Notice Board: the Honey-buzzard Season in Northumberland 2021 as it happened – Nick Rossiter

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This is the current blog for the 2021 season, updated daily, giving recent activity.

The main aim in the new season is to write a book on Honey-buzzard, using my experience in British Isles, continental Europe and Africa, dating from 1993. Field work in 2021 in Northumberland will complement this task, filling in gaps and reinforcing findings. Further lengthy trips in mind abroad are Israel/Tarifa/Gibraltar in September and Kenya Highlands and coast next January. Broad headings for book are: Motivation, Historical Records, Rediscovery in Britain, Migration Patterns, Arrival and Display, Breeding Activity, Habitat, Dispersal, Wintering Grounds, Four Identification Models, Value of Field Experience, Further Studies, Bibliography. The initial costs of publishing the book in hard copy, running to perhaps 250pp, are well within my means. Some supplementary material may be published online.

The Notice Board for 2021 is now closed. The new Notice Board for 2022 is here.

January 15th: maximum 3C, minimum 2C, light SW breeze, weak sunshine, cool in evening but increased cloud kept temperatures up. Had an incredible group of 4 Treecreeper in back garden on field maple trunks plus a tribe of 12 Long-tailed Tit passing through the front. Lazy day after recent exertions, catching up with web sites, bird records and habitat spreadsheet with Google Earth. Soon off to DoW to see D/D. Had good chat with D/D. DoW quite quiet but not nearly so as Newcastle last night: never seen so few people around on Friday nite. Pleased to see that Plan B Covid restrictions are likely to be removed on 25/1: Boris has played a blinder on omicron in resisting the modeller's attempts at mega-panic. Thinking of closing this Notice Boards this week and moving to NB 2022: the size of the page is quite cumbersome. Donated £50 to Couldoran appeal for restoration of moorland and woodland in Wester Ross, Scotland, by the Woodland Trust https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/support-us/give/appeals/couldoran/. Something seems to be imminent: xxxxx XXX!!!!!!

January 14th: maximum 6C, minimum 1C, light W breeze, dull, cool in evening but frost averted by cloud cover. A busy day: chatted with N/D over Skype from 10:00-11:30, made M's in HEX for coffee and lunch (scrambled egg/baked beans – very good!) from 12:00-14:00, tidied house for cleaner S, did habitat survey for Honey-buzzard in Dipton Wood S from 15:05-17:05; home briefly for something to eat; 18:20 train HEX-NCL; concert RNS at S – Joy of Six; Br4rw4s; 22:53 train NCL-HEX; lit fire, sorted stocks. Did 11.5km walk throughout day even with Metro NCL-GHD; did walk back along the HLB to fit in the Br. Star bird in survey work was flushed from side of road in wood near parking place in Dipton Wood Main at 17:10; had 13 types of bird in Dipton Wood S including Siskin 4, Coal Tit 2, Blackbird 6, Grey Heron 1, plus mammal Mole 2. Really enjoyed concert, all sextets but variety of instruments, both strings and woodwind. We heard works by Beethoven (Sextet in Eb Major), Helen Grime (Into the Faded Air), Britten (Movement for Wind Sextet) and Brahms (String Sextet No.2 in G Major), so very varied selection; liked the contrast in the programme, both in instruments and harmonics: Grime's austerity with Brahms' richness! Had another 2-digit rise in funds today, 2nd of week. Oil prices continue to firm, making record for recent times of over $86 a barrel; Falklands oil will surely go ahead now; would like to see the back of Boris: his so-called green policies are ruinous! On week funds rose 35k gross, 32k net, making ytd gain of +83k gross (+4.7%), +56k net with ftse 100 ytd +2.2%, ftse 250 -3.1%. Note fall in domestic UK stocks as in ftse 250, turning up some good values, including PSN.L which looks very cheap as example of housebuilder; like this sector as the large land banks give protection against inflation but totally out of favour at the moment! Time for bed: it's 02:35 (15/1): sweet dreams: xxxxx XXX!!!!!!

January 13th: maximum 7C, minimum 4C, moderate W breeze, much sunshine, feeling mild, another beautiful winter's day. Had 100 Redwing (flock on turnip field) and a Skylark SW at Ordley at 13:00, plus 20 House Sparrow in Hexham at 14:00. Did much more hedge trimming, completed 7.5km today in steps plus a lot of work from arms: feeling a bit knackered at end but completed cutting the leylandii – really pleased with that; it's about 4m high. Had a break for lunch, going to Tans where pleased 2 c me, and much later made G4g4s where P/A/R out for good chat. Surprise visitor was an engineer from E.ON who at 14:50 arrived in front yard to change the meter. Appointment was originally for this day but it had been postponed. I offered mid-February as next date and that seems to have called their bluff, realising they had to get it done sooner. Anyway welcomed him and in 100 min he duly replaced the meter with a new Economy 7 one, suitable for quick conversion to a smart meter if necessary. So now face paying for electricity (2-2.5k a year I reckon at 2021 prices, 3k when cap increased) plus a year's arrears under the legislation (more arrears if you've been uncooperative in getting the meter replaced but I've been asking them for a while to fix it and have kept the evidence!). Last proper electricity bill was 2017: I'm in collaborative mood! Busy day 2moro with N/D on Skype at 10, M at his house 4c at 12, cleaner S arriving at 15 and concert at S (sextets) at 20!! Looking forward to increase in concerts: xxxxx XXX!!!!!!

January 12th: maximum 6C, minimum 4C, light W breeze, much sunshine, feeling mild, beautiful winter's day. Got out the electric hedge-trimmer and attacked the leylandii, which I'd intended to leave for garden contractors but felt energetic enough to sort it out. Took off all but the top ridge and gathered up enormous quantities of cuttings. Have a secret weapon tomorrow – a long-handled heavier electric hedge-trimmer with extended reach – for taking the ridge off. Social life is still under a hit from Covid – M has cried off at T tomorrow, rearranging for Friday at his house as partner worried about rising rates of omicron. So at least we're still meeting but not so good for cafe – may go along anyway to Tans to celebrate finishing the leylandii cut. Plan to do the Dipton Wood habitat survey mid-afternoon in slightly extended daylight. Exeter Ag desert rattail spoon 1723 arrived today – very pleased with it – cost £86 in auction including premium and postage, maker Thos Sampson, engraved for marriage MM AV 1723. Back in G with the gang tomorrow evening hopefully. Keep calm and relax in the time-accepted way: xxxxx XXX!!!!!!

Funds rose in 2-figures today; nice to have strategy supported by others: Plan for Decades of High Commodity Prices, BlackRock Says: (Bloomberg) -- Commodities prices may stay high for decades as mining companies struggle to keep up with demand from the energy transition, according to BlackRock Inc.’s Evy Hambro.

Commodities such as coal, copper and lithium reached records in the past year, helping miners deliver huge profits and dividends. Yet Hambro still sees the mining sector as remaining undervalued, given its importance in providing the materials needed to decarbonize the global economy. “It seems as though this core element of the transition has been completely ignored by many investors,” Hambro said. “At some point people will realize how essential these businesses are for the transition and capital will flow into them, and that should change the valuations.” https://uk.investing.com/news/commodities-news/plan-for-decades-of-high-commodity-prices-blackrocksays-2560422

January 11th: maximum 8C, minimum 4C, light W breeze, some sunshine, feeling mild. Sunset out to 16:05, 25 min up from darkest afternoon, definitely shows. Sun rise at 08:28 is a lagging indicator. Made W4bigshop £58, quite a few erratic items, followed by QHC for tuna lunch (£7.10). Not out tonite (as usual for Tuesday) so caught up with recent bird records (see below), Festival web site and Dashper family history! Funds on wtd are up 7k gross and 4k net after 3k withdrawal for birthday! Commodity prices are looking good in general but gas, oil and nickel (last for EVs) are the stars. Am playing along with both the EV revolution (boosting metals) and stickiness in oil (prices going higher as decarbonising revolution will be slowed by inflation/shortages in materials). Walked 4.44 km today, including last nite's prowl!! Think you can achieve reasonable exercise by walking around the shops, cafes and bars, plus doing some birdwatching! Son continues to improve mentally, not sure about walking yet. May not be out for Honey-buzzard habitat tomorrow: so many parcels arriving that might have to stick around! xxxxx XXX!!!!!!

January 10th: maximum 8C, minimum 2C, light W breeze, dull, feeling milder. Now onto habitat at Dipton Wood S using Google Earth, will do walk there on 12/1 to finalise findings: that will make 6 sites done, 6/6 for the 'Shire. Had good social day, with Rotary at lunchtime with good turnout and 4 new members recruited. Later on made spoons with mates P/R/A 4 gr8 crack; given a card signed by the trio; A has just had a bout of omicron, out of action for a few days but feeling better now. G reopens on 12/1, so we'll be back on 13/1; B where R held re-opened today but N still closed. Walked 3.6km today and a further 1.8km after midnight!! Had first Early Moth of year at Ordley in evening plus a Common Buzzard soaring N of Letah Wood at 15:30 and a Tawny Owl calling faintly from the W at the Sele at 00:15 (11/1). xxxxx XXX!!!!!!

January 9th: maximum 5C, minimum 3C, moderate cold W breeze off moors, dull, rain in afternoon, drier by evening. Completed Honey-buzzard habitat survey at Viewley by walking out there from 14:15-15:15 in the rain. Had 11 bird-types there plus 20 types at Ordley. Birds at Viewley comprised 65 Rook, 25 Jackdaw, 2 Crow, 1 Raven (calling), 19 Redwing, 8 Blackbird, 2 Mistle Thrush, 5 Woodpigeon, 1 Stock Dove, 2 Siskin, 50 Common Gull adult, plus 2 Mole. Up to 43 bird-types for ytd. Made Hexham 4 break but Nero was closed, more Covid problems. So had good walk around Sele, returning later to WS4g4s at £2.85 a pint with P/R. Walked 6km today so good exercise! Rotary is on 2moro at 12:30 if B reopens as planned. Played last act – Act 4 - of Rienzi; think it's underrated: the 'theme song' is in my head, a good sign of capture by the music. Suspect it's been overlooked as people concentrate on Wagner's main inspirations. Glad son introduced me to it; he had art therapy today as it was Sunday. It was daughter's birthday today: sent her a giant card, a beauty hamper and 3k. Added Sarah Jane Dashper (my maternal gt-gt-grandmother 1840-1910, born and died in Plymouth, Devon) to WikiTree as mother of Annie; she died 6 years after the tragic death of her daughter. SJD is the stand-out enigma in my family tree: an unusual surname, an obsession in the family around with the name Lena, short and with a dark complexion and of course my mitochondrial DNA (mother-of-mother-of mother …. ) points to the east with clade T2. Her family were very poor though her daughters seemed to be on an improving trend. Will assemble all I know and see what emerges! xxxxx XXX!!!!!!

January 8th: maximum 7C, minimum 2C, moderate cold W breeze off moors, dull, snow/ice nearly all melted, rather raw as it often is after lying snow. Good number of birds around at Ordley from 13:00-15:30, particularly on a turnip field which has been eaten out just to S of house, where Linnet (55), Redwing (28) and Pied Wagtail (13) congregating; total was 23 bird-types, good for time of year. Started habitat work on Google Earth for 'Shire Honey-buzzard site no.5 at Viewley, another well-wooded area. Returned to my WikiTree genealogy, adding my maternal Great Grandmother Annie Elizabeth May, who sadly committed suicide by drowning in Penzance Harbour, Cornwall, in 1904, aged 37, leaving 3 orphaned daughters aged about 10 (Mabel Lena, my grandmother), 8 (Cora), 5 (Iris): her husband, George Holbrook an accountant, had died a year or two earlier in a riding accident. Son sent me a late Xmas or early birthday present part 1 of 4: a CD of Rienzi, Wagner's opera no. 3; I've played Acts 1-3 with the last no. 4 to come tomorrow. It's an historical recording from Stuttgart in 1957, starring Paula Brivkaine and Wolfgang Windgassen. Rienzi was quite popular when first played in Dresden in the 1840s but is seldom performed in full now. It's closest to Lohengrin in style of his later works. Rienzi has more singing in duos, trios and chorus than the later works and maintains a high intensity throughout without the brooding passages of the Ring. However, Wagner is already using cellos, double bass and horns to create shades of darkness and dramatic openings. 2moro it's back in the field identifying trees, another scan of the turnip field and trips to N in afternoon and F (spoons!) much later! xxxxx XXX!!!!!!

January 7th: maximum 2C, minimum -1C, moderate cold SW breeze, sunny all day, 2cm snow/ice lying at Ordley, freezing again evening. Noted 5 birds-type queueing up on nuts: 8 Blue Tit, 1 Greenfinch, 1 Coal Tit, 5 Chaffinch, 1 Nuthatch (new for year). Completed Swallowship habitat visit and entering of data on Earthwatch so 4 tetrads done now. Species noted in Swallowship/Dilston were of 13 types, including LTT (6), Redwing (2), Yellowhammer (1), Greylag Goose (70, feeding flock at Dilston), preceding all new for year, giving 40 types total to date now for 2022. Also had 450 Jackdaw to roost over Hexham E moving NE and 22 Herring Gull going S to roost (12 1w, 10 adult). Son is doing well mentally, physically slowly but surely recovering. It's daughter's birthday very soon! Had a good social day with chat with recluses N/D at 10:00 and meeting D/D at DoW4g4s for great New Year chat! Made N4c4t while cleaner S was busy. Funds had a very positive start to year, gaining ytd 48k (2.7%) gross and 25k net, after hefty dividends paid! FTSE 100 ytd is +1.4%, ftse 250 -0.5%. Value stocks are performing well compared to growth stocks. Mining are perceived as value stocks (high return, low growth) but my view is this is misplaced: mining shares are growth stocks if we are going to have an energy transition, because of the hunger for metals for batteries, other storage devices, transmission and connections. Markets have forgotten a key principle: the logical is underpinned by the physical (always!). xxxxx XXX!!!!!!

January 6th: maximum 3C, minimum 0C, light SW breeze becoming moderate, dull, 2cm lying at Ordley, slow thaw throughout. Interesting day following yesterday's excitement!! Made dentist in morning, had to wait 40 min to be seen as an emergency was in progress; check produced no new problems other than the detached crown, which they took and will sterilise, before re-cementing next visit, scheduled for 9/2 but could be earlier if there's a cancellation; crowned tooth has a little decay on it, so a filling required before re-fitting. Made Tans4l with M – great catch-up after break. Then did a walk at Swallowship doing census of woods; not quite completed as 3 small woods omitted but will complete 2moro. Walked 6.5km today following 2 days of c3km each. G closed in evening through Covid so made Tap4g4s with D/M and WS4g4s with R/P, latter better known as spoons and where reunited for gr8 chat with G, a keen football fan, supporter of Hearts and follower of the Gulls! So good change. Excellent news from Canada, potentiality increasing liquidity by £125k:

Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - January 6, 2022) - Canadian Manganese Company Inc. ("Canadian Manganese" or the "Company") is pleased to announce receipt of conditional approval to list its common shares on the Neo Exchange Inc. ("NEO"). In connection with the listing, the Company has reserved the stock symbol "CDMN." Listing is subject to the Company fulfilling all of NEO's listing requirements, including the minimum distribution requirements. NEO is a senior Canadian stock exchange based in Toronto. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/canadian-manganese-conditional-approval-list-171500683.html

Had a Grey Wagtail, a Mistle Thrush and 3 Mallard at Corbridge at 11:00 and a Wren and 2 Collared Dove at Hexham at 12:30. Swallowship results will be finalised tomorrow. A Tawny Owl was calling at Ordley at 00:20 (7/1). Total is 35 bird-types for 2022. 2moro sees zoom session with N/D at 10, DoW at 20:30 with D/D. Was successful in only one of 4 Ag bids; 'phoned by Daniel (DB) the auctioneer at ttime with the mixed news but good to speak to him and might still pick up an unsold lot; had pushed up the price for 2 bidders so not unfamiliar position of the auctioneer's stooge!. Son seems more buoyant – pleased at progress! Good nite gorgeous exciting one: xxxxx XXX!!!!!!

January 5th: maximum 2C, minimum -4C, light SW breeze, sunny all day, 2cm lying at Ordley, slight thaw at midday. Birds today included 2 House Sparrow at Ordley at 11:00 and 2 Bullfinch, 7 Starling and a Mistle Thrush at Houtley at 15:30. Hope to do some habitat work on the ground at Swallowship tomorrow afternoon. Year total is now 33 bird-types. Bought 2 bags of seed as bird feed at the market in Hexham for £10 and made QHC4l: tuna sandwich on brown bread with fresh salad and black Americano. Think QHC lunches are basically healthier than those of big coffee chains. Do buy The Times from the newsagents when out for coffee; find with the printed copy that I read much more widely than with on-line versions but don't subscribe to digital Times or FT; do subscribe to digital Guardian, Telegraph and Washington Post. 2moro it's dentist in Corbridge at 11:20 for check-up and look at detached crown followed by a more pleasurable lunch with M at vegetarian Tans. Some recycling from crashing tech shares to value shares today: quite happy with that! Bid for 4 lots of antique Ag in postal auction to be held tomorrow at high noon! Watched on RT the Kazakhstan riots and overthrow of their government over inflated fuel prices: hope BJ was watching! https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2022/01/05/kazakhstan-government-resigns-rise-fuel-prices-ignites-violent/ Worth reading in full. A disinterested wealthy elite is contemptuous of the plight of ordinary citizens who cannot afford fuel price rises. Good nite beautiful: xxxxxx XXX!!!!!!

January 4th: maximum 1C, minimum -1C, moderate W wind, sunny all day, 2cm lying at Ordley after some compression. Road in to Hexham poor with much ice, took a while to clear car. No habitat work today, glad got some in in the milder weather. In survival mode: made W4shop just £36 and N4c4t, also buying another bag of kindling in the Yorkshire store for £2.49. Very bizarre day for trading in the New Year; upgraded holding of Buchans from 25C$c to 30C$c (+£20k) on basis of report over Xmas, extending agreement with Boliden and the placement. Took off £23.1k for withdrawals, then Falklands oil rose strongly so overall stands at +31k gross, +8k net after one trading day in UK in 2022 (pace cannot last!). Markets are rallying strongly as omicron is suspected as the end of Covid as a disruptive force. Further the EU is at last seeing economic reality and approving gas and nuclear as acceptable fuels for the energy transition under strict conditions. The UK stands alone as the ultimate net zero disciple, making no deviation for the reality that the energy transition cannot take place in 10 years, may be even difficult to achieve in 30 years. But how long will the British public put up with this as their energy bills soar, the power system becomes unstable and industries move to Asia (or even the EU). And anyway aren't we supposed to align with the EU over environmental issues as part of our Brexit deal? The red-greens are in angry turmoil! Had 3 bird observations today at Ordley: a Wren and 10 Fieldfare in afternoon and 350 Jackdaw, in pre-roost flight at 16:30, making 31 bird-types for 2022 so far (Fieldfare new). Have dentist appointment at 11:20 on Thursday – surprised it's so soon! May be out with P for lunch tomorrow at BS but not sure. xxxxx XXX!!!!!! Very fanciable in the piccies: lok2tgrf xxxxx XXX!!!!!!

January 3rd: maximum 8C, minimum -1C, moderate and blustery W wind, temperature plummeting at ttime from 7 C to 2C as wind went N, followed by 4 hours of snow with 4cm lying at Ordley. Not out to pub late-on, too much fresh snow, expected to freeze. Did do some more habitat work, visiting Dotland square from 14:00-15:35. Didn't walk so far as could see nearly all of area from Whitley Mill – Dalton road but still did 3.94km overall. Had 13 bird-types including 1 Stock Dove and a Dipper on Rowley Burn at Whitley Mill plus 8 Blackbird. Total for 2022 is now 30 bird-types. Have since processed the wood info so that's 3 sites done already. Am going to finish the 'Shire promptly (all 6 sites) and then choose the Black Kite sites to see what might be attracting them. Next site up is Swallowship, which is 3.0km from West Dipton. Have added Habitat to book contents above. Applaud government moves to keep everything moving, in spite of omicron: just needs to hold its nerve (with 100 rebellions backbenchers watching closely!). Son's benefiting from clinic: plenty of in-depth diagnosis and solutions; sounds much more positive! Booked up for The Joy of Six on 14/1 – near-birthday treat! Have a very busy spell with music in last 10 days of January and first week of February: looking forward to it! Oh so envious of the beauty enjoying sunnier climes: xxxxx XXX!!!!!!

Two interesting environmental stories from the Guardian. The first shows how adaptive nature is. The second is ridiculous: peat use should be banned tomorrow: there's no excuse for still using it.

Bugs across globe are evolving to eat plastic, study finds. Surprising discovery shows scale of plastic pollution and reveals enzymes that could boost recycling. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/dec/14/bugs-across-globe-are-evolving-to-eat-plastic-study-finds

Microbes in oceans and soils across the globe are evolving to eat plastic, according to a study. The research scanned more than 200m genes found in DNA samples taken from the environment and found 30,000 different enzymes that could degrade 10 different types of plastic. The study is the first large-scale global assessment of the plastic-degrading potential of bacteria and found that one in four of the organisms analysed carried a suitable enzyme. The researchers found that the number and type of enzymes they discovered matched the amount and type of plastic pollution in different locations. But many plastics are currently hard to degrade and recycle. Using enzymes to rapidly break down plastics into their building blocks would enable new products to be made from old ones, cutting the need for virgin plastic production. The new research provides many new enzymes to be investigated and adapted for industrial use.

Peat sales to gardeners in England and Wales to be banned by 2024. Peatland vital carbon store but campaigners say lack of immediate action makes plan a ‘damp squib’. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/dec/18/peat-sales-to-gardeners-in-england-and-wales-to-be-banned-by-2024

“Our peatlands are an incredibly valuable natural resource,” she said. “There are now more sustainable and good quality peat-free alternatives available than at any other time, so I am confident now is the right time to make the shift permanent.” Sustainable alternatives to peat include compost made from wood fibre and bark, wool, coir, and other plants. Prof Dave Goulson, from the University of Sussex, said: “We need to stop kicking the can down the road. The government acknowledges we are in a climate emergency, but isn’t even prepared to stop depletion of a vital carbon store for needless ornamental use in our gardens. We need to stop peat use now.” Pow said “historic” licences allowing the extraction of peat were being reviewed. Alan Titchmarsh, Kate Bradbury and James Wong are among the high-profile gardeners who have backed a ban, and Monty Don has called peat in compost “environmental vandalism”. Peat may become harder to buy in the UK in any case because most is imported from bogs in Ireland, where the state-backed company Bord na Móna ended all peat extraction in 2020, although its reserves are still being sold. Some big retailers of peat have implemented their own bans, including Dobbies and the Co-op in 2021, and B&Q by 2023. About 70% of peat is sold to gardeners and 30% is used by professional growers. The government estimates a ban on both uses would cut CO2 emissions by 4m tonnes in the next two decades.

January 2nd: maximum 9C, minimum 7C, moderate W breeze, less gusty, sunny most of day, very mild. Had 25 black flies around flowering ivy at Ordley in the sunshine plus 1 hover fly. Went to Letah Wood to do habitat assessment for local Honey-buzzard site in walk towards Dipton Mill from 11:40-13:55. Walked 7.34km today including a bit in Hexham in trip to N4c4ll. Chatting to 2 ladies at Letah Wood, they said they'd picked up 2 dead polecat on road near Dipton Mill in last year, checking id on face markings. Very impressed, means there are some around to add to the pine marten in Kielder Forest, found by stealth cameras. Birds on walk totalled 16 types, including a male Great Spotted Woodpecker, 2 Mistle Thrush, 4 Blackbird, a GBBG 1w and an adult Herring Gull. But best sight of all was 3 Common Buzzard up in display over a wood to N with a single near a beech wood in the centre of the tetrad. Reached 28 bird-types in 2022 now. Tomorrow it's Honey-buzzard habitat survey in Dotland, having set-up project no.3 on Google Earth. Son (encouragingly) says food is good; physio in progress - slight improvement but no PCR test result yet. Piccies are so exhilarating: xxxxx XXX!!!!!!

2022 January 1st: maximum 13C, minimum 7C, moderate W breeze, gusty at times, sunny most of day, very mild. Did do habitat for Honey-buzzard in home (Ordley) square – walked through area along Devil's Water going W to Steel and back on road through Juniper. According to my watch distance was 5.46km so not bad in the mud. Met P/M twice on the way! Took out a recording sheet with the map from Google Earth, circled woods and labelled them with the main species. When got back home, clicked around each wood on the Google Earth map and it gave me the area and perimeter. Then combined all the totals on a spreadsheet using various SUMIF functions in OpenOffice: gives a complete audit trail on each wood and aggregate figures, which can be readily checked and edited if necessary. I realise from the raptor meetings that I've been attending, you have to present some habitat info. In very mild conditions 20 black flies on flowering ivy still. Had 15 bird-types, including 2 Goldcrest and a Greenfinch. Later at 18:00 a Tawny Owl was calling outside on W side of house. So have 16 bird-types on BirdTrack at end of day 1 of 2022! Sorted out my funds spreadsheet for 2022, initialising various parts: all ready to go now. Son is in isolation at new centre, waiting for result of PCR test; he's amazed at 24-hour room service, all free of charge: hope he's taking advantage, feeding up and gaining strength! Tomorrow it's Honey-buzzard habitat survey in West Dipton, having set-up project no.2 on Google Earth, followed by trip to N and much later to G. To the gorgeous one: xxxxx XXX!!!!!!

2021 December 31st: maximum 12C, minimum 9C, light SW breeze, rain early-on, very mild. Made it: published Honey-buzzard results in their calendar year as below and on web page Population of the Honey-buzzard in SW Northumberland, after a few cosmetic changes this morning. Started on habitat today, using Google Earth for the macro parameters around the nest: latitude, longitude, altitude, percentage woodland, arable, pasture, but need to visit to determine species of trees and finer details of management. Have started with my own site, with nest 415m from my house! Have 74 sites to do in all, at quick count; may leave some to their first visit in the spring for the birds. I've set-up a spreadsheet to hold the information and perform calculations. Returned to Nero today while cleaner S was hard at it; downloaded app and used the Sky Cloud for internet access to my laptop; good to see S again. Walked 3.37km, just into Hexham and out and about. While eating my chicken dinner, crown came off on my lower right jaw (thankfully have the crown intact); was thinking it was about time I went to the dentist, now …. Funds were +3k over last fortnight, taking gain on year 2021 to +573k (+46.5%) gross, +547k net, with ftse 100 +13.1% on year and ftse 260 +16.7%. Bit of a struggle the past 2 weeks with recovery stocks, in which specialise, suffering from year-end tax-loss selling particularly from US (selling stocks you've lost money on to offset gains you've made elsewhere, for tax purposes). But it's a good time to buy dumped stock so things may turnaround in the New Year. There's 2 significant withdrawals to register in first week of 2022 but Buchans (Canadian Zn/Pb producer, of which own 1.05%) have released a very encouraging trading statement and placement which suggests a rise in value of this stock, unquoted at the moment. The unplanned withdrawal will have no effect on my commitments elsewhere!

A very Happy New Year to all: xxxxx XXX!!!!!!

Here's the Honey-buzzard results for 2021:

The overall results for the 2021 Honey-buzzard breeding season are given in Table 41.

The study area was broadly maintained at its 2020 level with nest site visits again replaced by frequent visits to a subset of sites in line with the National Honey-buzzard Survey, organised by the Rare Breeding Birds Panel (RBBP). To maintain proper comparisons between seasons, relatively intensive coverage continued in two parts of the study area, as a control: Devil's Water and Tyne Valley W. In these two areas the number of sites was just slightly higher at 15 (14 in 2020), suggesting in conjunction with earlier results a stable to slowly increasing population overall. The 13 sites selected for multiple visits were in three areas: Allen (6), upper South Tyne (5), lower South Tyne (2), representing the western part of the study area. The National Survey results, also tabulated in Table 41, show intensive observational activity, mainly in July and August, with in 27 visits (2.1/site) finding 19 adult and 15 juvenile. The timing of the National Survey for July/August would not have been my choice as certainly in July the species can be elusive. However in the territories in the mainly upland terrain of the west, birds were seen in all but one visit, suggesting they are more obvious in the open habitat. Owing to the greater distance in car travel, visits in the Survey were longer this year than last, closer to the 4 hours suggested than in 2020, but fewer. My visits occurred from 27/6-2/9. The National Survey provided a novel view of the season's progress, with complete data for the second part of the season.

In terms of successful nests the results of all my survey work was similar to that in the previous year with 38 occupied sites (33 in 2020) and the number of confirmed breeding pairs at 24 (24 in 2020). After the drop in productivity in 2020 there was a welcome recovery this year with 11 pairs raising 2 young and 10 pairs 1 young or more (4 pairs, 20 pairs respectively in 2020), giving a minimum fledge of 28+ juveniles. In terms of known successful nests, 21 pairs raised 32+ young, that is a minimum of 1.52 young per pair (in 2020, 28+ young from 24 nests, 1.17+ young per pair). The fledging rate in the Tyne Valley W area, however, remained depressed with only one brood of 2 in 8 successful nests. Four of the broods of 2 were in the upper South Tyne, showing the liking of the Honey-buzzard for upland areas, with another 4 in the Devil's Water at moderate altitude. Five nests were flagged as >0, indicating the site was occupied around or just before fledging time but no young were actually seen; the presumption is that such sites were successful; 4 of these sites were in the Allen and 1 in Tyne Valley E; logistical problems affected coverage of the Allen in the later stages of the season. This raises the number of successful nests to 26 and the minimum number of young fledged to 37, as in Table 1. Wasp numbers were moderate, even though the spring was cold. In the mild late autumn, wasp numbers held up well, still being seen on flowering ivy at Ordley as late as 16/12 and in Hexham on 14/12.

Weather report for England 2021 (from the Met Office https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/research/climate/maps-and-data/summaries/index ):

April. April began settled, but soon turned very cold, and a notable feature throughout the month was the number of air frosts. Daytime temperatures did recover from the middle of the month, but it was cold and showery in the closing days. Overall it was an unusually cold,dry and sunny month. The provisional UK mean temperature was 5.7 °C, which is 1.7 °C below the 1981-2010 long-term average, with April being colder than March for the first time since 2012.

May May began very unsettled and unseasonably cold, with frosts in many places; it became less cold after the first week but continued with frequent rain or showers for most areas. The UK experienced a number of deep low pressure systems that resulted in a number of notably windy days. The weather settled down for the final few days of the month, when it also became much warmer. The provisional UK mean temperature was 9.1 °C, which is 1.3 °C below the 1981-2010 long-term average, making it the coldest May since 1996.

June: The first half of June was largely dry and warm, though less settled over Scotland towards mid-month. The second half saw temperatures broadly nearer to average, with some days very cool for the time of year, and numerous showery days over England including some thunderstorms, and some heavy convective outbursts especially in the south-east. The provisional UK mean temperature was 14.2 °C, which is 1.2 °C above the 1981-2010 long-term average.

July The first twelve days of July were mostly unsettled, with spells of heavy rain and showers, especially over England, while other parts of the UK saw less rain and more warmth at times. All areas were drier and much warmer by mid-month, with temperatures exceeding 30 °C on several days in some areas, and unbroken sunshine for many. In Northern Ireland, 31.3 °C was recorded on the 21st at Castlederg, County Tyrone, setting a new record as the highest temperature for any month. The final week was much more unsettled once again, with temperatures back to near average and frequent showery rain. The provisional UK mean temperature was 16.6 °C, which is 1.5 °C above the 1981-2010 long-term average. It was provisionally the equal fifth warmest July for the UK in a series from 1884.

August The first half of August was broadly unsettled, with plenty of rain between the 5th and 13th. The second half was drier, except for the 20th and 21st, with high pressure developing by the 23rd and remaining near northern UK thereafter. Scotland, especially the west, was often warm by day, whereas further south warm days were much fewer. Many areas were drier than usual for the month, with less than half the average total rainfall in some places, and the wettest areas were south-east England, eastern Scotland and Northern Ireland. Western Scotland fared well for sunshine, though many other areas were duller than average, especially central and eastern England where some stations had their dullest August in records going back 60 or more years. The provisional UK mean temperature was 15.0 °C, which is 0.1 °C above the 1981-2010 long-term average.

September The weather through much of September was reasonably settled and quiet, though there were outbreaks of rain at times. It was also rather warm, especially around the 7th/8th. A marked change came about on the 27th, with much more unsettled and notably cooler conditions for the last few days of the month. Mean monthly temperatures were well above average, with rainfall and sunshine near average, although Northern Ireland was particularly dull. The provisional UK mean temperature was 14.7 °C, which is 2.1 °C above the 1981-2010 long-term average. This was only slightly cooler than August’s mean temperature, and ranks it as the second warmest September in a series from 1884.

October The weather during most of October was unsettled and wet, though there was a drier spell across most areas between the 8th and 17th. Temperatures were above average for much of the time, and frosts were few, but sunshine was in short supply for some areas. The heaviest rain came in the closing days of the month, with some notable totals in Cumbria, and there were gales also on the 31st.The provisional UK mean temperature was 10.9 °C, which is 1.4 °C above the 1981-2010 long-term average.

November The weather during most of November was on the mild side, with many areas seeing some settled spells, however the last ten days of the month were much colder and more unsettled, with Storm Arwen of note on the 26th/27th. Temperatures were above average for much of the time, and frosts were generally few, especially in northern areas of the UK. The provisional UK mean temperature was 7.0 °C, which is 0.8 °C above the 1981-2010 long-term average. Northern areas were generally warmer relative to average than southern areas, with parts of south-east England actually slightly colder than average.

The overall impression was of a very cool spring up towards the end of May, followed by a warm June and July with spells of wet weather. August was rather autumnal in nature with a lack of settled weather. September was generally fine while October and November were as usual unsettled. more changeable weather through July and August. September was mainly dry and sunny, particularly in the middle part, but October and November were wet, mild and unsettled.

