Siskins are common winter visitors to the pine forests of North-West England and have been for many years.Macclesfield Forest and the Derwent Valley(of Dam Busters fame) regulary hold large flocks.It is only because these birds are opportunists and have only fairly recently adapted to bird-feeders in back gardens that people are beginning to notice them more often.Pete,I see you live in Essex,so these birds might well be slowly working their way back to Scandinavia via the shortest sea crossing of the English Channel.The males are really cracking little birds,aren’t they?

No, thats not true, quite the reverse in fact, they are arriving here in large numbers because of food shortages in Scandinavia, I gather that arable crops over there had a bad time of it last year.
My concern is what will happen to them, I’ve just glanced up now and there are 7 of them on the bird feeders.
We haven’t got any pine forests for miles, but some of the trees at the bottom of the garden are covered in ivy and this is giving them cover at the moment, you can hear them all cheaping away at dusk.
We live in a very unspoilt habitat, unfortunately the local council and the rich, uneducated gits in the big expensive houses just down from me have cooked up a ridiculous plan to wipe out the natural habitat over the fence and turn it into a pretty wild flower garden, don’t start me off.
I’ve had a good rant about this, as you might expect, not only in the local paper, but I sent the Local Authority a scathing letter yesterday.
Unfortunately, you are dealing with ignorant, but wealthy, influential people who just want to increase the value of their property, try and approach them to talk about what they are doing and they treat you with contempt.
The council officer in charge of this great development is an arboroligist, ie, she can’t tell a Siskin from a Buzzard. We have had sightings off Otters down here, but it don’t make any difference, lets wipe everything out in the interests of symetry and perfection.
We have so many species listed as category red and orange by the RSPB, but, again, it don’t make any difference, no one cares or wants to know.
Please explain to me how a local authority can allow a group of local residents and their kids, carte blanche to spend a weekend hacking away at trees and undergrowth in a public area, of known wildlife importance, without proffesional supervision, smacks of backhanders doesn’t it, especially when they have been allowed to leave their rubbish lying about without any complaints or comebacks.
My one trump card is that we have sloworms down here, the presence of those has stopped bye-pass building in the past, mind you, they have been told of this but carry on regardless.
I have even offered my services as a wildlife consultant for nowt, the council obviously haven’t got one.
Well, we will have to see what happens before it’s too late, but quite frankly, it’s like banging your head against the wall, and incidentally, it’s not just me, all my neighbours on this road are appalled with whats going on, but we are all equally treated with contempt, we only live in semis.
Rant over.

Well spotted! 🙂 (and I even rotated the photo to make it look more ‘aircrafty’.) Funny how the company name OLEO came to be used as the name for that part of an undercarriage (even when not designed or manufactured by OLEO).

The buffer was on this…..and if anybody wants to know what it is…..it’s a train! :confused:

Not a train, it is in fact a Class 25 diesel locomotive, I think this one might have been built at Derby Circa 1963, and now based on the South Devon Railway that runs between Buckfastleigh and Totnes, nice scenic route isn’t it.
If you want another spurious aviation link that you may not of thought of, the Sulzer diesel engines fitted to this class of loco, though not this particular type, admittedly, were originally built by Armstrong Whitworth pre war, prior to them switching to aircraft production.
I also suspect that Derby Loco works were probably used for the production of Merlin engines during the war, if I’m wrong, well it least the town is related due to the existance of the Rolls Royce factory.

While trying to research this, it would appear that Sulzer marine engines were manufactured by a company called Duxfords!!!

But seriosly spoken, considering the lenght and intense of ATFS post, apparently the subject is something that he need to get out of his system and express those strong feelings into this leghty and yet bit disturping post. But better so than a scene where some hypocratic liberals (as he so nicely put it) are just about to tell to a bunch of kids about global warming and suddenly assaulted by psycotic red-eyed…well..hmm…(what would you call him?) a conservative??

So for the sake of us all better harash only us poor ******s in the internet 😉

Have you seriously read all of that, dohhh.

