Materials Man

On the 24/7/2010 I found a Tawny Owl feather and gave it to my wife to use in bee keeping as a soft brush to remove bees from the frames. She said it was a buzzard feather and I said it was a Tawny owl, she agreed. But it got me thinking that I should be able to prove that it was an owl feather, particularly a nocturnal owl as they strike with silence given to them from “soft” wing feathers. So I set out to photograph a pheasants tail feather against this wing feather of a suspected owl.

Although…

24/7/2010

As I expected the eyrie is now empty and an Osprey was perched on the top of the highest tree nearby. Ospreys are really nosey, when you watch them doing nothing they are always alert, and like to perch high to get the best view. I could not sex the bird on the tree, due to having its back to me and its head out of sight. Later I did pick up the female on a post with a fish, I suspect a pike as I could just make out a rounded tail fin, she sat for a while…

Well I was out observing on the 11/7/10 but the gale force winds restricted the young Ospreys. So on the 13/7/10  I was on station at 5.55 am and as I thought the young Ospreys could fly, well two could the third remained nest bound. The female was on lookout, the male was off fishing? and one off the juvs took off, flew around, and just disappeared for the remaining 40 mins I was there. I suspect he/she was nearby and waiting for the fish delivery. It is frustrating getting these visual jigsaw pieces, it has taken me years to…

Derek what are these insects, and don’t say ladybird and shield bug , I’ve got that far already. I have posted both on Ispot so lets see how good your reference books are !! have you been to Ispot ?

T in the park so it must rain and it is, 10th July and went to visit the ospreys, between drizzles of rain, had to step carefully due to hundreds well I mean lots of  toadlets. see pics, I have put these pics on Ispot to verify that they are toads and not frogs. This is a fantastic resource when you can’t identify a species, any species. The nearest pond is 500m away and I assume their origin, although a stream from the pond is 30m away.

The young Ospreys are now the size of their parents and are rising…

I was out on the 3 and 4 of July and had nothing much to observe, except three chicks are well fed and just about to start that wing flapping stage. I was expecting to see them doing this but as the wind was gale to nearly gale force they were sensibly reluctant to try. I was concerned on the 4th that I went along at 5pm to see if the eyrie was still there, it was, and due to the wind direction and the surrounding trees it was somewhat sheltered. I did report one year that the eyrie had…

whilst at work on site at the m74jv project, to relieve my boredom I threw a couple of beef hula hoops out the van window to see what it attracted to the dinner table. Within seconds a carrion crow appeared and scoffed them. I then threw out another couple with the same result. By this time the bag was finished and 30 seconds later the crow flew off in front of the van to the near side verge to watch. So, on to the next packet which I retrieved out of my rucksack with much rustling of the packet. On…

20 June saw the male bring in a small pike and the female set about feeding her chicks, there are still three but one was being a teenager and just lying around. As the male took up his customary position out of faecal squirt range I saw he had a yellow ring on his right leg and a silver one on his left. These rings are harder to see than you might think as branches and feathers often obscure them. They  hunker down when preening and can stand on one leg. So it is well into the season and I…

spotted this unusual feather in a field next to the estuary, there was 3 or 4, not enough for a death on the ground, struck in the air and escaped? I think it’s from a water bird, so it would not be roosting in a field of cows. Possible feather from the breast or flank. But from what?

A couple of visits to Lochwinnoch RSPB centre over the last few days gave great views of many juvenile birds.  Of particular interest was two juvenile great spotted woodpeckers that were feeding from the nut feeder only a few metres from the photo hide.  My first visit on Sunday afternoon found the photo hide full of huge lenses and just enough room for me to fit in.  Great views were had of the woodpeckers and numerous other birds.  On Tuesday night the weather was still fine so I decided to pay another visit – this time I found the photo…

Saturday 11 June 2010, back of 8.00 am, Both adult Ospreys at eyrie, male on nearby perch, female on eyrie rim. Chicks not visible and she is not begging for food so presume chicks have been fed. Grey squirrel in next door tree emerges from the foliage on a leafless twig and chatters at the ospreys, never seen that before. Also never seen the female take off  with a fish and fly around, which she did when I returned after looking for the Marsh harrier. She did this twice, see picture of  her landing, was this to encourage the chicks…

I went to a presentation tonight on the concrete ambassador series of four talks throughout the UK, Professor Karen Scrivener gave the talk on “cementing the future of concrete – science & sustainability” She ably demonstrated that concrete was needed and demanded as a unique material worldwide and went on to get us to the nana technology that enables them, the scientists, to tell us, the users and practitioners how a better understanding of the material and its constituents can deliver concrete with less CO2 emissions. It is the constituents that hold the key to CO2 reduction along with techniques…

6th of June and one of the picture’s here show three Osprey chicks, two larger ones and a smaller one further back in the nest, hope it survives. There was a wandering Osprey today and the female immediately was off the nest, and circling, the male had gone fishing. The female wasn’t too bothered, as the wandering Osprey just flew nearby. Soon the male returned with a fish and she began to feed the two chicks that immediately were at her feet, the larger ones. The photo isn’t to clear but trust me there is three.

Other pictures are a…

The post on Osprey diary 7 includes some remarks about Spey bay, I was at our laboratory for the Fochabers by pass, so could visit Spey bay during spare time. The reason I had spare time was our lab was being assessed for accreditation by UKAS assessors, and I was the virtual spare person at a wedding. This, because my assistants were the builders and I was the architect, so well done Jamie and Sandy, master builders.

Everyone who has achieved UKAS accreditation knows the difficulties, so I would like to thank John Macavoy, chief materials engineer  for the M74…