Gone AWOL

[Pol]

This isn't just any BHG, this is Gilbert. He lives, or lived on and around a lake near Rye and he came to see me every time we went to the layby near his lake. He sometimes brought some of his mates too and they noisily shared a few scraps.



Well Gilbert has gone missing and ALL his mates have gone missing too. No sight nor sound of them anywhere - not a Gull of any description in sight. How can that be? Has ESCC culled a few Gulls? If so would the person responsible report to me and I promise I will thwack the living daylights out of you with my trekking pole.

Gilbert, where are you? We left you some tasty bites yesterday, waited an hour but not even Henry the HG appeared, nor did Colin the Commoner. No sign of Maggie the 'Maggie' either!

Pol

[Pol]

Re: Gone AWOL

And just to prove I'm not completely off my rocker here's a shot of Gilbert rushing in to greet us. He is (or was) such a special bird.



Pol

[Pol]

Re: Gone AWOL

Almost there, coming in to land.

[Pol]

Re: Gone AWOL

Got it, thanks.



The pleasure's all mine, Gilbert.

Pol

[Pops]

Re: Gone AWOL

Wow! you haven't lost your touch.

[Pol]

Re: Gone AWOL

Wow! you haven't lost your touch.

Thanks, you're very kind, but they're old shots (rejects actually) from the days when I could hold the dSLR, the days before I knackered my left shoulder, right wrist and hadn't fallen off a bike into a hedge and set back my already injured foot.

I came across a folder of Gilbert pics the other night when I was also snooping around trying to find out if there's been a sneaky cull. There's no evidence of any sort of cull so perhaps it's just that the Lydd airport extension, the wind farm and the lake and farm owners have moved - so the usual birds and wildlife have moved to another location too - somewhere with a better supply of food, fish etc.

We're in the process of getting ready to go back down that way today and we'll drive further out to a place where BHG like to congregate.

Pol

[Pol]

Re: Gone AWOL

We're in the process of getting ready to go back down that way today and we'll drive further out to a place where BHG like to congregate.

Pol

We're just back from the lake and the marshes, been to the usual places but not a BHG in sight anywhere. I was just looking up what Peter Drury (PeterD) says about the BHG and their breeding on the Oysterbeds and I'm wondering more and more if it was last winter's dreadful weather and floods that has had a devastating affect on their colonies in these parts. Here's Peter's link.

http://www.imageinuk.com/Other/Black-headed-Gull-Story/13983898_FVhJF

We can but hope they'll eventually find their way back and we can but hope we don't have another devastating winter like the last one.

So many gardens, roads, verges, wooded areas etc have still not recovered fully yet. It'll probably be another year or two before we have a proper garden again too - ours isn't the only one that's had to be turned back to grass (for the time being anyway). Hard to believe this but we rarely see any Sparrows in the garden at the moment - wildlife, plant life and human life has just been worn down over the past year or so. At least our home wasn't flooded, as so many others were, so we have much to be thankful for.

Pol

[Rodbender]

Re: Gone AWOL

Nice to see these again Pol. Your exif data shows March 2006, Geeez don't the time fly. Maybe Gilbert is flying high now and you need to look for his descendants. As we get older it is hard to keep up with all the changes around us. Did you get any good shots today?

[Pol]

Re: Gone AWOL

Nice to see these again Pol. Your exif data shows March 2006, Geeez don't the time fly. Maybe Gilbert is flying high now and you need to look for his descendants. As we get older it is hard to keep up with all the changes around us. Did you get any good shots today?

Yeah, I like to think he's flying up there with Jonathan Livingston Seagull and he'll be back when he's good and ready.

I didn't get any shots today. Neither of us even got the cameras out of the bag, we just worked our way around the BHG colonies, where they were always to be found. The rather shocking thing is the silence, the lack of Gulls screeching and calling, a silent beach, empty skies (literally). We eventually saw approximately a dozen Gulls, all of them Herring Gulls, not together either, mainly individual birds.