Survey effort was maintained throughout the breeding season owing to the Covid pandemic restricting overseas and national travel. Studies of the autumn migration season in Northumberland were significantly affected by a 15-day trip to Tarifa/Gibraltar from 4/9-18/9; this trip did though provide an opportunity to study the passage of Honey-buzzard and other raptors through the Straits of Gibraltar. This part of September is a good time to find late breeders and adult migrants; the 4 Allen sites rated as >0 could well have had their ratings raised with observations in this period; the number of autumnal adult migrants is also likely to have been higher with continual presence of the observer. One new site was found this year in the Study Area at Beacon Hill on the eastern side of Whitfield Moor in the Allen area, confirming the attraction of heather moor for the species.

Table 41: Results for the Honey-buzzard Breeding Season in SW Northumberland by area in 2021

National Survey: S sites, V visits, A adults, J juveniles

Table 42 gives a breakdown of the numbers of males, females and juveniles in each part of the season. The male:female ratio normally declines as the season progresses with males most obvious in the display phase and the females more obvious in training flights with juveniles in the fledging phase. This was not the case in 2021 with males more conspicuous throughout: the male:female ratio varying from 21:11 (1.91) in display to 18:10 (1.80) in the rearing period and 19:13 (1.46) in fledging. Males were more conspicuous than females in the upland Allen area throughout. This has skewed the male:female ratio upwards in the rearing and fledging phases. No obvious gangs of juveniles, gathering before departure, were noted in late September, though a gathering of 3 juvenile at Ordley on 26/9 is a candidate for this. Lack of observations in mid-September, through absence, means that the context for the Ordley sightings was not available and these birds were classified as migrants, along with the bird seen at Swallowship on 24/9, which through its colour phase had not been bred at that site.

Table 42: Number of Male, Female and Juvenile Honey-buzzard found in each phase of breeding season in 2021

Table 43 shows the migration picture for Honey-buzzard in 2021. Numbers were normal, with 8 adults seen in spring and 12 birds in autumn, comprising 2 adult male, 10 juvenile, departing in that order as expected. Productivity was normal in Northumberland this year at a minimum of 1.52 young/successful brood. BirdGuides counts showed a standard pattern to emigration with movement starting on 9 August. My one significant absence was in mid-September, which would have affected adult female and juvenile totals in particular. A reasonable breeding season is indicated in Scotland, but maybe not as successful as those of 2014, 2016 and 2017.

Table 43: Visible Migration Movements noted for Honey-buzzard in SW Northumberland in 2021

December 30th: maximum 12C, minimum 9C, light SW breeze, rain in late evening, sunny morning, very mild. There were c70 black flies on the Ordley flowering ivy (still with fresh flowers) this morning in the sunshine, along with a hover fly but no wasps. There were clouds of winter gnats on Dotland Road later in the sheltered parts. Went for walk to Dotland in lovely December weather from 14:00-16:10, walking 5.98km. Had a good range of bird-types, 19 in all, including 45 Redwing, 6 Bullfinch, a Pied Wagtail, a GBBG 1w, 3 Herring Gull (2 ad, 1 1w), 3 Robin, 1 Greenfinch. Little finger on left-hand, which dislocated on 24/11, appears to have finally healed itself after 5 weeks; quoted time was 3-5 weeks so will take that; finger appears a lot stronger and not sensitive to touch; still a bit swollen on main knuckle; will still be inclined to protect it from bangs for a little while! Major event today in context of season is:

Updated Honey-buzzard page with breeding and migration data, steady as she goes, for SW Northumberland in 2021 (Population of the Honey-buzzard in SW Northumberland). Details of update as contents to follow on this page after final check tomorrow morning. That's really good to get it done while still in year of survey, 2021. Can now concentrate on habitat data, which going to compile in first 2 months of 2022, giving plenty of trips out and exercise. Son has transfer tomorrow morning; he sounds more positive, certainly seems keener on idea than Amy Winehouse! Made G4g4s with R/A/P for good chat and catch-up! Will write to the gorgeous one today (31/12): have Skype chat with N/D at 10 and cleaner S comes at 15:30 but no trip out with D/D in evening. Next trip to G is on Sunday nite. Not going to RNS for New Year's Day as no public transport and not that keen on Viennese waltzes! xxxxx XXX!!!!!!

December 29th: maximum 11C, minimum 8C, fresh and gusty SW breeze, rain in morning, very mild. Sunset now out to 15:48 at Hexham (+8 min from worst); sunrise is 08:34 (equal worst); afternoons getting lighter at 1 min/day; mornings pretty static for at least a week; yes, it's not symmetric: afternoons recover before mornings; current day length 7 hours 14 min (desperate but 4 min off worst!). Finished commenting on Honey-buzzard table 1 for 2021, which is the most substantial part; will comment on table 2 and probably table 3 tomorrow to complete draft. Had walk around Sele in afternoon, doing 4.0km walking; very few birds around in gusty wind, 34 Common Gull flying S to roost at Derwent Reservoir was the most interesting record in 8 bird-types. Have updated BirdTrack with all December records, giving 42 species in all. Transfer day is Friday from hospital to recovery site after 7 days at former, who've been very good; praying for success; have to try; cost is 12.3k for 28-day treatment with 1.5k due tomorrow and 10.8k next Tuesday. Feeling devastated. xxxxx XXX!!!!!!

December 28th: maximum 7C, minimum 2C, light SE breeze, damp, dull and mild. Have added all Richmond Park records to BirdTrack – total was 28 bird-types and 1 mammal-type. Back on 12:30 train KGX-NCL, all on time, connecting with 15:56 NCL-HEX, then into W4shop £44. Did some work on train, adding weather and Honey-buzzard migrant data into the file, holding all the data for Northumberland from the start in 1993. Need to compile some summary data and write an account but it looks as if the full Honey-buzzard account for 2021 will be completed in the next couple of days. Son's January is being taken care of with a professional recovery package; daughter has been marvellous in organising the help; I'm paying! Hope the gorgeous one is keeping fit: xxxxx XXX!!!!!!

I thought the film Don't Look Up, intended as a satire on our refusal to take climate change seriously enough, had shot itself in the foot. This is now confirmed in a Guardian review:

Look away: why star-studded comet satire Don’t Look Up is a disaster by Charles Bramesco: Adam McKay’s new satire Don’t Look Up, a last-ditch effort to get the citizens of Earth to give a damn about the imminent end of days spurred by the climate crisis, appears to be at least somewhat aware of this defect in human nature. It’s all about the difficulty of compelling the uninterested to care, in this instance about a gargantuan comet hurtling toward the Earth on a collision course of imminent obliteration – an emphatic if rather ill-suited metaphor. https://www.theguardian.com/film/2021/dec/27/look-away-why-star-studded-comet-satire-dont-look-up-is-a-disaster

The problem I see is that 6-months notice of a comet hitting the Earth is likely to be 100% accurate by the laws of physics, while 50-years notice of the planet globally heating to death relies on computer modelling, which is inherently uncertain. So the comet is not an appropriate metaphor for climate change: the comet problem would rapidly drive attempts to push it off course (whatever the film says) while the climate change alarm is easier to resist as it's a long way in the future and many of us don't trust the modellers or their outputs anyway. Incidentally the comet is not gargantuan – it's only 5km across but still big enough to cause mayhem. Does the reviewer appreciate physics at all? The reviewer does, however, acknowledge that the film is basically flawed as a satire on climate change reaction as the comet metaphor is ill-suited.

December 27th: maximum 11C, minimum 9C, light S breeze, rain much of day, dull and mild. Downloaded weather summaries for 2021 Honey-buzzard season. Did another walk of 6km in Richmond Park, picking up some further new bird-types: Siskin (1), GBBG (1 1w), Common Gull (1 ad), Song Thrush (1). Last was very good, harbinger of end of bird-winter, which is not far away. Am going back tomorrow. Son is not fit to release yet: could be a few more days, we're also thinking of private recovery break for 4 weeks; will return shortly. Worrying times indeed but very grateful for support: xxxxx XXX!!!!!!

December 26th: maximum 10C, minimum 7C, light SE breeze, dull after early rain, mild. Went for another good walk in the morning, same route 5km, but added some species, including Lesser Redpoll (50 on alder), Blackbird (1), Dunnock (2), Jay (1), Blue Tit (1). Building up a list, love walking in Richmond Park. Daughter drove to Stevenage to deliver some supplies to son. Expecting to be around when he's discharged on 28/12. Watched a film Don't Look Up on Netflix, which is brilliant describing a dysfunctional approach by all concerned to an approaching comet. It's supposed to be a metaphor for climate change but could be interpreted more widely. I particularly liked the portrayal of the tech billionaire as a manipulating b.stard, more concerned with profiting from the minerals in the comet than the fate of humanity. The postscript showing the survivors emerging from their spaceship over 20,000 years later is funny with bird-like dinosaurs attacking the would-be top-men and -women! As always, liked Jennifer Lawrence as the PhD student Kate Dibiasky who discovered and named the comet (after herself) and was too hot-headed and sincere for the calculating media to accept. Manipulation of social media was very well portrayed: everyone has an opinion even on an approaching comet! xxxxx XXX!!!!!!

December 25th: maximum 8C, minimum 6C, moderate E breeze, dull, dry. Lovely Xmas day with daughter's family: great food, great company. Gave away 12k as 4x3k to son, daughter and the 2 granddaughters. M's sister's family came round: she's had 3 LFT in the last 3 days all negative but today she had a PCR test result received after lunch and it was positive so they left quickly! We didn't hug as usual: she did notice I'd lost weight and looked fitter and younger! There's been an Eastenders flavour to our Xmas; son is ill in Stevenage Hospital; daughter and I went for walk in afternoon to discuss some worrying text messages I'd received and after speaking to him we immediately called an ambulance to his address; they were very prompt. Cannot say any more here except that Covid is not the main problem. I'm likely to be adding 2 days to my stay down here, moving to a hotel in Welwyn. Had 2 walks in area today, totalling almost 10k steps and 7.0k. On the edge of Richmond Park had 18 species of bird: 170 Jackdaw, 16 Ring-necked Parakeet, 11 Woodpigeon, 11 Starling, 9 Magpie, 7 Crow, 7 Herring Gull, 4 Mute Swan (2 ad, 2 1w), 3 Feral Pigeon, 2 singing Collared Dove, 2 Moorhen, 2 Chaffinch, 1 BHG 1w, 1 Green Woodpecker, 1 Great Tit, 1 Coal Tit, 1 House Sparrow, 1 Robin, plus 4 Grey Squirrel.

A very merry Christmas to all: xxxxx XXX!!!!!!

December 24th: maximum 11C, minimum 7C, light SE breeze, sunny morning, heavy rain early evening, mild. Quiet day b4 the big one: wrapped presents, played with S/I, communicated with son over his Covid via text messages. Think he's a bit better cough-wise but balance not good. Told him to take a pcr test, drink a lot of water and to self-isolate! Figure that 65% of people in hospital with Covid went in for something else is truly amazing. Some of the media is also assuming that workers catching Covid are out of the system for good: what nonsense: omicron lasts typically 3-7 days so some workers who went down with it 2 weeks ago will now be back at work, quicker if they really need the money. Funds are still up 1k wtd, running this time-frame for 2 weeks until year-end. Looking forward to 2moro. xxxxx XXX!!!!!!

December 23rd: maximum 11C, minimum 4C, light SE breeze, dull, occasional light shower, mild. Busy day shopping-wise,going into Kingston at 11:30 and returning at 15:30, both on 371 bus. Spent about £150 on presents for relatives present on 25/12; also sent big sis a £50 gift token and little sis 2 bottles of Rjoca! Watched the Snowman on Netflix (twice!) so could show some empathy: very imaginative story with Walking in the Air an obvious highlight! S played Twinkle Twinkle Little Star on the violin. So excitement mounts … xxxxx XXX!!!!!!

December 22nd: maximum 5C, minimum -1C, light SE breeze, some brightness, dry but very damp. Compiled the second table for Honey-buzzard in 2021 on the train – the seasonal distributions. Next up is the text to accompany the 2 tables. Today walked 3.04 km, mainly on the tube Victoria Line to Vauxhall to connect with SW Trains to Norbiton. Can use Oyster card for local trains and tube so put £20 on this card at KGX. All travel went very smoothly on Northern, LNER, Underground, SW Trains. Fetched from Norbiton in the repaired BMW and delighted to meet family again. xxxxx XXX!!!!!!

Had long chat with son-in-law on emerging energy crisis, which is being overshadowed by Covid debate but which could be much more destructive to European culture and standard of living. Here's a recent article:

Europe’s energy crisis is fast turning into a political and strategic disaster: All the fateful consequences of Angela Merkel’s decision to wind down Germany’s nuclear fleet after Fukushima in 2011 are before our eyes. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2021/12/21/europes-energy-crisis-fast-turning-political-strategic-disaster/.

Germany will shut down three nuclear plants forever next week, slashing clean and reliable baseload power in the middle of winter and during the worst energy crisis in Europe since the Second World War. The three reactors generate 4.2 gigawatts of zero-carbon electricity between them. They are relatively young. Gundremmingen and Grohnde were both commissioned in 1984. Brokdorf in Schleswig-Holstein was state-of-the-art when it was opened in 1986. They could have continued for another twenty-five years or so until Germany’s green infrastructure was in place.

Olaf Scholz’s coalition government is going ahead with this long-planned closure despite pleas for a stay of execution from a chorus of global climate campaigners, including Bill Gates and Jim Hansen, the NASA scientist who first alerted Washington to global warming. Another three reactors will go at the end of 2022. It is closing good plants just as Vladimir Putin prepares an invasion force on Ukraine’s border, and restricts flows of natural gas as a tool of strategic leverage.

One light-hearted tragedy from soaring energy prices is unripe bananas in the shops! Businesses exposed to the high gas prices are buckling but when the cap is increased for homes in April, expect a storm of protest amid significant hardship. The Greens should never have been allowed in charge of our energy policy. The governments of Europe may well try and keep us focused on Covid rather than on energy prices and energy security because failure on these two issues is unforgivable,

December 21st: maximum 2C, minimum -3C, light SW breeze, gloomy, dry but very damp. Compiled the first table for Honey-buzzard in 2021 – the grand totals for the study area including the National Survey totals, now 23 distinct sites over the 2 seasons. Next up is the seasonal distributions (second table) and the weather monthly summaries. Had shock news that son has gone down with Covid so going straight to daughter's; we'll all meet on Facebook video chat on Xmas day hopefully. Big Sister's family in London has also had Covid (omicron in 3 members) but cases are mild, a few days duration. Today walked 6.15km with 2 trips to HEX, parking on edge at Elvaston – for haircut with Jd at JG, cost £25 including £5 tip, and for late lunch at QHC – tuna sandwich again with salad and black Americano, 2 shots, £7.40+£1 tip. Pulse reached 102 in Sele up steps but quickly back to 77 and higher this morning in inspiring situation. Markets are very volatile: -7k yesterday and +8k today so +1k on balance. Covid worries ebb and flow! lok2tgrf: xxxxx XXX!!!!!!

RKH's affairs continue to progress:

Ombrina Mare arbitration update https://www.londonstockexchange.com/news-article/RKH/ombrina-mare-arbitration-update/15259886

Rockhopper Exploration plc (AIM: RKH), the oil and gas company with key interests in the North Falkland Basin, provides the following update on its international arbitration against the Republic of Italy in relation to the Ombrina Mare field.

As announced in the Company's half-year report on 30 September 2021, Italy made a request, and the Tribunal agreed, to admit a recent European Court of Justice judgment related to intra-EU Energy Charter Treaty disputes, and to reconsider its 2019 decision to reject Italy's intra-EU jurisdictional challenge in the arbitration. The Tribunal had requested Rockhopper's legal advisers to respond by 6 October 2021.

On 21 December 2021, the Company was informed that the Tribunal had rejected Italy's request.

Rockhopper continues to believe it has strong prospects of recovering very significant monetary damages - on the basis of lost profits - as a result of the Republic of Italy's breaches of the Energy Charter Treaty. All of Rockhopper's costs associated with the arbitration to date have been funded on a non-recourse ("no win - no fee") basis from a specialist arbitration funder.

December 20th maximum 4C, minimum 1C, light E breeze, misty, dry but very damp. Tomorrow is the winter solstice, at 15:58GMT to be precise, when the movement of the sun south pauses over the Tropic of Capricorn (my star sign!) at 23.4394 degrees south of the Equator before turning north again: rejoice: every day for the next 6 months will be longer than the one before! Completed the National Honey-buzzard Survey records for the west of the study area at 13 different sites: an impressive total for the game estates! These records are on the home page at present but will be transferred to a separate page in due course, cited from the home page. Will now finalise the outcomes at all Honey-buzzard sites where no young seen this year; don't think they failed, there just wasn't time to get round them all. All sites are classified as confirmed, probable or possible each year for the annual report using standard breeding criteria. Have fieldwork planned for January/February 2022 to visit all Honey-buzzard sites, c60 of them, and record habitat to augment that obtained from maps. This can then be processed before the next breeding season starts. Had lunch with P at B4m4l; chose trout (with rw, inappropriate!) – very tasty! Walked around Sele doing total of 3.65km; pulse rate reached 97 as came up steps quickly but rapidly reversed down to 67. Later made G4g4s with 3 others P/R/A with dancer C on; she's very nifty!! Delighted that Covid restrictions not increased: think it will become increasingly clear that Sage are trying to hide inadequacies of the NHS while the economy must be given priority in this recovery stage from the pandemic. Not planning any nocturnal trips before go to London: always tempting but will wait: still think she's gorgeous: lok2tgrf: xxxxx XXX!!!!!! Have haircut tomorrow with Jd at 10:30! So how's the gorgeous one this morning!! xxxxx XXX!!!!!!

December 19th: maximum 3C, minimum 1C, almost calm, persistent fog, dry but very damp. Did masses of work on National Honey-buzzard records, completing compilation of data for 10 sites in the west, 3 to go. This is all documented on home page. Should be completed tomorrow. Rotary lunch cancelled tomorrow through Covid but P/me going along to B4m4l anyway. Did make W4shop, spending £28 in ½ a week's lot. Made G4g4s with P – packed with younger people, letting themselves go, good to see! xxx

UK apparently again 'won' top position in the world yesterday for Covid, even more than the USA, though how much testing is inflating the figures needs to be taken into account. We are definitely winning the competition though for the most ineffective energy policy:

Lack of wind sparks new fears over green energy revolution: Lulls trigger questions over the long-term predictability of wind patterns amid escalating climate change. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2021/12/18/lack-wind-sparks-new-fears-green-energy-revolution/.

With a large blocking high over the UK giving calm gloomy weather. Here are some recent snapshots of grid generation: 18 Dec  19 Dec  20 Dec, Note gas is 55-60% and renewables, in spite of enormous investment, are 5-10%. We need to start a massive nuclear programme and permit fracking onshore and gas extraction from the North Sea. Renewables don't cut it!

December 18th maximum 3C, minimum -1C, almost calm, sunny all day, freezing fog in evening, dry. In sunshine midday had 60 black flies on the ivy flowers outside my house but no hover flies or wasps; quite amazing having so many insects around this late, bit like in Devon when I lived there. It's obviously a benefit of our warming climate! Drafted two illustrated summaries for the National Honey-buzzard survey for the South Tyne, upper and lower; will press on with this tomorrow, when more time. Did make S4con; so many tickets sold but attendance well down with virus fears but we did our best to provide enthusiastic support, giving a standing ovation; also had a couple of rw to provide financial support! Attended Young Sinfonia led elegantly by MS with violin in Thomas Z style; they played Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite, quite crisp and accurate, bit restrained maybe; versatile LH was leader of the 1st violins. So that was a good start: looking forward to full Nutcracker ballet at TR in February; I like ballet if the music's stirring, which it often is! The Nutcracker does have that very romantic pas de deux. The Messiah was also a little understated, maybe fitting the current mood. But that made it more subtle, appreciating some of the quieter parts as well as the climaxes; we all stood up for the Messiah Hallelujah Chorus – a tradition I don't really enjoy as it comes from royalty apparently. Quite a small orchestra. Enjoyed oboe 2!! Gregory Batsleer was conductor with soloists: Jennifer France soprano, Tim Mead counter-tenor, Thomas Walker tenor, Callum Thorpe bass, with the combined dramatic choruses Huddersfield Choral Society and Chorus of Royal Northern Sinfonia.

Made Br4rw4s, then onto train, which took us to Metro Centre, where a bus was hiding around the corner to take me to Hexham. Runmifit showed that I walked 6.67km today, mainly walk Station – Sage – Station. Also that I slept lightly on the bus for one hour up to 00:10, when arrived in Hexham, but no sleep in the Messiah (of course!). From 2 night's records looks as if I sleep lightly for 1st half of night from 02:00-05:30 and then more deeply from 05:30-09:00 with REM in this part as well. So I'm a night owl – it's 02:43 now, time for bed!! xxxxx XXX!!!!!!

The UK had the highest number of Covid cases in the world yesterday at 90,418, bar none. Is this because we do so many tests, picking up asymptomatic or very mild cases? Our tests per 1M population are easily the highest in the world for large countries at 5.6M/1M https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/, that is each person has been tested 5.6 times on average! Denmark, Austria and UAE test the most among medium-sized countries. Are lockdowns proportionate to number of tests done? Netherlands, which has just launched a full lockdown https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/dec/19/netherlands-to-enter-lockdown-as-nations-across-europe-tighten-curbs-to-slow-omicron-spread, does not fit this pattern being 75th on tests/1M people at 1.11, 1/5th of the UK level. One suggestion is to get the anti-viral drug paxlovid approved for older people, say, over 50s – see 12/12 below. The Guardian does report a few rays of hope on omicron: development of anti-viral drugs, South Africa – relatively mild form of Covid, site attacks – less lungs, more upper respiratory [like a cold!]. See: Is there any good news at all on Omicron? Yes, there are small signs of hope. https://www.theguardian.com/science/2021/dec/18/is-there-any-good-news-at-all-on-omicron-yes-there-are-small-signs-of-hope.

December 17th: maximum 5C, minimum 1C, almost calm, sunny all day, cooler, dry. Completed Goshawk account for 2021 as below, next up is to complete National Honey-buzzard survey, entries for west of study area. Friday's a good social day as usual with N/D on Skype at 10:00m T4m4l with M, DoW4g4s with D/D. Like the DoW – friendly staff, including N/K who used to be at W! They had a cancellation today of a booking for 71 tomorrow – what a tragedy! Still running Runmifit – kept bracelet on overnight and it analysed my sleep of 7 hour 20 min non-stop, light for 1st half and then deep towards end with REM then as well, more tomorrow on this when have another nite's sample with lie-in and sweet dreams. Funds had a reasonable week in view of omicron's rapid advances: +5k on week to new record, +571k on ytd gross (+46.2%), +544k net with ftse 100 ytd +11.3%, ftse 250 +13.2%. Benefiting from resilience of high-yielding mining stocks, nothing in pandemic recovery stocks such as hospitality and travel. Very pleased at LibDem victory in North Shropshire by-election; hope BJ is now wound back by party from his high-spending agenda including net-zero 2050, which is unaffordable. 2moro will be a typically quiet Saturday except for evening with concert. xxx

Updated Goshawk page, showing a tenuous hold, for SW Northumberland in 2021 (Population of the Goshawk in SW Northumberland).

More details of the Goshawk breeding season for 2021 are available in Table 15.

Table 15: Breeding Data for Goshawk in SW Northumberland by area in 2021

The revival became less certain in 2021 as although the number of sites increased to 11 with 13 adults in occupation, there was very little evidence for successful breeding with just one juvenile noted at one site, that at Ordley by the Devil's Water. In the core area of the study area in the Devil's Water and Tyne Valley W 5 sites were occupied. Two sites were occupied in Derwent and single sites were occupied across the rest of the study area. The greater emphasis on the west of study area this year did produce single sites in the upper South Tyne and Allen, but no broods. The Bulletins of the Northumberland & Tyneside Bird Club were searched from February-October 2021: four additional records at the possible level were found at Melkridge in lower South Tyne, Burntshieldhaugh Hexhamshire, Derwent Gorge and Low Waskerley in Derwent. These are included in the preceding totals. The Goshawk does retain a tenuous hold in the study area here but, as said last year, there are no grounds for complacency, particularly with 7 out of the 11 sites being in the possible breeding category.

December 16th : maximum 9C, minimum 5C, almost calm, sunny all day, mild, dry. On Elvaston ivy flowers had no insects today but did have a solitary wasp there 2 days ago. Only 6 bird-types at Hexham in afternoon, but including 13 Blackbird. Had 30 Fieldfare at Houtley on way in at 13:30. On Ordley ivy flowers had loads of insects today in the sunshine, including 70-100 black flies, 2 hover flies and a wasp. Found 4 records at the possible breeding level for Goshawk in the 2021 N&TBC Bulletins; have added these to the table and will publish final results tomorrow. Cleaner S came this afternoon – she gave me 4xg and some choccies, I gave her £50 bonus! Made QHC4t followed by walk around Sele. Later made G4g4s but it was so packed (no seats), we (P/R/me) moved to Tap over the road where we had good chat over the top of a a quiz. Have got a new toy, a fitness wrist watch, which I've been wearing for 2 days now. It links through Bluetooth to Runmifit app, on my Android phone. Today walked 8908 steps, 6.68km, with temperature 36.2C, heart rate varying from 68 to 92, blood oxygen 98%, blood pressure 114/71. Heart rate reached 92 after climbing steep steps in the Sele and after another moment (!!) but quickly subsided to 70. Blood oxygen reflects lung condition. Blood pressure was pretty constant. Going to wear it tonite while asleep! 2moro have Skype chat with N/D at 10 for 90 min, T4l with M and DoW4g4s with D/D – pretty busy. Funds at new peak today. Enjoyed the morning liaison!! xxxxx XXX!!!!!!

December 15th : maximum 10C, minimum 7C, light SW breeze, bright, mild, dry. Have Goshawk data downloaded and analysed, next step is to add any data from the N&TBC bulletins. Did my second stint for R at Tesco, reasonable donations; we've got a card reader now, taking £2 or 5; some people say 'sorry, no change' so we whip out the card reader; some do pay that way but others scurry off quickly, bluff called! Bought masses of cleaning materials for S in the house at W. Problem this morning – fitted a bulb bought off the web, turned lights on and fuse blew in upstairs light circuit; bulb shorted the circuit I feel rather than overloaded it; so with no trips, located the faulty fuse and fitted new 5-amp wire in it; all working now! Coal arrived this morning – very prompt --£124.50 for 250 kg of ovoids (smokeless, produced in UK from overseas coal) and 100 kg of small doubles (good kindling)-- pretty reasonable – source coal for both ovoids and doubles is Russia! Not sure what to make of latest Covid fear game – whatever, Welly is closed this Friday evening – ruination for many hospitality businesses. UK had 2nd highest Covid total in world today, after US, quite amazing! Still planning to go to Messiah and Young Sinfonia this Saturday, with Duke of Wellington on Friday and Globe on Thursday. xxx the most gorgeous one xxxxx XXX!!!!!!

December 14th : maximum 8C, minimum 7C, moderate SW breeze, bright, mild, dry. Below is Hobby summary for 2021, next up is Goshawk! Collecting in 4St HEX this afternoon out in the open from 12:00-13:00 in Rotary's Xmas appeal, collecting for local charities such as Food Bank, Hospice: reasonably well supported. 2moro it's same ongoing collection but it's 13:00-14:00 at Tesco. Bought Big Issue from Monica for £5 and had lunch at QHC – very tasty. Gave £28.80 to Salvation Army's Xmas appeal in addition to my monthly payment of £25; think there but for the grace of God go I!! Would have voted with the Tory rebels and LibDems today: exponential extrapolations are not modelling IMHO; modelling should attempt to balance inhibiting factors as well as the straight growth. It's ridiculous saying the whole country will be infected by the end of December. Bought a ticket in Upper Circle of TR for Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker by Scottish Ballet on 3/2 for £49 as Friend. Have 4 concerts in a row from 2/2-5/2. Paid Universal Logic €300 for their congress fee today to secure early-bird rate. After the Hobby account below, give some encouraging news of Pfizer's antiviral drugs. In any case South Africa's cases remain mild: we're over-reacting, whatever happened to English coolness!! Funds were down on Monday but rebounded today to new record +4k wtd; mining heavyweights continue to benefit from bottoming in China and inflation worries (they're a hedge!). xxx

Updated Hobby page with more promising results for SW Northumberland in 2021 (Population of the Hobby in SW Northumberland).

More details of the Hobby breeding season for 2021 are available in Table 16

.

Table 16: Breeding Data for Hobby in SW Northumberland by area in 2021

Coverage was expanded in the west this year with the focus of the Honey-buzzard survey moving this way in 2021 from the east of the study area last year. Two sites were found occupied in each of Allen and upper South Tyne, giving a major boost to the reported totals. Top area remains Tyne Valley W with 3 sites found occupied with the remaining 2 sites of the total of 9 occupied found in Tyne Valley E. Derwent was poorly covered this year so the negative outcome for Hobby is not unexpected. Devil's Water though was very well covered but also had a negative outcome. Broods were scarce. A pair in the Towsbank/Eals Bridge area raised at least one young and food was seen being carried into a nest at Prospect Hill, near Corbridge, on 22/8. NR was absent for 2 weeks in September in a visit to Gibraltar/Tarifa, which will have meant some broods were probably missed. A pair were almost certainly successful at Bywell Cottagebank, being seen on 5 occasions from 18/5 to 10/8. Further breeding sites with outcome unknown were Staward N, Staward S, Haltwhistle North Wood, Riding Mill (March Burn), Prudhoe Dukeshagg, Wylam. As with the Red Kite and Goshawk, additional records were taken from the Bulletin of the Northumberland & Tyneside Bird Club (April-October 2021 searched): these provided further records for the Corbridge and Towsbank sites but did not introduce any new sites. A search of BirdGuides provided a further sighting for the Corbridge site but no further additional information. So after the slump in 2019 to just 3 sites occupied in the whole study area, it is reasonable to feel a little happier about the continued presence of the Hobby in the study area as a breeding species but it remains a scarce species. Most records in the County are now on or near the coast where it may well be breeding.

NEW YORK (Reuters) -Pfizer Inc on Tuesday said its antiviral COVID-19 pill showed near 90% efficacy in preventing hospitalizations and deaths in high-risk patients, and recent lab data suggests the drug retains its effectiveness against the fast spreading Omicron variant of the coronavirus. https://uk.investing.com/news/coronavirus/pfizer-says-covid19-pill-near-90-effective-in-final-analysis-2537187.

The U.S. drugmaker last month said the oral medicine was around 89% effective in preventing hospitalizations or deaths when compared to placebo, based on interim results in around 1,200 people. Data from its final analysis of the trial disclosed on Tuesday includes an additional 1,000 people.

Nobody in the trial who received the Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) treatment died, compared with 12 deaths among placebo recipients.

The Pfizer pills are taken with the older antiviral ritonavir every 12 hours for five days beginning shortly after onset of symptoms. If authorized, the treatment will be sold as Paxlovid.

"It's a stunning outcome," Pfizer Chief Scientific Officer Mikael Dolsten said in an interview.

December 13th : maximum 7C, minimum 3C, light SW breeze, dull, mild, dry. Below is Red Kite summary for 2021, next up is Hobby! Made Rotary Xmas dinner at Beaumont where put on President's Table for some highbrow talk, mainly centering around 6 bottles of wine for the 8 of us. Canon David Kennedy was our speaker and I was impressed with the stressing of the 'light' in midwinter and the quarter days as significant biblical events. Went straight onto G where 4 of us out and C on. Good chat: impressed with liveliness of both Rotary and Globe in face of current adversity. xx

Meanwhile from RSA: South Africa’s omicron Covid outbreaks may already be running out of steam: Country’s virus death rate now one in 200 – the lowest it has been throughout the pandemic and 10 times lower than last September

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2021/12/13/south-africas-omicron-covid-outbreaks-may-already-running-steam/.

Statisticians in South Africa have also noted that the case fatality rate – the percentage of people who go on to die from an infection – has fallen considerably since the arrival of omicron. With the delta variant, around three per cent of infections – one in 33 – were resulting in death, but now that figure has slumped to 0.5 per cent – one in 200 – the lowest it has been throughout the pandemic in South Africa and 10 times lower than in September last year. Some experts claim there has not been enough time for the death data to catch up with infections and that the case fatality rate will rise in coming weeks as infections start to translate into hospitalisations and deaths. But Peter Streicher, a research associate at the University of Johannesburg, pointed out that the infection to death lag in South Africa is just 10 days because most cases are only picked up once they arrive in hospital, when many are already severe. It means omicron should have been visible in the death data by now. "The case fatality rate was consistently at three per cent until late November, mostly delta deaths," he said. "If the case fatality rate remained at three per cent, we would have seen 200 deaths per day by now. We are seeing around 21 deaths per day currently, of which eight are probably still delta deaths.

"Omicron is extremely mild. The rest of the world has nothing to fear." His modelling also suggests cases in Gauteng have peaked and the total deaths caused by the wave will be around 640 – about four per cent of South Africa's delta wave, which saw 15,400 deaths.

So what's going on? Interesting debate in HoC tomorrow.

Updated Red Kite page with solid results for SW Northumberland in 2021 (Population of the Red Kite in SW Northumberland).

