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The venue was the L'Escargot Rouge - our beloved redsnail?

The Ancient Mariner

Yeah but no but...Is it true?

The Ancient Mariner

.....was reddo at the venue too?? Ponder that for a minute.

The Ancient Mariner

The chicks are at the stage that all comparable young'uns are. Eat, sh1t, sleep. Their outer wing feathers are beginning to show and the "fluff" is slowly disappearing. Fascinating watch.

The Ancient Mariner

They serpently are! The parent can't cover all four now to keep them warm at night. I see there is another webcam at a big building in Glasgow, the Gilbert Scott tower, with four peregrine chicks. They are proposing to abseil to the nest (which is a big proper nest) to electronically tag the chicks ...

That is what happens in medical schools today but in the '50s in Aberdeen (Scotland)medical school two students shared a cadaver and took it apart themselves. So they were finding their way around, say, the path of the vagus nerve so the results were not pretty. The prof of anatomy always insisted t...

In the '50s in Scotland you also had to be a "bona fide" traveller to be served a drink. And you had to sign the "bona fide travellers register" which had interesting entries such as "Athens Greece to Athens Missouri"**, and in one that I read "from the cradle to the grave". Oh what fun we had we bl...

How can one reliably tell the male and the female apart? My Observer book of birds is not terribly helpful in this regard. I've been tending to assume that the one that is visible most of the time is the hen as I've only occasionally seen another bird appear with a kill. I'm sure she's aware of the ...

My aren't they growing quickly! Right now the "parent" (sex unknown) is sounding really cross and shouting at the other "get a bloody move on and catch something to eat". It did the same yesterday evening, got no reply, left the nest and came back in about two minutes with what looked a blackbird si...

Kararea - yeah that's it but it won't fit nicely at a gap in text.
bob2 - my wife has white,silvery hair. Getting a passport photo that satisfied the automatic checker system was a PITA - "not enough contrast with the background". Grrrr!

The Ancient Mariner

As a rim shot is audio an emoji would not work, it would have to be followed by a cymbal clash to complete it.

The Ancient Mariner

Revealing his choice of priorities "for the good of the SNP, the government and the people of Scotland". You got them in the wrong order you bastard!

The Ancient Mariner

The feed seems to be frozen. I can hear the wind over the mic but the bird isn't moving. It was the same last night about 2200 when I had a last check before going off to bed.

The Ancient Mariner

I notice that the poor little bugger at the back of the group of 3 isn't being fed and then the fourth one appears from underneath the other three. Talk about a)the loudest complainers get fed and b)survival of the strongest. It's tough being a peregrine chick.

The Ancient Mariner

Yes, Beaufort is one of those whose departure I feel the poorer for. Who knows what motivates folks to leave.
I do miss his accounts of the doings of his Newfies. Did he get any replacements I wonder? Sigh.

The Ancient Mariner

Buggah!! it's gone down again.

The Ancient Mariner

Can anyone one think of an "aerodynamic" reason for the tufts of feathers above and below the beak? Air speed indicators during their high speed dives??

The Ancient Mariner

You practice a lot and fall over a bigger lot but keep on trucking. Chapeau as we say in Morayshire.

The Ancient Mariner

Where's plum when we need the REAL inside story??

The Ancient Mariner

....we returned from a few days down at Masirah to find Sharjah looking like an aircraft carrier, a runway surrounded by water. The Shackletons that had been left there looked a bit like those pewter tankards that were hand beaten. One of the techies was so overcome with his excitement to describe t...