One amazing sight was when a householder came home, pulled her car onto the drive and a Herring Gull swooped, screeched and rushed to meet her, just as Gilbert used to do with us. It was actually quite touching. It perched on her roof, called out and another two appeared then flew down to her garden. I guess she must give them scraps. I've never seen any of them do that before, just noticed Gilbert doing it. That cheered me up no end.

We also checked out Lydd Airport and there's nothing happened there yet that would've driven the birds away, nothing new at the wind farm either. I'm now fairly certain the very bad winter/spring months have been the cause. It's been bad for a couple of years now and there's no denying the character of the environment has changed quite dramatically and not for the better

One other bit of news - that old boat has gone from the farm and the lake. There was a Land Rover along the track today so maybe someone is moving in. The Coots were also on the lake along with a few Swans. It didn't look and feel quite so depressing- no horses and foals though, no foxes and Herons either.

And yeah, I moaned and swore I won't go back (but I will really).

Pol

[Rodbender]

Re: Gone AWOL

Well I'm glad you have a record of the good times. Our memories may fade but your splendid images will be with you forever.

[Pol]

Re: Gone AWOL

Well I'm glad you have a record of the good times. Our memories may fade but your splendid images will be with you forever.

That's exactly what we've been saying today. This relentless recession has been the cause of so many changes, so many old haunts changed or derelict. If you look in my gallery 'The Swan at the Vineyard' (Lamberhurst) pub/eaterie is completely changed, a tacky looking dump now.

Look for "The Jolly Fisherman" too, another pub/eaterie in Greatstone - it's nothing like my picci these days.

I have another picci, not in my gallery, of a very nice Little Chef (formerly a 'Happy Eater) where we used to take the kids. It's out in the sticks but on a fairly busy road. It's now a secondhand car dealer with manky cars everywhere.

There are more pics of the Flimwell X-roads where there was a garden furniture outlet. That's all been demolished and there's a new, ugly warehouse contraption being built on the plot + the adjoining pub has gone belly-up and is used for storage.

I could go on and on ... I do go on and on about it. I was talking to David about doing a series of before and after pics but it would be too depressing.

All the shacks on the Dungeness Estate have lost their charm and been converted into holiday lets at stupid prices. The RHDR railways car park is now for coaches only and even the RSPB Reserve is beginning to look and feel more like a blasted 'Theme playground' for kids.

The whole area has lost it's charm, all geared to tourists and day-trippers with kids now,

Heck, even Romney Sands car park has been blocked off with bollards. Romney Sands is where I got so many of pictures in the past.

Aye, I'm turning into a right old moaning Minnie with the 'it were different in my day' drivel.

Pol

[Rodbender]

Re: Gone AWOL

Pol I would love to have you accompany me on one of my dog walks around the retirement park I live on. You would be in your element chatting to all the old foke and putting the world to right. What should take no more than half an hour to walk around can take over an hour if you meet someone and the moaning gets going. Makes you feel much better to get it out of your system.

[Pol]

Re: Gone AWOL

Pol I would love to have you accompany me on one of my dog walks around the retirement park I live on. You would be in your element chatting to all the old foke and putting the world to right. What should take no more than half an hour to walk around can take over an hour if you meet someone and the moaning gets going. Makes you feel much better to get it out of your system.

Yeah I know exactly what you mean - and I know I do go on a bit, as David keeps reminding me.

Pol

[Pol]

Re: Gone AWOL

Yeah I know exactly what you mean - and I know I do go on a bit, as David keeps reminding me.

Pol

P.S ... I didn't take any pics yesterday but I did experiment a bit more with the FZ200 panorama feature earlier in the week when we were on the way home from the lake.

I've just been looking through those ones and I'll start a new thread so you can have a look at them. The Pano feature is really good fun, so very easy to use too.

Pol