Birders and their lists - it's what makes us tick!

I'm sure I'm not the only birding sole to find themsevles checking over their lists come the end of the year. Make sure everything is in order. Everything that should be ticked is ticked.

Mine was spurred on by my 140th local patch tick in the form of a Woodcock which Liz and I flushed from an open arable field margin on the fen this afternoon. Shame it wasn't my 122nd garden tick tho - that would count as both!

As one's lists get ever bigger, adding to them gets ever more difficult. I've been lucky tho this year as I have added to all my important local lists -

Garden List - six species added in 2006 - Siskin, Whimbrel, Black Tern, Egyptian Goose, American Golden Plover, Twite. End of year total = 121 - and keeps me in fourth place in the Cambs county garden list stakes! Only ten behind third place - maybe still a few years away tho.

Farcet Fen List - three species added in 2006 - the above garden goodies plus Honey-buzzard, American Golden Plover, Twite. End of year total = 140.

Peterborough Area List - four species added in 2006 - Honey-buzzard, Nightjar, American Golden Plover, Twite. End of year total of 227 puts me joint highest in the Peterborough area listers with the old boy Martin Coates.

Garden moth list - lots added, but the stars being the large influx of migrant moths including Convolvulus Hawkmoth (2), The Vestal (4), Great Brocade (3), Small Mottled Willow (13) and the stacks of Hummingbird Hawkmoths around this year, with a max coun of seven around the house.

Twelve birds of Christmas

On the first day of Christmas,
My true love gave to me,
A Corn Bunting in the apple tree.

On the second day of Christmas,
My true love gave to me,
Two Bramble Finches,
And a Corn Bunting in the apple tree.

On the third day of Christmas,
My true love gave to me,
Three Robins singing
Two Bramble Finches,
And a Corn Bunting in the apple tree.

On the fourth day of Christmas,
My true love gave to me,
Four Blackbirds,
Three Robins singing
Two Bramble Finches,
And a Corn Bunting in the apple tree.

On the fifth day of Christmas,
My true love gave to me,
Five Gold Finches,
Four Blackbirds,
Three Robins singing
Two Bramble Finches,
And a Corn Bunting in the apple tree.

On the sixth day of Christmas,
My true love gave to me,
Six Yellow Buntings,
Five Gold Finches,
Four Blackbirds,
Three Robins singing
Two Bramble Finches,
And a Corn Bunting in the apple tree.

On the seventh day of Christmas,
My true love gave to me,
Seven Turtle Doves,
Six Yellow Buntings,
Five Gold Finches,
Four Blackbirds,
Three Robins singing
Two Bramble Finches,
And a Corn Bunting in the apple tree.

On the eight day of Christmas,
My true love gave to me,
Eight Reed Buntings,
Seven Turtle Doves,
Six Yellow Buntings,
Five Gold Finches,
Four Blackbirds,
Three Robins singing
Two Bramble Finches,
And a Corn Bunting in the apple tree.

On the ninth day of Christmas,
My true love gave to me,
Nine Chaff Finches
Eight Reed Buntings,
Seven Turtle Doves,
Six Yellow Buntings,
Five Gold Finches,
Four Blackbirds,
Three Robins singing
Two Bramble Finches,
And a Corn Bunting in the apple tree.

On the tenth day of Christmas,
My true love gave to me,
Ten Tree Sparrows,
Nine Chaff Finches
Eight Reed Buntings,
Seven Turtle Doves,
Six Yellow Buntings,
Five Gold Finches,
Four Blackbirds,
Three Robins singing
Two Bramble Finches,
And a Corn Bunting in the apple tree.

On the eleventh day of Christmas,
My true love gave to me,
Eleven Green Finches,
Ten Tree Sparrows,
Nine Chaff Finches
Eight Reed Buntings,
Seven Turtle Doves,
Six Yellow Buntings,
Five Gold Finches,
Four Blackbirds,
Three Robins singing
Two Bramble Finches,
And a Corn Bunting in the apple tree.

On the twelfth day of Christmas,
My true love gave to me,
Twelve Grey Partridges,
Eleven Green Finches,
Ten Tree Sparrows,
Nine Chaffinches
Eight Reed Buntings,
Seven Turtle Doves,
Six Yellow Buntings,
Five Gold Finches,
Four Blackbirds,
Three Robins singing
Two Bramble Finches,
And a Corn Bunting in the apple tree.

Christmas all wrapped up!

Christmas is sorted this year with Oxfam's fantastic Oxfam Unwrapped scheme.

How does it work? Well, you choose how much you want to spend. Buy the gift. If you do it online Oxfam will post a card and fridge magnet depicting your gift to your family member/friend for xmas, if in store you take the card and magnet away and can write your own message. It’s so easy!
And just look what you can get for under £20! You can plant some trees. You can buy a school desk and chair. Text books. Mosquito nets for babies. Fishing nets' A whole market stall. A lama or a goat. An animal care kit. Wow! The list is endless.

And these gifts make a difference.

Trees help replenish diminishing habitat vital for wildlife and local communities. Trees provide food and shelter for wild birds and animals, man and beast alike. They also provide a sustainable fuel source for wood for cooking.

Any of the education gifts benefit not only the individual child, but in the longer term their family and community.

And health gifts save lives.

So - what are you waiting for? Get buying! This is the sort of consumerism I can live with!

