I'm worried about the bird!

[Globalti]

Late last night contractors were charging around the fields at the back of our house, mowing the grass for silage, I suppose. Lots of noise and bright lights; it was like the tractor tipping game on Disney's Cars.

Anyway I nipped out this morning for my usual tinkle on the lawn and... NO CURLEW! It fills me with joy to hear that wonderful bubbling call, normally they are common when I'm out riding on the moors around Lancashire and we're privileged to have one in the fields at the back. You can hear it here: http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdguide/name/c/curlew/index.asp

I am worried that the mowing has driven my curlew away. Worse still, that the machinery might have crushed the nest and killed the young.

Anybody else got a favourite bird?

 

[4F]

Anybody else got a favourite bird?

Well I quite like Liz Hurley

 

[wafflycat]

Well apart from Anode & Cathode, I do have a soft spot for a handsome male pheasant that visits the garden daily, brings his lady friends with him and has conversations with The Laydeez. Then there's the robin, although a vicious bird, who nips into the utility room and takes the cat food from the cat food bowls.

 

[Fnaar]

Anyway I nipped out this morning for my usual tinkle on the lawn and

 

[yello]

We have a family of blackbirds around us at the moment. It's a delight to watch the young ones flitting around. They're perhaps not the most stunning looking of birds but their song, especially in the evenings, is magical. You'd almost think they were tropical birds!

 

[wafflycat]

If you have a compost heap, pee on the compost heap is suppsed to be a great activator. Also if you keep hens in the garden, if your put *male* urine round the boundary of the run, it's supposed to help deter foxes. So far, Mr Wafflycat has not obliged

 

[Twenty Inch]

Urine is a very useful liquid. It has applications in agriculture, metalwork, and textiles.

The origin of the phrase "taking the piss" is apparently from the days that urine used to be collected in barrels around London, then shipped up the coast to the slate works in Yorkshire(?), where they produced the mordant that binds dye to wool by boiling slate in urine. Ships' captains preferred to say that they imported wine, or exported wool, or something else, to which the reply was "no you don't, you're taking the piss [to Yorkshire]"

 

[Mr Pig]

Anybody else got a favourite bird?

Chicken is nice on baked potato but I hate the birds that drop into our rabbit's run and steal their food!

 

[Nortones2]

Re taking the piss, another variant is that contractors, on Royal authority, annually dug out part of the earthen floors of the masses, to take the ammonia-infused soil of the house, for the manufacture of gunpowder. Nosegay, anyone? http://www.researchpress.co.uk/firearms/gunpowder/saltpetre.htm

 

[Maz]

There's a bird in our back garden that makes a tweet and tune just like the opening bars of the classic 80's gameshow Blankety-Blank.

What bird is it?

 

[Fnaar]

There's a bird in our back garden that makes a tweet and tune just like the opening bars of the classic 80's gameshow Blankety-Blank.

What bird is it?

Is it that Carol Vorderman, hiding in the bushes? Or the blonde one who used to do the letters, but nobody remembers her?

 

[Globalti]

Carol Vorderman? Hmmm... I'd like to show her a cockatoo.

 

[yello]

Blankety Blank Fnaar, not Countdown!

Are you thinking of Suzie somethingorother in the dictionary corner? Oddly, I used to think she was quite sexy... in a quiet, minxish sort of way.

 

[Fnaar]

Blankety Blank Fnaar, not Countdown!

Are you thinking of Suzie somethingorother in the dictionary corner? Oddly, I used to think she was quite sexy... in a quiet, minxish sort of way.

Oops, you're right, I was thinking of Countdown...
not thinking of the dictionary corner lass, but when Countdown first began (1982, I was at uni, and saw the first prog) there was Carol who did the numbers as always, and a really sultry blonde woman who sort of fondled the letters into place and made you look forward to the ads, as the sexual tension was just too much... She disappeared after a bit, and carol started doing the letters too....

edit: a little googling reveals she was called Cathy Hytner (can't find a pic) and that Carol wasn't there from the start... well I never! The things you can learn off the net!

 

[yello]

Carol wasn't there from the start... well I never! The things you can learn off the net!

I didn't know that either. I thought she was an old-timer as it where.

It was Suzie Dent I was trying to think of... the internet is indeed a wonderful tool (or not, as the case may be).

Is this Cathy?

And how's this for an old photo of Carol?