Materials Man

24 April 9.00 am, up to 12 carrion crows were giving the, not on the nest Osprey, absolute grief, turns out it was the female as after getting no peace at the top of a tree she flew around many times with the crow entourage and eventually settled on the nest for a cross over. Having never seen a cross over till last week, now I’ve witnessed two. There were plenty of martins and swallows in the air, the air was calm and there was a mist, although lifting with the daytime rising heat. A perfect time to listen, I could hear the Osprey chee, chee cheeing, the wispy call of a willow warbler, a song thrush giving it large, sheld ducks circling, in fours,  uttering their rapid Ka, ka, ka laughter flight call, what are they up to? they also have a soft see, see call uttered in flight and on the water, the rookery cacophonous. And best of all the curlew, urgent to a crescendo, then the plaintive cur-lew, cur-lew finishing with a bubbling note. Quite the best and evocative bird call to be heard on a still misty morning.

Spent 40 mins looking for harriers, not a one, but on the 25th April about 8.30 am, I was scanning reedbeds and spotted a male harrier obviously nest building, no female, he landed in the same place three times with nesting material and took off down river. I hung around but he had gone off presumably hunting. I checked last years nesting spot but there was no activity. The Ospreys were in a settled mode, however the male was off as I was returning to the car, and not a crow in sight. Why do the crows act mob “winged” one day and are nowhere the next? just young birds flying around tree corners making mischief?

It cannot have escaped any drivers notice that the severe winter has caused sudden deterioration in road surfaces. The concrete section of the M90 was no exception where the fast lane was under traffic management for some weeks due to the micro surfacing  not being there any more. The micro surfacing (slurry sealing?) was a complete success as I watched it being applied with some wonderment, it did give a smoother and quieter ride, and the joints from slab to slab did not cause cracks, what was that wonder material?  I don’t know. However the repairs to these extensive areas have been done with a thin surfacing, a modified SMA, I did enquire from Ennstone who manufactured and laid it what was in it to resist the joint in the concrete pavement not reflecting through the new SMA. Kind of got the brochure answer, much modified and very expensive, but I know SBS, a liquid rubber binder was in there. I have delayed putting up this post as I wanted to see the if it worked for a few months, it has.

Well done the techys at Ennstone, if this lasts for a year, through minimum and maximum expansion and contraction, then you have the solution to resurface this whole concrete section of carriageway, that has been of tremendous value to us the tax payers, but needs resurfacing. Hence the micro resurfacing section that was done but in part the weather claimed.

I have to point out when working for Wimpey Asphalt in Hong Kong in the 90s we devised (before I arrived) a mix to replace joints on bridge approaches, the annual pavement temperature range in Hong Kong is considerable, I will guess it at 20 degrees C, but these asphaltic plug joints showed no cracking where the line markings over them did. I recall 3 litres a tonne of SBS as an additive on its own with straight run 50 pen bitumen being added.

This is what happens when engineers and asphalt technologists ignore the specification for highway works, or any other imposed spec, and come up with a solution presumably backed by PI to give client comfort. It is now acknowledged that we imported a surfacing material called SMA and modified it to give a surface texture identical with the HRA WC it replaced. This was the government doing technology, must have skid resistance which equals a macro texture of 1.5mm, it hasn’t worked, particularly on roundabouts, stressed sites and where laying conditions are compromised. If you get rid of the thick binder coating on the surface on SMAs after laying, the skid resistance is adequate with 1.0mm texture giving a much enhanced durable to fretting mix. (exactly what the Germans do from whom we copied it and modified it to make it “frettable”) This has only taken ten years for the trunk road responsible agents to learn.

Dear Transport Scotland you never have followed the HA, now you’re taking a step forward on the M90 by letting the industry provide the technical solution. Globally this isn’t new, but here a welcome change.

On the 17th April went along and the often Osprey domestic scene unfolded, him on a nearby branch and her on the nest. And ten minutes later ? same scene. So I moved and after much panning around with the telescope spotted a female Marsh harrier, about 3 km away, it was windy and the bird was doing that harrier “lapwing” flight and like a lot of birds can do merged into the background and disappeared. I panned around for another half an hour trying to get the male, but that was my harrier moment, gone but welcome. Also welcome was my first swallows of 2010, flitting among the sheep and that white fallow deer, back again, it must be “owned”,  a kind of pet. I’ll find out if the cattle are put back in the field I use, because that’s when I meet the farmer, when he comes to check the stock. Farmers aye know whats happening. Like the wee old man I met as I got back to my car, he spotted the telescope and was keen to talk, he knew of the Ospreys, the peregrines, the harriers, the farmers and I guess welcomed the chat, he did say he had witnessed the crossover of Ospreys at the nest and I remarked that that was good fortune as in all the hours I have spent watching them I had never witnessed it. Well, today the 18/4/10 in the rain I did, and the thrill was I new what was going to happen, it does help a lot when you can visually separate male and female, ah here’s to sexual dimorphism! Works for me anyway.

Oh and the wee old man with a walking stick and three front teeth had saved his money on dental charges as he sported a £900 pair of swarowski binos ! nice one.

Forgot, heard a willow warbler, and last week in Gateshead where I was working, a chiffchaff sang all week.

On the 10th April the female Osprey was sitting on the nest cup, so in the last week she has laid an egg and is now incubating. I did see that the male has a left leg ring so my assumption is that the male is as last year. Buzzard was mewing above me, great spotteds were loudly “cheeping” and a lone willow warbler was singing away.

At the time of watching the male had a fish, on a fence post in sight of the nest, well eaten, when I spotted him, again the tail end. I saw him later at the nest site presumably with the same fish eating the “leftovers”, she still content on the nest. So must assume she is well fed.

No sign of Marsh harriers, time yet.

[View with PicLens]

After watching a wet F1 qualifying, I went to see if “my” Ospreys were back. They were, well one was, one on the nest and looking all around, alert, I imagined she / he  was looking around for the return of the mate from west Africa. Happened the Osprey was a she, and she was waiting for the return of the male with fish. He did, a paltry quarter of a once large rainbow trout, and she had to call call call, but still he only relinquished the small portion when she ducked her head under him to snatch the fish portion away. I did witness this last year so could be the same male, and it could be the same female, but time might tell. They have arrived as an established pair would, early to mid April.

The usual less than good digiscope picture shows the female, note no rings.

Also I noted, not a single wren have I heard or seen since the snow left the low ground.

Also the white sheep this week were without the white Fallow deer and looked more settled for it!

Harriers not in evidence, Herons busy on established heronry, some seem to be sitting on eggs.