Blackbird

[Jon]

This nest is 4 feet from my back door.

Ok it is a blackbird not a bee but it has probably eaten a bee or may well do so in the future. There are plenty of discarded bees lying in front of the colonies in my garden which it could graze on.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0K_nQ1Iii0&list=UUue8V6a4fIYZX7rf9Pn1qLw&index=1&feature=plcp

[chris]

I'm afraid I can't see videos with my clockwork computer, but the blackbird is my favourite. When I lived on the coast, there was always one in the olive tree by my gate, which would sing every morning as I left for work and greatly brighten my day.Since moving here,I have missed them-the old boys say that they disappeared when the cell phone relay mast was installed. I've seen René's vicious traps for capturing thrushes, and I think he is more guilty than the mast.Anyway, this winter I saw a couple again, so perhaps René has calmed down.

[Jon]

My favourite bird as well although some of the exotic stuff in Mexico like Keel Billed Toucan has its allure.
A friend in the RSPB calls these brightly coloured ones 'tarts birds'
These guys prefer to distinguish a dozen almost identical brown flycatchers one from the other.
Your French chums have a bad reputation for blasting passerines from the sky and eating them in a variety of creative ways.

[chris]

Ok it is a blackbird not a bee but ....................

On the French bee forum that I follow, there is a forum called "by the fireside" where anything can be discussed in a relaxed atmosphere with a glass of....
It can be a friendly place, where new beekeepers and people new to the forum can chat and establish a relationship with the others. After all, beekeepers very occasionally have an opinion on other things :rolleyes:
What do others think? Could it work here? Or is it just a nogo for Scots?:p Or is it not the sort of thing that the SBAi really wants?

[Bridget]

Traditionally Scots think they love nearly all things french so au coin du feu would be great

[Jon]

The Spanish have an expression, La sobremesa, the 'over the table' to describe the banter you have at the table for a couple of hours after you have finished eating. (bring your own bottle!)

[gavin]

Mobile masts and Blackbird Collapse Disorder - LOL!

While you are all admiring your local blackbirds, do spare a thought for those in a commercial beekeeper's yard not so far from here straining to exit these from their rear ends:

http://www.sbai.org.uk/sbai_forum/showthread.php?468-Photo-competition

They're not the smartest bird around, and if Rene has found a few to be a little chewy maybe ours emigrated for the winter and you can tell him why.

Is this the chatty fireside corner you seek, or do you have something else in mind?

[Jon]

You just wanted to link to Mr Cutler's pellet song again didn't you?

If you removed the 3 letter word 'bee' from the forum name you would be left with a forum titled Blether which might do the job but we will have to argue about whether it is blether or blather. I think there are regional differences. You say potato and I say patata.

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/blatherskite

[gavin]

Forsaking the internet for a minute, I turned to the Concise Scots Dictionary where blether, bledder, blather and even bladder all seem acceptable variants to the Scot. The link to Bladder is interesting, particularly when the word is married to 'skite' given that the origin of that bit is related to a different bodily function.

Always glad to revisit Cutler.

[Jon]

Not too many concise Scots on this forum! Blatherskites to a man (or woman)

[Neils]

concise? Why use a sentence when a paragraph will do? :D

I've always thought this was essentially the off topic forum and that within reason anything goes as far as topics of conversation. I don't personally think that we really need another section to the forum at the moment, I'd much rather have fewer, busy, sections, than swathes of dead sub sections of the site.

[Jon]

The 3 chicks left the nest today. they were all present and correct in the nest first thing this morning but were out by lunchtime.
that's 12 days from hatching to leaving the nest.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kq_v6hlGlZo

[gavin]

Faster than a honeybee, then. By about 27 days.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5CUHHGlQg0

[Jon]

I can pick that Gav. But not exactly the way Paul Mc Cartney does. I do it using Travis picking. Great song. Beatles white album has been in my top 3 since I was a teenager.

[gavin]

Ahh ... but can you sing it too, and whistle the blackbird song at the end?

[Jon]

I am a better singer than I am a guitar player.

[gavin]

Great! We'll book you a slot at the SBA Centenary ....

[Jon]

You will have to talk to my agent!!