Post a bad thing that happened in your life today

[Betty LaRue]

3 hours ago, Cecile Marion said:

Here we had a hurricane. 

I’ve been watching the news about that. Did it upgrade from tropical storm to Cat one?

[Cecile Marion]

Yes, once the storm got north of Cuba it began to strengthen again. I’m not sure if it was still a cat 1 when it came across the state to my north, but it soon lost speed over land. Unfortunately, Florida had already been inundated with rain for the last several weeks, so the extra rain from the storm has caused lots of flooding. We also had several little tornados that are often present on the eastern side of a hurricane. So, between the high winds and the overly saturated foliage, we are seeing many downed limbs/trees. My home seems to be in good shape and I never lost power, so all is pretty well for me personally. I was woken out of a sound sleep early this morning by an emergency phone alert about a nearby tornado, fortunately heading away from me.

[Colblimp]

12 hours ago, Thyrsis said:

😂

We dig our spuds, allow them to dry out for a day then store in hessian sacks in the garage. Usually have enough to last until about next March….

Must get hold of one of those sacks. 👍

[Ed Rooney]

 

Hmmm. I never have these troubles at the supermarket.

[Allan Bell]

15 hours ago, Colblimp said:

Good call, I'll check them as I dig.  We don't have a garage, but my girlfriend has a dark back passage which we could fit a sack of spuds in quite easily... 😳

 

Would you mind rephrasing that statement?🤪

 

Allan

[Allan Bell]

15 hours ago, Bryan said:

We've just returned from a trip to Scotland, visiting Dunbar and Edinburgh - which, overall, was a very good thing.

 

However we took a walk along the coast just south of Dunbar where a large golf course extends to the beach. There is a public right of way along this stretch, it's called the John Muir Way, after the famous Scottish-American environmentalist.

 

 

The greens extend right up to the path and squeeze it against the coastline, while every 80 yards or so there are large signs warning that walkers must give way to golfers and that that  is enshrined in Scottish law.  I've no wish to disrupt people playing golf, and you certainly won't catch me running across their greens, but this felt very unwelcoming and unfriendly.   A change in the wording would make all the difference, e.g. We welcome walkers, but would you please etc etc, while the path could be wider and the greens less intrusive upon it.

 

That green looks a bit rough.

 

Allan

 

[spacecadet]

2 minutes ago, Allan Bell said:

That green looks a bit rough.

It is the rough

Edited July 8, 2021 by spacecadet

[Allan Bell]

2 minutes ago, spacecadet said:

It is the rough

 

I wouldn't like to try and beat my way out of it.

 

A. Bell round score - 200,265,981

 

Allan

 

Edited July 8, 2021 by Allan Bell

[Colblimp]

7 hours ago, Allan Bell said:

 

Would you mind rephrasing that statement?🤪

 

Allan

My girlfriend’s back passage is always used for various things.  We store the bins and coal in it, as well as various other items… 

[Colblimp]

Duplicate

Edited July 8, 2021 by Colblimp

[Ed Rooney]

I walked out late this morning heading for the supermarket. On the way, I passed a young Herring gull with a badly broken wing. It was not crying out in pain but of course it could not fly. I like these birds, find them majestic . . . almost. This one was damned. "Birds gotta fly" and it could not. I suppose it was the stress of recent times, but I was very upset.

 

Here in the UK, what should I have done? What could I do to help this creature that shares my city? Someone to call or what? 

 

 

Edited July 11, 2021 by Ed Rooney

[Mr Standfast]

Edo, the people to call are the RSPCA. If they have the resources spare they will send someone out.

[NYCat]

Thank you for caring so much, Edo. Nature can be very cruel and upsetting. I still worry about some of the animals in Africa who were vulnerable. One thing I have found in NYC is that if there is an animal, perhaps a cat, that seems lost there always seems to be someone helping... and it doesn't always have to be me. I did get a wonderful little tortoiseshell I called Motley by having her run up and lie down in front of me. I had been chosen and I never regretted taking her home.

 

Paulette

[Ed Rooney]

Thanks, James. I'll try to sort that out tomorrow, put the RSPCA number on my phone. I looked for the gull when I came back through. I got some food I could give it. But it was gone. It must have had its wing broken just before I came across it because otherwise it looked strong and healthy. I'll look for it tomorrow. 