More details of the Red Kite breeding season for 2021 are available in Table 15:

Table 15: Breeding Data for Red Kite in SW Northumberland by area in 2021

This year, action moved to the west of the study area as the Honey-buzzard survey action was concentrated in that area. So many more visits were made to the upper South Tyne and Allen and fewer visits to the Derwent. Coverage was concentrated this year therefore on the upper South Tyne, Allen, Devil's Water, Tyne Valley W and Tyne Valley E. The total number of sites found to be occupied fell slightly from 61 to 56 and the total number of adults found declined from 84 in 2020 to 75. These are not thought to be real declines, probably stemming from a reduction in observer activity in spring after the frenetic activity in the Covid lockdown in spring 2020. The observer NR was absent for half of September 2021 in Gibraltar/Tarifa; this will have depressed the numbers of broods found. Despite these declines in total sites and coverage issues the number of juveniles known to have fledged was a record 44 in a record number of 28 broods. Further the news from the west of the study area was very encouraging with 15 sites occupied in the upper South Tyne and Allen with 16+ young raised at 11 sites. The habitat here is of sheepwalk and game estates, suggesting there is plenty of food and little persecution in these areas. Some of the birds in the western areas may originate from the Grizedale, Cumbria, reintroduction rather than the Gateshead one. The Red Kite has recolonised very successfully both the lowland habitat in the eastern part of the study area and the upland habitat in the western part.

Movements were not noted this year, except for one flying W at Swallowship in the Devil's Water area at 14:40 on 6 November. The absence in September did reduce observations in this critical month for raptor migration.

Two mixed pairs with Black Kite were noted this year, after one in 2020 (see Black Kite in Northumberland). To avoid complex handling of data, such pairs have been counted as pure Red Kite pairs for counting purposes on this page and the hybrid offspring have been counted as pure Red Kite juveniles. Two hybrid young were raised at one site in 2020 in Tyne Valley E and 4 hybrid young at two sites in 2021 in Tyne Valley E and Allen.

As in 2020 records were included from the bulletins of the Northumberland & Tyneside Bird Club from February (extended earlier in season from March in 2020) to October 2021. These added single sites to Allen, Lower South Tyne, Tyne Valley West and upper South Tyne. The main effect was on Derwent, increasing the 2 sites found by me to 15 sites, these last along the Durham border to E of Derwent Reservoir, which I had not visited. So 17 sites in all were added from the bulletins to the 39 sites that I found from my own observations. The bulletin writer acknowledged the increasing numbers with the comment “Heavy signs of expansion as 46 sightings this month” in the headlines for the March 2021 bulletin.

FoRK reported 67 birds at 2 roost sites in Durham at Gibside and Hamsterley Mill. in December 2020 https://friendsofredkites.org.uk/2020%2F2021-winter-roosting. Breeding report from FoRK: “In recent reports we’ve announced new record figures and this one is no exception. We know of forty-four chicks that have fledged this summer, from twenty successful nests, beating last year’s figure of forty-two. Sadly, there were six nests which failed with four of the failures due to the hailstorms and the cold, wet weather of May. Of the five garden nests found, two were lost during that period, but the three remaining successful nests fledged seven chicks.

There were three very late nests discovered this year: One was in Spen Banks, near Sherburn Towers Farm, Rowlands Gill and another was a re-lay in the Harperley Nature Reserve, near Tantobie. The third nest found was north-east of Whitley Chapel and this brought the total of known nests in south-east Northumberland up to three. The youngsters in the nest at Spen Banks fledged in late July, as did the Whitley Chapel brood of three, but the chicks in the Harperley nest did not fledge until the fifth of August. Red kite chicks normally fledge by the end of June”. Note the not unexpected late breeding of the birds near Whitley Chapel, close to my house. https://friendsofredkites.org.uk/2021-breeding-summary

December 12th: maximum 11C, minimum 5C, sunny around lunchtime, a rare day for December, light W breeze, increasing by evening, dry. House is lovely and cosy now. Sunset in Hexham at 15:40 has now bottomed, next step on 18/12 is + 1 min to 15:41. Sunrises are still getting later, don't worry too much about that! There were masses of flies around my flowering ivy at Ordley at 13:00 in the sunshine, c60 large dark flies with 1 hoverfly and no wasps; it's still producing flowers. Every time a car passed, there was a swarm taking off with quite a buzz. Plenty of Winter Moth around last night in the milder weather. These December insect hatches must be welcomed by the birds. Had great turnout at G4g4s – 7 of us, almost full complement! Made great progress on the Red Kite account for 2021, producing provisional totals, now writing the account. Had a second paper accepted at Universal Logic conference in Crete in April, definitely worth going; M's not going, too expensive and too much of a strain so I will be presenting both papers; looking forward to it; let's hope Covid doesn't get in the way. Next concert is Messiah on Saturday at Sage. xx

December 11th: maximum 8c, minimum 7C, light W breeze, gloomy. Did make S4con, hearing RNS: A West End Christmas with Michael England conducting and singers Kelly Mathieson, Caroline Sheen, Nadim Naaman, Scott Davies. All very upbeat and played with high spirits; particularly liked the 3 songs from The Phantom of the Opera by Andrew Lloyd Webber – very passionate and inspired. The concert was very well attended. We had a reception before the concert from the fundraising team, all very matey though concert not highbrow enough maybe for some regular attendees and donors who were absent. Called in at Bridge for old time's sake for a rw – very quiet for Saturday nite. Came in by train HEX-NCL 17:16 and was going back on last train 22:35 but it was only running to the Metro Centre (don't know why). Joined a select group surrounding some train company officers and was put in a taxi taking 4 people to Blaydon, Ovingham and Hexham foc. Got to HEX at 23:20 about expected time for train so not bad – £52 on meter but that was Northern's call! Funds last week were +32k at new record, making gain ytd of +565k gross (+45.8%), +540k net with ftse 100 ytd +11.7%, ftse 250 +14.0%; don't have any funds in travel, tourism, leisure, as suspect we will limit such activities even if all evidence shows it's pointless. Will summarise Falkland investments tomorrow. Booked up Wagner's Parsifal at Sage by Opera North on 18/6 for £55, starting at 16:00 – it's fairly long! That's to go with the earlier performance at Leeds at 16:00 on 7/6, which also signed up for. House is cold but slowly warming up after 73 hours of power cuts in 3 sessions in last 2 weeks. Still working on Red Kite results for 2021, now merging records from NTBC bulletins into my results. xx

Very surprised that the scientists are using Gauteng as a marker for their modelling on what omicron will do in the UK. From Wiki:

Situated on the Highveld, Gauteng is the smallest province in South Africa. Though Gauteng accounts for only 1.5% of the country's land area, it is home to more than a quarter of its population.[5] Highly urbanised, the province contains the country's largest city, Johannesburg, which is also one of the largest cities in the world. It also contains the administrative capital, Pretoria, and other large areas such as Midrand, Vanderbijlpark and the affluent Sandton. As of 2019, Gauteng is the most populous province in South Africa with a population of approximately 15 million people according to estimates.[6]

Gauteng is very densely populated and is indeed an under-resourced megacity with low levels of vaccination, particularly prone to the rapid spread of infectious diseases. Such modelling needs to be treated with great caution.

December 10th: maximum 5c, minimum 0C, ground frost in moonlight landscape late at nite, calm, sunny in daytime. Another power cut, starting at 13:30 and unresolved at end of day; reported it straight-away and in a select power-cut group of 1; engineer arrived quickly and diagnosed it as faulty (burnt-out) wiring near pole, which would have given fluttery supply recently (correct!). but a separate team does mega-wiring problems and they could not fit me in today; phoned me up at Welly to confirm this (think they were surprised I was at the pub!). So that's 4 nights out of last 14 spent in the dark; don't tell me the future is all-electric: It's the 8Kw coal-fired stove that's my lifeline; just having a cup of coffee on it and it will keep going all nite. Suspect the problem is a result of recent dramatic surges; there will be many gremlins lurking in the power supply. Had gr8 meal at a very quiet W in RM with D/D, good 3-course meal (pate, turkey, Xmas pudding, couple of rw with a g aperitif! Spreadsheet not available but funds had a good week, at least +30k at new record, on brightening of outlook for Falklands oil and general rise in mining stocks. Have given up on North Sea oil/gas on lack of political support; we will pay dearly for the lack of support for such a valuable resource, particularly in an energy insecure world. Earlier chatted to N/D on Skype as they approach 2 years without social interaction. The effect of fear on my generation is catastrophic -- many people's active lives cut short; an epidemic of dementia in progress. 2moro at the Sage for reception and West End concert. xx

PS power mysteriously came back at 01:45 (11/12) with no action by Powergrid. Enabled me to charge/fire-up all heating devices, computers. Engineer arrived at 08:45 (11/12), surprised at return of power but replaced faulty cable, which he showed me, quite bare of insulation at one point; he also replaced a neighbour's bit of wiring, showing similar wear, while up the pole! Very pleased they've come round.

December 9th: maximum 5C, minimum 1C, light W breeze, mostly dry until evening when heavy, short period of rain. Made Boatside4m4l with the IT gang at 12:30, 5 of us out for good crack; had haddock tart followed by beef pie, plus a couple of rw, leaving turkey for tomorrow at Wellington in evening. Cleaner S was at house so went up the road to Grindon Lough for a bit of birdwatching at dusk followed by garage trip for petrol fill – 146.9p a litre, total £56. Much later made G4g4s where A/R out for good company. Working on Red Kite 2021 now, going through spreadsheet of 88 records, producing what's known at each site; should complete this tomorrow and start updating the report. xx At Grindon had 14 bird-types, including 230 Wigeon, 168 Teal, 125 Canada Goose, 10 Tufted Duck, 10 Mallard, 3 Goldeneye (drake, 2 redhead), 20 Crow, 6 GBBG (5 adult, 1 1w), 2 Herring Gull 1w, plus 3 2w put down as Herring Gull but could be Caspian Gull; light was not good and only had camera no.2.

Anglo-Israeli Collaboration saves my bacon in Falklands: https://www.londonstockexchange.com/news-article/RKH/sea-lion-update/15240985

8 December 2021: Sea Lion Update: Rockhopper Exploration plc: Heads of Terms with Harbour to exit the Falklands and Navitas to farm-in

Rockhopper Exploration plc (AIM: RKH), the oil and gas exploration and production company with key interests in the North Falkland Basin, is pleased to announce that Rockhopper, Harbour Energy plc ("Harbour") and Navitas Petroleum LP ("Navitas") have signed detailed heads of terms for Harbour to exit the Falklands [thank God] and for Navitas to farm-in. The proposed transaction remains subject to definitive documentation and completion subject to, inter alia, regulatory approval.

Navitas Petroleum, Limited Partnership (NVPT-L.TA) quoted in Tel Aviv- נאוויטס פטרוליום - Tel Aviv Delayed price. Currency in ILA [Navitas means energy in Latin]

Hold 1.4m RKH (0.3% of company) so have an interest! Argentina has been trying to scare-off companies from producing oil in the Malvinas (Falklands) but Navitas are made of stern stuff! Israel has a number of very dynamic energy companies seeking energy security for the country, something the UK has been neglecting to its cost.

December 8th: maximum 4C, minimum 2C, moderate W breeze, mostly dry, occasional shower. Sunset 15:41 (3 min more to come off), sunrise 8:19, day length 7 hour 22 min. Important day, publication at last, from home page: Launched new page [after plenty of work] with breeding records from 2020-2021 (Black Kite in Northumberland).

Extract from page: summary data: All the data in Table 1 refers to the study area in south west Northumberland, with survey work done by NR.

Year	Number of localities where signs of occupation	Number of pure Black Kite pair	Number of hybrid Black Kite x Red Kite pair	Number of Black Kite adult	Number of associating Red Kite adult	Number of pure Black Kite juvenile	Number of Black Kite x Red Kite juvenile	Total broods	Total young fledged
2020	1	0	1	1	1	0	2	1	2 (1 x2)
2021	3	1	2	4	2	2	4	3	6 (3x2)

Table 1: Numbers of breeding Black Kite found from 2020-2021 in SW Northumberland

Have plenty to say on other matters such as hypocrite green Allegra Stratton and Israeli company Navitas' pending deal on oil in the Falklands but it's 01:54 09/12 and need to get to bed! Did have lunch at QHC and secured supplies of bird food and kindling wood for fire. Round of bigger meals starts tomorrow!! xx

December 7th: maximum 4C, minimum 2C, strong SE breeze, not a gale, heavy rain started at 13:00 and continued into evening. No power supplies problem but weather docile in Barra compared with Arwen. Northern Powergrid did send me text saying they were right behind us as Barra struck! Not reassured – it's all public relations! Had a quiet day not risking a journey after Saturday evening but other than a bit of sleet at the start it all fell as rain. Completed processing of individual Black Kite records and piccies; great immediate benefit in that realise the Prudhoe mixed pair raised 2 young each year. Tomorrow will write chatty comments and will then publish, probably on Thursday. Have RNS concert and reception at Sage on Saturday with lunch on Thursday at Boatside and dinner at Welly on Friday. Markets have had a incredible rebound this week as fears of omicron (Greek letter small o: o-micron, avoiding nu people would hear it as new and xi Chinese leader!) recede. Mind the usual culprits in the media and health professionals (some self-serving) are doing their best to whip up fear and panic again. No country can afford another lockdown as budgets already exceeded for all reasonable purposes. Further mental/societal problems from lockdowns are already severe – we've got to get back to normal, accepting the virus will be with us for years. Wore mask in Waitrose, a little on Metro, getting into Hexham Library but nowhere else. Drugs developed to treat Covid cases are promising. Omicron should be milder than delta on normal rules of virus evolution (through time, more infectious, less severe) – let's see! Funds bounced back +21k to within 5k of record, set on 15/10; particularly strong were heavyweight miners, which I've been buying in spades, and Eros junk bonds; getting into the film industry now! Hopefully India's vast cinema industry will revive rapidly post-Covid. Liked the leaflet for the BAF – very well presented, proof-read, motivating; goes well with the music. xx

Here's what has become a monthly climate update. Climate mean anomaly for November 2021 was +0.08 C, quite a low figure, reinforcing the idea of a plateau since 2014 http://www.drroyspencer.com/2021/12/uah-global-temperature-update-for-november-2021-0-08-deg-c/. The more detailed account of the satellite readings, at https://www.nsstc.uah.edu/climate/, shows that:

Global climate trend since Dec. 1 1978: +0.14 C per decade

Following the warmest October temperatures over land (+0.61 °C), this temperature departure in November fell to +0.22 C (+0.40 °F), a 0.39 °C drop. The polar regions especially cooled, with northern high latitudes experiencing a drop of over 1 °C from October to a below-average value of -0.42 °C (-0.76 °F) with a similar drop in the southern high latitudes of -0.85 °C to -0.73 °C (-1.31 °F). The warmest region, in terms of the monthly departure from average, was +3.8 °C (+6.8 °F) °F) near the coastal town of Ayan in far Eastern Russia. Warm departures also occurred in the western US, Canada to the North Atlantic, Black Sea, and New Zealand. The North Pacific, much of Africa eastward through China, the far South Pacific and eastern Antarctica were also above average. The coldest grid cell appeared near King Salmon Alaska (-4.4 °C, -7.9 °F). As is often the case with monthly extremes, the coldest and warmest were relatively close in a global sense – in this case only 3,700 km (about 2,300 mi) apart or roughly the distance from Los Angeles to Atlanta. In addition to Alaska, several other colder than average areas were seen in the European/Russian Arctic, eastern US, western Mediterranean, much of the coast of Antarctica and central China eastward to Japan.

Arctic sea-ice: A mixed-bag of Arctic sea ice: Sea ice extent increased at a faster than average pace through November and by the end of the month, extent was just within the interdecile range. Extent was above average in the Bering Sea, but Hudson Bay remained unusually ice free through the month. http://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/. The November 2021 monthly average extent was 9.77 million square kilometers (3.77 million square miles), which ranked tenth lowest in the satellite record. The 2021 extent was 930,000 million square kilometers (359,000 million square miles) below the 1981 to 2010 long-term average. Extent was higher than average in the Bering Sea, but is extremely low in Hudson Bay. The downward linear trend in November sea ice extent over the 43-year satellite record is 53,300 square kilometers (20,600 square miles) per year, or 5 percent per decade relative to the 1981 to 2010 average.

In the Antarctic, ice extent declined relatively rapidly during the austral spring. By the end of November, extent was the second lowest in the satellite record, bested only by the extreme low recorded in 2016. Extent was particularly low in the Bellingshausen and Weddell Seas as well as in the Indian Ocean sector, north of Enderby Land. The Maud Rise polynya [open sea within ice] has once again formed. This feature was not seen for many years after the 1970s, but has started to form in recent years.

ENSO Alert System Status: La Niña Advisory. La Niña is present. Equatorial sea surface temperatures (SSTs) are below average across the central and east-central Pacific Ocean. The tropical Pacific atmosphere is consistent with La Niña conditions.

La Niña is likely to continue through the Northern Hemisphere winter 2021-22. (~90% chance) and into spring 2022 (~50% chance during March-May). https://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/analysis_monitoring/lanina/enso_evolution-status-fcsts-web.pdf.

December 6th: maximum 4C, minimum 0C, light W breeze, dry and dull. Had a Marsh Tit on the granular peanut on the shed roof at home. Two social events: Rotary at B4m4l, always a solid start to the week, and G4g4s with 4 of us out, double last Monday's. Met JC, who's had Covid really badly – he's in basically very robust health so bit of a surprise; his partner S sailed through with mild symptoms for a few days. Booked up trains for trip to London at Xmas, going for 7 days more or less centrally positioned, staying with son for 2 days and daughter for 4 days. Cost for 2 advance singles NCL-LGX was under £80 with railcard, surprised at that – very competitive! Looked at Black Kite 2020 results hard with most recent experience and can see that 2 hybrid juveniles were raised, not 1; completed 2020 results and now adding piccies to 2021 for Prudhoe. It's going to be an informative piece when finally released in 2-3 days time. Storm Barra arrives tomorrow afternoon, direction from W makes it less of a threat than Arwen (hopes he!) but will likely produce whiteout in afternoon/early evening. Think it will be QHC tomorrow morning. xx

December 5th: maximum 4C, minimum 2C, light SE breeze, mainly dry in the 'Shire but wet on Tyneside. Main event of day was fundraiser BAF at StJB, drove in to sharpen up my city skills! Very impressed, thought the violinist and pianist played beautifully together throughout and LH was accomplished as soprano – so brave of her to take on the task when regulars became ill. Had a rw to make it an occasion! Enjoyed the hug!! Gave 0.04k for the envelope collection and, after listening to the stream later, gave a further 0.02k; have got into the habit of watching streams after going to the live performance; you do learn quite a bit more and can replay the bits you love so think it's a good idea, as well as bringing in more patrons. Progressed Black Kite, producing cropped images for both days in June 2020 in the Prudhoe area. Later made G4g4s where an incredible 5 of us out, very sociable: Sunday's becoming a gr8 day with the mso!! Had a Tawny Owl calling in the Sele at 23:30. Safe journey back: xxxxx XXX!!!!!!

December 4th: maximum 2C, minimum 1C, moderate NW breeze, heavy sleet started at 16:30, quickly turning to snow, turning back to sleet at midnight. What weather for the roads: covered in wet snow early evening in blizzard conditions, A69 traffic at 30mph going in with everyone following the tracks of the car in front. Just rain at Ponteland and in Tyneside. Coming back a thaw partly due to gritting on the A69, but 'Shire road was covered in 15cm of slush and rutted snow with a flood down the side of the road in places; again had to keep to the deep tracks, keep the revs up going uphill and crawl downhill. Mission accomplished: always satisfying to keep life going! Earlier some work on Black Kite, producing cropped stills for 20/8/2020 records at Ordley and Prudhoe records copied from 2021 NB. Will add piccies, where available, to 2021 notes and look to crop more of the 2020 piccies. Film at TC was The Hand of God, giving an insight into family life in Naples in the 1980s; there were some lovely shots of Naples and surrounding highlights like Isle of Capri and Stromboli; very sensuous in places with tragic moments, combining all possible emotions; enjoyed it! 2moro sees concert; taking car in. xx

Here's the update from Canadian Manganese, the mining company, expecting to supply Mn for use in electric vehicle car batteries. Hold 574.5k of these (0.68% of the total issued) from Minco days. Expect them to start trading at 35c (Canadian) valuing stake at £120k (that's my spreadsheet value)..

Canadian Manganese Files Technical Report for the Woodstock Project – Newsfile Corp. --Fri, December 3, 2021, 7:12 PM·7 min read

New Mineral Resource Estimate for Plymouth Deposit 43,070,000 tonnes grading 10.01% Manganese NI

Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - December 3, 2021) - Canadian Manganese Company Inc. ("CMC" or the "Company") is pleased to report that it has filed a technical report in accordance with National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects, reporting a Mineral Resource Estimate for the Plymouth manganese-iron deposit (Plymouth Deposit) (the "Woodstock Project") in New Brunswick, available on SEDAR (www.sedar.com).

The technical report is entitled "NI 43-101 Technical Report for the Woodstock Project, (Plymouth Manganese-Iron Deposit) Woodstock Area, New Brunswick, Canada" (the "Report") and has been prepared by Paul Ténière, M.Sc., P. Geo.; Matthew Harrington, P. Geo. (both of Mercator Geological Services Limited); Dean Thibault, P. Eng.; (Thibault and Associates Ltd) and Lawrence Elgert, P. Eng. (AGP Mining Consultants Inc) with an effective date of November 10, 2021. The Report updates the previous Mineral Resource Estimate of the Plymouth deposit disclosed in the Woodstock Project Preliminary Economic Assessment dated July 10, 2014.

Following the recent completion of the reassessment of strategic focus from the production of Electrolytic Manganese Metals ("EMM") to High Purity Manganese Sulphate Monohydrate ("HPMSM"), including current pricing analysis and preliminary operating cost estimates, the new Mineral Resource estimate, prepared in accordance with the CIM Definition Standards for Mineral Resources and Reserves as amended in 2014, (CIM Standards 2014) now stands at 43,070,000 tonnes grading 10.01% manganese (utilizing a cut-off grade of 5% Mn) in the Inferred category.

This technical report may be used to support a public listing of the Company on a Canadian stock exchange. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/canadian-manganese-files-technical-report-191200528.html

December 3rd: maximum 6C, minimum 3C, light SW breeze, dull, dry until late at night. Joined N/D on Skype for 90 min of chat in morning, then Saxo Markets for webinar from 12:00-13:00 on outrageous predictions for 2022: these included rain check on move out of fossil fuels (due to impossibility of replacing them that quickly), Facebook decline (young view it as a bit granny-like), US inflation soaring (with reckless budgets), US becoming ungovernable (hate between the 2 main parties), EU constrained (by internal rifts), Reddit (as women's army, pressing more strongly for removal of glass ceilings), India joining Middle East Regional Alliance, Spotify disrupted (by NFT-based digital rights, 85% of revenue to artists, Katy Perry, Taylor Swift prime movers), hypersonic space race (dangerous missile developments), life-span enhancements (diagnosis predispositions), with in q&a nuclear civil power and gender rights discussed. All very interesting! Then out to bottle bank (clearing glass jars), W4shop £42 (amazing how much save with no junk food and no drinking at home). Finally made DoW with D/D for Xmas dinner – wild mushrooms with scotch egg, turkey main course, apple crumble, couple rw, marvellous conversation and food, my share £37 including £4 tip. Made more progress on Black Kite, completing pictures for Bywell 26/7/21 and retrieving entries, including piccies, for 2020; getting there quickly! Funds finished +1k on week after being as high as +8k but Friday was a down day with worries about Omicron and poor US job figures. So ytd gain is 533k gross (+43.2%), +508k net, with ftse 100 ytd +9.1%, ftse 250 +12.6%. Some interesting news: Eros, an Indian Netflix-style operation, in which hold junk bonds, appears to be surviving; Canadian Manganese listing is imminent (more on this later). Finished off a great day with a stimulating pillow chat!! 2moro sees TC4film, based in Naples, late-show, going via CP!! Sunday is expected to be quieter but looking forward to concert, travelling by car!! xxxxx XXX!!!!!!

December 2nd: maximum 2C, minimum 0C, light W breeze, sunny, little snow in evening, melting by midnight as thaw set in. Met M at T4c4c and G4g4s with P/A, both venues for good chat. Also met R outside his house and persuaded him to join us next Monday. At Ordley had a Barn Owl at 23:45 and 10 Fieldfare at 14:00. Major effort on Black Kite records continued, adding piccies and analysis to existing accounts. Almost completed 2021 for Bywell and Sinderhope but need to add earlier Prudhoe records in 2021 and all records for 2020. Think will complete this part before publishing. Working on kitchen tall cabinet where oil-fired boiler is to go, emptying the shelves and finding space elsewhere in kitchen for displaced items. Have got masses of glass bottles for recycling and many plastic boxes for chucking. Haven't had a quote yet for installation but oil looks to be the most reasonably priced heating commodity over the years ahead, currently $70 a barrel after OPEC+ continues to boost supplies; think they want to head off substitution worries. Will be attending the FR concert on Sunday – looking forward to it. xxxxx XXX!!!!!! Will dream of her tonite: lok2tgrf: xxxxx XXX!!!!!!

December 1st: maximum 5C, minimum -1C, moderate NW breeze, heavy rain in morning, then dry but snow flurries gave 2cm of lying snow by end of day, much colder. Power stayed on! Empathise enormously with those still cut-off. Put a lot of effort into Black Kite page, preparing Background, Seasonal Movements, NR's Results, Multimedia. Close to publishing but assembling more piccies from Sinderhope and earlier Bywell visits. Spent several hours on this. Booked up another Xmas lunchtime meal – Boatside at Warden with IT gang on 9/12. 2moro it's T4c4c with M and G4g4s with A and on Friday have first Xmas meal at DoW in evening with D/D. So keeping life going!! Symptoms have indeed gone! xxxxx XXX!!!!!!

November 30th: maximum 10C, minimum 4C, moderate SW breeze, rain from time to time, much milder. As said below power did come back at 11:30; so first cut of 40 hours, second cut of 21 hours; total 61 hours in 3 ½ days. Met some people in Library from further out in 'Shire expecting power back tomorrow with no interlude of power-on so 5 days – terrible; like me they were interested in generators. You can buy a small generator, keep it in a shed and bring it out when there's a power cut; you can with an electrician put various devices/gadgets on the circuit to be supplied in an emergency such as fridge-freezer, boiler, some lights, few power plugs for computers and charging mobile; nothing heavy such as electric baseload. Besides the interlude I was really lucky in that Vodafone kept the 4G service running throughout so I could keep in touch with people and events; the mobile generator must have been just outside the area affected by the cut. At 22:57 completed processing 2021's records with the breeding of the pure Black Kite pair. It's all under 10/8 below but thought, as it's the bird-event of the year for me – 1st breeding of a pure Black Kite pair in the UK -- should be reproduced here! Next up is a new page Black Kite in Northumberland, including this pure pair and the 2 hybrid pairs with Red Kite! Plus a few tweets under #blackkite. Funds are +4k on wtd but everything is very shaky, particularly oils on sharp fall in PoO but have heavily reduced exposure to oil and gas shares. Swelling on left-hand has gone down a lot, bruising has disappeared and pain is fading; have been taking Ibuprofen but have to stop that now – not sure how to put this but I get side effects from both Ibuprofen and decongestants (for hay fever) and the result is similar to a UTI – have to watch where I go!! Symptoms will go quickly now off the medicine; I don't take any regular drugs or pills (other than alcohol!) as they all have their downside. Had lunch at QHC – good menu and nice staff: cheese and pickle sandwich on brown bread with salad. Giving Day today (North America anyway) – wonder when mine is!! xxxxx XXX!!!!!!

Here's piccies of Black Kite from 10/8 Bywell:

adult 1: streamlined, black body, dark brown head and neck, wings darker on primaries than on inner wing, pale primary bases underneath, dark trailing edge and carpal, obviously forked tail with pale underside, yellow cere, left-wing complete with P5 prominent but maybe broken off, right-wing P10-P7, P6 missing, P5 protruding present, broad wing-tip, 1  2  3  4 (5 with Common Buzzard juvenile) 6  7  8.

adult 2: streamlined but heavier than other adult, black body and head, wings uniformly dark on top, dusky underneath with pale primary bases, dark trailing edge and carpal, obviously forked tail, yellow cere, left-wing P10-P8, P7 missing, P6, P5 protruding, right-wing not captured, broad wing-tip, 9  10  11  12  13.

adult 1 with juvenile 1: 14  15  16  17  18

juvenile 1: black primaries, paler brown inner wings and body, floating weakly, forked and barred tail, white under-tail coverts, white vent area, shorter wings and tail than adult, palish head, broad wing-tip, subterminal tail band 19  20 (21 with Common Buzzard juvenile) (22  23  24 with male Honey-buzzard 11075)

juvenile 2: black primaries, paler brown inner wings and body, stronger flier, forked tail, dark wings and body, pale primary bases underneath, similar dimensions to adult, white head with head showing hint of mask, dusky end to tail, broad wing-tip but primary tips poorly developed 25 (26 with Common Buzzard juvenile) 27  28  29  30.

November 29th: maximum 4C, minimum 0C, bright intervals, light W breeze, dry, patchy snow lying in morning, all gone as temperatures rose in evening. Electricity took a marked turn for the worse with another power cut at 14:20 29/11. So writing this in Hexham Library at 11:30 30/11. Had put dish washer and washing machine on, had bath, warmed house up a bit in the interlude between cuts. So now in group of 100 houses in 'Shire with no power, expected restoration 11:15pm 30/11. Made Hexham Abbey this evening for massive Rotary social (65 there) over meal, very enjoyable, and G4g4s with A and C on for good chat. Glad to get out but feel need to stay local to protect house. This is by far the worst power situation in 37 years of living in 'Shire. Hopefully back to normal 2moro. xxxxx XXX!!!!!! Got back home at 14:30 and power was back on, since 11:30 so wonder if restoration time on web site should have been 11:15am; they should not be using a 12-hour clock – totally unprofessional. Anyway let's not moan, let's celebrate!! xx

November 28th: maximum 1C, minimum -1C, dull, light NW breeze, little snow drizzle, patchy snow lying. Looking forward to concert this afternoon. Will be there! Don't expect power to be back anytime soon. Maybe G4g4s later. Northern Powergrid's web site was at last working again by 09:00 28/11 on my mobile. News is not good – only 100 properties affected in my part of the system in Ordley/Juniper/'Shire so low priority and estimated restoration is 12:00am 29/11.12am is midnight but it's ambiguous: do they mean 00:00 29/11 or 24:00 29/11? Suspect the latter! Map of cuts for NE England is at https://www.northernpowergrid.com/power-cuts: a major problem. Fire is still going strong: kept it going overnight and will keep it going until go into Newcastle by train. Found can heat water on top of the stove – very useful for shaving, coffee and tea. Could cook some soup – I've got 2 in from W. From car/train later had single Common Buzzard at Widehaugh and Riding Mill, 8 Tufted Duck at Merryshields GP and 2 drake Goosander at Blaydon from 12:30-13:30. Caught train RDM-NCL.

Day improved!! Concert was fantastic – Verdi's Requiem with massed choirs of Newcastle (RMS) and Huddersfield (Choral Society) and orchestra of RNS. It's an amazingly dramatic work with some marvellous climaxes; the start and ending are quite sombre but it is a requiem after all. Soloists were very impressive! Dinis Sousa was conductor, Timothy Burke chorus director, Hye-Youn Lee soprano, Alyona Abramova mezzo-soprano, Luis Gomes tenor, Simon Shibambu bass. Orchestra was RNS and choruses included the Chorus of Royal Northern Sinfonia and the aptly-titled Massed Musical Forces of the North East. Invited to pre-concert drinks with AP (Director of Sage) where met usual suspects for good chat. Went in early to Sage to get some charge into the mobile phone over a cup of coffee. Met some interesting people over post-concert drinks!! Got back home at 21:00 off late-running train which was convenient for me! And the power was back on – restored at 14:30 from my burglar alarm log. So early finish may mean job was simple – maybe just one tree down – and compensation at £70 per 12 hours could be avoided by completing the fix in under 48 hours after a severe storm. My cut was 40 hours – pretty long – developed my survival skills. House is going to take some warming up. Freezer contents are OK but will eat them quickly; fridge is fine as back porch temperature is 5C; no damage to house! xxxxx XXX!!!!!!

November 27th: maximum 1C, minimum -2C, some snow flurries but mainly dry, sunny spells, gusty N wind becoming light N. Now 23:00 Saturday back from pub – Welly with D/D for good chat, booked up Xmas dinner there for 10/12. Had f&c+mp at Hexham where all lights on. Powergrid is still under great strain – they had 220.000 properties down at worst and now it's said to be 50-60,000 including mine to connect. But information is terrible – no website to keep us informed of progress – just vague Facebook statements There needs to be an enquiry on this –the National Grid must do better in this respect. I have a feeling that their website is designed for laptops when it should be obvious that many people will only be able to use mobiles if their power is off. It appears to be borrowed from EDF as it centres by default on Paris. My coal fire is really a coal stove 8KWh burning smokeless fuel – powerful: ¼ of a full CH system, at 32KWh. So will stay. This incident has made me more determined to get away from the National Grid to oil-fired CH and own generator as back-up. Bird count around house produced 26 types, mainly on feeders, including 1 Brambling, 2 Bullfinch, 1 Greenfinch, 1 Tree Sparrow, 1 Jay, 2 Pied Wagtail, 8 Redwing plus 1 Grey Squirrel. The regular adult male Kestrel was seen flying to roost in my archway well after sunset at 16:35.

November 26th: maximum 5C, minimum 0C, severe gale from N setting in in evening after hazy sunshine earlier. Was making great progress in sowing-up Black Kite piccies and last season when lost power!

Storm Arwen was certainly wild with flurries of snow from time to time, gale force N winds, and power cuts galore. Storm coming from N rather then SW probably caused additional damage as trees don't lean naturally away from the N. My power went off at 22:24 after surges and fluctuations all evening. The main problem now is lack of information – Northern Powergrid sent me a text message at 22:30 saying my power is off and it will be back in 90 min – if not they will be in touch again. Well no further messages, their website is not working and as of 14:00 Saturday they've resorted to Twitter and Facebook to give out random updates – how professional is that? But keeping warm on much-maligned coal! And mobile is working on 4G internet and phone; charged phone up a little from the laptop. Anyway it's all topical as P the heating engineer came round Friday morning and checked over the house for oil-fired CH. No quote yet but all is feasible. Of course the oil-fired CH relies on electricity for its control system so would not work now even with oil as baseload. If I get a back-up petrol-generator that could easily run the boiler and some lights plus a few gadgets (broadband, computer, TV) and the freezer So that might be a good addition. You''d need an enormous generator to run electricity baseload heating – don't even think about it.

