Lovely river. Very muddy near the Severn and a 40ft tidal range at this end, but a beautiful river beyond Tintern.
Suffering some algal bloom problems recently in warm, low rainfall years, exacerbated by phosphate run of from agricultural land. Still nicer than the river I grew up by - you could tell which day of the week it was by its colour from the dye works outflow upstream!

A VERY long time ago, I was an 'Environmental Studies' graduate. Run Off was a prob then... not up to date now. I lived not too far from Tyne. As a kid... you did NOT fall in... you might not drown... but WATER would Kill you! A LOT cleaner now!

My friend (who used to frequent this forum) gets regular photos of otter on the Sharpness canal in Gloucestershire. Apparently we have them in Bristol near the centre too.

As for run off, still an issue with nitrates (and slurry) from farms, but getting much better.

Well another year and another Big Garden birdwatch completed. Far fewer birds this time around, both in terms of numbers and species. Corvids, Robin and dunnock noticeable no-shows compared previous years and even just a few days ago. The recent cold snaps and avian flu might be responsible?

We get far to many Jackdaws eating the food I put out. Yesterday saw a pair of blackbirds, Blue Tit , Siskin and the back garden robin ( we have a  pair in the front garden too)  in the space of about 5 mins while making tea.  The Jackdaws and Wood pigeon were on the other side of the garden

Populations tend to vary over the years. The Jackdaws were replaced by Magpies, but have not seen either for a year or two. Mags had been in next door's chimney but probably got rid of!
Robins, Blue and Great Tits stuffing themselves at feeders and Fat Coconuts. Blackbirds have come back... absent for a while. Have not seen Sparrowhawk for a bit. Not much sound of Owls. Other neighbour says Goldfinches around but I have not seen yet. Nuthatch, Goldcrests, Bullfinches, Treecreeper and Wrens were around last year. Also Sparrows... they were noticably absent for some time. Chaffinch that used to batter itself stupid against windows now missing, presumed dead. Have not seen Woodpeckers recently, nor Collared Doves and Woodies and Fox populations seem to have dropped. Probably a bit early for H Hogs to be about much but something eats kibble and ain't seen a Rat! Sadly, not seen Red Squirrels for several years. Cat sometimes leaves bits of Mice, but think He has killed all Voles. Life goes on!

A Sparrowhawk buzzed the garden twice this morning but didn't alight on the tree, which it sometimes does. First time I've seen one for a few months. Around the same time a Red Kite hove into view in the distance being mobbed by Corvids. Great to see they have finally moved down off the Cotswold edge and to the outskirts of South East Bristol .

I spotted a Golden Eagle last week while on a short trip to Italy, which was great to see.  It was only overhead briefly on its way to lunch but I can tick that off the wishlist.

This popped up for me yesterday - might be of interest for the twitchers!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-64786796

Where some friends live in SE London by the Thames, there are Parakeets everywhere. Damned nuisance for sure.

Might be a few less if there weren't so many tasty pidgeons about!

I came downstairs Saturday and there was a squirrel sat on my painting desk. I looked at it, it looked at me then panicked and trashed everything. A whole Timecast Vietnamese village id just finished was pillaged, paints brushes everywhere. My wife refused my request to discharge firearms in the house so we had to corral and herd the thing out of one of the doors.
Spent all day wondering how the damn thing had got in... no open windows, no one had been out that morning. Could it have come in the day before and hid all night...not likely whole house would be trashed...and it had muddy footprints.
It was only later my wife suggested 'you sure it didn't come down the chimney..' Pile of soot in the log burner sooty rodent foot prints.

On the plus side  don't need to sweep the flue this year 

Oh dear!

I see Pendraken's Anti-Timecast Squirrel Squad has been activated then?



Hint: Don't buy Kallistra. Badgers can be absolute fiends. 

That's bad news to say the least .

It's ok, the resin was surprisingly resilient. Trees that I added, not so...