Spring?

Lord Paul of Sheffield · Mar 7, 2015

Well today the fish thought so

I fished a local pond today, I put out a do with damp pellets in the feeder and a hair rigged pellet on the hook thinking the carp might just be waking up and fished mag and wag

I fished for 3 and halk hours bagging up on silver fish and the sleeper rod bagged me 3 carp each about 4lb

bennygesserit · Mar 7, 2015

Nice one , I got my stuff out yesterday , its all still there

Lord Paul of Sheffield · Mar 7, 2015

The weather was spot on , nice breeze on the water , warm enough to not need a fleece

terry m · Mar 7, 2015

I was out on the banks of the Avon today, basking in spring like sunshine. It was lovely. But the temperature does drop very quickly in the evening, so we are not quite there yet.

nicepix · Mar 7, 2015

I should have been fishing today and it was perfect for it. Light cloud and 20C. But the death overnight in England of a bloke I've only met a couple of times and didn't particularly like put the mockers on those plans. We felt that we had to invite a mutual friend round for tea and sympathy seeing as he'd just lost his best friend and his wife has been over there for the last four weeks doing the palliative care.

So instead of fishing I was tasked with gardening; giving the grass its first cut of the year. Two trips to the tip with tree prunings and getting the camper van woken up and fettled ready for a spring trip. Little Wife felt no guilt in tasking me with this despite my obviously suffering from Man 'Flu. She claimed that she has 'flu too, but it is obviously not as severe as mine. 'Flu lite I call it.

Overhead there were thousands of cranes migrating north in great big 'V' formations and I noticed that there were a pair of nuthatches making regular visits to the bird feeders every few minutes. A sign that they already have their young hatched.

Hopefully I'll get off tomorrow. The plan is to have a look at a new lake I found that might have some tench in it. I'll take a JW Travel Avon and my carp stalking outfit, and the dog and have a walk up to the shallow end to look for signs of life.

mark brailsford 2 · Mar 7, 2015

Soon be time for the Nuthatch too start pairing up, ready for Breeding at the end of April!

nicepix · Mar 7, 2015

mark brailsford 2 said:
Soon be time for the Nuthatch too start pairing up, ready for Breeding at the end of April!

Oh dear, oh dear. Sounds like someone is desperate to score points again. Some people never learn

I'm in South-West France. Things are further forward here, and what other reason could there be for a pair of nuthatches to be commuting from a tree in the corner of my neighbour's garden to my bird table every couple of minutes, all day?

If you are determined to pick a fight at least try and choose something you actually know about and not just think you know about

flightliner · Mar 8, 2015

Well, its an -- is it on, or is it off here in south yorkshire. The large rookery (or is it crowery)s residents keep launching off the trees and landing on the tree over my two hundred and fifty year old garden wall, then they start tearing off thin twigs and any other bits that may be ok for a nest.
That done they seem to have a change of mind about doing what comes naturally and discard the hard won materiel, trouble is it gets wanged on my garden, so much in fact its always my early spring cleared up rubbish fire starting material.
They are a little more vociferous of late tho and on the odd occasion for some unknown bird minded reason they will just take off at daft o-clock in the wee small hours en-masse and head off towards not so far off nottinghamshire--- maybe thats because the birds over that way are easier to pull!!.

greenie62 · Mar 8, 2015

flightliner said:
.....The large rookery (or is it crowery)s residents keep launching off the trees and landing on the tree over my two hundred and fifty year old garden wall, then they start tearing off thin twigs and any other bits that may be ok for a nest.
That done they seem to have a change of mind about doing what comes naturally and discard the hard won materiel, trouble is it gets wanged on my garden, so much in fact its always my early spring cleared up rubbish fire starting material.....

