I have this strange cycling routine: whenever I come back from a ride I take in a new road or two so that I end up having ridden every ridable street for miles around. And then I realise that I haven't been up this cul de sac or that close. Here's one that I came across yesterday in East Greenwich - Peterboat Close, just by the Tunnel Approach Road. Virtually nobody will have cycled up it because nobody would have any reason to. And yet it's precisely up this sort of dead-end street that they're planning cycling destruction. Or at least they were.Yes, obviously it started life as Summatoruvver Recycling Limited*. But the gate must have started falling apart at one stage and, true to their word, they've recycled the gate itself. The bit that was on the left has been re-welded to the right, with a spare panel thrown in for good measure. So what was the italic writing? What ends with -ial? Special Destruction? Facial Destruction? Racial Destruction? Given the general feel of the area, though, I'm going for Terrestrial Destruction. And, all in all, they've done rather a good job.
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Down by the Thames this afternoon, I saw these waders. I got home, leafed through my AA Best of Britain's Birds (£3 from the remainders shop opposite the picturehouse) and failed to decide which kind of bird it was. To judge by the long, straight two-tone beak, I'd pencil in snipe, but as my ornithological knowledge doesn't even go as deep as these birds, I am therefore going to call it a Lew for the simple reason that it looks a bit like a curlew without the curl.**
*I just did my own research! If you take the last bit of the telephone number and stick it on the front plus an 020 to kick things off, and then google it, you end up discovering that it's Lombard Recycling Limited. It's still Cycling Limited Destruction to me though.
**I've just got round to reading my mail in Yahoo! and there was a reply from someone who knows a lot more about birds than me - they're black-tailed godwits.
6 comments:
Pretty sure they are snipe, perhaps juveniles since their plumage is less dramatic.
Thanks DD - I'd never seen them on the Thames before and the bird book talked about very distinctive plumage - but these were little more than caramel and cream. Ok, in flight their plumage was much more marked but their immaturity could well be the right explanation. Unless they can fluff up their feathers in the cold - because it really was toe-numbingly cold!
Do you know whether they're often seen on the Thames (this was on the south bank between Thamesmead and Erith?)
They are common throughout the UK, but I personally have never seen them on the Thames - of course you've got to be passing at the right stage of the tide to see them as they will only be there when feeding conditions are right.
Thanks DD. Evidently, late ebb tide is a good time to see them!
Look a bit like avocets to me; but hastily add I'm no expert.
Ex London cyclist, here - commuted all over, including Greenwich; loved it.
Enjoyed my visit to your blog via Caroline's, and am with you on German-style mustard (re previous post) AND the general ghastliness of ASDA (which is owned by Wal-Mart, famous for treating staff like dirt). ASDA? Leave it out, mate ...Best for 2010.
By coincidence, Minnie, I came across your blog only a couple of days ago via the link on Caroline's blog and I was just trying to use the RSPB's bird identifier when your comment landed. As you're in France, I was going to try to say why I didn't think it was an avocet but I couldn't think how to say that avocets have an upturned beak - le bec retroussé/remonté? I'm hovering between a snipe and a godwit. I really should simply ask an expert!
I'll do my best to avoid ASDA and, after reading about the lad killed by security staff because of an unpaid beer can, I'd steer clear of Carrefour if I were you!
But thanks for your kind words of encouragement et je te souhaite une très bonne année!
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