Eco links

Here are some valuable eco links we have been finding useful in our switch to a more eco, ethical and sustainable way of life.

Construction Resources - planning some DIY or self-building? Here's a place for you. From eco paint to solar power (and the planned source of our own solar power needs to be installed in 2007!).

Ecotricity - green energy generator committed to increasing the amount of renewable energy generation in the UK.

Ecological Building Systems - a must-visit home eco improvement sites for insulating your home and creating a improved living atmosphere in the home.

The Ecologist - monthly eco-mag for the freer eco and ethical thinker and doer.

Ethical Man - BBC Newsnight's Justin Rowlatt's ethical living blog.

Green Building Store - another great site for the eco DIYer or self-builder. Don't buy without checking things out here first.

Nigel's Eco Store - environmentally friendly products fro sustainable living - eating, sleeping, drinking, bathing, lighting. laundry and much more - its all here!

Westfire Stoves - reduce your energy consumption by heating in your home with a sustainable fuel - wood!

Ajeer Reclamation - reclaimed building materials.

Penny Bricks & Timber - another site for reclaimed building materials.

Channel 4's Homes Eco Cleaning - some of the old remedies are still the best - for the environment at least!

Switch - and then switch off!

What's this?

Well, its a green energy generator, and amidst the con that is green electricity generation, Ecotricity stands out from the eco-con crowd. Why? Well, just check out this aticle from the Ecologist.

Ecotricity is the only energy company that is committed to increasing renewable energy generation. How? They reinvest in building more green energy generators - see here.

So, having trudged through all the various electricity generators websites, we've just switched to ecotrocity and have also pledged to reduce our consumption. Just because you buy from a green source doesn't mean you can use as much as you want. Switch and switch off!

Ecotrocity say they won't cost you a penny more than your existing provider. Hell, I don't care if they do! Helping to save the planet has gotta be worth paying for anyway.

£ per customer each energy company invested in combsatting climate change 2004-2005
(source: The Ecologist 2005)

Ecotricity - £901.64
Powergen - £8.33
Npower - £7.20
Scottish Power - £4.46
EDF Energy - £0.00
Good Energy - £0.00
Green Energy UK - £0.00
Scottish & Southern Energy - £0.00

Ecotricity's founder, Dale Vince, even makes the Top 100 Green List.

An eco and ethical way of life?

Wow ! What a topic to embark on eh?

Well, Liz and I have been doing a bit of naval gazing and have decided that we need to re-address our way of living.

Ahead of us are some major issues affecting some major issues of our lifestyle. Such as -

Christmas - try buying a present which hasn't come half way round the globe! And what far-flung countries should we continue to support? Some country's clearly need trade with western countries to maintain their economy and without which their people would be in even worse plight. But we MUST reduce the airmiles of much of what we buy - buy locally!

Energy - like all homes we guzzle on non-renewable energy. In our case electricity and LPG. All regular bulbs have already been replaced with low energy bulbs (John Lewis currently have 8w and 11w (60w and 100w equivalents) for only 99p!! see here - they make cracking stocking fillers for xmas!).

Building - having bought the cottage, we are about to embark on a major building project converting the two cottages into one home. And we want to do it eco-style! FSC timber, lime mortar, the works. But will we be able to afford it?

Holidays and travel - the big one! Just how often do we fly? We both fly occasionally for work, and to some extent we've kinda agreed that this is a necessary eveil of our respective livelihoods. However, can flying for pleasure, i.e. to simply go birding abroad, ever be justified? Well, until recently I thought not. But then someone laid the developing country argument on me. The main thrust is that apart from some countries needing tourism for their economy to survive, some countries also need eco-tourism for their environment to survive. Without eco-tourists some wild habitats of many countries will simply be destroyed as their will be no local value or need for them. Geeeze - what a lose-lose situation! We are buggered if we fly there and the place is buggered if no of us bother! So, perhaps we simply reduce the amount of air travel we do. Make fewer journeys and perhaps stay in each destination longer to make up for fewer holidays? At least it will be a compromise that will see us reducing our overall travel and carbon emissions.

Well, lets se how we get on!

Birding 'au naturale'

It's been an age since I last bothered posting anything. Why? Not been birding?

Far from it. I might not have been as active as usual as work and Cambs bird report have eaten into my spare time, but Farcet Fen is still alive and well.

No, apart from time, I guess the main reason is lack of photos. See, blogs, especially birding blogs, are in the main visual things. Anything too wordy and both me and reader soon gets bored. No. Pictures have been the driver of birding blogs (apart from the odd exceptional wordsmith birder-blogger such as the Georgey Bristow geezer and his secret freezer).

And why no pics? Well, you see I've gone all 'au naturale'. Yup. I've ditched the gear. I've long since dumped the scope from my Farcet Fen rounds. It went from Leica APO 77 to APO 62. Then the tripod went to a monopod. Then the scope went (and I couldn't see the point in carrying the monopod around on its own!). So, no scope means no digiscoping. No digiscoping means not birdy pics. Once the summer wained, I also ditched the Panasonic FZ-30. So its just me and my bins. I've switched back to my Leica Duovids (8x+12x) to partially compensate, but we'll see how for long, as I do miss a wide field and to that end, I may end up switching to my Ultravid 7x42s for the winter instead.

So, I'll have to get crafty with the words and apart form birds, think of some other topics to droll on about! At least you can't hear my wilting Lancashire drawl!