Markets had a terrible day on Friday, crashing over 3% on fears about the omicron (anagram moronic!) Covid variant Thought a lot of it was downright alarmist, focussing on antigens and ignoring T-cells, the intensional part of our immune system, which are much more likely to remember any variant of Covid. Omicron is also reported from RSA as a mild form. Oil shares were very badly affected as markets were poised for a rise so massive unwinding of options and margin calls. Had sold earlier most of my oil shares and bought big mining, which is main interest now outside bonds, came down 2-3% but still up on the week. Overall on week funds were down 4.5k gross, 6k net after 1.5k withdrawal. On ytd funds are +532k gross (+43.1%), +507k net, with ftse 100 ytd +7.9% (-2.5% on week), ftse 250 +12.0%.

November 25th: max 7C, min 1C, light NW breeze, sunny intervals, rain by evening. Labelled 30 Black Kite piccies from 10/8 and sorted them as adult 1, adult 2, juv 1, juv 2. Changed labels of 3 piccies after review! Going to now group them together on web page for final check. Good to meet M/B at T4m4l – scrambled egg and baked beans again. We had good chat and also met R/P at G4g4s for good catch-up! Left-hand was generally sore, stiff and swollen 1st thing (bruised) but took a couple of Ibuprofen and it is looking and feeling better; follow the school to not take Ibuprofen for 24 hours to give natural recovery mechanisms a chance! So should wrap up 2021 season records tomorrow – next up is new page Black Kite in Northumberland. Have someone coming around tomorrow morning 08:00-11:00 to look at new heating installation. Booked up all 7 concerts at Sage for January-April, including 5 RNS, 1 Halle, 1 Liverpool Phil, for £254; looking forward to them all!! xxxxx XXX!!!!!!

November 24th: max 7C, min 1C, light W breeze, sunny morning at Ordley, gritter out at ttime as ground frost loomed. There were masses of insects around my flowering ivy this morning in the sunshine, loads of hover flies, true files, midges but only 1 wasp; very pleasing to see insect numbers holding up this late in the season. Went to Grindon Lough at 11:30 b4 JLAF, slipped getting out the car and dislocated my left-hand small finger: it was actually pointing sidewise so quickly pushed it back into position; nasty bruise on the middle joint (knuckle) but touch (nerves), blood supply and movement all OK and no distortion. It's painful though; thank goodness I'm not a musician; 3-5 weeks quoted for recovery but feeling a lot better after a long soak in hot bath tonite and it will be grand by next major engagement on Sunday!! So continued with birdwatch in the drizzle seeing 175 Wigeon, 125 Teal, 8 Mallard, 1 Little Grebe, 14 Canada Goose, 14 Greylag Goose, 53 Common Gull (52 adult, 1 1w), 1 Herring Gull 2w, 3 GBBG adult, 10 Black-headed Gull (9 adult, 1 1w), plus corvids: Rook, Crow, Jackdaw, giving 13 types. Earlier had a Common Buzzard near Boatside Pub, Warden and 6 Redwing at Ordley. Then made nearby Sill on the Roman Wall for JLAF meeting from 12:30-16:30, which went on a bit! But we had a good lunch and catch-up and it was exciting to see the new routes connecting the Roman Wall to the Kielder Forest for cyclists and walkers. Made G4g4t – no mates out but friendly enough. Back home for supper. Processed Honey-buzzard, Common Buzzard and Hobby material for Bywell on 10/8 so just the Black Kite piccies to do: will be marvellous when done as can do more creative writing!

https://twitter.com/bbcpanorama: you can now catch up on tonight's #BBCPanorama at @BBCiPlayer: The Electric Car Revolution: Winners and Losers. Another dent in the Green's halos: mining Cobalt, used in EV batteries, comes at an enormous human cost in the Congo with Tesla and Glencore two of the exploiters. OK Cobalt is also used by the petroleum industry but they don't wear halos. Pleased to see the chair of JLAF's climate change WG drive off tonite in an enormous SUV! Progress in oil CH with account set up at BoilerGuide and already one firm wanting to contact me; don't think it's going to happen that quickly as they tend to do mainly emergency call-outs and repairs at the start of winter. Welkom: xxxxxx XXX!!!!!! 2moro it's Tans at 11 or 1 with M and G4g4s with cleaner S coming at 2.

November 23rd: max 7C, min 6C, light W breeze, sunny intervals. At Ordley on ivy 0 wasp and few small flies plus 4 Greenfinch, 4 Chaffinch, 1 Tree Sparrow, 3 House Sparrow on ground peanuts. At Elvaston on ivy 3 wasp but very few other insects plus 8 Blackbird. Updated fr @ baf. Made QH4s4l – like it there – had tuna sandwich, salad and black Americano! Completed processing Oakpool part of visit on 10/8, leaving just the Bywell bit (quite a lot actually) with the Black Kite piccies. The Allen was left with a few gaps as didn't make enough late visits in the fledging period with my trip to the Straits; so have 4 sites in Allen with adults present around 10/8; counted these as fledged (>=0) as will not fail surely this late on, indeed the young may already be out on the branches under the canopy. May not have much time 2moro as have JLAF at the Sill on the Roman Wall from 12:30-late afternoon, then G4g4t. Attended BTO Youth presentation for their benefactors by will on Zoom from 16:30-17:30 which was very gratifying: good to see the efforts to get the young interested in nature; I asked a question on the balance in their work between birds and nature in general which went down well: basically they encourage any branch in a very flexible manner; some young people like me (long time ago!) were fascinated by creepy-crawlies; indeed still am! Invited by NH to drinks reception on the house before Requiem on Level 3 on Sunday – accepted!! Funds smartly recovered this week at +9k on wtd with commodities prospering, including at last a rally in iron ore. Thinking about installing oil-fired central heating through the complete house, replacing current electric storage radiators before heat pumps become compulsory. Would be expensive (10k on a quick tot-up as would need c10 radiators, including the 2 bathrooms, put in as well as the boiler, tank, flue, pumps and piping) but electric heating costs look to be becoming exorbitant, affecting ease of re-sale, and current storage radiators lose their heat by the evening. Would keep the stand-alone coal-fired stove for cheerfulness and back-up (in case of power cut)! Needs to be done by 2025 to meet regulations! A new boiler would last typically 20 years. Would put most on a new personal loan from Lloyds as car loan down to 8.4k (3 years left) from 11k and expect to beat the interest charge (4-5%) with gain on investments. Have contacted Boiler Guide this evening for some quotes. xxxxx XXX!!!!!!

Following on from yesterday, lithium batteries are rapidly rising in price:

Soaring Lithium Prices Compel Buyers to Go Long-Term. With lithium carbonate prices reaching $30,000 per metric ton in China, up some 275% since the beginning of the year, key lithium buyers are now increasingly focusing on concluding long-term supply contracts for several years in advance. https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/Bidens-Bid-To-Lower-Oil-Prices-Fails.html

Note the headline for the oilprice article: “Biden's Bid To Lower Oil Prices Fails” -- OPEC+ reign supreme. The ice-free Arctic is taking some time to arrive:

Dozens of ships stuck in Arctic as ice freezes early in reverse of recent warming winters. Shipping firms blame the Russian Met office for a forecast that failed to predict the early ice. By Nataliya Vasilyeva, RUSSIA CORRESPONDENT, MOSCOW https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2021/11/22/dozens-ships-stuck-arctic-ice-freezes-early-reverse-recent-warming/

More than two dozen cargo vessels are stuck in Russia’s Arctic ice, waiting for ice-breakers to come to their rescue, after an inaccurate forecast from the country’s Met Office. Maritime traffic in the Northern Sea Route has been on the rise in recent years as rapidly warming winters reduce ice cover, and Russia invests in its Arctic ports in preparation for a further boom. But this year several segments of the Northern Sea Route froze up about a fortnight earlier than usual, catching many ships unawares. Alexei Likhachyov - director general of Russia’s state-owned nuclear energy company Rosatom, which manages the country’s nuclear-power fleet of ice-breakers - said on Monday that the ships included vessels sailing under the flags of Hong Kong and Marshall Islands. He blamed the Russian Met office for a forecast that failed to predict the early ice, in comments to local media.

November 22nd: max 5C, min 2C, light NW breeze, sunny, ground frost on car at 08:00. At Ordley on ivy 1 wasp, some gnats and a few other smaller flies plus 3 Greenfinch on ground peanuts. At Elvaston 8 wasp but very few other insects plus 10 Long-tailed Tit in a feeding flock. Now processing last day 10/8 for last breeding season: gr8 feeling!! Made R @ B4m4l where took the money with our card reader – all balanced. Also made G4g4s with A/R and C on for good chat!! Things might be looking up soon: xxxxx XXX!!!!!! 2moro have BTO youth scheme Zoom session at 16:30, will make QH4c4ll.

Intrigued by this article in the Guardian: Rio Tinto’s past casts a shadow over Serbia’s hopes of a lithium revolution: People in the Jadar valley fear environmental catastrophe as Europe presses for self-sufficiency in battery technology https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2021/nov/19/rio-tintos-past-casts-a-shadow-over-serbias-hopes-of-a-lithium-revolution. The soul searching at the need for Lithium for decarbonisation and the environmental destruction in mining the Lithium is all too evident.

It is in that context that the world’s dash for decarbonisation and the European Union’s drive for self-sufficiency in raw materials to achieve its climate targets have caught the company’s eye. The mine will involve the relocation of 81 households, voluntary or otherwise, and the purchase of fields of 293 landowners. A brochure circulated among those affected stated that expropriation of homes and land would be a “last resort”.The company has already bought up about 80% of the land and property, for what are said to be “unheard of” sums, according to Petkovik, amounting to hundreds of thousands of euros in some cases, based on payouts of €470 (£397) per sq metre of a property. Rio Tinto is offering 5% bonuses to those who complete within four months of an offer.

There are also two Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas internationally recognised as important for the conservation of bird populations. “But so far no risks have been identified for the existing fauna in these zones … No activities have been or will be carried out during the period of active nesting of birds,” added the company spokesperson. Obtaining lithium will nevertheless entail a heavy environmental toll, generating 57m tonnes of waste over the mine’s life of rock material and industrial detritus. “Such mines are mostly opened in deserts precisely because of the detrimental effect on the environment and biodiversity,” said Prof Dragana Đorđević, head of environmental chemistry and engineering at the University of Belgrade. “The basins of the Drina and Sava rivers, from which about 2.5 million people are supplied with water, are endangered.” Rio Tinto deny this.

Lucas Bednarsk, author of Lithium: The Global Race for Battery Dominance and the New Energy Revolution, said a moral argument could be made that Europe should bear the ecological costs of the lithium excavation it needs. It is currently imported from Australia, Latin America and China.

But Meadhbh Bolger, from Friends of the Earth Europe, says that batteries for electric vehicles and renewables are predicted to drive up demand for lithium by almost 6,000% by 2050 – and asked why such consumption was not being questioned.“There is still no talk about reducing demand,” says Bolger. “We have asked the question and the commission said they were not at the stage that they could address constraint. The reason we got to where we are in the first place is by exploiting the resources, too much extraction, to meet the needs of the luxury rich and European industry … We are just doing it again.”

Lithium is a key metal for our new decarbonised era. Apple Lithium-ion Batteries:

They’re inside every iPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple Watch and MacBook, helping you do all kinds of things in all kinds of places. Find out more about your battery to get the most out of it throughout its lifespan — and beyond. https://www.apple.com/uk/batteries/

Lithium is also extensively used in batteries for temporary energy storage. Suspect that many Greens confuse decarbonisation with deindustrialisation. But they are poles apart. Decarbonisation requires the industrialisation of our remaining wild areas with wind farms and solar panels. Decarbonisation requires massive development of metals such as Copper, Cobalt and Nickel through new mines. Far from saving the planet decarbonisation will incur massive environmental costs in mining, which need to be recognised. ESG interests do not recognise mining as a proper worthy activity so capital is not always available. Mining companies are therefore raising funds directly from their highly profitable current operations rather than going to banks and finance companies; capital expenditure is being held back to increase returns to shareholders. Whatever, large mining companies make very attractive investments at their current depressed values, due to the collapse in iron ore prices with Chinese machinations!! It's not at all clear that the renewable energy sources will be successful due to their low energy density and unreliability so certain oil and gas companies with their low expectations are also worth considering as investments.

November 21st: max 5C, min 3C, light NW breeze, sunny but much cooler, winter approaches, ground frost on car at 21:30 and next morning at 08:00. Ivy flowers at Ordley held 1 wasp, no hover flies and just a few small other flies; at Elvaston held 7 wasp, no hover flies and very little else. Had a Red Kite moving N low-down hunting at 14:00 at Ordley plus 7 Blackbird in favoured walk around the Sele after N4c4ll. Made G4g4s where an incredible 4 of us out: me plus P/R/D for good chat. Surprise meeting in N with J; she's back at G for a few weeks. Almost completed processing Eltringham 17/8, so much material to go through; generated a vimeo clip as one of outputs. Next up (and last for season) is 10/8 when 2 visits to Oakpool and Bywell so a little way still to go – almost there!! Will be great to wrap up another season for the key species: Black Kite (new species), Red Kite (colonising), Honey-buzzard (consolidating), Hobby (still tenuous), Goshawk (bit more hope), but let's see the detail before committing too much!! 2moro it's R @ B4m4l and G4g4s. To the gorgeous one: xxxxx XXX!!!!!!

November 20th: max 10C, min 4C, light W breeze, weak sunshine. Busy day with Honey-buzzard, processing 17/8 Stocksfield visit for Bywell and the Mount. Now on material for Eltringham, where have 2 clips as well as some stills so taking a little while; hope to complete this tomorrow; then just 1 data sheet to go. Completing the processing releases a lot of exciting tasks on the analysis for each species for the year! Studied local flowering ivy, just 1 wasp around today so declining but plenty of hover flies, other flies and midges; every time a car passes, there's quite a buzz as a swarm of insects takes off. Hope someone's surviving the latest surge: xxxxx XXX!!!!!!

November 19th: max 11C, min 8C, moderate W breeze, mainly cloudy. Sociable day: N/D at 10:00 on Skype, M at T4m4l and D/D at W4g4s! Need an introverted day to catch-up. Next up Is Stocksfield Mount 17/8. Funds had a bad week on increase in Covid cases in Europe, efforts to get PoO down with stockpile releases (daft short-sighted idea of Biden) and out of fashion mining sector, which is not loved by the ESG mob in spite of its critical role in producing materials for electrification and decarbonisation.. Lost all of previous week's gain and more at -14k, making gain ytd +537k gross (+43.5%), +513k net, with ftse 100 (-1.7% on week) +10.6% ytd, ftse 250 +16.8%. Have positioned funds more into heavyweight miners and selected energy stocks giving an increase in income; really looking forward into 2022 now rather than trying to maximise profit for 2021. On + side am expecting Canadian Manganese to list on CSE before Xmas; it holds an important deposit of Mn needed for Tesla's car batteries and my share of it is 0.68% from Minco days! A subsidiary of Canadian Manganese – Mongoose Mining – starts trading on CSE next Monday (22/11). xxxxx XXX!!!!!!

November 18th: max 12C, min 9C, moderate W breeze, mainly cloudy. Up early to get 08:35 train RDM-NCL for rehearsal at Sage starting at 10:30, our reception at 09:45. Had 8 Whooper Swan adult at Merryshields GP on way in with single Cormorant at Ovingham and Newburn. Concert was Dr Haydn Academy with Sir Roger Norrington – his farewell to music. We had a packed programme with 2 complete Haydn symphonies – 103 Drum Roll played in 2 halves before the interval and 101 Clock played without splitting at the end of part 2, a march, a string quartet, 8 songs (soprano, Susan Gritton) with fortepiano accompaniment (Steven Devine)! Rehearsal went on to 13:30 so, after coffee at S, not much time for walk on the coast. Also Lloyds Bank systems had crashed early morning and needed to make credit card payment so had to attend to that; paid off all card balances so Spain/Gibraltar holiday, cost 5k, now cleared. Took Metro to Cullercoats and went for walk around there from 15:00. Had a 1w Kestrel perched on the headland plus a Turnstone in the harbour. Came back at 17:00 making MP4m4t where had ham, mushroom and cheese piazza plus rw and c all for £28.60. Concert was brilliant, more on that tomorrow, and really warm applause for the conductor; left at 22:20 to catch last train with most people still in the Hall! It was a good day socially, meeting the partners, and the music was good, leader M is a marvellous catch and the Haydn SQ 5 with the section leaders of violin 1, violin 2, viola, cello was fantastic! Never seen MG so animated! xxxxx XXX!!!!!!

November 17th: max 9C, min 8C, moderate W breeze, mainly cloudy. Well that was that – all went off well at 1pm EST (6pm GMT) after a pretty frantic day reading up all things syntactic, semantic and pragmatic as decided that did really need to check the latest literature. So very pleased that's all over and celebrated by going to G for a couple at 19:15. Web page has been updated with below, except for the screenshot!

Heather, Michael, & Rossiter, Nick, From Functional to the Functorial Praxis and Dynamics of Language, 1st International Online Systemic Functional Linguistics Interest Group (SFLIG) Conference 16-19 November 2021, online on Zoom co-hosted by the University of Tasmania, Australian Catholic University, Molly College and the University of British Columbia (2021). abstract pdf presentation pdf schedule Here's Zoom screenshot near end of session with speaker Isaac Mwinlaaru and his last slide, speaker NR and author MH for first talk in session, chair for session Jacqueline Nenchin from New York and Hikmah Pravita, attendee. I'm sitting in my kitchen; found how to correct poor alignment of my head in screen – set low light flag under Zoom video settings!

Tomorrow it's Sage in morning for rehearsal and in evening for concert; going for walk in afternoon on the coast. BAF updated! xxxxx XXX!!!!!!

November 16th: max 10C, min 5C, light W breeze, weak sunshine. Added records from 12/8 Prudhoe to Bird Track; took a little thought and time as there's no category for Black Kite x Red Kite hybrid. Since it looked more like a Black Kite added the juvenile under that. Only 2 more data sheets to go now! Next up is 17/8 from Stocksfield Mount (no Black Kite, all left!). Worked hard on 20 minute talk at SFLIG2021 tomorrow, building it up to 20 slides of which the first part is the abstract and the second part is quite technical category theory. I think I'm an expert now on syntax, semantics and pragmatics – will find out tomorrow; they are common terms in computing science! There's 10 minutes for discussion, which M will dominate making points I've not emphasised enough! He and his wife both have Covid currently but that will not keep him down. So no need to worry about that and am booked into the G for a relaxation session straight-after! Sorted out the laptop today, releasing some disk space, doing Windows update and reinstalling Zoom. N was temporarily closed early afternoon as short-staffed so made Queen's Hall Cafe, which liked, nice c, friendly staff and good atmosphere, will go there more. Still some wasps around the ivy in Elvaston and flock of 15 Redwing at Ordley. Funds -3k on wtd, risk-off is the watchword for the moment. Had a friendly letter from my 5-year old granddaughter today – not too flattering picture of me! xxxxx XXX!!!!!!

Have to include this marvellous comment on the ridiculous trust placed in computer modelling:

David Anderson 16 Nov 2021 3:30PM 54 likes; comment on Free markets and technology may yet deliver a 1.5C world https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2021/11/16/free-markets-technology-may-yet-deliver-15c-world/

Mercy. The idea that mathematical/computer modelling of the climate decades from now is accurate enough for anyone to start talking about how many tenths of a degree they're going to control the temperature to within in future would be absolutely hilarious if the consequences of this delusion weren't so serious. Look, we just went through the Covid crisis. 16 months in (i.e. with all that data, from all those countries and their different responses) "Professor Lockdown" was making confident declarations that in July when the UK removed restrictions, cases would explode. Instead, they went down. There we talking about modelling something that was happening in front of our noses and on which there was already huge amounts of data. And he proved for us all that he was really just Mystic Meg, spouting things he had no real knowledge of (knowledge reliable enough to act upon, that is) performing armchair guesswork no more reliable than anyone else's.

So again I ask - do you really believe that things are completely different and vastly better in the realm of climate modelling? If you do, you shouldn't be allowed anyone near government policy. It's just not how computer modelling of such things works. The uncertainties are gigantic. Gigantic more than Covid-19 is, gigantic in the "such-and-such could happen, or the entire opposite, or something else entirely, please blindfold yourself and stick a pin on this donkey to try to ascertain which we're going to decide is more likely" sense.

November 15th: max 10C, min 6C, light W breeze, wet most of day. Had booster jab Pfizer variety at 11:30 in Hexham Mart, very efficient, some 8 parallel stations, all operating quickly. Then up to R @ B4m4l where good turnout for PH's talk on bagpipes; I know P well from the G but he's recently had Covid and seems to be struggling with health (lung capacity). Also made G4g4s where gr8 to meet A so 2 of us in the pub late-on tonite – lot better than 1 but pretty disappointing still. Working on a talk to SFLIG (linguistics, based in British Columbia) quite intensely now, with delivery at 18:00 GMT by Zoom on Wednesday; as usual the abstract material produced by M is a challenge for representation in mathematics even the relatively abstract CT. But will persevere for a day until consolidating what I have and winging it! Have rehearsal and concert of RNS on Thursday with former in morning and latter in evening; planning to go to coast again in afternoon, maybe St Mary's Island. Have future tickets for the Requiem and the West End!! xxxxx XXX!!!!!!

November 14th: max 11C, min 7C, light SE breeze, sunny. The lack of frosts is prolonging insect life and nowhere is this more evident than around flowering ivy. My planting some 15 years ago is now a substantial shrub by the roadside, it flowers very late even by ivy standards and is now in full flower, attracting c20 wasps, many hover flies, true flies and midge-types 1  2  3  4  5  6. It's the first year I've been really pleased with it in supporting late autumn insects, benefiting the insects themselves and of course birds and other animals that feed on insects. Honey-buzzard could easily survive in that wasp nests are still functioning. In Ireland this late support occurs every year but it's rare in Northumberland for first frosts to be so delayed. Also took piccies of a large clump of flowering ivy in Hexham at the bottom of Elvaston 1  2  3  4  5; this had c40 wasps and many hover flies and true flies plus even a queen bumblebee.

Completed almost all the Prudhoe records for 12/8, including Black Kite adult, Red Kite adult and hybrid Black x Red Kite juvenile. Just need to add data to BirdTrack. Made welcome return to N4c4t. Still reflecting on COP; some delegates by the way they talk seem to think humans now control the weather, bit like Canute. We have not averted a 4C rise by successive COPs; emissions have still been increasing at an enormous rate; but their models that were forecasting a 4C rise are now seen as too hot and new modelling is converging more with reality. Whether the rise levels out at 1.5C or 2C depends on many factors, including the effect of the solar minimum, which is not in the models as it is ignored. Tomorrow have booster Covid jab at 11:30 given by a vet at the Hexham cattle mart, Rotary at B4m4l and G4g4s. Was on my own at G tonite, only person in pub! Could do with a hug: xxxxx XXX!!!!!!

November 13th: max 10C, min 7C, light NW breeze, sunny. Busy day on paperwork, processed completely 23/8 trip to Hexham High Wood and Warden with 6 Honey-buzzard and 1 Osprey; caught up with recent records of owls and trips to Richmond Park and Kings Law. Updated home page with latest breeding figures for study area for 2021. Have just 3 data sheets to go now for 2021 and already labelled the piccies for 12/8 Prudhoe, including Black Kite, Red Kite. Watched COP26 final day with interest on Sky News: think the Greens were disappointed really at failure to phase-out coal but thought the agreements on the whole were promising in deforestation and having another purposeful round in 13 months in Sharm-el-Sheikh, Egypt, in Sinai (been there! marvellous coastline and of course migrant point for raptors crossing/following the Red Sea). A rest day today after busy but gr8 fun 2 weeks. xxxxx XXX!!!!!!

Since 3/10 10 more records (10 birds) on BirdGuides for autumn migration of Honey-buzzard, giving running total of 141 birds from start of emigration on 9/8, with 35 August, 93 September, 13 October. Last record was 19/10. Total for 2021 over period 2017-2021 is a record in autumn at 141 (133 in 2020) but one less than 2020 in total with 235 (236 in 2020) as spring total was 94 (103 in 2020). My last migration records in Northumberland were 21/10.

16:26 19/10 European Honey Buzzard Jersey Sorel Point one flew over

13:52 16/10 European Honey Buzzard Caithness Thurso 13:48 one flew south-west

17:15 13/10 European Honey Buzzard Devon Thurlestone 10:50 one flew north-west over golf course towards Bigbury-on-Sea

15:41 09/10 European Honey Buzzard Shetland Bixter, Mainland 15:36 juvenile flew low to south

14:56 09/10 European Honey Buzzard East Sussex Pett Level one reported

13:22 09/10 European Honey Buzzard Devon Soar 10:45 one over East Soar

09:46 08/10 European Honey Buzzard Shetland Valyie, Unst 09:05 pale-morph juvenile flew south

09:26 08/10 European Honey Buzzard Shetland Haroldswick, Unst 09:18 one flew south

21:25 05/10 European Honey Buzzard East Sussex Hastings CP 10:00 one flew south-west over North's Seat

18:23 04/10 European Honey Buzzard Essex Southend-on-Sea one flew south past pier

November 12th: max 11C, min 8C, moderate but gusty W breeze, rain for much of day becoming showery at ttime. With cleaner S in at ttime, went up on Hexhamshire Common at Kings Law for quick gallop from 15:40-17:10. Had 6 types of bird: 2 Black Cock, 3 Red Grouse, 1 Pheasant, 5 Redwing W, 2 Blackbird, 5 Chaffinch. So 3 types of game bird, pleased to see the Black Grouse! Weather was threatening on the moors, quite wintry with strong gusts and squalls of rain making their way rapidly across the fells – very atmospheric. Yesterday had a Barn Owl perched on a post at Newbiggin at 23:30 and a Tawny Owl calling at Ordley at 23:35; today had a Tawny Owl calling at Swallowship at 23:00. Had long chat with D/N on Skype from 10:00-11:30 and met D/D at DoW from 20:30-22:45 for good live chat. Had another very stimulating moment!! She's gorgeous: xxxxx XXX!!!!!! Started work on Warden trip 23/8, hope to finish this tomorrow. Funds had a much better week, +11k to +550k on ytd gross (+44.6%), +527k net, with ftse 100 ytd +12.5%, ftse 250 +17.1%. Have taken profits on the extensive oil/gas holdings, moving the money into large miners and bonds, former to take advantage of demand from decarbonization (for resisting climate change), latter for stability; the miners have been depressed by low iron ore prices due to China's property problems but seem very cheap with yields from 10-20%. Have bought back small numbers of oil shares at lower prices as think energy will remain elevated and do hold significant numbers of speculative Falkland oil stocks so plenty to play for! AH reported a male Goshawk hunting over Hermitage by River Tyne and dropping quickly between trees

November 11th: max 14C, min 8C, light S breeze, hazy sunshine. Up really early at 07:30 to see girls off to School and daughter off to course as Teaching Assistant. That was appreciated, rather than having a lazy lie-in as after the long trips to N London. Son-in-law stopped WFH to return to office in Richmond for the day, amidst enormous renewed volatility in energy prices. So alone in house until 11:30 when started Uber journey to LHR T5 – all very punctual and efficient, cost £38 including £3 tip and £5 entry fee for bankrupt LHR. Plane was a little late, as we boarded by bus and it was almost full – quite a lot of people it appears go down to London on a Sunday, work until Thursday lunchtime and then return home for a long weekend with a little WFH on the Sunday. But we arrived almost on time. Collected car from NCL, made W4shop £44 (low on some items, but no alcohol. chocolate, crisps or biscuits cuts the bill), got home, lit solid fuel fire, lovely and cosy, made instant return to G4g4s where met A for good chat. Daughter obviously happy with visit and I can come again! Do admire any mother's patience in dealing with young girls – very persistent at gaining attention, but it was lovely seeing the whole family again, including daughter's, son and big sis. So with little sis and her husband last month, seen all close relatives recently. Not to mention a very special lunch: she did look terrific: xxxxx XXX!!!!!! Mining shares boomed today – helped by Evergrande (China) just avoiding a default on its loan interest and by slump in the £ on weaker UK growth outlook (many stocks are priced effectively in $). lok2tgrf XXX

November 10th: max 13C, min 11C, light SW breeze, drizzle. Met big sis in Richmond Park at 11:30 (to 14:00) and we had walk with my daughter around Isabella Plantation before going to snack bar for some food. Weather was a bit disappointing but we had good trek around some very colourful shrubs and trees in their autumn garb. Had a fox and 2 Grey Squirrel, plenty of Ring-necked Parakeet (34), 2 Jay, 4 pair of Mandarin, 3 Mallard in total of 12 bird-types. Fairly riotous ttime! Has been great to see everyone again! Have leisurely morning 2moro b4 flight BA1334. xxxxx XXX!!!!!!

November 9th: max 16C, min 12C, light SW breeze, mainly cloudy, mild. Out to Milton Hall, part of Barbican complex in City of London, for fascinating concert Shostakovich: Life, Letters & Friendship, complete with the string quartet Carducci Quartet and narrator Samuel West. They interspersed stories from DS's personal life, particularly stressful in the Stalin era, with movements from his quartets: while 9 is the magic number for many composers, DS wrote 15 symphonies and 15 string quartets. Tonight we heard movements from SQ 1, 2, 4, 7, 8, 10, 11, 13, 15; that's 9 movements plus 9 narrations so quite a full 2.5 hours concert, including an interval. Loved the music, especially the vigorous movements, DS is really inspiring in this form. The narrations fitted in well, giving much background to DS's personal circumstances and the narrator had a dry wit. The only problem was that on my way home, the main music in my head was Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf! Varied route coming back, going from Moorgate to Stockwell on Northern Line and going 1-stop N on Victoria Line to Vauxhall, bit easier on the transfers. Time saved was quickly lost on a cancellation by SW Trains. It was brilliant to be going to a concert with son again. He's also got his eyes on Leipzig next year. So enjoying stay. Funds are unchanged on wtd. xxxxx XXX!!!!!!

November 8th: max 16C, min 11C, light SW breeze, sunny, occasional drizzle, mild. Made King Place for meal with son at Rotunda, good to see him again! We had good catch-up over 2 courses, which came to £91 including service charge. Kingston to Kings X is fairly fast from Norbiton to Vauxhall on SW Trains, then Victoria Line to Kings X, takes 50 min in all but it's 1 mile's walk from daughter's house to Norbiton Station so that adds a bit. Good to meet granddaughters after school. Everyone's working very hard down here! Got back late, discussed the manic gas market with son-in-law; he said it was exceptionally wild with all trading in it high risk. The courtesy car is a bigger BMW X5 and with X4 not collected yet looks a bit like a BMW dealership outside. Almost repeat journey 2moro except final destination is Barbican. Back to culture: xxxxx XXX!!!!!!

November 7th: max 11C, min 10C, light W breeze, sunny, dry. Well most things went well but in a jam in Kingston main street on way back from LHR a Kia ran into the back of our BMW X4 while stationary, damaging the rear sensors and denting the bumper a little; the Kia has a badly crumpled front, not far off a write-off as 10 years old; insurance company Admiral are providing a courtesy car tomorrow as the sensors are misbehaving and cannot even be deactivated; I'm a witness and took some piccies to help; male driver of Kia has admitted liability and is insured according to Admiral. Lovely to meet family again; forgot how exhausting 2 young girls 6 and 5 can be! We went to park in afternoon for play! Lunch was had in Queen's Head. So full day!! lok2tgrf: XXXXX!!!

November 6th: max 12C, min 6C, fresh W breeze, sunny, heavy showers. Had a drake Goosander at Wylam E at 12:20 and a Red Kite W at Swallowship at 14:40. Made BAF – taster session – very inspiring and good to hear so many relatively undiscovered female composers. I particularly liked the last two – Dora Pejačević: Violin Sonata no.1 (romantic) and Natalie Klouda: New York fleeting for two violins (captured the lockdown – on edge) but it was all good, including the singing in Rosy Wertheim: La Tzigane Dans La Lune for soprano, violin and piano and the lively SQ in Henriette Bosmans: String Quartet! That's my 4th artistic event in 4 days; next concert is Tuesday at Barbican in Milton Hall – Shostakovitch quartet, with son. Went home afterwards to get organised for trip, checking into DT at 18:20 where had supper (penne dish) and some rw; in diet careful to have good breakfast and one other full meal a day, mainly cutting out snacks and junk food and substituting rw for some g. Since Spain have lost 4kg and a few cm off waist; feel fitter and sleeping better. Did make the Toon – very creative and exciting: good for the continuation!! xxxxx XXX!!!!!!

