Sick as....

 I usually take a pride in my sickness record. It is a very rare thing indeed to see me off work, maybe once in 7 or 8 years, if that, but for the past 11 days or so I have been well and truly stitched up.

Two weeks ago Jane didnt feel too good resulting in her taking off to bed. I think Jane is ill even less than me so this we a bit concerning. About 4 days later, I followed suite. A week past Sunday while she was ill I helped to get the tree up in our village hall. And that was that, by the pm I was dog rough, and Ive not been good since. Every day seems different. Ive had explosive coughing bouts, sneezing and running eyes, difficulty in breathing, colour shift in my eyesight (a pinky cast) and the last two days just exhaustion. Sitting here now I am wondering how long it will take before I actually feel well again. I sense it is past the worst but this state of limbo feeling is still grim.

So much for a good health record, this is the 3rd time in 12 months Ive been ill. A year ago I had Norovirus for a couple of days, in June a heavy head cold and now this flu type bitch.

Needless to say, Ive not lifted the bins since so I've nothing to report, oh maybe the mouse infestation ? Ive live trapped 5 in the past two days and released them a couple of hundred yards away into the lane hedge. I hope its far enough because they are stinky little House Mice not our usual Wood Mice and I will reprt to more lethal means if this doesnt work out...

Hopefully Christmas will be an improvement....

 

Hoodlums!

 The other night Jane was making tea when the dog took an unusual interest in the microwave. On investigation, the fattest House Mouse you could ever see popped out and ran back behind! We cleared the bench and with some deft keepering, using a coffee pot, the said bariatric rodent's freedom was no more...It was released several hundred yards away at the opposite side of our village.

I posted on here in July when I saw a House Mouse at our bird feeders, the first I had seen for many years, but now we may have the start of a colony. We will be keeping an eye on the situation...

Yesterday Paul Cassells found a Black Redstart on the coast just along the road from us. I was working and couldn't get away while it was light enough so we went to check it out today, at lunchtime. Unfortunately the coast path and layby were more like a scene from the Great North run with loads of people out enjoying lockdown so I didn't bother looking too far. It comes to something when we can't even walk around where we live because of people walking around where they don't! Some Lockdown.

The highlight of 20 minutes out was our semi resident Hoodlum, the Hooded Crow who lives in the vicinity of the local farm. It showed really well in nice light, even giving me some anti-social verbal abuse at one stage, befitting of his / her kind...what a star. Hoodlum was the 6th species of crow around our village today. It would be nice to get a Chough. 

Hooded Crow

 

Stats...out for the count.

Pan species listing. I like the idea, but its something I've resigned myself as never being able to getting to grips with. There are a few reasons. For a start, I can't remember what I've had and even if I record it somewhere, I cant find where. There are so many taxa that I'm not sure in what order things go, so that makes keeping track difficult too. Then there are the identifications. I'm not a microscope man so that will eliminate most small stuff.

Because of my own ineptitude, I wonder if I could do a restricted site list, say, my village or even the garden? Even at that small level its a struggle. Look at moths for instance. They should be a doddle as everything since I started is on Mapmate and easily searchable, but when I checked today I see errors. Some species that were once thought to be identifiable in the field are now 'agged' as a matter of course such as Agonopterix heracliana / ciliella. 2 species but I have 3 of them on my list! One each plus the aggregate. If that is the case for a group that I record diligently what about other insect orders that I am not sure about?

During a quick round up, for my garden area I am on around 900+ species. In the winter I might get around to tidying the list up... So far here are a couple of new additions this week...

Pedicia rivosa a large nicely marked Crane Fly.

Nephrotoma flavipalpis I think. These are tricky but I followed the Crane fly Recording page crib sheet to sort it. 

Nephrotoma quadrifaria, again I think.

House Mouse.

 Making its debut on this 14 yr old blog is Mus musculus, the House Mouse. Yesterday a small grey rodent visited our bird feeders and it looked odd. Bank Voles and Wood Mice are regulars but even at range with the naked eye this one looked different. For a start it was all one colour. Like Simon Mayo. His hair is the same colour as his skin. A stake out and a few photos later and the id is confirmed. Where on earth has he come from? It is my 19 th mammal species in or from the garden.

I think...