Hope you don’t mind me adding these pictures to your ‘frogspawn’ thread.

This bird-of-prey killed and ate a (whole) collared-dove in my garden the other day.

Poor pictures I know but I didn’t want to scare it off.

So what is it? Anybody know?

Sparrow Hawk, that’s what nearly took off Megs head the other day, they are grey and dive out of nowhere, Kestrels are brown and tend to hover.
Peregrines have a distinct eyebrow, so it ain’t one of them.
We spent a very interesting Xmas day watching one of these killers having his xmas dinner off the in-laws bird table, ie: blue ****, it wasn’t very seasonal.
While on here, you may be interested to know that we have 2 pike, little b##### are growing rapidly, but we are going to see what they do for a bit, interesting things to have in your pond.

I’m afraid so 🙁

http://tinyurl.com/ysumcl

Rob P

Go on then, bid for it and settle the problem, I have a 1958 I-Spy annual somewhere as well.
My brother once won a feather off Big Chief I-Spy for completing a book without cheating, great, we could have picked one up out the fields.

It was interesting how much attention this aircraft was getting when I went to the BBMF at 50 thingy.
I saw it not long after it arrived and I had the hangar virtually to myself that day. On BBMF day, there were almost as many people round it as on the flightline walk, I wondered at the time how many actually thought it was the real thing, so it would be nice to see it out at Legends, possibly even having an engine run up and taxi.
What did surprise me was how big it is compared to the Spitfire and Buchon, was it not one of the first a/c with a semi reclining seat in order to combat G forces.

Lethal Weapon was on the telly the other night, we started watching it, but realised it was going to go on too late and gave up after 15 mins.
Not having seen it for a while, we were quite struck by how strong Mel Gibson’s Australian accent was, shades of Mad Max, pity he didn’t carry it on for Braveheart and really screwed that awfull movie up, or did he?
Mind you, he has made some good films, ermmm, quite like the one with the B-25 and the cryogenic thingy, you know the one I mean, unforgettable, cough, splutter.

Green Berets, please no, embarrasing.
Best films John Wayne made were his last, when he knew he wasn’t immortal, as Rooster Cogburn, he was at his obnoxious best, absolutely fantastic, but ‘The Shootist’ was really the dogs b#####, love that film.

I’m afraid manners and respect for one’s elders and public etiquette are things of a bygone era

Not with my 2, they are polite little charmers, well, most of the time, and they are both from divided families.
My stepson was a right git when I first got involved with his mum, he had tantrums and was really awful to his grandparents. Being in a stable relationship has really sorted him out, it just takes a bit of effort on the part of the parents. At first, I was in despair with his attitude and wondered what the hell he would be like as a teenager, now he is, it’s a different story, he may be a long haired Goth, but he’s a great kid, the teachers at his school love him too, they say he’s so polite and well mannered, things could change, but I doubt it. It also amazes me with his general knowledge of all sorts of things, I think he’ll go far.
My real son never seemed to suffer from a split relationship. Initially things were very bad between his mother and I, but we couldn’t see the point of carrying that on for anyones sake, so we shared him ever since.
He always said he quite liked the idea of having 2 homes and being able to go between them whenever he wanted. He got to be a bit of a sulky git in his early teens, but it wasn’t serious.
He just turned up from University on a whim a few days ago and we’ve had a great couple of days together, not only that, him and George are as thick as thieves, Jack has arranged for him to go and stay up at uni with him and go to Rock City, God help us.
The other thing that cracks me up is their relationship with my mother. She’s 90, but a right character, when I was their age I would dread having to visit aged relatives, but they both get on with her like a house on fire.
So there you have it, don’t condemn all teenagers, they’re not all bad.

Very interesting developments.

The tadpoles hadn’t all been eaten, late yesterday I was trying to ID the big fish when I noticed a lot of movement. The place is in fact swarming with tiny frogs hopping all over the place, some still with tails. Trouble is, our spaniel thinks they are good things to play with, so she’s kept away.
I reckon they went off under the stones in order to metamorphisise, on the other hand, we found some tadpoles that still haven’t developed legs.

We found the big black beasty, it’s a huge evil looking dragonfly larva and judging by the advanced state of it’s wing casings, about to crawl up a plant and cast off its shell.

The fish is another matter, it is now about 100mm long. We caught it in a net and had a good look at it, guess what, it’s a baby PIKE, unbelievable, it’s growing so fast, not a good fish to have in your average garden pond though.
We’re going to leave it for a week or so then put it back in the river when it’s a bit bigger, we were wondering whether it fancied a bit of bacon, will try that today.
The big frog is still about, it had better watch out for itself as this pike already has big teeth.

Had a tragedy though.
My neighbours baby blue **** left their nest yesterday, and ended up all over the place, the parents were really struggling to cope.
One little mite ended up on our path, not a bad place to be as it was near the bird feeders and the parents were simply shoveling grub into it’s mouth.
The dogs were’nt in the slightest bit interested, in fact they seemed to be actually guarding it.
I’ve kept the grass under the feeders and around the pond quite long to act as cover, baby blue tit ended up quite cosily hiding in there.
The parents were quite wary of the dogs though, so I took them out for a walk in order for the birds to settle down.
When I got back, the baby had dissappeared, fine I thought.
Later, I went down the garden to check, guess what, poor baby was floating in the pond, dead. I tried to revive it, but no.
I’ve designed the pond so that there is a beach effect all round, how it couldn’t get out is beyond me, panic I suppose, poor little thing, I can hear the survivors all calling now, the bird feeders are very busy at the moment.

A couple of days ago I took the dogs down the river and came across 2 uniformed school girls, obviously playing truant, chucking sticks and stones at a swan on the wier. Well, you can imagine my reaction, ‘Errr, my mate threw my trainer over there and I want it back, but that big bird won’t go away’.
I said, ‘Notice how my fierce dogs are keeping away, don’t mess with swans, it could break your arm or take your face off.’
‘uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh,’ W#####s
The swan is ok.
I then came across a couple of tatooed ‘hard’ gentlemen waving powerful airguns about, who ‘jokingly’, threatened to shoot the dogs.
I told them to f######, b###### point their weapons away, they seemed to like the bad language and were quite friendly after that, morons.
Wouldn’t have been very nice for the old dear next door if she’d been out with her dogs.
Talking of scumbags, the cooking oil has really worked a treat, I might top it up shortly.
Sorry to go on, I’m in that sort of mood.

I remember a few years ago doing a site visit to a block of 4 storey offices I had designed in Bishops Stortford.
A massive mobile crane had arrived and was lowering some very large steel beams into position on the top floor.
The overturning alarm kept going all the time and you could see this thing twitching. I queried this but was told it was no problem, in the end I wasn’t prepared to put up with it and walked off site, no H & S inspectors in those days, but it wasn’t good, however no one was prepared to consider it dangerous, apart from me, I told them, but it had no effect, they just thought I was being over cautious, too right.
Fortunatley nothing happened, but it was a dodgy moment, bloody builders always know better.