November 5th: max 12C, min 10C, moderate W breeze, sunny, dry, milder, quickly warmed up overnight from ground frost. Actually made the coast late afternoon at Tynemouth on Metro for quick walk from 15:35-16:50 around the Priory area. Had 1w Kestrel out hunting at dusk, 12 Turnstone, 1 Redshank, 2 Cormorant, 3 Goldfinch, 1 Linnet, 1 Eider, 1 Shag, last two being new to year list, showing my lack of visits to the coast. Total was 14 bird-types. Has a late Red Admiral at Riding Mill at 12:00. Lunch and company were superb at KWB&R, really enjoyed it, quite brilliant in fact!! Met a few partners before concert started for good chat; concert Nordic Magic by RNS was a substantial affair, featuring Holberg Suite by Grieg, Clarinet Concerto by Nielsen, Zephyros by Andrea Torrodi, Sibelius 3. Holberg Suite was beautifully played; the first part is very familiar from Classic FM. The Clarinet Concerto with soloist Magnus Holmander was quite dark with melancholy sounds from the clarinet reminding me of Messiaen's birds; the soloist was very creative, playing an unusual encore to video effects and even doing some magic, making his clarinet disappear! Zephyros was very atmospheric, conjuring up some nice images. Sibelius 3 was magnificent with all members of the orchestra playing their part in creating a massive climax at the end; movement 2 was very delicately played. Conductor Catherine L-M did a great job in helping to deliver a memorable performance. Socialised at end with partners and orchestra members – last train's at 22:53. So a great day all round!! Did promise increased funding, maybe 2k+2k paid at usual times, to help with the amazing opera. 2moro more delights with another concert at noon; later off to NCL Airport hotel before flight to LHR next morning. Thought I was going to be left fiddling my thumbs in visit to family but am now offered meal out for 3 at Kings Place, a Shostakovitch concert at the Barbican and meeting with big sis in Richmond Park. Own funds are up 3k on week, commodity markets and shares are quite choppy but running yields are so high on the big miners even though the energy transition should increase demand for many metals used in electrical circuits and batteries. Some ESG nutters don't support mining either, back to the 17th century! Gain ytd is 540k gross (+43.7%), 517k net, with ftse 100 ytd +11.9%, ftse 250 +17.3%. xxxxx XXX!!!!!!

November 4th: max 6C, min 1C, light W breeze, sunny, dry, cool, ground frost on car rear window at RDM at 22:00. Did make T4c4c 2 c M 4 good chat. Caught 17:05 RDM-NCL to see Bernstein double bill by ON – Trouble in Tahiti written in 1952 and a ballet with Phoenix dancers from Symphonic Dances West Side Story written in 1961. Trouble in Tahiti is a one-act opera highlighting how a married couple Sam and Dinah have drifted apart and their escape routines, he to the gym, she to the movies. There are facetious remarks through Island Magic on South Pacific (R&H) with shades of Bali-Hai at one point. Also there is a trio of singers (1 female, 2 male) who do a good job of taking off pretentious 1950s radio performances by singers. Enjoyed the irreverent tone and there is a glimmer of hope at the end for their marriage. The dancing was amazingly energetic to very rhythmic unharmonic music without any of the soul of the doomed romance of Maria and Tony but in reality that's close to most of the story with its gang warfare. The young audience loved it and the performers were obviously overjoyed at their enthusiastic reception. Incidentally the Emerald Charity Foundation, created by the late Dr Keith Howard, has suspended funding Yorkshire Cricket Club and asked for its name to be removed from the Club, in response to racist irregularities. The Emerald Foundation gave £1m to ON and is responsible for the refurbishment of the Howard Assembly Room in Leeds, named after the benefactor. ON and Emerald continue to work closely together; ON has impeccable credentials ethically. So that was a very good evening, quite a contrast to Carmen, which runs again on Friday night, when I shall be at S. Also 2moro will be chatting with N/D over Skype at 10, RDM-NCL 12:05, lunch in Toon, trip to North Shields in afternoon; should be exciting!! xxxxx XXX!!!!!!!!!

Relevant to COP26 is this story: How Boris Johnson's pledge to end forest destruction ignores 25m trees Britain is burning for biomass. Drax's 'green fuel', which is made from wood pellets, produces more carbon than coal, scientists warn:

The Prime Minister agreed with 100 world leaders at Cop26 to halt and reverse tree loss. However, he has been accused of “conveniently ignoring” the alleged harm to forests done by Drax biomass power station, which burns fuel pellets made from processed wood. Leading scientists have warned that Drax’s North Yorkshire biomass plant, which receives £2.3 million a day in green subsidies from consumers, is releasing more carbon into the atmosphere than the coal it used to burn. The energy is treated as renewable, largely because the burnt trees are replanted. However, academics say the saplings will take decades, if not centuries, to reverse the damage done to the environment - time which Mr Johnson has admitted the world does not have. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/11/04/boris-johnsons-pledge-end-forest-destruction-ignores-25m-trees/.

These mad 'solutions' to the climate 'emergency' need to be debated a lot more forcefully. The subsidy is ridiculous at £800m a year, forests around the world are being damaged and it will take decades for carbon released to be fixed in new growth. Biomass should not be rated as a 'green' fuel. Yet it currently counts in low-carbon category as c10% of total sources of electricity. .

November 3rd: max 7C, min 3C, light NW breeze, occasional rain and sunny intervals, cool. Completed processing Dipton Wood S 19/8 so just 4 data sheets to go now! There are many wasps 20+ around ivy in Hexham and far fewer c4 around my ivy in Ordley. Did make Carmen, enjoyed it again, bit more racy than the one seen at Leeds and they did smoke (fake) cigarettes and eat coke; since the lasses worked in a cigarette factory, this did make it a bit more convincing. It was very slick throughout as would be expected for a maturing production. I sometimes prefer the freshness of a new production over a well-worn affair! Earlier made Hexham Abbey at noon for Terry Robson's memorial service; quite touching, he was a fellow Rotarian and also a keen fell walker, brought out by JR another Rotarian and fellow birdwatcher in his reading; had some interesting chat over the buffet served in the Abbey afterwards. One gr8 change today: lok2tgrf: brilliant: xxxxx XXX!!!!!! 2moro it's M @ T4c4c and TR again at 19:00 for Bernstein double, including his attempt at a New York Romeo and Juliet; travelling by train RDM-NCL. To the go XXX

November 2nd: max 9C, min 5C, light W breeze, dry and sunny, could sit out and feel some warmth. Completed processing of major trip to SW of County on 25/8, leaving 5 sheets to do. Had first annual car service of Skoda Fabia at BSM, now up to 4.8k miles. No problems but they did flush through the air conditioning and the petrol injection units for an extra £40, making £182 total. The flushes were needed because of condensation, reflection of too many short journeys. The car is now running better in all respects, think it needed a few adjustments. Service was from 09:30-13:00. Made D4m4l with M/B for usual salmon pate as starter and duck as main course; all very good and we gave a more generous tip than our party has done before. Worked in QH library from 09:45-12:30 – bit weird with 45 min limit on 'dwelling' in library but they didn't enforce it; WiFi worked well!! Started work there on SFLIG presentation on 17/11. Updated BAF site with ON material. Had relaxed evening watching on Film 4 two natural disaster films: Exodus: Gods and Kings (crossing of Red Sea, exploited by the Israelis at the expense of the Egyptians) and The Day after Tomorrow, an appropriate choice for COP26 week. The latter film, involving the rapid onset of a new ice age and its dire effect on the North American population, has some credibility in the broader picture in that a new ice age is overdue and would have a far more severe effect on us than a couple of degrees of warming! Was amused at Mexico becoming the new centre for the US Government, the repeal of all Mexican debt and the sight of Americans breaking down fences and illegally crossing the boundary river. Quite a turn in pragmatics (something I'm including in my coming talk!). 2moro going to memorial service at Hexham Abbey for Terry Robson at noon and Carmen by ON at 19:00; going to CAL for a change; Bernstein on following day will go from RDM. Looking forward to return of culture: lok2tgrf: xxxxx XXX!!!!!! Funds are unchanged on wtd: +6k Monday, -6k Tuesday, shows volatility in natural resource stocks.

Latest world climate data shows a +0.54C anomaly compared to 1991-2020, maintaining a +0.14C rise per decade https://www.drroyspencer.com/2020/11/uah-global-temperature-update-for-october-2020-0-54-deg-c/. More details for the month are found at https://www.nsstc.uah.edu/climate/ with comments:

The global temperature anomaly over land-only of +0.61 C (+1.10 °F) was the warmest such departure for land of the past 43 Octobers in the satellite record, exceeding the +0.54 C observed in 2017. The NH land anomaly was also a 43-year record at +0.71 C (+1.28 °F). The record warm global land-only anomaly for any month of the year was observed in Feb 2016 when the departure reached +0.92 C (+1.66 °F).

The warmest region, in terms of the monthly departure from average, was +6.8 C (+12.2 °F) near Hudson Bay and shows up clearly as the Earth’s hotspot, being one of the highest monthly departures for a specific location in the satellite record. This area of warmer departures extended southward to Mexico and northward almost to the pole. The North Pacific, much of Africa eastward through China, the far South Pacific and eastern Antarctica were also above average.

The coldest grid cell appeared over the far South Pacific near Antarctica at -3.4 C (-6.1 °F). A similar cold area was centered over far NE Russia with cooler air extending eastward to Alaska and southward into the NE Pacific, spreading into the western conterminous US. North central Africa eastward to Kazakhstan was also an area of below average temperatures.

La Niña is confirmed, so expect cold late winter in many areas:

NOAA has upgraded the “La Niña Watch” to a “La Niña Advisory” as La Niña conditions are present with an 87% chance of continuing through February. To keep track of the latest weekly summary of the El Niño/La Niña cycle see https://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/analysis_monitoring/lanina/enso_evolution-status-fcsts-web.pdf.

Ice cover has recovered a little in the Arctic but is still below average:

The monthly average extent for October 2021 was 6.77 million square kilometers (2.61 million square miles). This ranked eighth lowest in the long-term satellite data record, tied with 2017. It was 1.44 million square kilometers (556,000 square miles) greater than the record low of 5.33 million square kilometers (2.06 million square miles) recorded in 2020, and 1.58 million square kilometers (610,000 square miles) below the 1981 to 2010 long-term average http://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/

The same source reports a rapid decline in Antarctic ice cover from unusually high levels:

Since the Antarctic maximum sea ice extent was reached on September 1, 2021, ice extent has been in a steep decline. Extent went from being above the interdecile (ninetieth percentile) range to being below the tenth percentile for most of October. As a result, sea ice extent in the Antarctic is currently tracking as the third lowest, behind only 2016 and 1986.

November 1st: max 8C, min 5C, moderate W breeze, dry but distinctly cooler, coal fire lit with more purpose. Had flu jab at Boots in HEX at 11:40. all very efficient and no charge, slight ache to upper left arm. Then onto R at B4m4l; tragic news that MH our president elect drowned in a fishing accident on the Coquet at the weekend; I took the money on the PoS machine, linked to the B account – all went smoothly. Much later made G4g4s with P/A for good chat with C on and l in the background! Continued working on Towsbank visit on 25/8 but not finished yet. 2moro it's car service so out most of day, planning to work in QH Library on new papers for CT work with M. Meeting M/B for luxurious lunch at D. Following COP26 closely; whatever their accuracy on scientific climate forecasts; their solution of masses of dilute and unreliable renewables doesn't cut it: where's nuclear for instance? Musical fun starts on Wed with Carmen (again!). xxxxx XXX!!!!!! xx XXX lok2tgrf

October 31st: max 10C, min 7C, moderate SW breeze, heavy rain in morning and heavy showers later, bright sunshine in interlude in afternoon, cool. In the sun did some emergency guttering work to fix where pipes had come apart; used some bitumen to seal it and washed it off my hands with turpentine; read that white spirit is now far better for cleaning things; anyway further rain came along and repair held up! Did some work on SW trip on 25/8, processing completely Cupola Bridge and Whitfield Moor components; labelled piccies for Softley Honey-buzzard (11094). Made G4g4s with P/R and good chat. Booked up DT at NCL for night of 6/11 so I can have a comfortable get away on 7/11; daughter is fetching me at LHR. Here's the 2 girls getting ready for Halloween 1. Am giving our (M and I) presentation on Zoom to a British Columbia linguistics group on 17/11 explaining use of functors; can prepare it while down S; visiting Devon again in January to stay in Totnes and get 3 days work in with M; he's recovering physically after operation on prostate; mentally he's doing well! So flu jab, R and G 2moro! xxxxx XXX!!!!!!

October 30th: max 9C, min 5C, light SW breeze, heavy rain in morning, bright sunshine in afternoon. cooler. Did some gardening, cutting back the apple and bird cherry in front of the house on the W side. Garden and field suddenly full of birds, some sitting expectantly on the shed-roof where I feed them. So did put out granular peanuts on roof and filled up bag with peanuts. They all disappeared then but think they'll be back tomorrow. Had a Bullfinch, 6 Lesser Redpoll, 1 Tree Sparrow, 3 House Sparrow, 4 Blue Tit, 1 Mistle Thrush, 1 singing Robin, plus 24 Redwing W and an adult male Kestrel, which is roosting again under my arch. Put away for winter the outside table, leaving a chair for short sit-outs in the winter. Brought inside a grapefruit pot plant which had been struggling inside but leaving out the Canary Palm, which I think has had it! The big ivy plant on roadside is now in full flower and had attracted one wasp with another seen in flight nearby. No very late Honey-buzzard seen in last 2 days outside. Completed processing records for 26/8 including Black Kite and fledging Honey-buzzard at Swallowship (11096) and Ordley (11095) as below. Next up is trip to SW on 25/8, one of 6 sheets to go! Black Kite information is strengthening well. A quiet weekend to be followed by an exciting week!! xxxxx XXX!!!!!!

October 29th: max 13C, min 7C, moderate SE breeze becoming moderate SW, rain in morning, flooding continues in Cumbria and S and W Scotland, Desmond-style. Completed processing Honey-buzzard family piccies for 26/8 at Swallowship (11096); also found a few more Black Kite piccies, involving interaction with the female Honey-buzzard. Cleaner S in this afternoon so was out walking alongside Dipton Wood S from 15:35-17:30 in bracing conditions, no rain but a cool, moderate SW breeze as temperatures dropped smartly as the sky cleared. No raptors on walk but did see an adult male Kestrel at Steel pond from car on way back at 17:35. On walk had 17 bird-types: 62 Linnet, 3 Siskin, 6 Redwing, 1 Fieldfare, 2 Mistle Thrush, 7 Chaffinch, 3 Blue Tit, 1 Stock Dove, 99 Common Gull (all adult), 19 Black-headed Gull (all adult), 16 Crow, 124 Startling, plus a Grey Squirrel. Made W4g4s with D, his partner self-isolating as in contact with someone with Covid; Both have had -ve LFT. We had good chat, quite quiet late-on. Funds had another week of drift down with natural resource stocks out of favour, down -7k making gain ytd +537k gross (+43.5%), 514k net, with ftse 100 ytd +10.8%, ftse 250 +14.9%. Have boosted annual investment income quite a lot by switching to mining heavyweights, selling not far off year lows due to problems in China's industry and poor sentiment towards polluting stocks, even though metals such as Cu, Ni and Al are desperately needed for the electrical revolution. xxxxx XXX!!!!!! Quiet weekend coming up b4 busy week of concerts and trip to London.

October 28th: max 14C, min 10C, moderate SW breeze becoming light S, rain at times, always rain in the air, flooding in Cumbria and S and W Scotland, Desmond-style pattern with Atlantic drift all the way down to the Caribbean. Added Black Kite piccies from Swallowship on 26/8 (below), same bird as at Hexham Tyne Green on 24/8 I think. Met M at T4c4c 4 good chat early on and better crowd at G – P/R/D – with very lively atmosphere in bar generally, under watchful eye of l. xx

October 27th: max 15C, min 13C, fresh SW breeze, rain morning, drier and brighter late afternoon..Completed processing 27/8 (below) by adding March Burn piccies (11098) to those of Dipton Wood (11097). Just 7 sheets to go for BirdTrack processing, next up is Swallowship 26/8. Will also compile piccies for Black Kite earlier in season, such as 10/8 and start a new page for Black Kite in Northumberland. Out to W4shop where spent £44; spend is lower than it was as no booze (only drink out) and recently no chocolate, desserts or crisps and the like as trying to eat more healthily. Today had Charlie Bigham's chicken and mash with white wine sauce, some left for 2moro. Diet includes g and rw off the premises! Budget had some nice bits: halving of internal flights tax (like grumbles about this, 6.5 hours NCL-EXT by train, 1.3 by air, pity reduction is not until 2023), reduced tax on beer and Prosecco but face increased council tax, already £216 a month in band F even with 1/4 reduction for single occupancy. Topped up this afternoon with petrol in Shell garage at £54.69 (146p a litre) – absolute rip-off by the oil companies, think I should get a discount as a shareholder! Liked the lack of green energy initiatives in run-up to COP26; when the Greens offer reliable and affordable energy sources like gas and nuclear, they might be more credible. Watched SaxoBank webinar on commodity trends in morning; markets look as if they're going to be volatile for a while (often a euphemism for falling!) but over medium term the presenter thought energy prices will remain high as new supplies are constrained by green concerns; gas is the key as if prices remain so high users will switch to cheaper oil; metals should be going higher with the energy transition but are very choppy at the moment after big rises; copper in particular is a metal of the future as it's used for cabling and conductors but its extraction is very damaging to the environment – nothing is a panacea. The Saxo man finished with La Niña – it's here, heralding a cold winter for the northern hemisphere and more demand for gas supplies in the medium term. Saxo is one of my 5 share-dealing accounts. Booked my Covid booster for 15/11 in Hexham at the Mart, where they're more used to dealing with cattle and sheep. Did do some work on the BF website: xxxxx XXX!!!!!!

October 26th: max 16C, min 15C, moderate SW breeze, few sunny spells, dry. Did a lot of work on 27/8, processing all the Dipton Wood (11097) and March Burn (11098) piccies; have still to index the March Burn ones and add the March Burn records to BirdTrack. Fieldwork today consisted of brisk walks in Hexham to JG and around the shops and Sele Park in the morning. Main record though was 2 Fieldfare S at Ordley at 09:45, first of autumn. There were still plenty of wasps around the ivy in Hexham. Hair-cut was good at JG with Jd – 8 weeks cycle is better, next one 21/12 at 10:30, already in the Calendar. Funds recovered a bit, at +5k, on wtd. Am increasing oil investments again as PoO likely to stay high until ESG pressures, which inhibit exploration and development of new fields, reduce. Also with inflation likely to remain high for the next year, commodity shares in general should preserve real value in the long run. Looking forward to next visit: xxxxx XXX!!!!!!

October 25th: max 12C, min 8C, moderate W breeze, sunny spells, heavy showers. Processed trip to Hexham Tyne Green on 24/8, including Black Kite adult seen there and family party of 3 Honey-buzzard (11093). Just 8 other trips in August to process now, before starting on annual summaries. Went for local walk today from 16:30-17:30, seeing 42 Redwing and 9 Blackbird, plus 10 Yellowhammer and 2 Grey-lag Goose S. Total was 17 bird-types. Wasps are still around, released a queen wasp from front porch and there are still plenty on flowering ivy at Hexham and Ordley, mine is just coming into flower! Earlier made R at B4m4l where good to meet friends; talk was on electrical vehicles from an enthusiast, a little starry-eyed! Later made G4g4s with P for good catch-up; being 1:1 it was easier to have a proper conversation. Booked NCL-LHR 7/11-11/11 with BA online for £156 rtn and Festival event on 6/11 with L&P via 'phone; lady was very helpful; I am a member of the Library so that helped. Hair-cut tomorrow morning with Jd!! One of our abstracts has been accepted for Universal Logic, other is still under review, so will be going to Crete. xxxxx XXX!!!!!!

October 24th: max 14C, min 9C, moderate SW breeze, sunny, dry. Arrived on Quayside early with view to doing a bird count on the Tyne. Amazed to find 11 Guillemot and 1 Razorbill on the river, swimming slowly upstream. Also, in total of 11 bird-types from 13:30-18:00, had 2 adult Mute Swan, 3 Woodpigeon, 60 Feral Pigeon. 17 Black-headed Gull (16 ad, 1 1w), 63 Herring Gull (36 ad, 5 2w, 22 1w), 1 GBBG 1w, 3 Crow, 1 Magpie, 2 Cormorant (ad, 1w). That adds 2 species to my year-list, which thought would not get without visit to coast. Had a Grey Heron at Merryshields GP at 13:10, 2 Mallard at Wylam at 18:10 and a Red Admiral butterfly at Lamb Shield on drive to RDM. Samling Academy Concert was sublime – a quick roll-out of 21 songs by c16 composers impressed: beautiful singing and piano playing, elegant costumes, capacity audience in S2. Am a supporter of the Academy: they have an office in HEX but think they do their rehearsals at Newcastle University and the Sage. They are shortly performing at the Wigmore. So pleased I came and good combination with the birds and the exercise! Later made G4g4s with no mates out again but plenty of chat in the bar. Most of my contemporaries seem to have given up: dementia and vulnerable immune systems surely beckon! Big sis says we could share a villa near Mont Blanc with some of her family next August – sounds good, and also, with Devon M, have the Universal Logic conference in Crete next April to consider. Tempted to go to Leipzig to see Wagner's Ring in March. And would like to fit Israel in in September! No concerts next week, am skipping the Movies but the following week is action packed!! xxxxx XXX!!!!!!

October 23rd: max 13C, min 11C, moderate SW breeze, mainly cloudy, sunny intervals, dry. Brought all Honey-buzzard records up to date on BirdTrack and on home Honey-buzzard page. Made W4g4s at RDM with D/D for good chat. Because so much music is on Friday we now meet on Saturday when that happens; next 2 weeks are DoW next Friday and W Saturday in 2 weeks. Then I'm off to London for a few days to see the granddaughters! So 2moro afternoon is the Samling – looking forward to it! xxxxx XXX!!!!!!

October 22nd: max 10C, min 4C, moderate NW breeze, sunny and dry but much cooler. Had good day at S where attended rehearsal, had brought-in food with other pp and enjoyed concert in evening. It was well attended, almost full! The Coriolan Overture by Beethoven is very dramatic and full of tensions, expertly played by the orchestra. The Schumann PC is one of my favourites, even though I'm not a great fan of his symphonies. It's very varied and full of superb climaxes, including the transition to movement 3, which is my favourite bit; Elisabeth Leonskaja was amazing; born in 1945 in Georgian SSR she's an example to all older people; she got enormous applause and played an encore, which sounded a bit like an angry wasp, no idea what it was! Mozart 40 is a very appealing work in all its movements; really enjoyed that and so did the audience; movement 1 is very evocative and movement 4 very lively. Pleased to see flautist CA getting first call from conductor DS but am staying with MG for now. The rehearsal was a bit laid back: DS has a good relationship with the players! Pianist EL did suggest 2 significant changes to the way the orchestra played. Kept up the exercise, walking from Central Station to the S and back and leaving car at RDM. Next concert is on Sunday (Samling). Funds had a definite down week, not surprising after 7 weeks in succession of gains. Mining stocks were badly affected by imminent default by China's Evergrande (putting end to China's real-estate boom), apparently averted this weekend. Oil and gas stocks suffered from profit-taking and even one MBS bond fell over a point as interest payments resume and someone wants the accrued interest not the dividend. Also took 1k withdrawal to help pay for Spanish/Gibraltar trip. So week's change was a fall of 12k gross, 13k net, taking change ytd to +543k gross (+44.0%), +520k net with ftse 100 ytd +10.3%, ftse 250 +14.!%, both down a touch. Nothing terminal! xxxxx XXX!!!!!!

October 21st: max 9C, min 4C, moderate NW breeze, sunny and dry but much cooler, note max below 10C, a sign of late autumn setting in. So falling temperatures – normally encourage remaining Honey-buzzard to get a move on! So went for long walk along the 'Shire spine road from Ordley to Dotland from 15:00-17:30 (whole watch including house from 13:30-18:30), some 6km in all: very good exercise! Had a Common Buzzard at 16:10 near Dotland. A dark-phase Honey-buzzard was seen floating around Blackhall Plantation at 16:30 and 16:52, clearly holding it as temporary territory; this is a popular area for the Peth Foot pair and they sometimes take the young there for flying practice. A pale-phase Honey-buzzard was seen at 17:10, up from Swallowship and drifting S over Dipton Wood, maybe coming down to roost; it brought up a Red Kite over Dipton Wood W hanging over a field. So that was brilliant – after a late breeding season, would fully expect Scottish Honey-buzzard to still be passing through. Had a late Red Admiral butterfly. Met M 4 good chat at T4c4c and made G4g4s but on my own – renewed Covid worries have probably spooked my mates. Still latter was good socially – plenty of other people to chat with, including l. So 182 days since Covid jab 2 and no invitation yet – can book in a week whatever at 190 days. Have booked in for a free 'flu jab at Boots in Hexham on 1/11 at 11:40; so that's a start! Also booked car in for its first service, annual one, on 2/11 at BSM in Hexham, very convenient! We have submitted two abstracts to Unilog (Universal Logic) in Crete in April 2022. 2moro it's rehearsal and concert at S and on Sunday have Samling at S: looking forward to both! Bet it was a good performance!! xxxxx XXX!!!!!!

October 20th: max 16C, min 7C, moderate W breeze, cloudy, rain at lunchtime, clearing later with temperatures on slide to 7C by midnight. Completed processing of Sidmouth data, including piccies of Honey-buzzard (17/10 below, 11210) and BirdTrack entries. Devon M has submitted an abstract for us in the Universal Logic conference to be held in Crete next April, start of month. I might put something together as well tomorrow (last day for submissions!). Last event in this series was in Vichy (France) in 2018, which I attended and made two presentations. Good choice of venues! Quiet day today, out for local walk where saw 24 Redwing and 4 Redpoll b4 the rain started. It's 181 days since my Covid jab no. 2 on 22/4 so tomorrow (after 182 days) am eligible for booster or jab no. 3. But haven't heard anything yet; might go to a walk-in centre, say at Durham Boots, in a few days if no invitation materialises. From all accounts roll-out of booster is chaotic, compared to jabs 1-2. Why for instance is there no walk-in centre in Hexham? Think today's press conference by Javid was a subtle attempt to alert everyone to the chaos in the system. Let's hope I get an invitation in the next few days to the Hexham site. Hope OP goes well!! xxxxx XXX!!!!!!

October 19th: max 16C, min 12C, light SW breeze, cloudy, wet morning. In Devon torrential rain as in Plymouth's home game with Bolton: Argyle won 3-0 but the pitch was like a swimming pool. Made Hexham Abbey with M for concert by Consone Quartet; it was packed; lovely to see so many people enjoying live music again even if we were missing 5 members of our group. The Quartet played Haydn SQ op 33, Fanny Mendelssohn SQ in E-flat major, Schubert Quartettsatz and Felix Mendelssohn SQ opus 44 plus Schumann Easter Pictures for an encore. It was all well played but particularly liked the Mendelssohn SQ opus 44, which had great variety and some stirring passages; the Schubert was very lyrical. Bought a CD by the Quartet on the way out for £15. The Consone SQ are an attractive group, with 3 eastern European lasses on the 2 violins and viola, and a very British male on cello; all the instruments are baroque. Made HoN with M after the concert, meeting C there, my mate from coffee at N; we had good chat over a couple of Portland stout; she was on cider! Next concert's on Friday at Sage where going to rehearsal as well. Had email from NH, encouraging me to sponsor a flautist again but inclined to stay with viola MG, anyway for another year: strings aren't all bad!! Funds are unchanged on wtd; there's some sign of revival in mining stocks. Added 1/2 of Sidmouth's records to BirdTrack. xxxxx XXX!!!!!!

October 18th: max 15C, min 12C, light SW breeze, sunny intervals, mostly cloudy, dry, back in Northumberland. But quite wet in Devon as left. Flight back at 12:15 EXT-NCL was a little late c25 min – nothing too serious; pleased with Loganair. The Embraer 135/145 that Loganair uses are built in Brazil and have 3 jet engines, designed for low-volume routes. Had a Common Buzzard at Throckley sitting on a post at 14:30. Went straight to W4shop and then home, which was sparkling clean. Later made G4g4s with P/A for good catch-up. Have studied photos from 17/10 and it looks like 2 Honey-buzzard – one brown from 11:47-11:52, the later one dark at 11:58. The second bird is also far too high to have been the bird soaring locally and going off SW; suspect the second bird also launched itself c11:47 but further N so obviously passing over later here. Made G4g4s and had a Barn Owl at 23:30 on way home at Ordley. xxxxx XXX!!!!!!

October 17th: max 17C, min 15C, light SE breeze, warm sunshine much of day after early mist. Weather-wise last of the good days evidently. Went for walk up hill to north oi Sidmouth from 11:15-13:00 this morning, with good views over local woods, including Honey-buzzard breeding site Bulverton Hill; such sites are often favoured by migrants. And I scored at last with a juvenile brown-phase Honey-buzzard up at11:47, floating around low-down just to N of Bulverton Hill, moving a little N where it met-up with a Common Buzzard and a Jackdaw who mutually circled for a while. The Honey-buzzard escaped their attention, moving higher into the base of thin high cloud and appearing to move SW out of sight at 11:52 1  2  3  4 (11210). At 11:58 another Honey-buzzard was gliding SW with some purpose at moderate height, too high to have been the earlier bird and dark-phase. Will check tomorrow on piccies taken. The Common Buzzard with the Honey-buzzard had been seen earlier at 11:29 on hill to N along with another Common Buzzard. Also had 2 Red Admiral, a Small White and 2 Hornet, plus in total of 15 bird-types 17 Redwing W, 2 Raven and 9 Linnet. Did have both nephews and families over for lunch: very good to meet them again in warm atmosphere; I contributed a couple of bottles of rioja, one £11, other £25, to test their tastes! Sister and partner are going to Lanzarote in the Canaries soon for a couple of weeks. Keeping to the Spanish theme, looking forward to the tapas and company!! xxxxx XXX!!!!!!

October 16th: max 16C, min 12C, light SE breeze, warm sunshine much of day after early mist. Masses of people out on the Esplanade (sea-front) and some people swimming in unseasonably warm conditions. Had morning coffee in Sidmouth town with sister, husband and 2 golfing friends and afternoon tea at Sidmouth Fort Café with sis. Did keep a look-out for late migrant Honey-buzzard, particularly over Bulverton Hill but none seen. Saw a male Sparrowhawk diving into a nearby tree and a male Kestrel on the cliffs just S of Sidmouth in short walk in that area. Had from 11:30-16:15 a total of 15 bird-types, including 7 Turnstone, 2 Rock Pipit, 5 Cormorant, 4 Raven, 1 Jay, on the sea-front and in nearby parks. Tomorrow is relatives' reunion day. Hope someone's stay has been stimulating!! xxxxx XXX!!!!!!

October 15th: max 16C, min 12C, light SE breeze, warm sunshine much of day, light rain shower at ttime. Did keep up the Skype tradition with N/D – worked well, now chatted to them from Ordley, Kenya, London, Spain, Gibraltar, and now Devon. That was my 11th flight of the year, not bad with all the restrictions! Sis and I went for a long walk of 8km up the Otter Estuary from Budleigh Salterton towards Otterton and back from 12:45-16:30. Plenty of birds around but no raptors other than a Common Buzzard soaring over the cliffs at Sidmouth S. We picked up a Rock Pipit, a Pied Wagtail, a Reed Bunting, 2 Little Egret, 1 Grey Heron, 2 Ringed Plover, 2 Black-tailed Godwit, 2 Mute Swan, a Raven, 1 Little Grebe, 4 Teal, 4 Moorhen, a Med Gull 1w, plus masses of Herring Gull, Black-headed Gull and Crow. Total was 28 bird-types, plus 2 Red Admiral, a Common Darter, a Southern Hawker and a Hornet. We had good chat, studying the new flood plain being created out of farmland and the cricket ground, which is being relocated to higher, drier ground. The idea is to create a larger salt marsh/flood plain in the estuary to benefit wildlife and to provide an area to collect excess run-off after heavy rain – very impressive. Some French money is involved as part of a condition for one of the inter-connectors across the Channel from France. We didn't have time for any lunch! Had some more good food and catch-up later. Think it's a look at Sidmouth tomorrow. Funds did make a small gain on week of +2k thanks to booming commodity prices today reaching new record. So gain ytd is now +555k (+45.0%) gross, +533k net with ftse 100 +10.8% ytd, ftse 250 +14.2%. xxxxx XXX!!!!!!

October 14th: max 17C, min 13C, light SW breeze, sunny all day with a little high cloud from time to time, dry. Very comfortable morning with breakfast at DT, plane NCL-EXT with Loganair on time, met by sis at EXT, lazy day chatting on patio in great weather. Lovely to see younger sis and husband again, first time since May 2019 with crash of Flybe and Covid in between. Nephew R came along with his partner J; was very pleased to see him again and we had good chat. Saw a Common Buzzard and a male Sparrowhawk from sis' garden in total of 13 bird-types from garden plus a Red Admiral. Gr8 meal in evening cooked by sis' husband, who used to be a professional cook; included of course runner beans, a Devon speciality. Booked up for concert by Consone Quartet in HEX Abbey next Tuesday; normally 7 of us go to these with Italian meal beforehand but only 2 definites so far (M/N) and no meal; very disappointed at slow return to normality. 2moro we're going to be more energetic. xxxxx XXX!!!!!!