One thing I will say, my youth is doing a degree in Ecological Studies at Nottingham Uni, throw your hands up in horror, a waste of space, not really, he’s a clever, astute kid, and it’s opened his eyes to a considerable amount of crap that we are being spoonfed, windfarms for a start, he’s done a lot of high level research into this, Notty is a top place, probably one of the best Unis in the world, and his findings are quite unlike what we are being told, he considers them to be a load of political and economic waste of space, a drain on our resources, he says, I ain’t doubting his word, he’s the new up and coming expert.
As for Al Gores spoutings, he treats them with the derision that this ego-tistical, right wing, presidential failure deserves. They attempted to introduce his so called bible of world destruction into our schools and we made it clear that we weren’t happy with it, I guess that the rest of Braintree felt the same way to, it never appeared on the corriculum, much to the chagrin of our equally astute other kid, who was looking forward to taking the p##s out of it.
I’m not saying that the world isn’t in trouble, we have unfortunately got ourselves into a position where any so called **** of an expert can try to put the fear into us, will you not miss your placcy bags at Tesco’s for instance, shudder, fear and loathing at the thought of these things ever being invented.

I see that the French are getting twitchy over the Olympics, is this going to extend to other countries, are we going to have a last minute boycott as what happened in the USSR and USA in the 80’s. Personally, I think not, China is too great a player in the economic world, you might not be able to obtain your latest Corgi models otherwise.
How did the world see us beating hell out of the Catholics in Northern Ireland, same difference, whatever your point of view, suppress the minority by force.
Heed the words of Nostradamus, the west will be overrun by the yellow hoards from the east, well, at least their foods pretty tasty, rather them than the beardy wierdies from half way in between.
C’mon Kev35, I can see you lurking.

So you would be talking about this bird the Pine Siskin?

http://reasonandbrimstone.blogspot.com/2007/09/friday-bird-blogging-pine-siskin.html

My excitement last month was seeing a Mandarin Duck for the first time ever, what a Duck, obviously more common in your area!

No, the Pine Siskin is a North American species, doubt whether any have appeared over here, ours is the plain Siskin, it’s much more brightly coloured, the males are quite dazzlingly green with a black crest and much smaller than a Greenfinch. I’m looking at one now, everytime you look out the window, in fact, there’s always a couple about, it’s quite strange, I’ve never seen an alien species take over an area like this and I’ve been birdwatching for 35 years, everytime I look up from typing this, they are all over the garden. I suspect that because my garden is not too large, quite open and sympathetically planted, with a river, trees and a natural habitat over the fence, I can’t see anything but open woodland from where I’m sitting, plus the feeders, they think that they’re in heaven.
I can’t believe this, they are currently all over the trees, on the shed roof, hanging off the feeders, it’s very wierd.

Mandarin ducks are fantastic, no they aren’t very common around here, they seem to lurk around lakes in country homes, where they are considered part of the scenery, I haven’t actually seen one for years, they don’t seem to like a natural environment, obviously pampered beasts, but again, an introduced species.

Grey Area
I’ve had a Buzzard lurking around here for a few weeks, not it’s natural habitat, and it will probably go off in search of a mate, though it’s obviously latched on to the fact that there are a few siskins about, my local Sparrow Hawk, is having a field day, he always misses though.
Unlike the artificial introduction of Red Kites, Buzzards seem to have found their own way of sorting things out, good for them.

Where did that one come from, has it taken Grey Area since Christmas to read and edit it, personally I gave up after a couple of paragraphs, one has definately flown over the cuckoos nest.

I more than appreciate your joke Ren Frew, nuff said.

It’s interesting how a species not indeginous to this habitat have adapted, there are currently 8 of these birds on my feeders, plus 2 next door. They are actually causing a bit of mayhem amongst the locals, the goldfinches aren’t getting a look in.
So many people now have bird tables and feeders, especially around here, it makes you wonder what these invaders would have done without them, not just them either, every morning the regulars actually sit on the fence waiting for me to top up the water and put out fresh seed.
I wonder what the bird population would be like without media personalities such as Bill Oddie persuading people to actually create what is in effect an artificial situation, or does it simply replace what has been lost through the demise of traditional farming methods.
I reckon that these siskins would have had a hard time of it without human interference, so do we encourage them, or let nature take its toll.
I was surprised to learn that those cute little collared doves only arrived as a pair, blown off course, in East Anglia, in the early 60’s, now they are everywhere, we had 5 in the garden yesterday lunchtime, and they have spread all over the country, meanwhile our natural wood pidgeons are declining, not that you would think so around here. A bit of a case of Grey Squirrel syndrome methinks.