 

Paulette, the food chain in the wild can be cruel but it's nature's way. These gulls are much bigger than the ones we have in NYC and they seem to have more personality. 

[John Mitchell]

5 hours ago, Ed Rooney said:

Thanks, James. I'll try to sort that out tomorrow, put the RSPCA number on my phone. I looked for the gull when I came back through. I got some food I could give it. But it was gone. It must have had its wing broken just before I came across it because otherwise it looked strong and healthy. I'll look for it tomorrow. 

 

Paulette, the food chain in the wild can be cruel but it's nature's way. These gulls are much bigger than the ones we have in NYC and they seem to have more personality. 

 

Perhaps there is a wildlife rescue service/shelter in your area. I took an abandoned baby squirrel to one a number of years ago. It was very cute but put up a fierce fight when I ushered it into a cardboard box.

 

P.S. If you're on FB, there appears to be a Liverpool bird rescue group run by volunteers.

 

 

Edited July 12, 2021 by John Mitchell

[Betty LaRue]

8 hours ago, Ed Rooney said:

I walked out late this morning heading for the supermarket. On the way, I passed a young Herring gull with a badly broken wing. It was not crying out in pain but of course it could not fly. I like these birds, find them majestic . . . almost. This one was damned. "Birds gotta fly" and it could not. I suppose it was the stress of recent times, but I was very upset.

 

Here in the UK, what should I have done? What could I do to help this creature that shares my city? Someone to call or what? 

 

 

What a dilemma. I don’t know if veterinarians take wildlife there.

Once in Ponca City, Oklahoma, hubby and I were riding around the lake on our mopeds. There were white ducks on a small pond. Many ducks were trying to drown one duck, I didn’t know what was wrong with it. They’d grab it’s neck and push it’s head under the water. I was very upset, like you. 
We quickly rode home, and I got a blanket and a loaf of bread, coming back in our car.  I threw the broken up pieces of bread on the shore, and all of the ducks came out to feed, including the hurt one. My husband and I managed to isolate it, throw the blanket over it and capture it.

I took the duck to the vet who cared for my dogs. He took it free of charge, X-rayed it and found a broken wing. He splinted the wing and kept it until it healed. One of the women who worked for him took the duck to her home in the country after it was well, where it joined her other ducks. Win/win, and I really appreciated my veterinarian even more after that, because he showed his soft heart.

You might ask around and see, for the future, if vets do anything similar there.

I took a baby squirrel that a cat had in its jaws (I screamed and stomped to scare the cat away) 100 miles back to Oklahoma City to the vet. The vet in the small town my mother lived in, who I was visiting, refused the squirrel.

The Oklahoma City vet treated it, gave it an antibiotic shot, but said it’s lung was punctured, the outlook was grim.  I was charged. I took the squirrel home to care for it, but it died in my lap 15 minutes later. 😥

[Bryan]

11 hours ago, Ed Rooney said:

Thanks, James. I'll try to sort that out tomorrow, put the RSPCA number on my phone. I looked for the gull when I came back through. I got some food I could give it. But it was gone. It must have had its wing broken just before I came across it because otherwise it looked strong and healthy. I'll look for it tomorrow. 

 

Paulette, the food chain in the wild can be cruel but it's nature's way. These gulls are much bigger than the ones we have in NYC and they seem to have more personality. 

 

They're majestic, but a complete nuisance. One attempted to steal a sandwich  from my wife's hand last week while we were visiting Edinburgh.  They're big birds with a large sharp beak, but fortunately she wasn't injured.  I glanced up and saw a sign which said penalty for feeding gulls £50 !  Around our coast they have learned that it is easier to  live off the discarded junk food of humans rather than take the healthy option and seek out sea creatures. 

 

For years we had a pigeon with a damaged wing visit out garden. It could fly, after a fashion, but couldn't fold the wing against its body. It would visit our pond for a drink, and was seen with a mate, so life went on. Not seen it recently however.  We feed the smaller birds, but don't encourage gulls, pigeons, crows etc into the garden. I've a friend who has a couple of tortoises, and one of them was attacked by a large bird (crow/gull) and had flesh ripped from its rear legs. Red in tooth and claw etc

[Ed Rooney]

Bryan, I do know that these gulls can be aggressive, but I've not seen that with the Irish birds here on Merseyside. Your birds in the northeast near the Scotish border are perhaps more thuggish. The "help" group that you sent me, John, will not help; they don't take in wild birds and they suggest not taking them to a vet. Betty was lucky with her duck. The duck was lucky too. 

