I always wondered why people got up well before dawn to go birdwatching. And then this morning I was dragged to Holkham by 6.30 to be there before sunrise.
Why? To see the pink foot geese that roost there overnight as they head off to the fields for the day to feed.
It was absurdly warm at 6.30: 15 degrees feels wrong at that time of the morning in October.
I could not resist a photo before the geese appeared.
When they did I was hooked to the sky. I am not sure how many geese we saw. Many thousands would definitely be right - sometimes that many seeming to be in the air together as they headed off, some to the south and others to the east, right over our heads. I have read about this before now, and have seen it at dusk, but at dawn it was a different sight to behold.
Also seen were greylags (of course), marsh harrier, kestrel, heron and more, whilst a Cetti's warbler was out early, but was not seen (also, of course). The rest were more ordinary, like wren and robin. But it was well worth while.
The breakfast break (now) almost feels like lunch.
But as important was our reflection on geese. Just a couple of facts are interesting. Pink foots are the archetypal goose for flying in a skein (the V shaped formation, which is, however, usually a bit lopsided). The lead bird is not an alpha, or a male. They just take it in turn to do the hard work, which the leading bird does. They work cooperatively, readily swapping roles, frequently.
And if for any reason a bird needs to drop out of the skein and go to the ground two others group in the skein drop out with it, staying with it until it can return or it is clear it cannot survive. Again, community is apparent.
The conclusion from that discussion was that the Tories have a lot to learn from pink foot geese. They seem to have so much better a sense of society than that party does.
Now, it's Americano time, and then there is more birding to do.
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I love your tree photo. It reminds me of the wonderful landscape paintings – of trees silhouetted against the enormous Norfolk sky – by Nicholas Barnham.
I could have framed it better.
That was an iPhone issue – it showed it overexposed on the screen.
But it worked well enough.
I regret not taking geese – but I just enjoyed the moment. It was worth the early start – even for me.
Don’t worry about not photographing the geese. The point is that YOU saw them. You see so many people spending so much effort to photograph the amazing event that is taking place in front of them that they never really see it properly for themselves.
I agree
I just saw four bearded tit together – two adults, two young. You will just have to take my word for it. But it was amazing.
And I got a bird on my life list today – but not as good as them.
Your comments re: geese v. Tories remind me that representative democracy arose out of a desire to be rid of kings and tyrants in ancient Greece. However, three military found that you needed to have a general in charge to coordinate defences, so it was assumed that God government must follow the same path in peacetime.
The Roman Republic got round this by appointing an Imperator to rule during the emergency but he famously returned to bring an ordinary citizen after the war had ended. What the UK has is an elected dictatorship, which replaced the divine right of kings with the devine right of parliament, which has been usurped by the devine right of Prime ministers to rule without check.
Ironically, it was the Conservative Grandee Quintin Hogg, Lord Hailsham, who first popularised the concept in the BBC Richard Dimbleby Lecture, 1976, titled ‘Elective Dictatorship’, where he attacked its pernicious effects; which the BBC published as a book. This was in the days before Culture Wars. or of modern Conservatism which believes ideologically that democracy and elective dictatorship are the same thing. Elective dictatorship, if I may borrow from physics, probably best considered a ‘singularity’; the point at which the rules of democracy are rendered meaningless.
Looks like the tories are migrating, too. They are certainly not in the conference rooms listening to their leaders.
🙂
This is entirely my subjective take on the issue but aren’t the people that comprise the Tory Party funders – and its MPs, against such notions as community and society? I’m recalling one set of definitions that I have encountered that attempted to explain the main difference between capitalism and socialism; capitalism being described as the system of resource allocation determined by the ability to pay, while socialism was described as the system of resource allocation determined by need. I’m sure that these very broad brush statements are pretty crude but they do contrast (in a very simple way) how these systems differ so markedly and why unfettered capitalism is so harmful to so many people. I openly admit my ideological bias on this subject and I’m sure that those with a broader and deeper knowledge of this subject than myself can point out the errors in those definitions: I’m happy to be corrected. That wealthy people should want to promote a system that favours them at the expense of others makes apparent the current Tory Party’s motive for their utilisation of highly divisive politics.
