Materials Man

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 am just spotting this yellow ring, oh for a camera on the nest area!

25 June, 5.00 am, at my usual watching time of 8 to 10 am I usually see a feeding session, I was reluctant to believe this was the first feed of the day, so I got up early and was on station by 5.00 am. Just witnessed the female feeding a chick who was soon full up and moving away. So that answers my question, well kind of, as the first feed of the day may be around 8 to 10 am if the fishing conditions are bad? The next bit was interesting as well, the female fed herself for a bit, the chicks were not interested, then she flapped to where the male usually sits and preens, he was up an adjacent tree. He immediately swoops down over her head and takes the considerable remains of the fish up the adjacent tree and starts to feed. Now I thought the male fed from the head of the fish and the body, then brought the fish to the nest for it to be consumed. He might well have done this as I did not see him arrive, and it could be he has no problems feeding his family so by 6.00 am they, including the female,  are full, so he has a second feed. He did fly back to the nest with the fish, but the female and chicks ignored him, so back off to the adjacent tree he went and sat for some time before resuming his feeding. The pics are the male preening and obscuring his legs, male up the adjacent tree and female on his usual preening perch, male on nest and female on his usual perch and female on nest

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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?

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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 hide empty and had it to myself for a very enjoyable couple of hours viewing the birds.  The two juv woodpeckers were constant companions for the whole time (mostly one at a time)  with a few visits from an adult male.  Numerous Blue Tits, Great Tits, Coal Tits and Chaffinches were also in attendance.  On both Sunday and Tuesday I had great views of a Reed Bunting and Redpoll, the latter a bird that I had only seen once before Sunday.  As well as the little birds there was also a family of Rooks present – one adult and three juvs – the adult rook in the way of clever corvids had managed to figure out the seed feeder and was clearly showing the youngsters how to use them.  All in all a few great hours of viewing.

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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 to eat? as the three of the chicks seemed content. They did consent to eat and I noticed them wing stretching and the small one had gained in size to the others. Took a picture on the 11th and the 12th showing three chicks, also a left yellow winged tagged  female marsh harrier, last years female but nesting in a different location. Caught a brief  glimse of a hunting male harrier, and an other Osprey sitting on a dead branch of a small tree, breeding nearby? probably.

Inserted some pics of hedgerow flowers that are much more difficult than birds to identify, if you put the mouse pointer on them you will see their names, (well my names for them!) Derek what is the fly on the Himalayan balsam’s leaf?

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 like additives to the grinding process that reduce CO2 emissions. Download the full presentation at www.concrete.org.uk/

I am  convinced by applied advanced science in concrete technology that it will reduce CO2 emissions, but at the other end of the electron microscope the production people can assist, how? clients like Transport Scotland (TS) ignore all design rules and state a free W/C ratio of 0.4, why? well they don’t say, but let me put words in their mouth, they do not believe the free W/C ratios from proffered mix designs and the quality of supplied concrete is less than desired.

So they (TS) as ultimate buyers specify what they desire through employers requirements, which at the moment means more CO2.

My point is, the rmc  industry has really to do what they say they will do and help the nano technology to produce better sustainable concrete. Why should I have a bad day just because the batcher man is having one? I know about accreditation and I will repeat here that QSRMC is not worth the paper it is printed on. Wake up QSRMC guys and realise your future is not hiding behind a QA system, it is in producing a competitive science based product independently assessed (eg BSI) for quality.

My thanks to Helen for the champagne I won in the prize draw, the only bonus I’ll see this year !

As a PS  I note TS, are, on the Forth replacement crossing moving away from ERs for specifying their full requirements and part filling in the designers appendices, noting that the designers should adopt these. Like I have said for years, not Design and Build but Proscibe and Build.

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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 fading rainbow and an Oak tree, a violet ground beetle larvae, with designs on a large worm. Notice in one of the pics the larvae’s head is vibrating, what’s that about? supposedly nocturnal so I was lucky to see it.

The seed head is a close up of a dandelion.