The Posh 3 - 0 Huddersfield Town

League 1 Play Off Final at . . .

. . . the Theatre of Dreams - Old Trafford, home of the great Man Utd, 19 times league champions.

It's little wonder the Huddersfield Town kit is so popular when Tesco carrier bags are free!

OT's East Stand filling up with Posh fans.

Away we go with the usual razz-ma-tazz.

The two teams line up in front of the dug-outs. Posh in their new Nike all-black change strip, the Terriers in their blue and white home kit.

Ouch! But true. CMS scores his 99th, and no doubt his final, goal for Posh during the game.

And we're off! Posh are quick out of the traps and press Town during the first half. Second half was all Town until 72 mins played - then the Posh do what we do best - score goals! Three goals in seven minutes and its all over. Posh 3 - 0 Town.

A lap of honour on the final whistle.

A trophy!

Nuff said - Championship here we come! I'm sure all the Championship teams are sleeping well tonight safe in the knowledge that they have six points each in the bank. Our merry band sobered up over a nice dinner (at the Otter in Kegworth) on the way home when we went through the 2011-12 Championship league teams and soon realised that its gonna be even harder going this time round. We're the weakest of the three teams going up (Brighton and Southampton finishing 1st and 2nd) and I hope we can avoid getting fewer than our 34 points from the 2009-10 season - but I'm not expecting miracles!

The sad side of any final - the empty losers end as the victors celebrate. It was nice to see some of the Terrier's fans stay behind and applaud the Posh - well, they let the traffic clear a little at least!

Congratulations to the Posh! And in particular to Darragh MacAnthony and Darren Ferguson - a partnership made in wonderland. Darragh was brave but bring back Darren, but what a stroke of genius it was. Together they've achieved three promotions in fours seasons. The Posh fans just them you both guys!

See also Paul Fletcher's BBC football blog plus BBC photos from the game.

Barca 3 - 1 Man Utd

Congratulations to Barcelona! European Champions.

Barca are quite simply the best team in the world. Rooney's goal could have been the result of a Barca move which they themselves would have been proud. But that one moment illustrates the gulf between not just these two sides, but between Barca and the rest of the footballing world. Whilst Utd can come up with the occasional moment of brilliance, Barce are brilliant for the whole game - a delight to watch even if it hurts!

It's baby Treep time!

Juvvy Tree Sparrows, Farcet Fen © Steve Dudley

I've got at least three broods of fledged Tree Sparrows in the garden the last couple of days. They've even used one of the sparrow terrace nest boxes! Wonders never cease.

Treeps arrived here in January 2003. They'd never been recorded on Farcet Fen before (over 40 years of resident birders living here and no known records before the first of these arrived on the fen). As soon as they arrived I upped the food supply and they'vee stuck with me ever since. Although I have a host of nestboxes up (many upgraded to woodcrete ones last year) they still prefer to nest in leylandii and privet hedges around the houses here.

Posh 4 - 3 MK Dons - Old Trafford here we come!

Sheer jubilation at London Rd last night after we put the Dons to the sword! Here the crowd sing as the players appear in the directors box and rightfully claim their fans' adulation. Bring on Huddersfield Town!

Champions x19 - stick that Merseyside!

There she blows!

When you live out here on the arable fen you get used to the odd bit of wind. What happens every now and then (maybe once or twice a year) is that those winds continue solid for a few days, desiccating the soil surface of the surrounding fields and then just when you think the wind cant get any stronger, it does, and 'lifts' the soil off the fields - that's a fen blow.

Here's a view from my desk across the fen.

And here's the same view with a fen blow in full swing this afternoon.

Fen blows are not to be sniffed at. When you are in that dust cloud visibility is down to zero. And they cause real damage. In really bad ones the winds can push fields like dunes and fill in dry dykes running alongside the fields, get blown across roads - even closing them. In the worse case they can kill. A few years back a women suffocated in her car when she got stuck in a blow.

During the worse fen blow here, the ultra fine soil was pushed through any minute gap, vents, key holes - any gap - and filled the house with dust. At the end of the day it was so thick it covered everything to a depth that I couldn't read the letters on my keyboard or a magazine cover on my desk! I cleaned everywhere - for three hours. Them went to bed. And when I got up in the morning, it was the same again - the air has still been thick with dust which continued to settle overnight.

New camera!

A female Bramblefinch feeding outside the kitchen and snapped from the breakfast table. One of five Bramblefinks that have been around the garden since mid-Dec.

Well, I've taken the plunge in to DSLR with the purchase of one these cameras and a second hand one of these lenses - don't the prices look scary! Thankfully I paid nothing like the Canon RRP! Especially the lens which was a great buy from a friend.

I haven't really used it in anger yet. I cant be arsed taking it out most days when out with Jax, so have limited it to snapping some garden birdies and the odd foray when about (mainly when failing to photograph Waxwings!). It's been bought mainly for overseas trips when I'll have the time to use it in earnest. Here's some early results.