Intelligent birds those - they've been watching this annual bonfire ritual for years and tear off the thin twigs to encourage you and get you started!

flightliner · Mar 8, 2015

:doh

oh!-- ---- every village has its resident idiot--

maggot_dangler · Mar 8, 2015

Humm went out today local cut a few nibbles got wet got hacked orft came home Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr .. mshould have fished yesterday but other things got in the way

PG ..

bracket · Mar 8, 2015

The large rookery (or is it crowery)s residents keep launching off the trees and landing on the tree over my two hundred and fifty year old garden wall, then they start tearing off thin twigs and any other bits that may be ok for a nest.

flightliner. There is an old countrymans adage that aids identification. It runs like this: "If you see a bunch of Crows together, then they be Rooks. See a Rook on it's own, then 'tis a Crow". Hope this helps

. Pete

Lord Paul of Sheffield · Mar 8, 2015

Definitely spring today , nice sunnt morning up at the gun club , came home and it rained for 20 minutes then the sun back out for me to chop some of the tres branches of the trees overhanging the garden

flightliner · Mar 8, 2015

bracket said:
The large rookery (or is it crowery)s residents keep launching off the trees and landing on the tree over my two hundred and fifty year old garden wall, then they start tearing off thin twigs and any other bits that may be ok for a nest.

flightliner. There is an old countrymans adage that aids identification. It runs like this: "If you see a bunch of Crows together, then they be Rooks. See a Rook on it's own, then 'tis a Crow". Hope this helps. Pete

Lol, Pete, logged and noted, I could always tell springtime years ago without looking anywhere but immediately south--- :wh

nicepix · Mar 8, 2015

flightliner said:
Well, its an -- is it on, or is it off here in south yorkshire. The large rookery (or is it crowery)s residents keep launching off the trees and landing on the tree over my two hundred and fifty year old garden wall, then they start tearing off thin twigs and any other bits that may be ok for a nest.
That done they seem to have a change of mind about doing what comes naturally and discard the hard won materiel, trouble is it gets wanged on my garden, so much in fact its always my early spring cleared up rubbish fire starting material.
They are a little more vociferous of late tho and on the odd occasion for some unknown bird minded reason they will just take off at daft o-clock in the wee small hours en-masse and head off towards not so far off nottinghamshire--- maybe thats because the birds over that way are easier to pull!!.

Funnily enough I was corvid spotting this morning. There are a pair of ravens that seem to live just to the north of our house in some woods. But today one of them was in the trees on our south boundary and I had some binoculars handy in the camper van. It did exactly as you described; took a long tome to chew through a large twig and then discarded it.

Back in the UK I had the role of thinning out the rooks and crows on our shoot. At this time of year I'd be looking for crow nests and either luring them to the shotgun with decoys or putting Larsen traps out. I'd also spend three days in the rookery thinning the squabs out using an air rifle.

dorsetandchub · Mar 8, 2015

No wonder the collective noun is a murder.....

Shotguns? Guns that fire shots? (It's the Scouse in me, sorry.....)

nicepix · Mar 8, 2015

Tell you what; they are vicious in a Larsen trap. Anyone would think they didn't want their necks rung

mg:

I worked out that if I tried to grab them they would peck using the point of their beak, but if I just put my hand in steady they would grab my finger and hold on which caused a temporary purple bruise, but no break of the skin. While it had hold of one of my hands the other hand.....................

S-Kippy · Mar 8, 2015

nicepix said:
Tell you what; they are vicious in a Larsen trap. Anyone would think they didn't want their necks rung mg:

I worked out that if I tried to grab them they would peck using the point of their beak, but if I just put my hand in steady they would grab my finger and hold on which caused a temporary purple bruise, but no break of the skin. While it had hold of one of my hands the other hand.....................

I think I might have offered Mr Corky the barrel of a gun instead. They could peck that as much as they like...for a moment or two anyway.

flightliner · Mar 8, 2015

nicepix said:
Tell you what; they are vicious in a Larsen trap. Anyone would think they didn't want their necks rung mg:

I worked out that if I tried to grab them they would peck using the point of their beak, but if I just put my hand in steady they would grab my finger and hold on which caused a temporary purple bruise, but no break of the skin. While it had hold of one of my hands the other hand.....................

On a carp water I know an angler found a larson trap nearby and let the magpie go----

nicepix · Mar 8, 2015

S-Kippy said:
I think I might have offered Mr Corky the barrel of a gun instead. They could peck that as much as they like...for a moment or two anyway.

But that costs money. And I'm from Yorkshire.

mg:

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