Reflecting on this reminded me of that paragon of Tory ideology, Thatcher, who rather infamously gave this reply during an interview, “They are casting their problems at society. And, you know, there’s no such thing as society. There are individual men and women and there are families. And no government can do anything except through people, and people must look after themselves first. It is our duty to look after ourselves and then, also, to look after our neighbours.” This is a repellent mind-set (again, my subjective view) but one that is completely in accordance with the awful stratifying effect of wealth that I described earlier.
Thatcher got a great deal wrong.
And some things terribly wrong.
Her nadir was reached with what is known in Scotland as her ‘sermon on the Mound’, when she addressed the Church of Scotland General Assembly (which meets on The Mound in Edinburgh) and told the staggered congregation that the true moral of the story of the Good Samaritan was that the Samaritan was rich – and so he was able to help the injured man.
I have always loved nature and birds especially, never getting bored with the commoner ones such as blue tits, so know how you feel seeing geese and the like.
The Tories only seem to understand money and I remember the spoilt, ignorant arrogant George Osborne saying ‘In a time of economic problems you can’t worry about the environment’ or words to that effect.Only a fool would say such a thing as without the environment we are dead and of course polluted air, water etc harms us.Look around at the fires and floods and realize nature can destroy us so easily but many monied people seem to think their wealth will insulate them against global warming , disease and the like.It won’t
I hear Hunt going on about benefits but no longer listen to this lot; a bunch of liars, thieves,and the like who have no respect for goodness and have wasted our money on PPE and enriching their mates. I will NEVER forgive the way these so called humans have behaved.I want them gone but wish I had more faith in the oppositon.
We need a caring society where the weaker people are helped and we think of those to come in future and about the environment.Not sure what I believe religiously but always liked the parable in the Bible about the widows penny and the fact that Jesus didn’t seem too keen on the rich or those who made a big thing of giving.
This bunch don’t want a caring democratic , society just power and control and I hope they will be binned for good.
Just some thoughts
Mark
To those with
“ We need a caring society where the weaker people are helped and we think of those to come in future and about the environment.”
I so agree.
Talk about this lot wanting power and control, a coachload of KONP supporters was stopped by the police on their way to Manchester. The police had been told they had reason to believe they might disrupt the conference.
As a KONP spokesperson said, legitimate protest is dead under the tories.
Annually, when I lived in Scotland, the geese arrived and took up residence in a field near the house. Opening the front door was like going into a busy pub. An open window brought sounds of a distant party. Clubbers, all the way from Greenland. Every year. Loved it.
They make a lovely, friendly babble – more a squeak than the honk of the greylag. I am sure someone would object to it but I like it, a lot.
Marvelous and thought-provoking.
Nature is a thoroughly mutually interlocking system. The geese clearly have the sense to reject the idiocies of neoliberalism, with it’s “sovereign” atomised individual and the huge societal problems that hapless character entails!
In effect, what Thatcher was doing was essentially disenfranchising people from their own human history.
Human history for its upheaval and violence is actually a history of interdependence, not of independence as portrayed by Neo-liberal forefathers like von Hayek and rabid individualist reactionaries like Ayn Rand. We are interdependent with everything, from the environment to the things we kill and eat and consume as resources.
The more self-aware liberal thinkers like Bastiat and even Adam Smith were aware of human frailties in markets and the propensity for market actors to be naughty and self serving, greedy and short term. Even ancient Chinese rulers could spot monopolies a mile off and knew them to be wrong; near eastern societies saw the sense in debt jubilees in order to keep people together.
The fundamental problem with liberalism is its insistence on the self being at the centre of everything and the sovereignty of that self without realising the huge and perhaps unachievable moral standards attached to this primacy?
We are all frail in someway, all imperfect, so that best way to curb anyone who is errant in someway is to do so through society, through codes of conduct, regulation and law – through exchanging rights and responsibilities – through balance.
We’ve lost a lot of that since 1979.
Modern liberalism -(Neo-liberalism?) treats the individual as the exception to everything – even the law and democracy. Rule breakers – not takers.
It’s funny how those who lead this particular view are also very rich and love to export their worldview as a major benefit to society.
This idea is indeed the only real trickle down there has actually been from Neo-liberalism and it still poisons our society today.
Talking as the goose sh*ts……
An apt descrition of the Tories.
Holkham Beach is my most favourite beach ever.
There is something about the land and the Norfolk sky that together create a haven of peace, not matter how crowded the beach. The walk through the pines reminds you of the approach of the end of the earth before you emerge onto that great expanse with a sob in the throat at the stern beauty of it..