A more distant male Bramblefinch snapped from the breakfast table.

One of our many Treeps feeding at the feeder outside the kitchen.

A cracking male Sparrowhawk found whilst not managing to find Waxwings.

A female Kestrel perched up in the garden.

A Fieldfare snapped where a Waxwing should have been.

All images © Steve Dudley

Another deformed Chaffinch

This Chaffinch has a severely swollen chest. Its not quite the deformity of a male Chaffinch we had in the garden in March 2009. See here for the Elephant Chaffinch (not played by John Hurt!).

Sparrowhawk eats Woodpigeon

Liz and I watched this female Sparrowhawk tucking in to this still live Woodpigeon. It was on the drove outside the house as we viewed from the office window. She flew off with it without any difficulty. Strong lass.

Cattle Egret - at last!

Cattle Egret with Lapwings, Nene Washes, 21 Sept 10

© Steve Dudley

At last! Not just third time lucky for this individual, but a long over due PBC tick for me! First there was the infamous bird race day Lesser Black-backed Gull. And then came the the 2008 bird found by Brian Stone around Elton. I dipped this bird, but what really hurt was reading in the Cambs 2008 bird report that the great suppressors Andy Frost and Richard Jones excelled themselves in keeping its presence secret at Caldecote for a week. Ah well. All good things come to those who wait!

Common Cranes, Nene Washes, 21 Sept 10 © Steve Dudley

These three Common Cranes were a bonus. They bred on the washes this year and here is the single young with the two adults.

Lesvos (again!)

Violet Dropwing, Achladeri Forest, Lesvos. 16 Sept 10 © Steve Dudley

Just back from Lesvos. I'll try and post a wee report and some more photos later. This dragonfly taken with my new Canon 7D with a loaned Canon 400mm f5.6 telephoto lens.

Madeira seabirding

White-faced Petrel, c.12 miles north of Madeira, 6 August 2010

© Oliver Nüssen

Liz and I are just back from a fabulous trip to Madeira which included a superb 3-day pelagic with Madeira Wind Birds. See here for a short report and some of my snaps - no where near as good as the fabulous photo by Oliver Nüssen - White-faced Petrel has always been one of my dream birds (from when it was known as Frigate Petrel) and I found this stunner which spent quite a while feeding around the boat on the second day of the pelagic.

Nutter in the garden!

Amazingly, a Nuthatch this lunchtime bouncing around the gardens here shouting its head off.

It was one of those nagging moments. I was playing with the new pup in the garden and kept hearing this call from across the road. Each time I thought ‘that’s familiar’ and started searching through my grey cells for a match. Eventually, and somewhat bizarrely some might think, it took me to a valley on Lesvos and Nuthatch sprang to mind. ‘Nah’ that cant be it I thought. So pup on lead we wandered across the road and within a few minutes tracked the caller down, and sure enough my grey cells had been right, and garden tick no. 131. Later in the afternoon it wandered briefly in to the trees of our garden and our next door neighbours, before heading back to the more mature tree area of the house opposite and adjacent farm.

Not quite sure where the nearest nutters from me, but must be a few miles at least. It also reminded me about when I added nutter to my Thetford garden list. Another calling bird This time an open office window brought in the call and looking out I eventually found it rummaging in the roof-gutter of my neighbour’s house! I’ve since added Melodious Warbler and Wryneck to my roof-gutter forager list!

Nowt like a bigoted fisherman to rile birders

Well, we all know there is friction in some quarters between birders and fisherman. The problem largely stems from ignorant bigots such as Angling Times contributor Steve Partner. Just read is brilliantly titled 'The dark heart of twitching' article at Angling Times.

To quote Partner 'It's a story that I guarantee will ignite fury'. Aye, it does that alright, but not in anglers, but in the millions of law abiding birdwatchers Partner is slandering with this crap. Partner suggests an individual who is legally controlling Cormorants, who is armed with a rifle and has a dog with him, is 'challenged by a man, almost certainly a birdwatcher, who had been spying on him while he undertook the shoot. Malcolm was then verbally abused before being punched in the face. Unable to defend himself because he had his hands full with gun, dead cormorant and a dog lead, he turned away, only to be subjected to the epitome of cowardice: he was repeatedly punched in the back.

The attack, which some of the better informed are suggesting may have been committed by a 'heavy' paid for by the birdwatching fraternity that also use Carr Mill Dam, left him with a broken nose and cracked ribs. All this for simply helping a fishing club safeguard its stock. Sometimes, rarely, words fail me.'

Well, words fail me too Mr Partner. In my 20+ years of birding and in all that time working in the administration of birdwatching at the local and national level, I've never heard such crap suggesting that 'almost certainly' a birdwatcher undertook the attack, or it was 'committed by a 'heavy' paid for by the birdwatching fraternity'. That's right, I forgot, that whip-round we all had last year to 'do in' fisherman and others.