October 13th: max 13C, min 10C, moderate W breeze, mostly cloudy, few spots of rain. Quiet day making N4c4l for 2nd day running. Bought new pair of black shoes at Clarks for £89, bit pricey but good quality, bought slip-ons, not very keen on laces! Booked into DoubleTree Hotel at local airport; did have a Red Kite foraging at Throckley on way in at 17:50. Nite on the Toon was so exciting, gr8 reunion – she's fabulous – plenty of ingenuity on show lok2tgrf xxxxx XXX!!!!!!! Have missed her. Will sleep well tonite b4 breakfast and comfortable departure at 10:25. xx

October 12th: max 11C, min 9C, light W breeze, light rain in morning, dull. Attended day 3 (last) of RRF from 09:00-16:30 Mountain Time, concentrating on archaeological studies of raptors. Always been fascinated by these as they give insights into what our raptor populations were like in past times. Most interesting talk was The Antiquity of Raptor Migrations over Eilat (Israel): Evidence from the 8th Millennium BC Site of Nahal Roded 110 by Tal Simmons from Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, USA with additional authors – Uzi Avner, Michal Birkenfeld, Liora K Horwitz – from the Dead Sea-Arava Science Center (southern branch) Eilot Regional Council, Eilat, Israel; Israel Antiquities Authority, Jerusalem, Israel; and National Natural History Collections, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel. They excavated an area containing the remains of 110 raptors. Intriguingly the main species were Black Kite (64%) and Honey-buzzard (19%), much as today; suspect Black Kite are easier to catch than Honey-buzzard so their proportion is exaggerated. Other raptors found were Long-legged Buzzard, Pallid Harrier, Eagle Owl, Sparrowhawk, Lesser Spotted Eagle, Golden Eagle, Common Buzzard, Hobby and Long-eared Owl. Some of the bones of the Black Kite and Honey-buzzard had cut-marks, possibly for butchery but could also be for decorative productions. The site is in the Rift Valley near the Dead Sea not far from Mukawir, Jordan, which visited on 21/07/15 with son and his friend Sean; the ancient site is NW of Dead Sea and Mukawir of Salome fame is SE of the Dead Sea. There were a number of other interesting talks, going back even to the Neanderthals who obviously had a lot of respect for raptors, judging by their artefact remains, particularly White-tailed Eagle on the coast and Golden Eagle inland, with Cinereous Vulture and Imperial Eagle also found in these studies in Southern Europe. We also had talks on ritual bird pits in New Mexico, USA , the culture of falconry in Anglo-Saxon England, and other excavations in Germany and Turkey. The plenary talk at the start of the day was on the sad state of raptor-populations worldwide with only 49 species increasing, 203 stable and 292 declining with 15 out of the 559 total having an unknown trend. 386 species are non-threatened but 70 are near-threatened and 103 are threatened. So really enjoyed the meeting, glad they could put it on; they handled the Zoom technology well; everyone was on Zoom, even the locals. Funds are 1k down on wtd after rising on Monday; have switched some funds from oil to metals as prices of latter has come down a lot, giving scope for diversification. Metals are of course plays on the new electrified economy so switching from the old economy to the new one. Still got quite a lot in oil! Will be out on the Toon tomorrow evening. xxxxx XXX!!!!!! xx thinking of the gorgeous one XX

October 11th: max 12C, min 10C, light W breeze, sunny in morning, cloudy later. Attended day 2 of RRF sessions from 08:45-14:30 Mountain Time, concentrating on threats to raptors from power structures, that's the distribution cables, not the wind turbines, which are an additional threat. Electrocution does result in serious losses of raptors, particularly in terrain where natural perches are few, such as steppes of Mongolia, where losses of Saker Falcon are horrendous. It's not all hopeless though. Retrofitting power structures with additional insulation is proving effective, particularly in North America, where market forces are also actually helping the situation. The market of the utilities is hit every time a raptor is electrocuted as being large birds they often bring down the power supply, requiring manual work to fix the problem. Further in Mediterranean California the electrocution can result in a wildfire: the bird being scorched, falling to the ground as a bundle of flames and setting the vegetation alight. Power structures with better insulation can make attractive nesting structures. World-wide the World Bank and other bodies are being pressured to improve the design of initial installations in the projects they approve. So maybe matters are slowly improving as utilities realise that poorly designed transmission structures raptor-wise are less reliable and more hazardous electricity-wise. The opening plenary talk was on the decline of the Andean Condor, due to many, many factors, with pesticide poisoning the main culprit. It's very sad to see their numbers decline. They go to the coast for part of the year; once whaling waste would have been abundant but now they struggle to find good feeding there. So a sobering day but the RRF is there mainly to discuss the protection of raptor populations not just to celebrate them. Made R4m4l at B and G4g4s with A and C on – very relaxing! Looking forward to Wednesday nite and escape the following day. xxxxx XXX!!!!!! Funds at new record today on miners' resurgence as move funds from oil to them! lok2tgrf!!

Latest global climate data for September 2021 shows the anomaly at +0.25C over base 1991-2020, consistent with continued rise of 0.14C per decade https://www.nsstc.uah.edu/climate/. In the GTR “The warmest region, in terms of the monthly departure from average, was +3.2 C over eastern Russia. There were several areas of almost equal warm departures centred over northern Afghanistan, western conterminous U.S. northeastward to eastern Canada, Paraguay, and the South Pacific Ocean. The coldest grid cell was centred on the Greenland Icecap dropping to -4.2 C. Cooler than average regions were also found either side of the Dateline north of 50 °N, far western Russia and east of Northern Japan. The confidence in the appearance of La Niña this coming NH winter has increased a bit to 70-80% as NOAA continues with its “La Niña Watch”. Back-to-back La Niñas are not unusual, so it is possible that the global temperature may dip back to average or below in several of the coming months despite the up-tick in temperature in the past three months in both the atmosphere as reported here and in the tropical sea surface temperatures reported by NOAA. This potential fall in global temperatures for the coming months is now becoming more likely but won’t really be evident until early 2022. To keep track of the latest weekly summary of the El Niño/La Niña cycle see: https://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/analysis_monitoring/lanina/enso_evolution-status-fcsts-web.pdf “.

October 10th: max 12C, min 8C, light W breeze, sunny in morning, cloudy later. Masses more work on beech hedge, cutting out top and also releasing front gate from being trapped within the hedge; think need to review the hedge in a few weeks when weather has worked on it a bit! At the RRF (Raptor Research Foundation) conference in Boise, Idaho, today on Zoom from 15:30-21:30 BST (08:30-14:30 Mountain Time); very interesting, general point – neglected area in studies is post-fledging a very dangerous time for inexperienced raptors and poorly studied. There was a strong Hispanic flavour with many attendees and presentations from Spanish culture, either as researchers in the US or as workers in central and South America. So learnt a lot about Neotropical raptors such as Harpy Eagle, Andean Condor, and effects of hurricanes on raptor dynamics; William S Clark spoke convincingly on suggested split of Bay-winged Hawk from Harris Hawk as separate species. Also met dynamic mapping techniques in SW N America to cope with rapid habitat changes, many caused by fire. Made W4bigshop, just £39, disliked new automated checkout system; why the hell should I scan everything and manage bags with such precision for no discount; far easier to just dump everything on the belt under the welcome of a human being. Did make G4g4s breaking away from RRF; good chat with D/J/P. Evidently the G had its best Saturday for many, many weeks with HEX racing on. 2moro it's R and G.

Have been following the La Palma volcano: Searing hot boulders the size of three-storey buildings have flowed down the side of a volcano in the Canary Islands as a string of tremors shook the ground three weeks after it erupted. The accompanying river of scorching magma, reaching temperatures of up to 1,240C (2,264F), also destroyed the last few properties that remained standing in the village of Todoque on La Palma, according to scientists. Some 21 tremors were also recorded on Sunday, the largest measuring 3.8, shaking the ground in the villages of Mazo, Fuencaliente and El Paso https://news.sky.com/story/la-palma-volcano-eruption-spews-searing-hot-boulders-the-size-of-three-storey-buildings-12430636. Here's a map of La Palma https://www.google.com/maps/place/La+Palma/@28.6022002,-17.7985391,11z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0xc6bf20c6a87a13b:0x8e2037d22330882d!8m2!3d28.7133828!4d-17.9057813. My late wife and I stayed at Puerto Naos about the year 2000 in SW of island, most activity has been further north. Here's a live webcam from the hotel we stayed in https://lapalmarentacar.com/webcam/puerto_naos, complete with black lava beach: looks deserted! We visited all the Canary Islands, some several times, our favoured holiday destination with Morocco a close second. I've never been back.

October 9th: max 16C, min 8C, light W breeze, cloudy, light rain in afternoon, mild. Did masses of tidying-up in front garden, including hacking the top off the beech hedge where it's gone too high; that is work in progress as have to cut through the thick stems near the top of the hedge. Processed records for 16/8, the day when Honey-buzzard juvenile were first seen this year, leaving 9 data sheets outstanding.

max 13C, min 11C, light SW breeze, drizzle. Met big sis in Richmond Park at 11:30 (to 14:00) and we had walk with my daughter around Isabella Plantation before going to snack bar for some food. Weather was a bit disappointing

15:41 09/10 European Honey Buzzard Shetland Bixter, Mainland 15:36 juvenile flew low to south

14:56 09/10 European Honey Buzzard East Sussex Pett Level one reported

13:22 09/10 European Honey Buzzard Devon Soar 10:45 one over East Soar

09:46 08/10 European Honey Buzzard Shetland Valyie, Unst 09:05 pale-morph juvenile flew south

09:26 08/10 European Honey Buzzard Shetland Haroldswick, Unst 09:18 one flew south

21:25 05/10 European Honey Buzzard East Sussex Hastings CP 10:00 one flew south-west over North's Seat

18:23 04/10 European Honey Buzzard Essex Southend-on-Sea one flew south past pier

Energy crisis is of course world-wide as Washington Post report: “An energy crisis is gripping the world, with potentially grave consequences. How China and Europe are catching the brunt of it. Energy is so hard to come by right now that some provinces in China are rationing electricity, Europeans are paying sky-high prices for liquefied natural gas, power plants in India are on the verge of running out of coal, and the average price of a gallon of regular gasoline in the United States stood at $3.25 on Friday — up from $1.72 in April. As the global economy recovers and global leaders prepare to gather for a landmark conference on climate change, the sudden energy crunch hitting the world is threatening already stressed supply chains, stirring geopolitical tensions and raising questions about whether the world is ready for the green energy revolution when it’s having trouble powering itself right now.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/10/09/energy-crisis-global/?utm_campaign

The DT uncharacteristically blames the Tories: “Our feckless Government has condemned Britain to a decade of crippling energy crises. The Tories inherited a plan to build a fleet of new nuclear power stations. Now we are at just the start of a disastrous crunch”. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/10/08/feckless-government-has-condemned-britain-decade-crippling-energy/ . Maybe we'll become like Lebanon: “Lebanon hit by electricity outage expected to last several days. Country’s two main power stations stop working due to fuel shortage plunging cities into darkness. Lebanon’s electricity grid collapsed on Saturday after its two main power plants ran out of fuel, plunging much of the crisis-ridden country into darkness for at least two days.” https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/oct/09/lebanon-hit-by-electricity-outage-expected-to-last-several-days .

I support the greens on biodiversity but their energy policies are absolutely barmy. Hopefully after COP26, we can get back to some sanity. Energy transitions take half a century. Energy is the life-blood of human civilization. I do have subs to all of the three news sources! Will give latest global climate data 2moro. Will be looking for Honey-buzzard tomorrow as well as finishing the beech hedge, leaving just the leylandii to do. Out to the G in the evening!!

October 8th: max 17C, min 11C, light SW breeze, mainly cloudy, some sunshine, dry, very mild. Got hedge trimmer out and cut verge by road, mint patch, dogwood, tressels along house walls, ivy. Completed processing Bywell trip from 6/10. Did meet P at Tans in HEX; we sat outside as he was shielding, recovering from 5 cycles of chemotherapy to treat a malignant lymph node. I bought him a hearty breakfast as he'd skipped the meal. Very supportive of his English for All cause; we had good catch-up and will meet again in a few weeks at the RM coffee bar; he was full of admiration for my Kenya escape in January. Also met D&D at DoW for good chat; we're bringing in Saturdays now as an option for meeting up as Fridays are heavily booked with concerts. Also 'met' N/D for Skype chat at 16:00; wonder when they will ever come out again. Funds turned positive today with +6k on week as oil/gas continued to boom with PoO $82 a barrel. This brings gain on ytd to +553k gross (+44.8%), +531k net with ftse 100 +8.7% ytd, ftse 250 +12.0%. Traded a lot more energy stocks and moved some money into miners, which have fallen back quite a lot. Also placed some money into relatively risk-free short-dated bonds. Accrued interest on bonds is now quite a lot every day (365 25 of them) in a year. The energy crunch has been entirely foreseeable in that renewable energy is not dense or reliable enough to keep modern economies running. Climate change is poorly defined in scientific terms, having lately focussed on extreme weather events that suit the narrative rather than a rational analysis. The decision to refuse Shell permission to run the Jackdaw natural gas project in the North Sea is absolutely insane: we will simply import the gas from Russia at an enormous premium and with little security. See https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/uk-regulator-rejects-shells-plans-develop-jackdaw-gasfield-sources-2021-10-06/

October 7th: max 17C, min 14C, light to moderate SW breeze, mainly cloudy, incredibly mild particularly overnight, little rain early morning. Did last grass cutting of season, doing the front grass area. People laughed at my confidence in this, particularly as I've cleaned and oiled the motor and wheels. But have natural low-level grazing by rabbit, hare and deer so can just forget about it now with any extra long grass a useful reserve for the animals over the winter. Processed Dipton Wood S completely from yesterday and piccies from Bywell in the morning session. Made T4c4c with M for good chat and a lively G4g4s with P/A and Friday morning am seeing P at T4c4c for catch-up, in particular on English for All, the charity promoting learning of English for refugees. Friday evening it's DoW4g4s with D&D. Hope the concert goes well!! xxxxx XXX!!!!!!

October 6th: max 12C, min 9C, light NW breeze, beautiful sunshine with great visibility, all dust washed out by yesterday's deluge, dry. Had a brilliant day for Honey-buzzard migration, seeing 3 juvenile. Made Stocksfield Mount from 12:00-14:00, seeing a juvenile soaring to moderate height from Bywell Cottagebank at 12:36 1  2  3  4  5 (12202) and then moving off smartly to SE, disappearing quickly – a long way to go to Africa still! The next juvenile was up at 12:43, soaring very high from Bywell Cottagebank and then moving SE. These two birds had clearly had a stop-over for feeding and must have spent yesterday staring at the rain and getting on with feeding. There were loads of wasps around the ivy so plenty of food still available. Also here had 2 Common Buzzard and a Sparrowhawk at Bywell and another Common Buzzard over the Mount. Made Salute4c and then dashed home to get house ready for cleaner S. Went out to Dipton Wood S from 15:30-17:40 where had 2 Common Buzzard and a Sparrowhawk. Highlight of the day was the third juvenile Honey-buzzard coming out of the sky at 16:19, obviously looking for a place to stay the night; it circled in flap-flap-glide mode looking quite aggressive before descending down into the middle of Dipton Wood 1  2  3  4 (12203). Often see juvenile Honey-buzzard emigrating out of their roost at noon but very rarely see them drop out the sky like this! Completed processing of North Wood records for 1/9 so all September records done. Had a good long chat on the Mount with someone who used to serve me in the W, escorting 2 types of bulldog!! xxxxx XXX!!!!!!

October 5th: worst day for quite a while, max 10C, min 7C, fresh SE breeze, turning NW in evening, heavy rain in morning giving flooding in parts of Newcastle, damp still in the evening; the date the max falls below 10C is significant I feel – signs of onset of winter, narrowly averted today. Took advantage of lack of distractions by processing trips to SW of county on 2/9 (completed) and 1/9 (done Coanwood, processed piccies from North Wood); see below for the details. When finished there are just 10 data sheets left to process for August – couldn't keep up in the end with vital closing fieldwork. Not out today! But pleased to get started with catch-up on records as can then publish annual totals. Those for the kites are the most interesting I feel. 2moro weather is better and will go in search of late Honey-buzzard migrants and early winter visitors. Next concerts are 19/10 Hexham MS, 22/10 RNS and 24/10 Samling, and next opera is Carmen (again!) on 3/11 at Newcastle TR. xxxxx XXX!!!!!! Funds are +2k on wtd. PoO has reached almost $83 a barrel but oil producers' shares have been strangely muted (almost shocked!). Have bought 50k of short-dated bonds this week to lock in the gains realised last week.

October 4th: max 12C, min 7C, light SW breeze, heavy rain in morning, then frequent showers, sunny spells, drying out as day progressed. Did some energetic grass cutting at ttime in entrance to orchard and field, keeping open the outer limits and giving scope for the spring flowers in these areas, such as primrose and cowslip. Had 8 Lesser Redpoll on birch mast and a Jay in my field; no butterflies today. Next task is to cut front grass before starting on hedging but heavy rain forecast unusually for whole of day tomorrow with a yellow rain warning. Did make R where we had talk on the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome – a bit of an esoteric topic but the speaker made it interesting; good for social chat! And went to T4shop to get the 4 grapefruit. Earlier almost woken up (not quite) by intruder alarm service at 09:00 with Swansons sending 2 men this time. Made G4g4s with A, just the 2 of us but since he's a birdwatcher, we had plenty of good crack. Plan now to catch up with last season's records and the piccies from Tarifa. xxxxx XXX!!!!!!

October 3rd: max 12C, min 9C, light SW breeze, heavy rain early-on, then frequent showers, sunny spells, drying out as day progressed. Relaxing day today after 3 glorious days celebrating the return of the arts. Did do W4bigshop – only £38 – clearly missed a lot including 4 grapefruit but haven't eaten all of last week's after so much time away from home. Bought £35 of petrol from HEX Shell garage, that was maximum allowed but almost fills the tank. Also bought some kindling there for the coal fire for an exorbitant price of £6.99; petrol was exorbitant as well at 141.9p/litre – bloody oil prices! But think I'm ahead through the share holdings!! Bought tickets for 2 more Sage concerts – Samling on 24/10, Requiem on 28/11. Made G4g4s with D/J/P/P for good chat, followed by an exciting rendezvous!! 2moro having intruder alarm serviced at 09:00, attending Rotary at 12:30 and more G late-on.

Since 29/9 3 more records (4 birds) on BirdGuides for autumn migration of Honey-buzzard, giving running total of 131 birds from start of emigration on 9/8, with 35 August, 93 September, 3 October.

13:45 03/10 European Honey Buzzard West Sussex Cissbury Ring two late morning: one flew south and one circling to south-west

12:00 03/10 European Honey Buzzard West Sussex Steyning 11:45 one flew south over Highland Croft

08:17 30/09 European Honey Buzzard Suffolk North Warren RSPB 08:40 28/09 one flew south over South Marsh on Tuesday morning

October 2nd: max 12C, min 6C, moderate SW breeze, dull, frequent showers, mild. A quick note at 03:57 3/10 added to later!! Carmen by Bizet, first performed 1875 in Paris, was fantastic and ON were great hosts, having 2 receptions in refurbished Howard Assembly Rooms before and in interval; even got an upgrade to a seat in the Stalls with the great and good. There was a third reception but I had to get away for the train. The opera is set in southern Spain and was sung in French with English subtitles. Carmen the opera is so full of sin of all kinds – no wonder it's so popular – the best of opera! Sins in Carmen include lust, infidelity, envy, wrath, pride, smuggling, corruption, smoking, drinking, bull fighting, murder – not suitable for woke devotees!! Bizet did not live to see the ultimate success of the opera, dying soon after its first performances; the opera was hugely controversial with its depiction of ordinary people, rather than the aristocracy. Carmen the person is a serial lover, getting what she wants for 6 months then discarding her lovers. She befriends an army soldier Don José who makes various sacrifices for her: like spending time in prison for letting her escape his custody and deserting from the army once his corrupt commanding officer Zuniga, chasing Carmen, was shot dead in his company and he went to assist in their smuggling adventures. But Carmen then fancies a toreador Escamillo, Jose begs Carmen to resume their affair but she refuses and he kills her with a knife. Everyone performed well, particularly liked Chrystal E Williams as Carmen, Helen Évora as Mercédès, Carmen's friend, and Phillip Rhodes as Escamillo. The ON orchestra under Garry Walker was in great form; it's always more difficult, playing pieces that people know so well as any deviation is quickly noticed. So ON did make it a great return to the north of live opera. I'm a silver patron of ON, donating £150 per month; last year was a bronze patron, paying £62.50 a month. Just one problem with trip: TransPennine cancelled the return trip after York (shortage of conductors) and put us on a bus, arriving NCL at 01:57, not 00:12. Have already got a refund. Central Station was all closed but retrieved car by walking up back lane (exit to park), paying at the machine and escaping quickly. So driving into HEX at 02:30 from CBR; did notice the lite, could be a moth!! More details 2moro but now it's time for bed, though did get some sleep on coach. Did have 2 Honey-buzzard juvenile on trip: 1 at Throckley moving SE low-down with Corvids at 14:30, other in North Yorkshire just N of Thorpefield, 2 km S of Thirsk near the race course, at 16:30 over a copse with a Crow, both in damp, drizzly, blustery weather.

Funds +6k on week, falling back later in week, after disappointment with lack of progress in Falklands oil exploration. Gain on ytd is 547k gross (+44.4%), 525k net with ftse 100, +7.6% ytd, ftse 250 +14.2%. Getting more concerned over direction of world economy as shortages of many items increase so took a lot of profits last week, ending up with 120k cash. PoO continues to rise and gas shortages multiply but am concerned this will bring down the world economy and with it the oil and gas boom. That's how markets work: everyone is connected.

October 1st: max 12C, min 7C, moderate SW breeze, bright, frequent showers and rainbows, mild. Made Dipton Wood extreme N, in Swallowship tetrad, from15:30-16:45. This is more like heathland with invasive scrub than coniferous woodland in its present state of development with young conifers planted but not very significant yet. This is a great Green Hairstreak area as it has patches of bilberry. Had 9 types of bird, including just one raptor, a 1w Kestrel, that was hunting over the heather at 16:36. This is a Woodlark area and had 2 single birds briefly up at 16:00 and 16:22. Also had 2 Swallow SE, 2 Chiffchaff, a Jay, a Siskin, a Robin, a Crow and 11 Woodpigeon. So limited but interesting! Then onto RDM for trip to NCL at 17:05. Got to Sage early, after bracing walk along the High-level bridge, to collect tickets for the mini-season. Concert had a female conductor Joana Carneiro, who was very dynamic and expressive throughout, fitting the Dance theme. The opening piece was by John Adams in his minimalist style, which people seem to love or loathe. I like it and Shaker Loops is a good example of the genre. Next up was the lively accordionist Ksenija Sidorova as soloist in Astor Piazzolla's Aconcagua. The RNS seems to have a passion for this composer, who is also very popular with the audience. There was a quite good attendance, perhaps 60% full, in spite of the event being streamed. Ksenija gave us a beautifully sensuous encore and ½ time was reached with everyone in good spirits. The concert completed with Beethoven 7, one of my favourite symphonies, which was absolutely stunning from start to finish. It was good to see BC as acting leader but very sad not to see someone else. Had met some of the partners earlier on but met more after the concert in the downstairs bar where also got entangled with the woodwind, who would like me to return my sponsorship to them, I think. Met new flautist CA (not playing tonight), MT (principal flautist tonight) and expressive clarinettist CM, who comes from Andalucia, my favourite part of Spain and where I was recently, in Tarifa. I was sorry to hear that I missed seeing AY play 2 weeks ago, Back on last train NCL-RDM and quickly to bed to catch-up on sleep. This is a busy spell of 3 days, return of live culture at last – absolutely brilliant. Hope all is well : xxxxx XXX!!!!!! Funds are +6k on week, more details on Sunday. Next up is ON in LDS!

September 30th: max 15C, min 11C, moderate SW breeze, rain from time to time, drier later, mild. Did get back on the films trail, seeing Green Knight, a mediaeval fantasy tale, which held the attention. The music was interesting, quite Wagnerian with shades of darkness and menacing scenes, interspersed with chants and choral singing. The hero Gawain was also typically Wagnerian, a bit too good to be true and not entirely likeable, and the film is good on whether he flunked his execution by the Green Knight with no witnesses, affecting his confidence in later life even though he had adoring subjects who thought he was a hero when he became king. Alicia Vikander was a good actress as Essel, Gawain's commoner girlfriend when young who he booted out when he became king and replaced her with a noblewoman. She also played the sensuous Lady, who removed some of the tensions in Gawain's quest for the Green Knight. So good to be back at the Tyneside, glad it's survived, did double my seat cost as a donation. They're doing very well with the new James Bond film; I will try and see that. Evening seemed to lack something!! 2moro it's back to the Sage to see the RNS, another great return, looking forward to it. Shall arrive early to collect tickets and have a drink; will be on last train NCL-RDM; have 225 miles range left on car.

September 29th: max 12C, min 7C, light to moderate W breeze, sunny all day except for occasional shower late afternoon, did not light fire, sun warms house, exercise keeps me feeling hotter! Very energetic today, cutting large part of grass at back in final cut before winter, grass all over the place. Did indeed make D4m4l with the IT gang (5 of us), had salmon pate and duck, very tasty, with plenty of good chat. Then went shopping, bought new pair of trousers and 2 pairs of shirts for £47 in discount store Yorkshire Trading Co. So very practical day! Didn't make G4g4t, decided to cut grass in the one dry day this week. 2moro it's return to the TC with show at 20:15 (not the famous one!), expect to make NCL off CAL 18:56. Looking forward to it!! xxxxx XXX!!!!!!

Since 26/9 2 more records (2 birds) on BirdGuides for autumn migration of Honey-buzzard, giving running total of 127 birds from start of emigration on 9/8, with 35 August, 92 September.

09:14 28/09 European Honey Buzzard Norfolk Choseley Drying Barns 09:12 juvenile flew south

16:17 27/09 European Honey Buzzard Kent Sandwich Bay 25/09 one flew north on Saturday

A very late Black Kite is in Ireland at my ancestral home:

16:54 29/09 Black Kite Wexford Tacumshin again over Forgotten Corner then flew high west

13:36 28/09 Black Kite Wexford Tacumshin 13:10 one flew north-west over East End towards Lingstown

September 28th: max 12C, min 7C, light W breeze, cloudy all day, heavy rain from ttime, lit solid fuel fire (fire lighter, kindling, doubles, smokeless ovoids) for first time in autumn, lovely and cosy. Stayed local with fuel shortage, going for local scan around Ordley. Didn't see any Honey-buzzard so maybe the 3 on 26/9 have moved on (we shall see!) but did have 2 Common Buzzard, one flying into a tree to S, the other floating overhead going E, both thought to be juvenile on moult condition. Had total of 11 bird-types from 13:30-14:30 including 9 Swallow W and a Stock Dove, plus a Stoat on roadside. Worrying news from B, my Wed afternoon drinking mate in the G – he was diagnosed today at the Freeman with bone cancer, in the spine, affecting badly one of his legs; think radiotherapy is the plan. Thinking of breaking out from my drinking circle in G – maybe resuming Thursday trip to late-nite TC, returning via last Metro and CP. Still on for Friday Sage and Saturday Opera North!! Funds are +13k on wtd, with robust gas and oil market. Not sure it will get any better this week for the shares as traders like to close their positions as the week goes on, so they can count it all at the weekend! Lunch with the IT gang of 6 at D 2moro. Once again it's a pleasure to xxxxx XXX!!!!!!

September 27th: max 13C, min 9C, moderate S breeze, passage of cold front, heavy rain morning, sunny spells later, much cooler, autumn is here! Added piccies for recent sightings of Honey-buzzard locally in the 'Shire. Made R @ B4m4l, where good company. Much later made G4g4s with P/A for good chat and M's last Monday stint! Funds reached record today with PoO approaching $79 a barrel even with Falklands being downplayed. lok2tgrf: xxxxx XXX!!!!!! xx xXX tgo xXX tbo xXX

September 26th: max 20C, min 10C, moderate W breeze, beautifully sunny autumn-day. Did W4bigshop but only £50. Explored the local Honey-buzzard migrant scene today and found 3 birds in the Ordley area, all juveniles and likely Scottish-bred birds drifting slowly southwards, stopping in rich feeding areas. Had seen a single dark bird up at 14:45 and 16:12 from house so explored further, keeping a watch from 16:15-16:50. Had the dark Honey-buzzard up at 16:19 1  2, a Common Buzzard up at 16:24, a ruddy Honey-buzzard at 16:24 3, both Honey-buzzard up together down the valley to E at 16:27, a new Honey-buzzard flushed from a tree to N overlooking a stubble field at 16:44. Also had a Woodlark flying SW at 16:40. So that's 3 Honey-buzzard migrants to add to the one at Swallowship on 24/9 – good breeding season in Scotland, which has had good weather this summer compared to the south of England. Northumberland has also had a good breeding season for Honey-buzzard. Feeling stronger today – returned from Spain a little sun-baked! Not out to G – aiming for 3 alcohol-free days a week. xxxxx XXX!!!!!! xxxxXXxXXXXxX gorgeous one xxX beautiful one xxX missing tgo xxxxx XXX!!!!!!

Sorted 12/9 piccies from the great day! 124 Piccies are indexed below for the Tarifa topology, 11 of the raptors, groups of raptors (2) and 2 storks. Complete Tarifa record will be held here http://nickrossiter.org.uk/hbweb/tarifa2021.html but it only holds 12/9 so far. Used some automatic techniques to convert file names to html entries: 1) dir /b >filelist.txt to obtain a list of the files in the file filelist.txt; 2) edit filelist.txt with Notepad++ using regular expressions, replacing ^ with <A HREF="http://nickrossiter.org.uk/tarifa 2021/ to prepend the directory information; 3) change .jpg with Notepad++ to .jpg">1</A>&nbsp; to finish the line with reference number and closure; 4) manually edit reference numbers. Much better than manually entering each image -- If use a spreadsheet could generate automatically the reference numbers as sequences.

Since 21/9 7 more records (7 birds) on BirdGuides for autumn migration of Honey-buzzard, giving running total of 125 birds from start of emigration on 9/8, with 35 August, 90 September. Note the increasing numbers of juveniles, good to see more being identified.

14:30 25/09 European Honey Buzzard East Sussex Beachy Head 14:28 juvenile drifting west

20:01 24/09 European Honey Buzzard Essex Ongar Park Wood juvenile photographed by road

16:15 24/09 European Honey Buzzard Devon Plymstock 14:36 one flew over

22:59 23/09 European Honey Buzzard Kent Elmley NNR juvenile showing well this afternoon

17:51 23/09 European Honey Buzzard Dorset Rempstone Heath one flew over Wytch Causeway this evening

16:16 23/09 European Honey Buzzard Hertfordshire St Albans 16:05 probable flew high west

10:27 22/09 European Honey Buzzard Gwent Cwm 10:24 immature flew over valley before lost to view

September 25th: max 19C, min 14C, moderate SW breeze becoming light, cloudy on whole, few sunny intervals. Spent ages processing 12/9 Tarifa coming up with 124 images to publish: Honey-buzzard 33, Black Kite 25, Egyptian Vulture 15, .Booted Eagle 10, Short-toed Eagle 5, Common Buzzard 4, Black Stork 4, White Stork 4, Marsh Harrier 3, Griffon Vulture 3, Common Kestrel 2, Bonelli's Eagle 1, Red Kite 1, raptor groups 2, Tarifa general shots habitat 12. So that was a truly brilliant day! Hope to progress the task tomorrow but id and labelling has been completed. Next weekend is a musical bonanza so want to get the Tarifa results sorted quickly.

September 24th: max 18C, min 12C, moderate W breeze, sunny, warm day .uncomfortable wind. Back in the field today. Cleaner S arrived at 15:30 so went to nearby Letah Wood from 15:15-17:00. Had 3 raptors: a Honey-buzzard juvenile up at 15:48 over Swallowship 1 judged to be a pale-phase migrant as the 2 raised here were not this phase; it bounced around powerfully in the wind, putting up many pigeon and corvids but soon went down again most likely to resume feeding (11200); this is presumably a Scottish-bred bird, still a long way to go to Africa. A Red Kite juvenile was up over West Dipton Burn at 16:00, moving out to feed to W. A Common Buzzard adult was calling twice in Letah Wood at 16:50. So that was a good range to mark my return to Northumbrian birding. Had some interesting dragonfly: a Common Hawker, 3 Common Darter. Later met D&D in DoW where we had brilliant catch-up in nice surroundings. Funds finished week +5k on rise in energy prices, taking gain ytd to +542k gross (+43.9%), 520k net, with ftse 100 ytd +8.0%, ftse 250 +17.4%. Next week is a big one for the Falklands with a meeting on Thursday afternoon in Salisbury, Wiltshire, to discuss the situation. Will really start on Tarifa tomorrow! xxxxx XXX!!!!!!

September 23rd: max 18C, min 12C, moderate W breeze, cloudy by day. Met M at T4c4c for good chat and A at G4g4s; latter was so busy, things are looking up with L on and M in waiting!! Am going to start processing the Tarifa piccies tomorrow, starting with the best day 12/9. Funds fell today on HBR pulling out of Sea Lion in the Falklands; didn't expect that with current high PoO but an Israeli company Navitas, with extensive deep-water offshore experience in Caribbean/Atlantic is joining the action so all is not lost. Have shares in another Israeli company ENOG (Energean) which is developing offshore gas fields in the Mediterranean to ensure energy security for Israel with major new FPSO coming into action in 2022.

September 22nd: max 18C, min 12C, moderate W breeze, hazy sunshine most of day. Quiet day – did make N4c4t and G4g4t; latter was gr8, meeting up with a lot of old mates but sadly no B as he's got a painful leg. Shown a picture of a dead young Nightjar, killed by a car at Slaley Forest – very sad! Next trip is to Devon 14/10-18/10, flying NCL-EXT with Loganair cost £202, to see younger sis and M who had a prostate op today at Torbay Hospital. Last trip to Devon was in May 2019. Will make London in separate trip in early November. Funds at new record today with dash for gas! Very much missed normal Wed activity: xxxxx XXX!!!!!!

September 21st: max 17C, min 13C, light W breeze, hazy sunshine most of day. Did some energetic grass-cutting today, after which feel much fitter; walking does not stretch all muscles. Made N4c4ll where enthusiastic welcome – they wondered whether I'd deserted them. Made I4shop. Getting back on the music trail; booked trains NCL-LDS 15:44 leave, 00:12 back on 2/10-3/10 to see Carmen by ON, including pre-performance and interval receptions but cannot stay for party afterwards. Will drive to NCL. Should be a great evening with the lovely music of Bizet. Also have Alcina and Wagner's Parsifal booked up at the LDS venue and all the offerings at TR, so will see Carmen and Alcina twice. Going to RNS on 1/10 and will attend the open rehearsals on 22/10 and 18/11!! Funds are +1k so far this week with some big falls yesterday (sell on the news of higher prices for gas) and big recovery today (these stocks now look cheap); total value is 4k adrift of record set on 15/9. Europe/UK is run by idiots as far as energy supply goes – complete lack of engineering skills in governments, particularly on question of scale; renewable energy should be capped at 25% of electricity supply until we learn how to cope with its wild fluctuations in supply at the continent-level. The UK's reliance on the spot market for gas through not having storage systems is reckless in the extreme.

