Zonda

[Zonda]

Popped down to Portland in the week. The Hoopoe had disappeared of course, but did manage a couple of Meadow Pipit pics. Not too good with Larks and Pipits, so maybe some Gibster confirmation maybe called for.

[Zonda]

This is exactly the time last year, when i removed my bird lens, and went about looking for butterfly business. BIG MISTAKE. Apart from the hibernators its a wasteland. This year the 'bird lens' is staying on for another month.

[Gibster]

Not too good with Larks and Pipits, so maybe some Gibster confirmation maybe called for.

Well, assuming you really did take this pic at Portland, and it's not from an Indian trip or some such.... - the rump rules out Red-throated. Head pattern rules out Rock, Water, Olive-backed, the mantle rules out Pechora, Buff-bellied and Tawny, bill is all wrong for Richard's and Blyth's. Which leaves the bothersome pair - Meadow and Tree Pipit. Tree Pipit tends to have larger, paler supercillium and darker eye-stripe, clean lores and less contrasty tertials (inners not as well demarcated from edges). Meadow tends to show more diffuse super, often being just a tapering 'raised' brow above eye, plus a clear contrast between dark inners to tertials and clean outer edges.

The length of the hindclaw and calls are completely diagnostic (but not so helpful here, eh?)

On balance I'd be happy to call your bird as Meadow Pipit. They're pretty common at Portland, which is on their return migration route anyway. Most Tree Pipits there just go straight over in springtime, plus they've yet to have their first one go through yet.

Now tell me it's a Long-billed Pipit from the Middle East, lol.

EDIT - hope that didn't come across as cocky as my girlfriend says it does, lol. (She just ain't as great a birder as I am )

DOUBLE EDIT - Zonda, that Long-tailed Tit image is SUPERB! No baloney!!

[Zonda]

Thanks for that Gibster. Cocky? No mate, just expansively informative. Wonder what's on Sami's mind?

[Jack Harrison]

Pity I didn't see the picture before Gibster had given a totally unnecessarily lengthy reply.
I could have told Zonda in far more succinct language that his bird quite clearly is an:

LBJ

Jack

[Zonda]

Jack:

Pity I didn't see the picture before Gibster had given a totally unnecessarily lengthy reply.
I could have told Zonda in far more succinct language that his bird quite clearly is an:

LBJ

Strange,,, there is a mushroom with that name. No butterflies as far as i am aware, but maybe a few moths.

[Zonda]

Another puzzle for Gibster, and if he can get this one,,,, ultimate respect forthcoming. Taken at Portland on the same day as the Meadow Pipit. I may or may not have made up my mind on the ID, but one bird has been sealed in my mind. Have a go,,,, i shall not think any the worst of you if you cannot ID it, because i rate you as a great avian expert.
(RUBBISH PIC NOW DELETED)

[Gibster]

Tis a Chiff. 100% mate. 1st year female with IBS. (Ok, I made the last bit up....)

Cheers from a newly succinct Gibster.

[Gibster]

Hey Zonda, according to the excellent Portland Bird Observatory website (check http://www.portlandbirdobs.org.uk/aa_latestnews.htm they had just shy of 2000 Mipits go over in under 2 hours today! Still no Tree Pipits though...

Gibster.

[Zonda]

Gibster:

Tis a Chiff. 100% mate. 1st year female with IBS.

LOL, shows what i know, i had it down as an early Garden Warbler.

[Gibster]

I could go into the reasons why it's not a Garden Warbler, but I wouldn't want to impinge on Mr Harrison's valuable free time.

[Jack Harrison]

Gibster:

...I wouldn't want to impinge on Mr Harrison's valuable free time.

Most considerate. Thank you.

It is of course just another boring Little Brown Job but even I can tell that it is not the same as the previous equally boring LBJ.

I saw a non-LBJ today. It was black and white with some red patches. It kept tapping on a tree making a drumming noise. I don't think it was a duck. Suggestions please.

Jack

[Gibster]

Ha, the fish are biting early this season!!!

[Zonda]

It is boring, for sure, and a bl**dy awful pic. I think i'll delete the rubbish. Nice to get an ID tho.

[Zonda]

Has anyone been watching Professor Brian Cox's 'Wonders of the Solar System'?
How irrelevant is 90% of that info to any human being? ....Gordon Bennet,,,, i sometimes despair at the content of modern TV. I just wish they would get down to earth a bit. I blame 'Star Trek'.

[Jack Harrison]

Zonda sadly made a couple of typos:

Has anyone been watching Professor Brian Cox's 'Wonders of the Solar System'?

The current series is 'Wonders of the Universe'.

How irrelevant is 90% of that info to any human being?(

You probably meant relevant not irrelevant.

Not obviously relevant but I offer just one possible future relevance.

We are all affected by the rising price and potential supply problems of oil. Nuclear power generation is currently coming under huge scrutiny.

We urgently need new sources of energy. Study of how the universe works and research at places like CERN might easily throw up some useful ideas. I’m no expert, but purely academic research in the past (eg electro-magnetism) in due course transformed our world. And don't forget that the internet wasn't originally developed to be the world wide communication system that we use today - that more-or-less happened incidentally.

Jack

[Padfield]

Approximately every 30 million years the solar system passes through the star-dense plane of the galaxy and at approximately this interval there are major extinction events on earth due to collisions with asteroids (nudged out of their distant orbit by gravitational interactions). We're in the sensitive period now - and some serious scientists believe the greatest single threat facing human life is from outer space.

Earth is a relatively unprotected spaceship, zooming at very high speed through the great vacuum, very vulnerable to impacts. We ignore what goes on out there at our peril!

(But no, I haven't been watching the Prof.)

Guy

[Zonda]

Guy,,, so sorry, but somewhat condescendingly you are telling me stuff i already know, and all Jack is doing, is pulling me up on my grammar, and other things. Is this the intellectual bullying of a perceived lesser mortal, i wonder? My initial statement of:
'How irrelevant is 90% of that info to any human being'? is a question.

Approximately every 30 million years the solar system passes through the star-dense plane of the galaxy and at approximately this interval there are major extinction events on earth due to collisions with asteroids (nudged out of their distant orbit by gravitational interactions). We're in the sensitive period now - and some serious scientists believe the greatest single threat facing human life is from outer space.

I don't think any human being is going to have to worry about that one. LOL

[Padfield]

Sorry Zonda, I thought you were stupid and didn't know all that stuff.

I think what really happened is that two space fans (Jack and me) took the bait when you implied, or seemed to imply, that studying the solar system was a waste of time.

To be honest, as I haven't watched the series and don't know what he was rattling on about, I don't know what you were implying.

Guy

[Padfield]

I don't think any human being is going to have to worry about that one. LOL

But they ARE worrying about it! A lot of money is being spent, mostly by America, on developing technology for detecting and dealing with potential collisions.