The fact is Mr Partner, its all in your head. Yes, someone may have been assaulted, but to state this had anything to do with a birdwatcher is pure fantasy. I know of just as many non-birdwatchers who dislike the controlling of animals at any level, but I dont know of anyone, birdwatcher or otherwise, who goes around punching people in the face. Perhaps we associate with different sorts of people oourselves.

Its amazing that any publication should publish such nonsense. It is poor journalism in the extreme and even poorer editorial control. Unless of course Angling Times supports Mr Partner's views of birdwatchers (anyone like to guess if they do or not?!)

Its nice to see that with 174 votes on Steve Partner's article, it gets a rating of one star! well done all those (like me) who voted to send a message to Angling Times that this sort of bilge is not wanted nor needed.

And coincidentally I received an email from the Chairman of an angling association in the NE today asking for support for their habitat restoration scheme at their fishery to benefit local wildlife. I pointed him to Steve Partner's article and suggested that with cretins such as Partner in their midst, anglers were unlikely to receive much support from the birdwatching community. His response 'Thanks for bringing the article to my attention i had not seen it, who needs enemies when you have insensetive bigots like that in your corner'.

Well, for Mr Partner's benefit, many people who are against fishing are anti because of the actions of people like himself and people who litter the countryside with fishing line which is a danger to wildlife. IN just a couple of minutes searching online I came across numerous images of birds caught in fishing line like this Black-throated Diver and, aamzingly, Tawny Owl, below.

Black-throated Diver with fishing line trailing from bill © Tomasz Kulakowski

An amazing image of a drowned Tawny Owl caught in fishing line © Steve Nunn / New Hythe Wildlife Blog

Pigeons . . . don't you just love 'em . . .

. . . in a nice red wine gravy and under a thick pastry lid!

Looking across the fields this morning we seem to have attacted the three trillion Woodpigs which now rside in Britain. Grey lumps sat like statues across all the ploughed ground. Some fields you cant see the ground! They rise in thick noisy clouds darkening the skies. But do I hear the sound of of the farmers' guns? No. What a shame. Surely this is a species we could harvest without denting the population. It continues to increase rapidly in the UK probably due to a change in agricultural practices. So why don't we see it on sale in the supermarkets - fresh or pied? I'm no fussy - they just make good eating!

Reservoir cats

While no one could ever replace the greatly missed Tom McKinney's blog, Mr White and his Reservoir Cats blog goes some way! His recent posts cover how the Staines Brown Shrike was really mis-identified dog shite (Tom McKinney-like!, a call for a fatwa against the UK's list-master general and the Bobbins Bird Guide! Very funny!

Jax is here!

Jax moved in at the weekend! To follow our progress as first-time puppy-owners check out our Jax the Spanish Water Dog blog.

First frost

There was a good frost last night so it was out first thing to top up all the seed and nut feeders and stick the first lot of fatballs out for the winter. There were already plenty of birds around the garden but soon the feeders were crowded with finches and Tree Sparrows. Mid-morning I spied a female Brambling briefly below one of the feeders. Whilst searching the bushes I spied a flash of white rump. It disappeared but didn't seem right for Bramble or Goldfinch. I watched intently for a few minutes when another movement revealed a fem/imm Bullfinch! Only my second here with the previous one being in March 2003! Looks like the hard weather stirred things up a little. As well as the Bramblefinch and Bullfinch, there's been the first Yellowhammer of the winter in the garden, and there are clearly more Greenfinches, Chaffinches and Goldfinches plus at least five Linnets buzzing around.

Garden list hits 130!

Well, when you've got a garden list as large as ours it takes something special to make its way on to it!

I've seen Jack Snipe on the fen on a couple of occasions but never expected to add it to the house list. But on the morning of the 27 Nov I was having to spend early morning in the garden unblocking our drain to our cesspit. I'd already seen an adult Med Gull feeding in the ploughed field behind the house with BHGs, and a group of seven Whooper Swans had flown over (only my third record), but as I was packing things away I just caught sight of the neighbour's cat on the edge of the dyke behind the house when it leapt down in to the dyke. There was a brief pause then a bird flew out towards me. Even without bins it was obvious what it was. It flew a little way towards me then doubled back, flew along the dyke before dropping into a section of reeds. Wow! What a morning and what a house tick!

Meet Jax!

Well, Liz has finally ground me down and we're getting a dog! After a wee bit of delaying on my part, we got the garden fenced and gated (see here) and we began what turned out to be a short search for our pup.

Jax is a choccy-coloured Spanish Water Dog and above he's four weeks old when Liz and I went to meet him. Below, one of Carol's (the breeder) kids holding Jax up for a portrait shot at five weeks. How much he's grown in a week.

I'll no doubt stick some more picks up on here once we get him and he starts chewing the palce up! Here is what Jax will look like when he's full grown. Click here for a great site about these great dogs.