 

These Herring gulls are not ducks. I dealt with ducks, geese, and Mute Swan in Oxfordshire. I don't see myself caring for a large frightened Herring gull in my studio flat. Nature will have to take its course. 

 

Thanks, all.

[Harry Harrison]

11 minutes ago, Ed Rooney said:

The "help" group that you sent me, John, will not help

When a Tawny Owl hit the roof rack of my car and broke its wing I found the RSPCA to be equally useless, and the local vets wouldn't even open the door to see me (never been back there obviously). I was later told that vets have a legal responsibility to treat wild animals, don't know if that's true unfortunately. After a series of phone calls I found a policeman who rescued birds of prey and took it to him. His garden was full of large cages for birds that couldn't be released to the wild but mine was lucky, he knew a vet who put a metal splint in for free and 6 weeks later I was able to release the owl back in the same place. I will never forget seeing the owl fly silently back down through the trees.

[sb photos]

6 hours ago, Bryan said:

 

They're majestic, but a complete nuisance. One attempted to steal a sandwich  from my wife's hand last week while we were visiting Edinburgh.  They're big birds with a large sharp beak, but fortunately she wasn't injured.  I glanced up and saw a sign which said penalty for feeding gulls £50 !  Around our coast they have learned that it is easier to  live off the discarded junk food of humans rather than take the healthy option and seek out sea creatures. 

 

A few years back I once saw an elderly woman sitting on a bench eating a packed lunch on Aberystwyth’s sea front attacked by 3 seagulls. She was terrified.

 

Recently I was photographing around Ilfracombe’s harbour, and noted less seagulls there from when I last visited. Later I visited the small church on the tall mound at the harbour. The church was closed, and there was an elderly woman eating her lunch on a bench by the church door. There was also a very large seagull close by on a wall eyeing her up. I did warn her about seagulls, but she wouldn’t have any of it. I composed with my zoom set to 17mm, with the seagull and harbour view to the left, and the woman to the right ready for some action. It never came, but the seagull did jump down by her feet and she fed it. Apparently she was local, and regularly ate there and fed the gull. I had an interesting chat with her before heading back to the car.

 

 

Edited July 12, 2021 by sb photos

[sb photos]

4 hours ago, Harry Harrison said:

When a Tawny Owl hit the roof rack of my car and broke its wing I found the RSPCA to be equally useless, and the local vets wouldn't even open the door to see me (never been back there obviously). I was later told that vets have a legal responsibility to treat wild animals, don't know if that's true unfortunately. After a series of phone calls I found a policeman who rescued birds of prey and took it to him. His garden was full of large cages for birds that couldn't be released to the wild but mine was lucky, he knew a vet who put a metal splint in for free and 6 weeks later I was able to release the owl back in the same place. I will never forget seeing the owl fly silently back down through the trees.

Tiggywinkles Wildlife Hospital, based in Haddenham, just outside Oxfordshire, would likely have taken the owl in. It was founded long ago by Les Stocker, now sadly no longer with us. He started in sheds in his Aylesbury back garden. In those days both my wife and I took birds and animals to him. The current wildlife hospital complex is state of the art, I have visited a few times, fortuneately not with injured creatures.

[Harry Harrison]

8 minutes ago, sb photos said:

Tiggywinkles Wildlife Hospital, based in Haddenham, just outside Oxfordshire

Thanks, yes, since that time I've had cause to go there as well, just outside Thame I think. A very good place.

[Thyrsis]

For anyone local to Oxfordshire there is also another wildlife rescue centre. It’s only  8 miles from Alamy headquarters!!

https://oxfordshirewildliferescue.myfreesites.net

 

Edited July 12, 2021 by Thyrsis

[NYCat]

My shower saga continues. Did I ever talk about it here? Probably. So they put in a new tile floor and now they have taken it up again. It seems there is a hole in the lead pan so I need a new one. I tell you, I'm not even sure that will be the end of it. They also had to replace a cracked pipe coming from my kitchen sink. That seems to have worked. The glass doors from my shower are sitting in my living room for a while. The GOOD thing is that my nice neighbor across the hall is away and has given me her keys so I have her bathroom to use. What a blessing.

 

Paulette

[Ed Rooney]

 

Good grief, Paulette! It seems I got out of Lower Manhattan just in time.