And the oystercatchers along the tideline bobbing like old women at a jumble sale…
🙂
Off thread; both Sky News and ITV now seem totally convinced that the Manchester leg of HS2 has effectively already been scrapped.
The strapline for the Conservative conference (apparently everywhere) is “Long-term decisions for a brighter future”. For a Conference in Levelling-Up Central: Manchester. These people are running the country …… oh, and Liz Truss is still attracting the members to hear her, more than any other Conservative; far more than the Government (bodes well for another Crash). She would probably still win a leadership contest among the membership ….. and these people are running the country.
Sorry Richard, ignore this political guff and go back to searching for the Cetti’s warbler (which I had never even heard of).
I am still reading politics John
The Cetti’s warbler is notorious for being heard but very rarely seen.
At my usual place I heard one for three months before seeing it. And then they’re just very plain brown!
An amazing days birdwatching today, including a lifetime first.
Knackered in a good, physical, way now
A “lifetime first”; more elusive than the Cetti’s warbler, then.The significance of the species is likely to be outside my compass, but not the significance of the day. It definitely sounds a very worthwhile break from the grind; refreshment of the spirit.
It was a long-billed dowitcher, a US bird. To be honest, not that exciting, but new to me. However, rarity is not my birding thing. I saw many more interesting, and more familiar birds. It was a great day.
Funnily enough there is another US bird, unfortunately not rare enough which has just been spotted over the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester; the Long-Billed Trumpwicther. Its mating call goes like this: “Make Britain Grow Again”. There are now at least 60 of them roosting in Britain. They are a pest; more aggressive than seagulls after a fish supper.
I’ll forgive the 70s humour
I have a bit of riverbank, and geese are the bane of anybody trying to keep a perfect lawn (the Germans even have a name for a particular colour of green oil paint, which they call goose-shit). HOWEVER, you have to admire geese. While a family of geese are picking at my grass, there is always one that stands with its neck erect keeping an eye out for danger (it’s only ever one goose that does this, never two).
I worry about allocating so much space in hell for the Tories.
First, to give the next generation at least half a chance of a decent life will require transformative, almost-beyond-imagining measures. They are going to need Tory support.
To get that support will require some serious Tory commitment. Alok Sharma’s challenge could put him in line for a leading position in a coalition government. He might even lead it.
Second, our experiences have determined many of our behaviours and beliefs. The searing encounters of warfare appeared to have a profound effect on post war administrations. Ministers had first-hand knowledge of outstanding bravery by people from all walks of life. They were united in funding the welfare state … until Nigel Lawson – who hadn’t personally been to war – cut taxes for the wealthy. Low tax policies were supported by the press barons (who had lived gilded lives) which made it politically very difficult to reverse those cuts.
It would help to have policies to redistribute some of the accumulated wealth. I recommend a promising series of proposals entitled the Taxing Wealth Report 2024.
🙂
You wouldn’t get 60 geese following a clearly bloody useless goose which had already proved it didn’t have the first idea what it was doing…
You might get 60 sheep though.
“Now, it’s Americano time” ???????
This one flew over my head! LOL! LOL!
It wouldn’t here…..
That’s what we now have to call a basic black coffee
Thanks for the clarification!
Sorta like having a wonderful cup of strong hot english tea (minus the milk) in Florida. LOL! LOL!
An Americano is an espresso with extra but water. That is it. Supposedly created for US forces in Italy from 1945….
Except in some places you have to ask for an Americano, otherwise you are likely to get instant.
Agreed
When I was in the UK (London), I ordered a hot cup of strong tea with lemon and sugar, no milk.
The waiter looked at me as if I was from Mars! LOL! LOL!
I know places that would happily do that for you….
Thanks Richard, I will look you uo the next I come to the UK.
I have always wondered if the UK waiter looked at me in disbelief because of the way I ordered my cup of tea or if it was because I was wearing white trainers (aka tennis shoes in the USA) and no where near a tennis court.?.?
LOL! LOL!
White trainers are normal now.
Not with me, I admit, but normal nonetheless.
When I was in Europe (UK & Monaco) in 2010, I was told by a bartender(s) (UK & Monaco) that Yanks were easy to spot as they always wore brand spanking new white trainers and brand spanking new Levi’s when on holiday. I just laughed a good laugh and had another cocktail.
If you want to create a better capitalism society we need a property democracy. the uk FPTP is a travesty. Join the Danish system
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