Mice!

Was there a cold east wind blowing? That's the thing this time of year, it's cold, wet, dark and windy. If you have a feeder up its worthwhile getting a camera on it to tell you what time the squirrels are coming, then you can have a lie in.

They look and feel much better once they've been given an oil.

This highlights just what might happen if the younger ie under 30 are allowed to carry on as normal. If this was a group of French kids bringing the virus to Scotland everyone would be in uproar saying the airports shouldn't be letting people in. Look at the Isle of Man, when you go there you quarantine on arrival, someone posted the same about Norway, some people will still travel with work, but paying to go skiing and learning to instruct when France has closed its ski resorts?? I'm amazed they got in. We had training booked at work next week but it's been put back to March, because it can wait.

It's the same most places that don't already have red squirrels. I was actually surprised to see what they had written about the greys doing damage to trees and birds. Get yourself round for a quiet chat 👍

https://www.staffordshire-live.co.uk/news/greedy-fat-squirrels-risk-destroying-4907499 If it wasn't shocking it would be funny, especially as there is supposed to be a red squirrel group in Staffordshire.

When I was changing feeders around this afternoon one of the resident buzzards came over really low and slow, I don't doubt it was looking for squirrels.

I'm saying the numbers have stayed down in the 30-45 because people aren't mixing, those that are working will be doing so under much different conditions than normal. Do you really think that people not mixing isn't helping? I'm not disagreeing that the under 45s aren't being affected in the same way, that's obvious.

You could easily say under 45, but then that's more people mixing that can come into contact with over 45s in work the shops etc. Then would we see the figures jump up? Say the over 30-45 age group, I'd imagine that's a pretty well behaved group, most will have kids, mortgages, I'd also guess most in that age group are currently sat at home not in work, which might be why the figures are low.

I'm expecting restrictions till say summer, hopefully then the over 65s will have had the vaccine.

I don't see young people dying in the numbers they did during world war two, but I understand why everyone is in lockdown. Let's say government decides that the under 30s aren't really being affected by the virus so they say they can carry on while everyone else stays home, for one many others would go nuts, if they can go out then why not us, imagine the police trying to manage it?? Two, they might not be badly affected but would you be happy going to work Monday knowing all the youngsters had been out all weekend possibly spreading the virus while being asymptomatic. Three, how many say under 25s still live at home with their parents? It's not possible for the the under 30s not to come into contact with older people, shops, public transport, work. People keep saying it's only the over 75s 80s 85s that are dying so it should just be them that isolate, while that's probably a good idea I'd like to see some charts or graphs from government telling us the age ranges of the people who are in hospital with Covid. People seem to be dismissing the daily death figures, we know people die all the time but is it normally in these numbers? Anyone know much about the Spanish flu? I've had a quick look and the numbers that died all around the world are unbelievable and it wasn't just the old folk dying, it was the under 65s and men mostly affected, apparently because they still went out to work while generally the women stayed home. It is mentioned that world war one must have had an effect, many people were malnourished in Europe, and conditions were far from today's standards. Given the effect it must have had I'm amazed we never learned about it in school. Looking through the information I'm not surprised that New Zealand had such a strict lockdown, it seems that the Spanish flu was particularly virulent with Maori men, and Western Samoa lost 22% of its population. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_flu Now imagine the under 30s are told to crack on, and this thing mutates again, or another strain comes in from another country, then what would we do? I'm not doubting that the lockdowns are having an effect on peoples lives, but is it not better than the possibility of far higher numbers of deaths?

It supposed to be the greys landing in the mud not you 😭😭 hope you didn't land on anything expensive. I've just taken a feeder down and swapped it for two, then filled the big feeder, empty again and holds about 7 or 8kg, camera up on it now to see what's coming and when, hoping to get the owl taking a grey off the feeder.

You just keep your own running count, some add each time others monthly. Running total 48

No, it was the Scottish parliament having a meeting, you just thought they were kids screaming 😅😅 I wonder what they would have done if you hadn't answered for 4 or 5 hours seeing as you've been in bed feeling like a cow pat?

I didn't catch the full article, but they were saying the homeless were at high risk or were catching the virus so were being given the vaccine. You weren't alone wondering why they were getting it over others, but I'm guessing it made sense to give them the vaccine and try and keep them out of the hospitals. Cheers.

Great news 👍

Could your Doctor not take your bloods? Can't blame you wanting to avoid the hospital.

Very brave, I don't get the Birkenhead drill?

Nothing to stop him applying, but things might be different in Wales? He might be better getting someone actually flying a hawk or falcon on his land.

In black and white the 8 that could survive get the beds, it's that simple, until you or a loved one are one of the two. Horrible position to be in deciding who does or doesn't get treatment. Funnily enough they showed homeless people in Oldham? Getting the vaccine last week.

He's apparently got a new program coming out on CBBC so don't hold your breath.

It's great to hear that the vaccine roll out is going smoothly 👍

I used to comment on this when travelling on the train, I tended to not see a magpie until around Glasgow or Edinburgh, but they were spreading north. That's certainly different 😃

And I was fuming thinking an Osprey had been shot!! Had two of these fly pretty close to me last year, I wondered what on earth was going on, and why they were there?

Nothing that unusual around, the blackcap (which I always want to call flatcap) is a regular visitor to the fat balls, coal tits are always in view, I've mixed crushed peanuts (expensive) with sunflower hearts and the little birds love them, Song thrush is still a regular. Pair of dueling robins this morning really going at it, usual pigeons, blackbirds, blue and great T. I haven't noticed the Wrens lately or Dunnocks. And we normally see a kingfisher if we walk down the river, also a pair of Goosanders landed on the river this morning.

I am this week.