Today 8 more records (10 birds) on BirdGuides for autumn migration of Honey-buzzard, giving running total of 118 birds from start of emigration on 9/8, with 35 August, 83 September. Note the one Northumberland possible and the multiple sighting of 3 birds at Bapchild in Kent.

16:06 21/09 European Honey Buzzard East Sussex Hove 15:45 dark morph juvenile flew over Hove Park

15:15 21/09 European Honey Buzzard East Sussex Beachy Head juvenile flew west this afternoon; also Short-eared Owl

12:27 21/09 European Honey Buzzard East Yorkshire Hornsea Mere 11:45 juvenile flew south-west over Wassand

11:26 21/09 European Honey Buzzard Kent Dungeness RSPB 11:10 one flew west over entrance track; also Glossy Ibis, 8 Western Cattle Egrets and Great Egret still on Cooks Pool late morning

11:24 21/09 European Honey Buzzard Kent Bapchild 11:15 three circled overhead then flew south

10:34 21/09 European Honey Buzzard Bedfordshire Luton 08:30 probable flew south-west over Bushmead

10:06 21/09 European Honey Buzzard Leicestershire and Rutland Groby Pool one flew south mid-morning

09:47 21/09 European Honey Buzzard Northumberland Felton 20/09 possible flew south yesterday afternoon

September 20th: max 17C, min 11C, light W breeze, sunny all day. Made NCL Airport for PCR test with NPH – all very well organised and drilled and a steady stream of punters though quieter than last January. My vaccination certificate was accepted by the nurse; it had earlier been rejected by the machine! Suspect a change in format with the recently generated certificates having a single QR code, whilst mine had 2, one for each jab. The certificates are valid for 4 weeks from generation with mine expiring after 25/9, so it's probably only a temporary problem. So last deed of holiday done (I hope; yes just in at 20:20 result of throat and nose swab at 11:03 this morning – PCR Negative – gr8!). Had 2 Common Buzzard over Styford at 11:30 and another sitting on a post at Throckley N at 10:30. Traffic around the new roundabout on A69 at Hexham from E and also in Corbridge village was at a standstill so relieved could get though on A69 from W. Made G4g4s in welcome company of A with the dynamic M on, a good nitecap! xxxxx XXX!!!!!!

Updated home page for CT/process with a publication from last year and the recent one in Mexico:

Rossiter, Nick, & Heather, Michael, The Physics of Communication, The Vigier Centenary, Third Regime Natural Science Towards a Physics of the Observer, XIIth Vigier Symposium, Liège, Belgium 27-30 July 2020, abstract http://www.noeticadvancedstudies.us/RossiterXII.pdf    pdf.

Heather, Michael & Rossiter, Nick, Particle Physics viewed from Category Theory, GOL2021 International Congress Applied Category Theory Graph-Operad-Logic in memory of Professor Zbigniew Oziewicz, 24-27 Aug, programme https://virtual.cuautitlan.unam.mx/GOL2021/index_ing.html (2021). presentation pdf, book of abstracts https://virtual.cuautitlan.unam.mx/GOL2021/GOL2021_Abstract_2021082427-1.pdf, our abstract in section 10 Quantum mechanics, Leptones, Quarks, Fundamental interactions pp 26-27 pdf.

Since 19/9 (i.e. today!) 4 more records (4 birds) on BirdGuides for autumn migration of Honey-buzzard, giving running total of 108 birds from start of emigration on 9/8, with 35 August, 73 September. Still plenty of UK birds to reach the Straits.

12:54 20/09 European Honey Buzzard Shetland Foula 12:00 one flew over

12:39 20/09 European Honey Buzzard Norfolk Sheringham 07:30 dark-morph juvenile flew west over golf course then towards Sheringham Park

10:39 20/09 European Honey Buzzard Norfolk Scolt Head Island 10:37 one arrived in off the sea then flew inland towards Burnham Deepdale

08:06 20/09 European Honey Buzzard Durham Cleadon 08:02 juvenile reported low from east then flew west

So how's climate change progressing? Latest satellite data shows global anomaly for August 2021 of +0.17C in https://www.drroyspencer.com/latest-global-temperatures/ and https://www.nsstc.uah.edu/climate/. Nothing very dramatic in context of 1991-2020 base period. The GTR in the latter url says:

The warmest region, in terms of the monthly departure from average, was +3.9 C (+7.0 °F) over East Antarctica near the Concordia Research Station. The other main areas of warmer than average temperatures appeared in the NH and formed a wave pattern with warm areas from west to east occurring in the North Pacific, SE Canada, Iceland, western Russia and then eastern Russia. The coldest grid cell was not far from the warmest being located SE of the South Sandwich Islands at -2.9 C (-5.2 °F). Cooler than average regions were found in the western North Pacific, central Europe, far South Atlantic and NE China. The tropics were very near average.

There's a lot of interest as to whether we are going to get another La Niña this winter as that tends to depress global temperatures and gives unwanted trends in North America, such as drought in California. In https://www.climate.gov/news-features/blogs/enso/july-2021-enso-update-la-ni%C3%B1a-watch there's an almost 70% chance of La Niña in NDJ (November-December-January) which is a little ominous for the 'hot' brigade.

September 19th: max 16C, min 9C, light W breeze, rain early-on then sunny to early afternoon then more rain and dull weather. Plenty of Honey-buzzard action in UK in mid-September reflecting a late but successful breeding season. Since 11/9 28 more records (29 birds, 10 on 18/9) on BirdGuides for autumn migration of Honey-buzzard, giving running total of 104 birds from start of emigration on 9/8, with 35 August, 69 September. Still plenty of UK birds to reach the Straits.

16:09 19/09 European Honey Buzzard Norfolk Boughton Fen one flew over this afternoon

15:34 19/09 European Honey Buzzard Norfolk Happisburgh 15:30 possible flew south towards Stalham

11:43 19/09 European Honey Buzzard Dorset Bournemouth one flew towards airport

09:23 19/09 European Honey Buzzard East Yorkshire Flamborough Head one flew south over Selwicks Bay near lighthouse

09:07 19/09 European Honey Buzzard Norfolk Weybourne 08:55 dark morph juvenile flew inland towards Kelling Heath

19:51 18/09 European Honey Buzzard London Southall one flew over Wolf Fields Nature Reserve this afternoon

16:02 18/09 European Honey Buzzard East Sussex Brighton two juveniles flew over between 11:25 and 11:37

12:45 18/09 European Honey Buzzard Fife Isle of May juvenile flew over this morning

11:25 18/09 European Honey Buzzard Shetland Bakkasetter, Mainland 11:20 one flew south

08:35 18/09 European Honey Buzzard Shetland Cunningsburgh, Mainland one flew south-west

08:15 18/09 European Honey Buzzard Durham Blackhall Rocks 08:13 adult female flew west

07:53 18/09 European Honey Buzzard Shetland Sumburgh, Mainland one flew south over Sumburgh Head

07:48 18/09 European Honey Buzzard Kent Langdon Cliffs NT one flew west at Langdon Hole

07:10 18/09 European Honey Buzzard East Sussex Beachy Head 11:00 17/09 one flew north yesterday morning

10:02 17/09 European Honey Buzzard Isle of Wight Ventnor Downs 09:35 one flew south

17:09 16/09 European Honey Buzzard East Yorkshire Hornsea Mere one flew south-west over Wassand mid-afternoon

12:17 16/09 European Honey Buzzard Suffolk Stowmarket one flew east near A14 late morning

11:11 16/09 European Honey Buzzard Norfolk Wells-next-the-Sea 11:05 probable flew east

09:43 16/09 European Honey Buzzard Dorset Portland 09:40 juvenile flew south at Bill

08:26 16/09 European Honey Buzzard Kent Dungeness NNR 15/09 one flew over Dungeness Point late afternoon yesterday

13:00 15/09 European Honey Buzzard Dorset Portland 12:58 juvenile flew west over bird observatory

08:12 14/09 European Honey Buzzard Jersey Noirmont Point 08:07 one

17:11 13/09 European Honey Buzzard Isle of Wight Ventnor 14:00 one flew east over Ventnor Downs

15:31 13/09 European Honey Buzzard Cumbria Sedgwick 15:30 one flew low overhead towards Sizergh

11:17 13/09 European Honey Buzzard Norfolk South Creake one drifted north-east this morning

20:23 12/09 European Honey Buzzard West Sussex Arundel 17:35 one flew over Long Lane

20:16 12/09 European Honey Buzzard Kent Dungeness RSPB probable flew over Boulderwall Farm; also 2 Western Cattle Egrets flew over ARC Pit late afternoon and 2 Black-necked Grebes from Hanson Hide

10:54 12/09 European Honey Buzzard Jersey Noirmont Point 10:53 one flew over

One recent Black Kite:

12:09 13/09 Black Kite Kent Lydd one drifted high west early afternoon

So that's very satisfying! Started looking at records from the Straits with some information and piccies on Oriental Hornet found in Gibraltar on 17/9; added the Asian Hornet reference to my references to Honey-buzzard articles; Honey-buzzard are very cool in taking on such large and aggressive insects. Oriental Hornet are a bit more cuddly though must admit they do look quite dangerous, even to an insect stalwart like myself. Never threaten any kind of Hornet, just let it go on its way! Have had some raptors in Ordley since return: a Barn Owl on the fence and 2 Tawny Owl calling last night and yes a Honey-buzzard juvenile, dark-phase, soaring over area N of my house at 13:30, mobbed by several Rook, Jackdaw and Crow. This will be the younger bird at this site not seen earlier, typically leaving 10 days after its older sibling, so up to 34 fledged now including 12 broods of 2. Holiday's not over yet: PCR test tomorrow morning at NCL Airport, can't wait! Enjoying return, made W4bigshop £57 and G4g4s where no mates out but plenty of fun: xxxxx XXX!!!!!!

September 18th: max 29C, min 20C, light S breeze, misty morning, settled. Paid the hotel £963.75 for the 4 nights, breakfast and some g and dinners. Did scan the Rock from the Airport for a couple of hours but no raptors seen. Flight back was very efficient, easyJet do 3 flights close together from GIB to EDI, GAT, MAN, and all were busy and on time. easyJet do still serve food and coffee in flight so that made it more comfortable, indeed they've gone up in my estimation. Didn't stay long in MAN, straight through automatic passport gates with no checks on Covid paperwork but then it was a flight from a green area. Walked short distance to MIA and waited a while for train as had thought the arrival formalities might take longer. Passed through Huddersfield which has some suitable habitat for Honey-buzzard with woodland on steep sided banks and changed at York to a wild partying-train (it's fresher-time!). Once in NCL took Metro to Airport where collected car for drive home. Lovely to be home, spick and span after good work by cleaner S.

Gibraltar Airport, at the Airport on the outside veranda from 10:00-12:00: just saw Mediterranean Yellow-legged Gull and Feral Pigeon plus a few House Sparrow. So current count for trip from 4/9-18/9 on BirdTrack is:

97 species from 356 records, 14 complete lists, 7 places (all species assumed countable). This is a preliminary figure, expect it to rise as photographs and notes are given their final scrutiny.

Trip has been a great success, particularly the 10-days in Spain where Tarifa is a superb spot for autumn migration of raptors and many other species. Will publish some of the piccies and the final totals directly. Black Kite was undoubtedly the star giving many close views but the total of 20 raptor-types is amazing. Gibraltar was less spectacular bird-wise and didn't achieve nearly so much there though it's a great place for seeing Peregrine, adding one to raptor total of 19 types in Tarifa. Temperature-wise Tarifa is more refreshing with the fresh breezes and the wide-open spaces, giving a better natural experience. Gibraltar is very crowded with great pressure on space for humans and nature. The hotel in Tarifa was good value for money, costing £140 a day compared to £240 a day for the Gibraltar one. Gibraltar is exceptionally popular at present because of its green status Covid-wise. The staff at both hotels were friendly and supportive. Tarifa is the better choice for nature-lovers and Gibraltar as a city-break. Did have more excitement in Gibraltar socially!! Anyway pleased I did both but maybe would skew the 14 days to 11 for Tarifa and 3 for Gibraltar on a repeat. On week funds were +9k gross, +6k net, after 3.5k withdrawal for school fees, making gain ytd of 536k gross (+43.4%), 514k net, with ftse 100 ytd +6.7%, ftse 250 +17.8%. ftse 100 was down 2.5% on week so quite a risk-off week, partly due to the energy supply problems which boosted some of my fossil-fuel stocks. Had great welcome-back in 'Shire: xxxxx XXX!!!!!!

Notes on Gibraltar raptors from Gibraltar Bird Report 2021 p.9, indicating my unexciting autumn experience was not untypical:

Most recent years have seen a sprinkling of records of scarce raptors but during 2021 there were no Black or Ruppell’s Vultures, no Pallid Harriers, no Red Kites, no Merlins and none of the rarer eagles. All this is just a curiosity and of no biological significance. It is a simple reflection of the variability of results to be expected from a very small territory such as Gibraltar, where most records of seabirds and raptors especially are of fly-bys.

The spring 2021 passages of soaring birds were particularly poorly evident locally, as usual due largely to unfavourable winds at key stages of the season. In fact, easterlies predominated during most of March and much of April, and coverage was weak in May. The seasonal total of soaring birds was 19,070 birds, well below the post-2001 average (25,574) not to mention the record tally of spring 2020 (57,243). The 2021 total was largely due to a sizeable showing of Black Kites (11,950), a species that is now so numerous at the Strait that large counts result even when the peak movements are missed. The Booted Eagle count of 1,784 birds, chiefly over a few days in early April, was noteworthy but all other species appeared in well below average numbers.

The autumn passages of soaring birds are very hard to monitor from Gibraltar since birds then often skirt the Rock or visit repeatedly without crossing. Regular counts are not carried out at this season. However, autumn 2021 produced a seasonal total of over 25,000 birds since some major movements of both Black Kites and Honey-buzzards were counted.

September 17th: max 28C, min 18C, light W breeze, strong sunshine all day, hot. Done most of peninsula so decided to stay local and have a relaxing day hanging around in preparation for tomorrow. Out from 13:00-20:00. Had a total of 4 Peregrine in central section, a pair displaying, a juvenile male flying low-down and a juvenile female at dusk flying to the top of the middle section of the Rock. So that's splendid but no migrant raptors. Also saw another Blue Rock Thrush plus 2 Blue Tit and 2 Melodious Warbler in the canopy. A Pallid Swift flew S.

Had a number of Oriental Hornet Vespa orientalis in a corner of a park, near the Hotel as shown here 1  2; these are a major threat to bee hives but are presumably, like the larger Asian Hornet, vulnerable themselves to Honey-buzzard attack. Here's the paper recording the Honey-buzzard's use of Asian Hornet Vespa velutina combs near Barcelona, Spain: Macià, F X, Menchetti, M, Corbella, C, Grajera, J & Vila, R. Exploitation of the invasive Asian Hornet Vespa velutina by the European Honey Buzzard Pernis apivorus. Bird Study, 66:3, 425-429 (2019); summarised by BirdGuides, European Honey Buzzards prey on invasive hornets, https://www.birdguides.com/articles/ornithology/european-honey-buzzards-prey-on-invasive-hornets/ (2019) with pages in paper in Bird Study here 1  2  3  4  5. xxxxx XXX!!!!!!

September 16th: max 27C, min 20C, light S breeze, strong sunshine all day, felt hot. Did long walk to N of Gibraltar from 11:30-16:30, taking in the mobile clinic at the Airport for a Covid lateral flow nasal test (£30); result given in 25 min was -ve so that's a relief. Found that BA had cancelled my return flights with very little ceremony so booked with easyJet from GIB-MAN on same day (£90) and on Trainline for MIA-NCL (£26); have got a voucher from BA after complaining; not sure I'd have got anything otherwise! Basic problem was they changed the flight times GIB-LHR and the LHR-NCL option offered actually had the NCL leg taking off before I'd left GIB. I'd sell IAG (BA) shares if I had any – such poor management is a symptom of a deep malaise. Have now 5 forms on my mobile – vaccination certificate, pre-departure test certificate, passenger locator form, booking for PCR test on Monday at NPH at NCL Airport (£95), boarding pass, each with its own QR code! My vaccination certificate, obtained from the NHS site just 3 weeks ago, is not in the latest format (2 QR codes instead of 1) so has to be confirmed manually. Had to copy codes myself back and forth between the NPH form and passenger locator form. It's an incredibly complicated mess. Pleased to see its demise is imminent from the Breakfast show on TV this morning. Spain's Covid cases are 1/10 of those in the UK so exactly what is the UK protecting!

Gibraltar N side is dominated by the Rock, which has a number of skyscrapers going up along side it, for flats. Catalan Bay is an attractive retreat. There was an adult male Kestrel on the cliff at 13:26 and 2 Rock Thrush migrants (together on N end), from higher altitude. But it's not as wild as the S end, which enjoyed yesterday. Best birdwatching has been from the tables outside the hotel drinking g; this evening had 2 Firecrest and a Black Redstart bringing total to 95. So the implications are obvious!! See you sometime – don't know where, don't know when!! xxxxx XXX!!!!!!

September 15th: max 25C, min 19C, light S breeze, sunny spells particularly later, swirling low cloud and massive thunder clouds, a very heavy shower late morning, humid and warm. Did long walk to S of Gibraltar from 12:05-16:30 making the Little Bay Beach area, a quiet seaside area for those in the know! Found the shags which lurk around these parts, 5 members of Phalacrocorax aristotelis desmarestii, the rare Mediterranean subspecies. Also at Little Bay had 2 Western Bonelli's Warbler, 2 Sardinian Warbler, a Blue Rock Thrush (female/immature) and 2 Greenfinch. Highlight of the raptors was a male Peregrine at 14:14 soaring over the top of the Rock above, putting up many Feral Pigeon; this is species no.20 of raptor for the trip, 5-7 pairs breed in Gibraltar each year. A Jackdaw was also seen on the top of the rock at the S end. Scanned the scrub and trees carefully on the walk and found a Great Tit (heard and seen), a Crested Tit, a Chaffinch, 3 Blackbird. A Common Kestrel was flying over the Docklands at 12:45. Kept an eye on the top of the Rock for raptor migration and did see some: at 13:12 2 Black Kite going S at low altitude, at 17:45 3 Honey-buzzard soared and glided S, at 18:00 4 Booted Eagle mobbed by a pair of Peregrine soared and flew S; at 18:15 a Goshawk flew S without any soaring, straight over and out! So quiet day for raptors but weather not appropriate (potentially too stormy) until late in day. Think that brings trip total to 92 bird-types. The Greens are refusing to acknowledge that the poor performance of renewables is behind the current energy crisis in Europe and are saying that we need to double up on wind energy but in calm times 2 x 0 is the same as 1 x 0: logic is not their strong point! In the markets shares of green energy companies are plummeting and those of fossil fuels are soaring: we do need to make an energy transition but nuclear must be to the forefront! Gave 4.5k to granddaughters today on occasion of I's birthday to help with school fees; will dent funds by 3.5k this week. xxxxx XXX!!!!!! Running total for birds from 4/9-15/9:

92 species from 334 records, 11 complete lists, 7 places (all species assumed countable)

September 14th: max 26C, min 20C, light S breeze, sunny intervals following rain showers early on, humid and warm. Paid hotel bill of €1649 on visa including my meals and drinks paid for on hotel card. Said fond farewell to staff at Tarifa Lances, who had looked after me very well and at 12 noon, car turned up to take me to the border in La Linea. Noticed 4 Black Kite waking up on mountain road between Tarifa and Algeciras at 12:15 at Pelayo. After being dropped off at 12:50, strolled through passport controls into Gibraltar though they did stamp my passport and walked using Google Maps to Eliott Hotel, with stop for coffee on way. Currency here is £, either British or Gibraltar form at parity between them; € also seem to circulate freely. Hotel room was ready at 13:00, 2 hours earlier than that booked. Behaved like a grockel, taking the cable car (£17 2-way) up to the top of the rock, where introduced to the monkeys, Barbary Apes, 2 of which jumped on the car even before it had 'landed'. Spent some time up there looking for raptors from 15:30-17:00 but pretty quiet, seeing 'just' a Booted Eagle and an obliging Short-toed Eagle, clearly looking for a snack before crossing to Africa. Also in Gibraltar had a Carrion Crow near the hotel at 21:00 bringing trip total to 84. Made a back-street pub Cornwall for a couple of very welcome g (£3 each!). This is more like a city break than a beach holiday, a welcome change in some respects. Had dinner in the hotel – f&c+mp, quite traditional. Funds are +7k on wtd on soaring gas prices. xxxxx XXX!!!!!!

Final total for Tarifa, Spain is: 84 species from 314 records, 10 complete lists, 7 places. Here's trip report for the whole period 04/09-14/09/2021, including the 19 raptor types seen, analysis of raptor counts, all birds seen, weather, diary.

September 13th: max 25C, min 22C, moderate E breeze, no sun, cloudy all day, occasional light rain showers with big drops. After strenuous catch-up on records from yesterday's excitement, was out for walk to W from 13:05-15:30. No fall of migrants in the changed weather was evident. Did do some sea-watching for a change, seeing 2 Gull-billed Tern E, a Common Tern E, 5 Sandwich Tern (4 E, 1 W), 5 Balearic Shearwater (3 E, 2 W), 1 Gannet immature W. Only raptor was a juvenile Marsh Harrier at 14:52, which on the slightest brightness came up for a hunt over rough grassland 1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10  11  12  13. Booked up return taxi to GIB for €89; hotel is becoming a lot quieter; gave head waiter €20 tip for his excellent service; he was worried about fall off in trade with Covid worries still a problem..Have booked Covid test for return (£30 at Gib Airport). Up to date bird-species count from BirdTrack for Spain trip (4/9-13/9) is:

83 species from 302 records, 9 complete lists, 5 places (all species assumed countable) with raptors 19 types, waders 15 types.

Beginning to anticipate return, feelings roused today: xxxxx XXX!!!!!! Total for all bird-types today was 21.

September 12th: max 25C, min 22C, fresh NE breeze, sunny all day. What a day, raptors seen close-up as route from W came over the Playa de Los Lances. At 09:20 while having breakfast by the hotel pool, a Montagu's Harrier drifted overhead going S – good omen! Out from 11:10-16:10 in the beach area in fairly wild conditions. At 11:21 6 Black Kite came overhead low-down from the beach moving N to the ridge to gain some height through orographic lift before gliding towards the port and across the Straits. From 11:29-12:58 the action was over the hill to the W with birds climbing up high using the orographic lift from the NE breeze. Totals were Black Kite 19, Honey-buzzard 4, Egyptian Vulture 4, Spanish Imperial Eagle 1, with 2 Osprey (both W over sea), 3 Griffon Vulture foraging, 1 Marsh Harrier foraging over marshland. So fairly routine but then there was a dramatic change as the birds came off the hill to the W and flew over the beach giving fantastic views and piccies as they then glided back slowly into the breeze to the hills to the N where they soared using the orographic lift and glided over the port and the Straits. Why didn't they go straight over the Straits from the hill to the W? Suspect at this western end of the Straits and with the fresh NE breeze, they didn't think it was safe because of the risk of drift into the Atlantic so did this manoeuvre to be further up the Straits to the E before crossing. Count from 13:00-13:58 was Black Kite 27, Booted Eagle 8, Short-toed Eagle 4, Honey-buzzard 2, Marsh Harrier 1, Egyptian Vulture 4, with Black Stork 18 (in with the raptors), White Stork 250 S (straight over the Straits from hill to W, not with the raptors). Some of the Black Kite were low-down over the beach and would have been termed in-off by some people but certainly not the case: they were coasting. From 14:05-14:58 had on same route Black Kite 30, Honey-buzzard 13, Egyptian Vulture 10, Booted Eagle 11, Short-toed Eagle 1, Common Buzzard 1, with a Short-toed Eagle hunting to NW and a male Hobby up over the port to E. From 15:06-15:34 had over the beach Black Kite 15, Honey-buzzard 2, Red Kite 1, Egyptian Vulture 5, Short-toed Eagle 1, with a Common Kestrel male hunting over the dunes and a kind of party over the port to E where 6 Black Kite, 4 Lesser Kestrel and the Hobby were putting on a flying display in imminent farewell to Europe, maybe resting overnight before crossing. Then it all stopped!

So totals for day were Black Kite 103, Honey-buzzard 21, Egyptian Vulture 23, Booted Eagle 19, Short-toed Eagle 6, Lesser Kestrel 4, Osprey 2, Spanish Imperial Eagle 1, Marsh Harrier 1, Common Buzzard 1, Red Kite 1, Hobby 1, Montagu's Harrier 1, with foraging birds – Griffon Vulture 3, Short-toed Eagle 1, Marsh Harrier 1, Common Kestrel 1, and storks 18 Black, 250 White. So that's 190 raptors of 15 types, 1 (the Hobby) new for trip bringing total to 19 types. Sorry for late update – a lot of analysis required. xxxxx XXX!!!!!! xxxxXXxxxxxXXXXXXxX Total for all bird-types today was 37.

124 Piccies are here for the Tarifa topology, 11 of the raptors, groups of raptors (2) and 2 storks. Complete Tarifa record will be held here http://nickrossiter.org.uk/hbweb/tarifa2021.html but it only holds 12/9 so far.

Black Kite

1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10  11  12  13  14  15  16  17  18  19  20  21  22  23  24  25 

Black Stork

26  27  28  29 

Bonelli's Eagle

30 

Booted Eagle

31  32  33  34  35  36  37  38  39  40 

Common Buzzard

41  42  43  44

Common Kestrel

 45  46 

Egyptian Vulture

47  48  49  50  51  52  53  54  55  56  57  58  59  60  61 

Griffon Vulture

62  63  64 

Honey-buzzard

65  66  67  68  69  70  71  72  73  74  75  76  77  78  79  80  81  82  83  84  85  86  87  88  89  90  91  92  93  94  95  96  97 

Marsh Harrier

98  99  100 

Raptors in Groups

101  102 

Red Kite

103 

Short-toed Eagle

104  105  106  107  108 

Tarifa Topology

109  110  111  112  113  114  115  116  117  118  119  120 

White Stork

121  122  123  124 

September 11th: max 26C, min 19C, light W breeze up to 15:00, then became moderate NE breeze, sunny all day. Different conditions again with light W breeze at start of watch at 11:30, meaning orographic lift was out of question with thermals the main option left; these were clearly rising over the hills to N where the raptors were soaring to considerable height and gliding SE towards the Tarifa port and presumably from there gliding as far as possible over the Straits before having to flap when all height was lost. This is the classical migration routine across the Straits so good to witness it. Totals by the hour were 11:47-11:58: Honey-buzzard 14, Black Kite 3; 12:03-12:56: Honey-buzzard 34, Black Kite 7, Booted Eagle 3, Short-toed Eagle 2, Montagu's Harrier 4, all gliding SE after initial soar, with a Bonelli's Eagle and a Goshawk (female perched on pylon) foraging on N side and 47 White Stork SE; 13:05-13:59: Montagu's Harrier 3, Black Kite 5, Short-toed Eagle 1, Booted Eagle 2, Marsh Harrier 1 juvenile close over rough grassland at 13:49, eventually moving SE, with 2 Bonelli's Eagle hunting, 1 Griffon Vulture foraging and 47 White Stork SE; 14:13-14:45: Honey-buzzard 2, Black Kite 4, Booted Eagle 1, with 80 White Stork SE; 15:15-15:44 after wind change action now over hill to W – Black Kite 6, Egyptian Vulture 4, these drifting off S from hill to W, with also to NW – 2 Spanish Imperial Eagle (1 adult, 1 juvenile) foraging, 2 Short-toed Eagle hunting together, 1 Griffon Vulture floating, 1 Common Kestrel male hovering. A Swallowtail butterfly was seen 1: butterflies have been neglected in this visit, too much excitement with the raptors!

Grand totals for today are: Honey-buzzard 50 1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10, Black Kite 25 1  2  3  4, Booted Eagle 6 1  2  3  4, Short-toed Eagle 3 1  2  3  4  5  6, Montagu's Harrier 7 1, Marsh Harrier 1 1  2  3  4  5  6  7, Egyptian Vulture 4 1, all crossing Straits with 2 Bonelli's Eagle, 1 Goshawk 1  2  3, 2 Spanish Imperial Eagle 1  2  3, 2 Short-toed Eagle, 2 Griffon Vulture, 1 Common Kestrel staying on N side 1  2  3 and 127 White Stork SE 1  2  3  4  5  6. Also 6 Alpine Swift SE, 25 Pallid Swift SE and 27 Bee-eater resting 1  2. Total for raptors today is 106 birds of 13 types with total of 18 types of bird of prey for the trip. Needed a couple of bevvies after that lot! xxxxx XXX!!!!!! Total for all bird-types today was 32.

Since 5/9 18 more records (19 birds) on BirdGuides for autumn migration of Honey-buzzard, giving running total of 75 birds from start of emigration on 9/8, with 35 August, 40 September. Still plenty of UK birds to reach Gibraltar. .

20:06 11/09 European Honey Buzzard Cornwall Mullion 17:20 adult flew north

19:48 11/09 European Honey Buzzard Lincolnshire Frampton Marsh RSPB 13:15 one flew over

19:47 11/09 European Honey Buzzard Lincolnshire Freiston Shore RSPB 13:00 one flew over

18:03 11/09 European Honey Buzzard Dorset Wimborne Minster one flew over to south

21:28 08/09 European Honey Buzzard East Sussex Brighton 11:10 adult flew east over Hollingdean

12:50 08/09 European Honey Buzzard West Yorkshire Hebden Bridge 12:45 one flew south over Little Nook Farm

20:13 07/09 European Honey Buzzard Kent St Margaret's at Cliffe one flew south out to sea over Bockhill Farm; also Pied Flycatcher still in paddock

19:39 07/09 European Honey Buzzard Suffolk North Warren RSPB 11:41 possible flew south-east

18:34 07/09 European Honey Buzzard East Sussex Heathfield one at Sapperton Meadows

15:13 07/09 European Honey Buzzard Dorset Portland male over Verne Common; also 3 Pied Flycatchers in Royal Naval Cemetery

12:54 07/09 European Honey Buzzard Lancashire Marshside 12:54 one flew inland over Stanley High School

12:50 07/09 European Honey Buzzard Lancashire Marshside RSPB 12:50 one flew south over Sandgrounders' Hide

10:41 07/09 European Honey Buzzard Essex Leigh-on-Sea 09:20 one flew north

09:43 07/09 European Honey Buzzard Essex Woodham Fen EWT06/09 one flew south yesterday

07:10 07/09 European Honey Buzzard Isle of Wight Luccombe 07:00 one along trail to Luccombe Down then flew off towards Downs

22:41 06/09 European Honey Buzzard East Sussex Brighton 12:20 two adults flew south over Fiveways

14:15 06/09 European Honey Buzzard East Yorkshire Kilnsea 14:13 one flew south past Crown and Anchor

12:44 06/09 European Honey Buzzard Isle of Wight Luccombe 11:45 one flew low over Hundred Acre field and radar station at Luccombe Down then disappeared below Bonchurch Down

September 10th: max 25C, min 20C, moderate W breeze, sunny all day, quite invigorating in the breeze off the Atlantic. No concerted raptor passage noted today in walk from 12:30-16:45 to NW of Tarifa on the boardwalk through the lagoons; went further today putting the walk up to 7km, making a rough area with ponds 1  2 at the far W, opposite the centre for the wind sports (surfing, windsurfing & kitesurfing) which are so popular here. Haven't got round to them yet! Earlier had good chat with N/D through hotel WiFi on Skype; no criticism this time, they were very critical of my Kenya trip though I remain defiant (good for mental health!). Had some good views of some raptors today, including a Montagu's Harrier juvenile flying along the beach at 14:13 1  2  3, before turning out over the Straits towards Morocco; a juvenile Marsh Harrier, hunting over marshland at 14:45 1  2  3  4  5; an Osprey coming out of trees at W end of beach and flying over headland to SW at 14:51 1  2 before crossing the Straits and another Osprey in power flight moving E along the beach at 14:57. More distant views were of a Black Kite hunting to N at 12:57, a Common Buzzard, presumed resident, hunting to N at 13:31, and a Black Kite hunting to N at 15:41. So that brings number of raptor types to 16 with the addition of Marsh Harrier. Other birds included Western Black-eared Wheatear 1, Hoopoe 1, Crested Lark 1, Calandra Lark 1  2  3, House Sparrow 1, Whimbrel 1, Oystercatcher 1, Little Egret 1. On the sand were 150 Mediterranean YLG 1  2  3  4  5  6  and 7 Audouin’s Gull (5 adult, 1 1w, 1 juvenile). Black Kite remains in the lead in terms of numbers with Honey-buzzard second. Hotel remains very comfortable: it is a new building so is well equipped in all respects and staff are very friendly and helpful. Wind goes E on Sunday and storms are forecast for Monday to Wednesday. xxxxx XXX!!!!!! Total for all bird-types today was 34.

Funds had a good week in spite of general market weakness, with gain of +9k taking gain on ytd to +527k gross (+42.7%), +508k net, with ftse 100 -1.5% on week, +7.7% on ytd and ftse 250 +18.0% on ytd. A correction is expected but commodities continue to move higher so happy to trade resource stocks and benefit from interest on bonds. Next week sees some demands on net funds: birthday presents and school fees! Do have the money (4.5k) sitting in my current account.

