and susceptible to disease (and who also enroach into human spaces in order to find food).

 

Three things keep any animal population in check: predation, disease and starvation. And it’s no different for man.

Edited February 27, 2022 by iL Dottore

[polybear]

1 hour ago, PhilJ W said:

Oops.

 

 

I do hope he got fined - but somehow I reckon all he got was a slap on the wrist and as soon as the Officer had gone the cyclist thought "...."

 

1 hour ago, Tony_S said:

Brains on toast was my grandfather’s meal at teatime every Monday. 

 

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO........................

[polybear]

6 hours ago, Oldddudders said:

A couple of weeks ago Sherry got me onto the five-letter game Wordle, free online but now owned by the New York Times, and I am happy to try it every day.  Sadly, like teenage sex, it doesn't last long, and there is only one game per day. [The teens may be better at that bit.] So now I am slaking my thirst with Quordle and Octordle. The latter seems to have some sort of timer mech attached, but if I solve most of the 8 5-letter words in 13 goes I am pleased. I got 7 this morning. As a way of getting the grey matter started for the day, it is quite suitable if you don't want to read of that chap Putin's latest atrocities.

 

[Happy Hippo]

Magpies and Jays are prolific thieves of songbird eggs, as are grey squirrels.

 

The classic removel of the predator scenario was played out in the far east when there was a purge on venomous snakes.  this was done due to the number of workers in rice field who were getting bitten.

 

The cull on the snakes resulted in boom in the rodents population, who proceeded to feed on the rice plants.

 

The loss of a large amount of the rice crop was economically devastating to the local rice growers.

 

The solution eventually stumbled upon was for the snakes to be left alone and for the workers to wear wellington style boots.

 

I am somewhat late on parade today as we had a fairly early start to meet some of Nyda's friends at a National Trust property for a catch up and some lunch.

 

The Pasty I had bought for me was not the highest quality, so if I go again I will avoid them like the plague.

 

I'm recovering from a bought of dry eye, which hit yesterday afternoon.  It's quite ludicrous that I claim to have 'dry eye' when the tears are streaming down your cheek form the affected eye.  Not even liberal doses of Penderyn and copious amounts of cake can suppress the discomfort, so I end up using the eye drops, pain killers and lying down in bed and keeping my eyes closed and still.

 

Perhaps I should have played this card this morning and not gone out and been poisoned by the pasty! 

 

Will I ever learn?

 

 

 

 

[New Haven Neil]

Evening orl.

 

I suffer with a dry eye too, oddly not the one that is starting with a cataract.  That's the one that works best of course.  Or did.  Pah.

 

Lots of garden birds here, sparrows, blue tits, wrens, chaffinches, bullfinches, woodpeckers, and lots of crows.  Or are they ravens, I never can tell the difference.  No squirrels or snakes on the island, or foxes, but plenty of cats, most with tails but many not.

[BSW01]

We have plenty of birds in our garden. Blue tits, great tits, coal tits, long tailed tits, goldfinches, greenfinches, blackbirds, house sparrows, robins, magpies, wood pigeons. We occasionally get starlings, but they aren't as common as they once were. In the past we've had wrens and even a lesser spotted woodpecker, but that was during a very long cold spell and it came for the food on the bird feeders. 

[New Haven Neil]

Woody at the bottom of the garden - through the window so a bit grim, sorry.

 

[jamie92208]

We get blue and great tits, robins, various finches, blackbirds, sparrows and pigeons. At night the Little owls and Barn owls come out. Buzzards and Hen Harriers and I think Merlins hunt in the fields. Mice get eaten by the owls and whip snakes, who also eat the glis glis (edible doormice)  we also have hedgehogs and there are deer, wild boar and foxes around.  Quite a variety.

 

Jamie

[SM42]

Well that's it. 

 

Back in blighty and back to the daily ground tomorrow. 

 

Such a lot has happened whilst I've been away. 

 

I am reminded of the end of childhood  holidays when you always wondered what has changed whilst you've been away and found getting back into town rather exciting. 

 

Here at SM42 Towers the bathroom has moved on dramatically. 

It's got a floor and stuff. 

 

Andy

[Happy Hippo]

2 hours ago, jamie92208 said:

We get blue and great tits, robins, various finches, blackbirds, sparrows and pigeons. At night the Little owls and Barn owls come out. Buzzards and Hen Harriers and I think Merlins hunt in the fields. Mice get eaten by the owls and whip snakes, who also eat the glis glis (edible doormice)  we also have hedgehogs and there are deer, wild boar and foxes around.  Quite a variety.

 

Jamie

You probably also have  the Asp Viper on rodent patrol.

 

They are probably lying low for most of the day in quiet basking spots and will tend to hunt for their prey during the early evening.

 

Generally this type of Viper, and I include the Northen Viper (Adder) and it's other close cousins, are very timid and will rely on camouflage and concealment to avoid detection, so unless you know what you are looking for and where to look, you'll probably not come across one.

 

Here's an example of a Copperhead in the USA just lying on top of a bed of leaves:

 

 

Not that easy to spot if you were just walking past.

 

 

 

Edited February 27, 2022 by Happy Hippo

[Winslow Boy]

Are hippos afraid of snakes Mr H? Asking for a friend.