How are we getting through it?

[Ben Waterhouse]

Nice morning at the jabbing centre, lots of second doses and the first few 42 year olds. The sun is shining and all is well!

[jimduncanuk]

Got my second Pfizer jab this afternoon.

Slight sensation at the injection site but completely outmatched by my arthritic shoulder pain.

So no change really.

[mmcv]

Wife and I got booked in for Sunday morning for our first jab.  Just in time to spend the bank holiday Monday off feeling rough!

[Lord Kermit of Birkenhead]

Luck with it - I'm back with badge, six gun, horse, winchester and big hat Sat and Sun mornings only they wont give me that just a hi-vis and face sheild.....even those are mine,

[DecemDave]

Wife and I got booked in for Sunday morning for our first jab.  Just in time to spend the bank holiday Monday off feeling rough!

Dont worry. Forecast is for heavy rain anyway!

[mmcv]

I'd already booked off Tuesday and Wednesday just for a bit of R&R, so the slots came up at just the right time. I'm hopeful any side effects will clear after a day and I'll be able to get down to some serious hobbying those days I had off as planned.

Will see how I feel and decide whether I'm up to a solo game or just settle in for a good painting session or two. I've all those ECW Royalists to sort out, my Trojan War forces haven't seen paint in a while and I've got a single unit of Greek hoplites looking for reinforcements. Not the mention the alt-20th century forces. Or the 15mm Japanese folklore. Or the 2mm stuff. Or the AWI skirmish project. Or the Imperial Roman and Celt starter packs.Or the Zombicide figuresOr...

[Steve J]

Saw a brief glimpse of a Greenfinch in the garden today, the first time I've seen one in over a year, which cheered me up. Sadly very few finches seen these days after they were decimated by disease. Too many bloody wood pigeons though trampling all over my garden though

[jimduncanuk]

Have seen one goldfinch in my back garden, not very often though.

Plenty of woodies.

[Orcs]

I've all those ECW Royalists to sort out, my Trojan War forces haven't seen paint in a while and I've got a single unit of Greek hoplites looking for reinforcements. Not the mention the alt-20th century forces. Or the 15mm Japanese folklore. Or the 2mm stuff. Or the AWI skirmish project. Or the Imperial Roman and Celt starter packs.Or the Zombicide figuresOr...

Is that  all !   

[Orcs]

We used to regularly get Goldfinches on the niger seed. But we had to take the tree down and moved the niger seed (different container due to squirrel damage), and not a peep of one since

[Orcs]

Mrs Orcs and I have just booked our second jab for May 10th so will be all jabbed up for our Welsh Holiday !!

[Heedless Horseman]

Saw a brief glimpse of a Greenfinch in the garden today, the first time I've seen one in over a year, which cheered me up. Sadly very few finches seen these days after they were decimated by disease. Too many bloody wood pigeons though trampling all over my garden though

In 45 yrs, We never got Finches except for Chaffinches. Sadly, the Chaffies seem to have gone... maybe battered themselves to death against the windows. BUT, a pair of Bullfinches set up somewhere about 5 yrs ago and seem to have bred. I was very happy to see Goldfinches around in the last couple of years... never before... and not their sort of territory.

Woodies are still there... less One. Cat left a PRIZE on back step the other day. It went 'over the back fence', (No... NOT a neighbour's garden... a disused railway line!), so probably ended up as Fox cub take-away! 

Something that I somehow missed from a previous list of garden visitors was Red Squirrels. One used to come to the peanuts regularly, several years ago... but few visits now. They are still around the area, though... dead 'un on road.

I am not a 'bird watcher' or 'naturalist... just nice to have things around.... so MUST mention Otters! It must be about 10 yrs+ ago, now, but going down to the village pubs one spring evening... I was astounded to see a pair of Otters in the village river! When I was young, they were nearly extinct, or so told... except in remote areas of Scotland and SW. I never thought that I would ever see one... never mind 'at home' in S Nothumberand! Just stood and watched them, messing around, doing 'Ottery' things for about 15mins... until they drifted off, down stream. A real joy in my life to see that!

[FierceKitty]

Otters are a grey area; adorable animals, but unbelievably destructive if they get into a trout stream (farrrrr beyond dietary needs; they kill for pleasure). Rather like the cats careless crews allowed to get free on islands previously without serious predators.

[Techno II]

Good luck, and good news on the jabs front, chaps !

Still got oodles of chaffies in the 'garden', here.....But haven't seen a greenfinch for over 10+(?) years....Used to be a good number of those around...But as Steve says, they took one hell of  hit from disease.

I think I caught sight of a bullfinch a few weeks ago...Haven't spotted a goldfinch for a year or two.
The comment about niger seed reminds me of the siskins we used to see...Those seem to have disappeared..as have the Goldcrests which were around a LONG time ago... the ravens also seem to have gone....Used to see, and hear lots of those....Plenty of rooks, magpies and jackdaws, though.....And that bloody woodpecker that hammers against a metal plate on the big barn.
"Phew whattaracket."

Hardly ever see Wood pigeons, though there are a few around......It's the feral pigeons that pee me off.......Dozens of the sods, and they hoover up 90% of grub I put down for the 'ground feeders.'

Ooooh.....Heard the first cuckoo, a couple of weeks ago...and Von thought she might have spotted the first swallow around the same time....(She wasn't convinced, though...so that's not a confirmed sighting.

Heedless Horseman !........I'm very jealous....Never seen a red squirrel in the wild.....and it's years since I saw even a 'gray' in the garden
Otters ?......Never seen one of those, myself. Von saw one a few years ago, when she was out with one of the gee-gees, a mile or so 'up the road'.

Cheers - Phil.

[Steve J]

Plenty of Goldfinches here, once the other finches had 'departed' due to that horrid disease. Plenty of feral pigeons too.

Tomorrow is International Dawn Chorus Day which I did last year, but meant getting up and out around 4.00am to listen to said chorus, which was frankly incredible. Not sure how good it will be this year with the unseasonably cold weather in April, with temps some 4-6 degrees below normal.