September 9th: max 25C, min 21C, moderate W breeze, sunny all day. Out to the E today of Tarifa, revisiting the port area from 10:30-15:55. A quiet day for raptors at least for seeing them from the ground. Did though have 2 Griffon Vulture soaring to N, not going anywhere, at 10:35, 12 Black Kite soaring from 11:24-11:26 high into the sky from the arid hills immediately to N of hotel and moving S, a Booted Eagle powering its way over the W of the town to S at 11:26, a Black Kite low-down around the headland to E of the port at 13:06 moving off S 1  2  3, and 2 Lesser Kestrel in same area at 13:17, also moving S. One White Stork was soaring high to SW at 10:40 and a massive flock of 170 White Stork was moving SW on N side of Straits at 14:55 1  2  3  4. Swallow passage was massive and continuous with 400 SW. There's a good mixture of Atlantic 1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10  11  12  13  14  15  16  17  18  19 (69 counted) and Mediterranean YLG (240 counted) in the port area and recorded long calls of both; some shots held both types of gull 20  21  22  23  24  25. Also had a Caspian Tern 1, 9 Sand Martin SW, 1 Red-rumped Swallow S, 6 Ortolan Bunting S, 10 Bee-eater S, 3 Common Swift S, plus an Ocellated Lizard 1. Here's some landscapes: Morocco from Tarifa 1  2  3 , Tanger from Tarifa 4, Playa Lances Tarifa 5, sinister OSEGS HQ 6  7, Tarifa island 8 (last point in Europe before crossing to Africa), Tarifa port 9  10. Feeling very relaxed with all the fresh air and exercise; the breeze at Tarifa is very welcome for comfort. Tomorrow going to see N/D on Skype hopefully at 11:00 CEST. Thinking of someone who's gorgeous: lok2tgrf: xxxxx XXX!!!!!! Total for all bird-types today was 31.

September 8th: max 25C, min 21C, moderate W breeze, sunny all day. Out to the W again with the breeze off the Atlantic giving a fresher feel. As expected it was a quieter day raptor-wise as the birds are drifted further E towards Gibraltar on he W breeze; it's also possible that some birds may have drifted over at great height and not been seen at all though did keep a close watch on the ridges from 10:00-15:30. Today was the day of the White Stork and Montagu's Harrier. From 10:18-10:22: Egyptian Vulture 1, Honey-buzzard 8, Montagu's Harrier 6, Griffon Vulture 13 1  2, Black Kite 1, White Stork 2 (SW unlike raptors), broad-winged raptors using orographic lift off ridge to N before drifting SE at great height, still using orographic lift from ridges below; 11:11: White Stork 2, moving SW as all storks did during the day, probably not crossing until wind behind; 12:02: Honey-buzzard 16, Montagu's Harrier 6, Egyptian Vulture 4, Griffon Vulture 4, broad-winged raptors climbing on orographic lift from ridge to N, then continuing SW straight into the breeze, climbing higher and higher until lost to sight; 8 Griffon Vulture foraging to N with 1 to W and 1 Bonelli's Eagle hunting to E; 12:13-15:33: 38 White Stork moving SW, not seen crossing Strait, largest group 22; Sparrowhawk 1 juvenile male hunting on rough land just to W of hotels 1, both at 10:35 and 15:15, thought to be a local bird. Kept a close watch on coastal mountains to W, looking for any birds coasting from the Algarve but none seen; a Raven was seen here at 14:30. So day's total was: Black Kite 1, Honey-buzzard 24, Griffon Vulture 17, Egyptian Vulture 5, Montagu's Harrier 12, for migrants (broad-winged raptors moving SE/SW at height) and Griffon Vulture 10, Bonelli's Eagle 1, Sparrowhawk 1, for residents, making 71 raptors of 7 types. Total for White Stork was 40 SW with many piccies taken 1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10  11  12  13  14  15  16  17  18  19  20  21  22  23  24  25  26. Other birds included 11 Short-toed Lark 1, 7 Stonechat 1, 6 Zitting Cisticola 1, 90 Swallow SE, a Red-rumped Swallow SE, 3 Sand Martin SE, 12 Cattle Egret, a calling Chiffchaff, 300 Spotless Starling. A party of Dutch birders was visiting the area 1. Here's piccies of mountains to NW of Tarifa 1  2  3  4  5  6. Total for all bird-types today was 37.

Looking at the jizz of the Honey-buzzard, confirmed that some do indeed look like small vultures in the soar, particularly when near stalling: “They can also show a characteristic 'vulture' pose with wings pushed very well forward, tail fully fanned (and therefore looking shorter) and extended neck and protruding small head” http://nickrossiter.org.uk/hbweb/jizz.htm. Some do show long tails but can see why so many are misidentified as Buteo by beginners as on Trektellen in UK, particularly the juvenile http://nickrossiter.org.uk/hbweb2/misidentification%20juvenile%20honey-buzzard%20forsman.html and to a lesser extent females.

Trip running total is 64 bird-types, including 15 birds of prey and 13 waders. Getting on well with waiters, who I think are keener on improving their English than my getting to grips with Spanish though am improving on food terminology – vino tinto for instance, agua con gas, and cerveza! Think the whole of the Spanish tourist industry in Andalusia has been devastated by Covid and they're praying that they can have a good autumn to recover some of their losses. Hotel is busy and there are plenty of visitors out and about, including a 15-strong Dutch birdwatching group who I met in the hide this afternoon for a good chat; they had earlier seen the Montagu's Harrier up in the mountains. The Dutch speak better English than the English! Very few English people around; foreign visitors are mainly German, Dutch, French and Scandinavian, but would say half the visitors in the hotel are Spanish. Anyway good to see a better atmosphere developing. Loved the tone: xxxxx XXX!!!!!!

September 7th: max 27C, min 22C, moderate E breeze, becoming light S late morning, light SW midday and light W for rest of day, sunny throughout. Learnt a lot today: how important orographic (ridge) lift is, even in these warmer climes where many more thermals if the wind allows them to form. So today no action off the eastern-facing hills to W with everything off the south-facing hills to N as the wind changed to S/SW. Typically flocks of mixed raptors (35 is a popular number) were climbing off the hills to the N using orographic lift and then gliding E using lift over further ridges before gliding S over Tarifa Island and crossing the Strait at moderate height. When the wind was still in the E, one group did move SW, going out to sea directly to W of Tarifa, so they were following the wind to facilitate the crossing. Raptor counts, with watch from 10:30-15:30, were: 10:44-10:59 Black Kite 6; 11:14-11:35 Black Kite 28, Honey-buzzard 14, Griffon Vulture 2, Eleonora's Falcon 1 (fast, moving SE in straight line), Common Buzzard (1 hunting), broad-winged raptors moving SW at height; 12:20-12:42 Black Kite 35, Honey-buzzard 6, Egyptian Vulture 2, Black Stork 5, Osprey 1 1  2  3 (moving W to E following coast), Goshawk 1 (flap-flap-glide over Tarifa and straight out to sea), broad-winged raptors moving SE at height; 13:30-13:37 Black Kite 3, Common Kestrel (2 juvenile hunting), 2 Montagu's Harrier (male ringtail) 1  2  3  4  5; 14:13-14:41 Black Kite 4, Honey-buzzard 62, Griffon Vulture 1, broad-winged raptors moving SE at height, earlier birds may have arrived a day or two ago, these looked like fresh arrivals, going straight over; 15:04-15:25 Black Kite 2, Honey-buzzard 31 1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8, Red Kite 1, Bonelli's Eagle 1 (hunting to N), Bee-eater 45 arrive from N and land in scrub. So day's total was: Black Kite 78, Honey-buzzard 113, Griffon Vulture 2, Eleonora's Falcon 1, Egyptian Vulture 2, Montagu's Harrier 2, Osprey 1, Goshawk 1, Red Kite 1 for migrants (broad-winged raptors moving SE at height) and Common Kestrel 2, Common Buzzard 1, Bonelli's Eagle 1, for residents, making 205 raptors of 12 types. Gulls were good today having 700 Mediterranean Yellow-legged Gull in big flocks on the sands 1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10  11  12  13  14  15  16  17  18, 5 Audouin's Gull (2 ad, 2 1s, 1 juv) 1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10  11 and a LBBG graellsii adult 1  2. A Little Egret got caught up in the Yellow-legged Gull flock 19 with 4 heron types noted in all: 3 Cattle Egret, 2 Little Egret, 1 Great White Egret, 1 Grey Heron 1  2. Waders included 200 Sanderling 1  2, 40 Ringed Plover 1  2, 4 Dunlin 1  2, 5 Redshank, 1 Oystercatcher and 5 Grey Plover. Here's views to W 1  2  3 including bushes close to hotel 4  5.

Finished at 15:30 as fancied a couple of bevvies! Hotel is going well, staff very chatty and friendly (in English!). Dining well but not excessively so, as keen to get a bit fitter with long walks (another 5km today) and more Mediterranean diet! Resisted siesta today, disrupts night-time sleeping, even though very tempting! Hotel room is fully air-conditioned so very comfortable. And bed is ever so big!! xxxxx XXX!!!!!! Granddaughters had big day at school in past few days, S now in year 2 1 and I in year 1 (oldest in class) 2. Guess who's going be getting the cast-offs! Funds are +4k on wtd, all due to MBS.

Running total for raptors is: Black Kite 248, Honey-buzzard 149, Egyptian Vulture 13, Griffon Vulture 9, Booted Eagle 3, Common Kestrel 3, Bonelli's Eagle 2, singles for Lesser Kestrel, Eleonora's Falcon, Common Buzzard, Osprey, Goshawk, Red Kite; that's 433 birds of 13 types. Exceeding expectations! Total for all bird-types today was 40.

September 6th: max 26C, min 23C, fresh E breeze, cloudy morning but then sunny afternoon and evening. Tarifa is so windy, with today blowing sand everywhere. The Playa Lances is enormous and very impressive 1  2  3  4. Near the harbour on Atlantic side were Atlantic Yellow-legged Gull adult and juvenile 1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9 in total of 4 seen. Also saw 30 Mediterranean Yellow-legged Gull. At its shortest the Strait is only 13km wide but because of wind drift most birds might travel 25-30km over the sea, so less than the English Channel at about 35km but it seems to be more challenging because of the way the winds are concentrated through the Straits. Yesterday walked 5km out to the west, today went east through the harbour area 1  2  3 to the coastal walk on the E side, complete with wind farm 1 and fields 1  2. Here’s maps 1  2 and sign 1. This area to E is recommended as the birds come in lower as the ridges are set further back inland. The grey morning may have put some birds off but did have 1 Black Kite over Tarifa at 10:35 1  2  3  4, 3 Black Kite around 11:09-12:15 on the rocks by the sea 5  6  7  8  9  10  11, obviously grounded yesterday evening on the N side and delaying the crossing until today. Then started picking up Black Kite coming from the N 12  13  14  15 and going right over the island off the S tip of Tarifa (and of Europe mainland) and flying straight out to sea at high speed in very choppy and breezy conditions. Had 12 Black Kite and a Honey-buzzard male 1 from 12:51-13:30 in small groups of 2-3 either coasting, moving back E to recover ground lost in drift, or flying straight out to sea. The largest group came over at 13:36 of 5 Black Kite and a Honey-buzzard male 2  3 gliding over the island and straight out to sea with much flapping. From 14:33-15:30 had 2 more Black Kite going straight out to sea. So that's total of 23 Black Kite and two Honey-buzzard. Other migrants were 20 Bee-eater overhead moving S and 43 Swallow of which 30 S. At 15:40 while settling down to my beer by the hotel pool over came a male Common Kestrel flying N, presumed resident. Main finding was how powerful Black Kite are in handling the breeze; they are sometimes portrayed as the wimps of the crossing but no sign of that today. They were drifting SW with the following breeze so might be doing the 30-35km to Tanger on the Morocco side. Other birds included a Turnstone on the rocks 1, a Collared Dove on wires 1, a Stonechat male on a bush 1. Was out from 11:00-15:30 for 6km walk. Wish someone was here: xxxxx XXX!!!!!! Total for all bird-types today was 17.

September 5th: max 26C, min 23C, fresh E breeze, sunny all day, Tarifa is so windy, increasing the challenge to birds crossing into Africa. Fantastic day with the raptors seeing heavy passage including Black Kite (commonest), Honey-buzzard, Egyptian Vulture, Booted Eagle 1, Lesser Kestrel with Griffon Vulture, Bonelli's Eagle also noted. Will give totals tomorrow but grand total is c200 birds, most moving over the wind-farm to W of the Lances beach 1  2  3; how do the greens justify building wind-farms on one of the most important raptor migration routes in the world? Here’s wind-farms to NW/N 4  5  6. Here’s some signage: coastal paths 1, nature reserve 2  3  4, dogs on lead 5. Some interesting birds other than raptors: Audouin’s Gull (2 adult) 1, Great White Egret 1, Zitting Cisticola 2  3, Stonechat 4, and some ponies 5. Here’s Honey-buzzard piccies: male 1  2  3, male with Black Kite 4, male with 2 Black Kite 5, four birds 6, male with Black Kite, Griffon Vulture, Booted Eagle 7. Some raptors came right over Tarifa and then could be seen flying out to sea in wild conditions. The main flow was over the mountain to W where the orographic lift from the fresh E breeze enabled them to climb to a great height before gliding off to S over the hostile Straits. Marvellous atmosphere to the sightings, hope their stay in Africa goes well! Hotel is very friendly and efficient. Was out from 10:10-14:30 and enjoyed a couple of beers on return before a little siesta! Staying at well appointed Hotel Playa de los Lances 1 on W edge of Tarifa https://hoteltarifalances.com-hotel.com/en/. Very pleased to hear from someone!! xxxxx XXX!!!!!!

Running totals over first 2 days are 213 raptors of 7 types: Black Kite 155 (yesterday 7, today 124 S Los Alcornocales coastal, 24 S Tarifa NW), Honey-buzzard 35 (0, 29, 6), Egyptian Vulture 11 (0, 11,0), Griffon Vulture 7 (0, 6 rest,1 rest), Booted Eagle 3 (0,1,2), Bonelli's Eagle 1 (0, 0, 1 juv rest), Lesser Kestrel 1 (0,0,1). Fantastic xx! Total for all bird-types today was 37.

Raptors were becalmed in UK by lack of breeze from 27/8-1/9. Since 1/9 21 more records (21 birds) on BirdGuides for autumn migration of Honey-buzzard, giving running total of 56 birds from start of emigration on 9/8, with 35 August, 21 September, including a remarkable 12 today on light E breeze.

17:23 05/09 European Honey Buzzard London Greenford 16:10 one reportedly flew north over garden

17:14 05/09 European Honey Buzzard Alderney Alderney one from Barrack-Masters Lane; also 2 Pied Flycatchers, Whinchat, 17 Spotted Flycatchers and Common Redstart

17:06 05/09 European Honey Buzzard Kent Tilmanstone one flew south

16:36 05/09 European Honey Buzzard Kent Tilmanstone 16:32 one flew south

16:21 05/09 European Honey Buzzard East Yorkshire Hornsea Mere 16:18 one flew south

14:52 05/09 European Honey Buzzard London Beddington Farmlands one flew over

13:50 05/09 European Honey Buzzard London Brent Reservoir possible flew SSW

12:32 05/09 European Honey Buzzard Kent Ash 12:28 one circling over Weddington with 8 Common Buzzards

11:54 05/09 European Honey Buzzard Kent Dover 11:52 one flew low east over Dover Castle

11:48 05/09 European Honey Buzzard East Sussex Beachy Head 11:40 one flew north over pub towards Went Hill

11:45 05/09 European Honey Buzzard Kent South Foreland 11:40 one flew low north over lighthouse

09:44 05/09 European Honey Buzzard Dorset Durlston CP 09:30 one flew out to sea

14:13 04/09 European Honey Buzzard Lincolnshire Frampton Marsh RSPB 10:30 one flew over this morning; also 16 Little Stints, 10 Spotted Redshanks, 25 Eurasian Spoonbills, 4 Short-eared Owls and a Western Cattle Egret

12:55 04/09 European Honey Buzzard East Sussex Beachy Head one flew over then back west

12:34 04/09 European Honey Buzzard Lancashire Winter Hill 12:10 one reported over to south-east

11:21 04/09 European Honey Buzzard Dorset Portland one flew south over the Bill and out to sea late morning

07:41 04/09 European Honey Buzzard Alderney Mannez Quarry 07:15 03/09 one low across the quarry possibly disturbed from overnight roost yesterday morning

11:50 03/09 European Honey Buzzard Kent Dungeness RSPB one flew south over Burrowes Pit late morning

11:44 03/09 European Honey Buzzard London Rainham Marshes RSPB 11:30 one flew east

10:00 03/09 European Honey Buzzard East Sussex High and Over 09:55 one flew NNE

12:05 02/09 European Honey Buzzard Hampshire Keyhaven Marshes 12:00 one flew over Fishtail Lagoon

Keeping tabs on Black Kite, have since 30/8 no more records (0 birds) on BirdGuides, making total of 9 birds since 29/7:

September 4th: max 26C, min 22C, moderate E breeze, sunny all day. Caught up a bit with the migrating raptors, up at 03:50 in Hilton at Airport, catching 06:05 NCL-LHR T5, 10:35 LHR T5-GIB, all on time. Landing at GIB is specialised pilot-wise with rapid loss of height in final stages, burying the plane in the runway to avoid drift in the breeze and hammering on reverse thrust to bring the plane to a rapid halt. Had completed a passenger locator form, including vaccination status, to be allowed in. Had lateral flow test for Covid on arrival, in a cabin outside the Airport. Then crossed the border to Spain on foot (La Linea); had to produce my vaccination certificate and have my passport stamped. At this point things stopped going smoothly! Phone went very slow, mobile data ceased as Gibraltar and Spanish systems interfered with each other. And Uber which does not serve Gibraltar was giving confusing messages. So walked another km through La Linea further into Spain and restarted phone. First got an email with good news on the Covid test (not detected). Second Uber did now respond and in 20 min was in car (Skoda!) on way to Tarifa. That cost €64 plus €10 tip for relief at sorting! Driver was Moroccan and he proudly pointed out the impressive scenery on the other side of the Straits in Africa. It's a 42km, 40 min journey, arriving at 17:00 (CEST). Hotel Tarifa Lances is amazing: very spacious, good food and drink, very friendly atmosphere and close to beach and hills. Did see some raptors: a total of 7 Black Kite, including one 100m from the hotel. Also had an adult male Kestrel at LHR. Planning a good walk tomorrow morning to recover from all the sitting around! Tarifa is on the Costa de la Luz, my favourite part of Spain with its Atlantic flavour and amazing light! So back on the Atlantic flyway! xxxxx XXX!!!!!!!

September 3rd: max 13C, min 11C, light E breeze, dull all day and definitely cool. Did drift E to NCL, Hilton no less. Really lucky at 16:45 had a Honey-buzzard juvenile flying across A69 at Throckley from S to N, long wings, languid flight, low-level; new site for year and confirmed breeding so very pleased; the gods have been kind to me this week!! Had good dinner in hotel, well washed down with 2 large rw. Funds finished +9k on week, bringing gain ytd to +518k (42.0%), +500k net, after further withdrawal of 0.3k, with ftse 100 ytd at +9.3% and ftse 250 +20.3%. We will be approx 2,400km apart 2moro: so sad: xxxxx XXX!!!!!!

September 2nd: max 19C, min 11C, light E breeze, dull morning but again a bright afternoon with sunny periods. Very lucky with weather clearing again so out to East Allen from 13:50-16:45, walking down the hill to Oakpool where at favoured time of 15:26 a family party of 4 Honey-buzzard were up in the air in classical fashion: male up high, female at moderate height and 2 juvenile at low-level 1  2  3  4 (11190), struggling to stay afloat. At other sites had a juvenile Honey-buzzard at Staward S at 15:15 1 (11191) and a male Honey-buzzard up on edge of moor at Parkhead at 15:37. Single Red Kite juvenile were up at Staward S at 15:09 and Oakpool at 15:52 1 and Common Buzzard juvenile at 14:36 and adult at 15:25 were up to W of East Allen at Oakpool. So that's 10 raptors of 3 types: 6 Honey-buzzard (2 male, 1 female, 3 juvenile) at 3 sites, 2 Red Kite juvenile at 2 sites, a Common Buzzard adult (with forked tail, moulting central tail feathers) and juvenile! Total for birds was 14 types including a Raven S at Staward S, and at Oakpool: a Bullfinch juvenile, 30 Starling feeding on rowan berries, 18 Swallow including fledged young and a Chiffchaff, plus 6 types of butterfly. Oakpool's a great place to visit, scenery is wonderful. So very happy that substantive fieldwork for 2021 for Honey-buzzard in SW Northumberland is now complete! Funds are +8k on wtd, PoO is rallying, bit more optimism about resource stocks, and sold first MBS, a slug of 5k MBSP of the 216k nominal held; very pleased to have accrued interest added; the brokers are confident that interest payments will resume. To the gorgeous one: xxxxx XXX!!!!!!

September 1st: max 19C, min 11C, light E breeze, dull morning but noticed breaks appearing to W at 14:30 at Hexham and at 15:30 was on way to Haltwhistle, where the sun was out with a few wispy clouds around. The good thing about gloomy spells is that their ending always results in a good session as the restless and frustrated raptors get up in the air again. That rule held today with a family party of 4 Honey-buzzard seen at Haltwhistle North Wood from 15:55-17:25, first at 16:15 the male 1  2  3 and strong-flying juvenile at 16:26, with the female at 16:16 4  5  6  7  8 and finally the weak-flying juvenile at 16:58 9  10  11  12 (11189). The female was up to 16:37 but the male disappeared at 16:16, possibly going very high in the sky, prior to later emigration. Also here had a tame juvenile Common Buzzard perched in a tree at 16:29 1  2  3. At 16:42 had the inspiring sight of 2 male Honey-buzzard soaring to great height and moving S, one local, the other moving in, so the great trek has begun! Then onto Coanwood Pond, where Marsh Harrier have been reported this year, from 17:30-18:30. Here was very pleased to see 3 Red Kite (adult 1, 2 juvenile 1) extending the occupation from Alston to within 6km of Haltwhistle. So one more 'lucky' trip will seal this season's fieldwork! Earlier made T4c4c with M for good chat. Will pay for my RNS concert series tomorrow, after call from Box Office today. Think it is indeed welkom: bon voyage!! xxxxx XXX!!!!!!

August 31st: max 15C, min 11C, light NE breeze, gloomy nearly all day, occasional drizzle, turned on 3 storage heaters, cloud level rose by 17:00 and did some very energetic clearing of scrub with hedge trimmer in orchard including the path to it. There are some nice spring flowers in the orchard and they are in danger of being smothered; masses of debris on ground, mainly nettles and bramble, but including shrubs and rose hips which will leave to bed down a bit before getting the mower out; the hips will be popular with birds, voles and mice! Did not have the shorts on for this job. Did have haircut at JG with Jd – think it's an improvement, going onto a 2-monthly cycle now! Made N4c4c for a leisurely coffee. Have processed the piccies for 12/8 at Prudhoe and will document the trip shortly with its 3 kite. Seeing M at T4c4c at 11 2moro. Wonder if someone's made the great escape!! xxxxx XXX!!!!!!

August 30th: max 14C, min 9C, light NE breeze, gloomy all day, occasional drizzle, too damp for using power tools in garden; did plant out miniature rose (ex-M&S present). Did some good write-ups completing Alston trip on 28/8, Sinderhope on 14/8 and Ordley/Corbridge on 22/8. Had email from daughter: “Kids are back to school next week. Isabella has her first stay and play teddy bears picnic on Friday. I think they've definitely had enough time at home now! Hopefully things will be a lot more normal next term with no more bubbles and school trips happening again. My course starts in two weeks. Thanks so much for the additional present money Dad! It's really appreciated and will really help” in reply to “I won't forget Isabella's birthday while away. I'm thinking of 3k to help with the school fees plus 1.5k catch-up for Sophia, who was given 1.5k in Feb. Not to forget Moonpig! “. School fees are 4.5k+ per child per term so significant item for 2 kids! The one-year course is in Care (for school children), the airline industry career being abandoned. Haircut 2moro with Jd at 10; not anticipating any fieldwork until Wednesday lunchtime! xxxxx XXX!!!!!!

All raptors are becalmed by lack of breeze! Since 24/8 3 more records (3 birds) on BirdGuides for autumn migration of Honey-buzzard, giving running total of 35 birds from start of emigration on 9/8.

11:05 27/08 European Honey Buzzard Derbyshire Ramsley Reservoir/Leash Fen 18:10 26/08 one reported yesterday evening

08:25 27/08 European Honey Buzzard East Sussex Beachy Head 08:20 one flew east over Belle Tout Lighthouse

13:20 25/08 European Honey Buzzard Northumberland Branton GPs one reported in flight at Branton [a likely breeding area]

Keeping tabs on Black Kite, have since 24/8 3 more records (3 birds) on BirdGuides, making total of 9 birds since 29/7:

13:12 30/08 Black Kite Cork Cape Clear 24/08 one photographed on Tuesday [6 days earlier 24/8, lost vagrant]

12:56 30/08 Black Kite Cork Garinish Point one flew east early afternoon [Irish vagrancy via Pembroke?]

09:32 26/08 Black Kite Kent Conyer one flew low east

August 29th: max 15C, min 9C, light NE breeze, gloomy all day, occasional drizzle, what a difference with the wind coming off the North Sea. Cut grass by shelters, leaving just the area by the pond to cut; one further session before I go. Have 2 more 'vital' visits to do for Honey-buzzard this week; both are in the W of the study area, which gives hope as the weather is less gloomy over there, particularly from Wednesday. Compiled all results from yesterday except for Honey-buzzard from Barhaugh Crags where piccies need sorting. Made N4c4ll for welcome break along with I4shop for essential supplies. Because season is running late will be able to catch up with some sites in E on return. Season though is successful with 9/19 broods now known to be 2 and only 4 as 1 with 6 at least one. Planning tour of relatives in London/Devon in mid-October. Hope someone's fit: xxxxx XXX!!!!!! xxxxXXxXxXXXxxXXXxxxXXXxxxxxXXX

August 28th: max 18C, min 9C, light NW breeze, sunny all day, beautiful late summer's day, warm. No gardening today. Went W again with packed lunch, doing the Alston round from 11:50-17:55, stopping at Whitfield Moor and Gilderdale Bridge on way to Williamston, where went for walk to Barhaugh Hall. The Honey-buzzard at Barhaugh Hall have fledged and moved up the hill (c1km) to a coniferous wood 1  2 above Williamston Farm next to the heather moorland; this is a common manoeuvre, nest in a sheltered copse and get the young flying up the hill where there is more breeze for lift; this is particularly important this year with unusually low wind speeds. A juvenile was up here on arrival at 13:49 3 and later, from 15:42-16:15, close to the 15:30 time so popular this year for young raptors; had 4 birds up, the male high up with the female in follow-me display 4  5, the 2 juvenile lower down closer to the trees 6, later the juvenile did go a little higher under encouragement from the parents (11100). So that was the main business for the day. Also here were 4 Red Kite (2 adult, 2 juvenile) interacting with the Honey-buzzard at 13:49 and 15:42 and a Common Buzzard adult up high at 15:48 and a juvenile much closer at 14:11 5. From Gilderdale Bridge on first stop there had picked up another juvenile Honey-buzzard to the S of Barhaugh Crags at 12:56 and from Barhaugh Hall picked up another juvenile Honey-buzzard at 14:59 coming off the moor to E (feeding habitat 1) and slowly moving towards the Crags 2  3  4  5 (11101). So this is a new site for the year and it's been successful; the 2 young here seem to be still based at the Crags as they make a very simple move from nest at the bottom of the crags to the top of the crags for practice flying. The family parties seen at Softley and Barhaugh are a few days ahead of those further east; suspect May was particularly raw in the east with heavy rain on SE winds and persistent northerlies. Total for bird-types at Barhaugh was 18, including a massive assembly of 230 Swallow at Lintley with some hawking over surrounding area, including the heather moors, an immature Cormorant, a juvenile Grey Wagtail, a Lesser Redpoll and a group of 4 Raven flying over low-down at 13:41 (family group?).

At Gilderdale Bridge also had 2 juvenile Red Kite with singles up at 13:01 and 17:02 over woods to W on moorland edge and on return through Alston at 17:10 had an adult Red Kite on the NW boundary of the town so Red Kite very well established in upper South Tyne now (incidentally Red Kite is a description species in Cumbria!). Also at Gilderdale had 2 Spotted Flycatcher and a Grey Heron in total of 10 bird-types. On Whitfield Moor had 2 juvenile Kestrel and bird of the day, a juvenile ringtail Hen Harrier (quite ruddy, immaculate feather-wise), going out hunting in wild fashion at 17:41, flying randomly and quickly all over the place putting up 2 formerly invisible Red Grouse before setting off solidly at low altitude for the high moor; got some good piccies 1  2  3  4  5. Whitfield Moor (Ouston) total was 8 types of bird, also including 6 Swallow to W in 3 groups of 2, 5 Stock Dove, 2 Meadow Pipit, plus 2 Golden-ringed Dragonfly and butterflies: 3 Peacock, 2 Large White. At Herd's House on way out at 17:55 had 5 gamebird on the road – 3 Pheasant, 1 Red-legged Partridge, 1 Grey Partridge – to remind me of the nature of the area! Total for trip was 29 bird-types, 5 butterfly-types and 1 mammal-type.

Total for day is 18 raptors of 5 types: 7 Red Kite (3 adult, 4 juvenile, at 3 sites), 6 Honey-buzzard (1 male, 1 female, 4 juvenile, at 2 sites), 2 juvenile Kestrel at 1 site, 2 Common Buzzard (juvenile, adult) at 2 sites, 1 Hen Harrier juvenile ringtail. 2moro is a catch-up day on records, need to consolidate. Only casualty were my shorts, which split when putting a boot on; didn't really matter as long as didn't sit down but need some more for trip!! The roads were busy with bikers and joy-riders but not many were out walking though did meet the Ps, old friends from NCL uni, who alerted me to a rarity raptor in the valley. xxxxx XXX!!!!!! xx

August 27th: max 15C, min 9C, light NE breeze, dull morning, little brighter at ttime, cool. No gardening today. Busy social life with N/D on Skype from 10:00-11:30, M/B at T4m4l, D/D at DoW4g4s from 20:15-23:00. All good chats! Had fantastic trip at ttime out for Honey-buzzard from 15:25-16:40 with 4 birds at Dipton Wood S (male up at 15:42 and from 16:13-16:14 1  2, female up from 16:09-16:16 flying in from deciduous wood to S into nest site taking a devious route near end, appearing to go NW when site was N 3  4  5  6  7  8  9, 2 juvenile, older juvenile up from 15:36-15:37 10  11  12  13  14  15, younger juvenile up briefly at 15:40 16  17  18, all 11097), 3 birds at March Burn (male up at 15:46 1, 2 juvenile, older one up from 15:56-15:58 2  3  4  5  6  7  8, younger one up from 16:22-16:24 9  10  11  12, all 11098), 3 birds from Farnley, up at Prospect Hill (male, female, juvenile) at 15:45; that's 10 birds at 3 sites (3 male, 2 female, 5 juvenile), plus a Red Kite juvenile at Dipton Wood S at 16:04 and an adult male Kestrel at Ordley, which has resumed roosting in my archway; neighbour has blocked up his side but mine is still open. Had 14 bird-types in the trip, including 11 House Martin S. Funds had good week at +30k on MBS resuming coupons on PIBS and sharp rise in PoO of just over 10% on week as confidence grows that delta variant's seriousness is peaking. Gain ytd was +509k gross (+41.2%), +491k net, with ftse 100 +9.5%, ftse 250 +19.6%. Farmers so busy today with grain being harvested and 2nd cut of silage proceeding apace. Have to be very alert in the country lanes of the 'Shire and even in main street of Hexham. xxxxx XXX!!!!!!

August 26th: max 15C, min 10C, light to moderate N breeze, cloudy up to mid-afternoon, then brighter, much cooler. Did finish mowing large area to back of house, have just 2 more patches to do in the next week – all coming back under control. Made N4c4l and collected shoes from repair shop with new heels, cost £15.95; will take them away as strong but light and aerated. Booked up nite at Airport with Doubletree Hilton before departure and got good deal of £103 total including car parking for duration. Made G4g4s with 4 of us out A/P/R for good chat, with l on!! Made good progress with Honey-buzzard survey on minimal effort – made the Dilston site on the Devil's Water where had the male high-up to W at 15:32 and one juvenile rising above the canopy for a short period at 15:33. Further down the Devil's Water a female was up with a very weak flying juvenile, just about getting up above the canopy from time to time. When the members of the pair split off with a juvenile each, it does seem that the male takes the stronger juvenile 1 and expects miracles while the female takes the weaker juvenile 2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10  11  12  13 from 15:41-15:43 and is more encouraging! No day would now be complete without a strange kite and there was one subtly pushed off towards the N by the female Honey-buzzard; this kite was dark-plumaged, fairly uniform, with protruding P5 (6 fingered primaries) and short-tailed but it's jizz was more Red Kite; think it's quite possibly the same bird as at Tyne Green (2.5km away) on 24/8; the kite eventually drifted off N towards the Tyne; put it down as an adult Black Kite 1  2  3  4  5  6  7. See protruding P5 on 1. Black Kite was in view from 15:41-15:45. Here's the habitat with views over the Devil's Water and the Tyne. There was some interaction between the female Honey-buzzard and the Black Kite as she tried to see the kite off the premises 8  9  10 (11096). See fork on 8. Also here had 1 Common Buzzard juvenile up to W at 16:09, 30 Black-headed Gull adult N and 68 Common Gull (67 ad, 1 juvenile) in a field. Total was 12 bird-types with apparently no butterflies. Coming home thought I'd try my luck with the home site and success: the male was seen gliding rapidly into Blackhall Wood and a minute later a very weak-flying and short-tailed juvenile emerged for a little flight 1  2  3; this counts as a 1+ as the female could be with another juvenile. The wood they've moved to is on top of the hill with more breeze for lift in practice flights (11095). So another fascinating day! 2moro is going to be very sociable but should be out for the magic hour between 15:30 and 16:30. xxxxx XXX!!!!!!