22nd July. Scam

Thunderbird picked up this potential email scam this evening - clever things these computers.

22nd July. Farewell

The last few days have been predictably dull. Most mornings at Orgreave have produced Yellow-legged Gulls - adults and 3rd summers, with up to three on the 21st and a singing Gropper on the 20th.

The biggest event of the week was breaking away from the RBA pager.

Farewell old friend

After some deliberation I decided to get rid, tired of the relentless drivvle and the feelings of apathy at even the rarest of rares the pager has gone back to Mr Filby. However no sooner had it land on Dick's doormat this happened:

YOU BASTARD

Now this leaves me with a dillema given our trip, via Dover, to Southern France on Saturday do I cross everything and hope it stays or do I jump in the car and go now! Well seeing as I'm sat here writing this it would appear that I have chosen the former option - BOLLOCKS. Blue-cheeked Bee-eater is a rather annoying gap on my British list following my decision to go to Cornwall for a week during the time that the Cowden bird was in residence and my reluctance to twitch the Shetland one. Looks like that gap will still be there for a while yet.

15th July. Shitty Gulls

I confess (though I'm sure I've done this before) that I hate large gulls particularly the Herring Gull complex thingies. They look shit, eat shit therefore are shit at least in my book. However given the fact that there was very little else (infact there was nothing) other than Lesser Black-backs to look at I felt obliged to look through them. After a couple of minutes of eye strain I picked up an adult Yellow-legged, though I suppose it could have been a 3rd summer but who really gives a shit! There could have been a dozen or so immature birds but to be honest Heroin would be more appealing than sifting through this mass of dross!

It's in there somewhere, the one with the yellow legs - wait a minute.................

13th July. Pena Falcon.

I quick visit to Orgreave before work was marginally better than of late with an immature Hobby cheekily perched on the Peregrines rock. There can't be many small rocks in this world that bare the presence of these two fine falcons, so I plan to swap it for a much more inferior rock and place the 'Pena Falcon' in the garden!

8th July. Pie Crime

Fresh news from the far north today concerning a crime of heinous proportions. Story courtesy of the Shetland Times, which is a lie as I just cut and pasted it.

The company that owns Lerwick shop Alex Morrisons was fined a total of £2,000 on Wednesday for selling out of date food.

Timberlake Enterprises faced 12 food hygiene charges at Lerwick Sheriff Court from September and December last year at the store at Browns Buildings in Freefield.

The worst case was recorded on 26th September (a time when hoards of pie hunting birdwatchers swell the islands population by at least 6)* when a macaroni pie, which was unfit for human consumption because of mould, was discovered in a display cabinet.

All other charges related to a quantity of pies, sausage rolls, fruit trifles and packets of cheese, which were all found to be a day past their sell-by date when food hygiene inspectors visited the premises on 2nd December.

The court heard the case was brought after previous advice by the environmental health department had “been ignored”, and that a simple stock rotation of perishable goods had not been carried out.

Procurator fiscal Duncan MacKenzie said environmental health inspectors follow up a policy of enforcement which is “hierarchal”, and that a report to the fiscal’s office was a “last resort”.

“This company refused to engage with advice, verbal warnings and written warnings which include hygiene improvement notices,” he said.He added it was worth noting there had been 2,000 cases of food poisoning in 2006 alone in Scotland though it is thought that at least 50% of these occured in the Virkie area of South Mainland**.

Defence solicitor Linda Knarston said the mouldy macaroni pie had become lodged at the back of its cabinet and been overlooked.

She said the other items were going to be removed by the shop manager prior to an inspection visit by environmental health officials, however he had become pre-occupied with a delivery of sheep based pornography*** and other business and had not managed to take the items away in time.

Sheriff Philip Mann said he had been “pleased to see” the shop had since taken on board advice concerning food safety.
He fined the business £500 for the macaroni pie offence and £1,500 for the remaining charges.

This Macaroni Pie (yesterday) was unavailable for comment.

* This is a complete lie
** And this is
*** And of course this is, nobody buys sheep based porn - they just make their own!

7th July. Pie of the day.

In a one off feature I bring you pie of the day. It was a close decision, though not a surprising one in the end. The choice was between a rather sour looking full Custardy Pie topped off with a couple of nutmegs and a rather appetising and appealing humble pie. It was no contest really and at the end of the day the very sweet flavour of the humble pie shone through, a true full and rewarding 10 point pie.

4th July. Potteric Dragons

3rd July. Peregrine

The only bird of note during a very soggy visit to Orgreave was a drake Peregrine sat on a rock post kill.

Not much leftovers

Followed by a nice bug dump

A Nice Stiffy

Came across this nice pair of highly sexually charged Ruddy Ducks a week or so ago. Good to see that our hard earned tax pounds are obviously being put to good use.

Is it me or is it laughing??

Up yours DEFRA!!