Yep. Your right. I hate them both.

Dean Macdonald wrote:

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Think you're mixing your equinox's with your soltices's Dennis


-- Edited by Dean Macdonald on Wednesday 14th of December 2011 10:50:29 PM

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To get back on topic, were nearly halfway. Dec 21 winter equinox, ive been counting down the days, approaching critical mass now, the lighter days are on the turn, i can almost breathe again, almost

a certain saddleworth developer has totaly cleared a site near the farrahs arms but when the appartments were built nearby a few years ago the developer actualy saved some of the trees and incorperated them into the gardensive no doubt greed has won again

Dennis atherton wrote:

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Should of used the chainsaw on the bl**dy developer


We dont need any new developments, stop building more and more shopping malls, not everyone wants to go shopping,
Sorry, calm down, ill get off my little soapbox, i feel your pain Steve, good for you for trying, very Sad indeed

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very sad steve ,I have just had similar,if not as detrimental to wildlife,i worked overtime almost 7 days a week for 15 years to pay for the house of my dreams ,for a lad from a poor council estate,only to find a few months ago that the council had allowed a 4 story flat developement to be built overlooking my garden and after many protests and appeals from me,others neighbors couldn't be bothered,in the end some councilor decided it was ok because developement is what this government want and if we hide behind our shed,we will not be seen so they class that as privicy,thats what i was told
at the final appeal.
Even though the building is almost full height glass pannelling and all 9 flats will look into our house and gardenwhich apart from anything would make it now impossible to sellbut at the appeals your not allowed to mention the devaluing of your house or your appeal is squashed immediately,as your then classed as a nimby.
developement is getting out of hand and there will be no green spaces left one day

-- Edited by JOHN TYMON on Sunday 11th of December 2011 08:31:04 AM

I can cope with going to work and coming back home in the dark. I can just about cope with the cold and seemingly incessant rain which afflicts this side of the Pennines...

...but I can't cope with waking to the sound of chainsaws as some "developer" removes all the trees and shrubs from the slope which borders my small back garden. When negotiation fails, I resort to standing under a soon to be felled conifer. Said "developer" calls the Police and I'm threatened with arrest for MY breach of the peace!

Gone are the trees in which Coal Tits, Magpies, Wood Pigeon and Collared Dove all nested this year. Gone are the bramble patches where Robin, Wren and Dunnock all nest. What birds will be left?

A big chunk of my life destroyed in a few hours. Got to be one of the saddest days of my life.

Steve

For all those afflicted by S.A.D , many of who haven't seen any decent daylight hours since the summer, I thought a quick review of this autumn's weather might help bring a bit of cheer into some lives and the realisation that all is not doom and gloom. It looks like this autumn may well turn out to be one of the mildest, driest and sunniest on record. There has indeed been many lovely, bright and sundrenched autumn days and even since the altering of the clocks in late October there has been some absolutely idyllic days, entirely suited to many hours of relaxing and enjoyable bird watching or photography. Although you may feel sad that all these glorious opportunities have passed you by, I hope that some awareness of this magnificent spell of autumn weather (that you have unfortunately missed and which may never be repeated again), has helped brighten up your day and relieved any S.A.D.ness.

Yours sympathetically (genuinely ) but with tongue firmly in cheek.

Bill.

I hate winter-going to work in the dark,coming home in the dark-in my case ,working in a factory with no windows,only seeing daylight at weekends,birding has to take a back seat or it would drive me mad,very little birding if you work days in winter,little photography.A S.A.D time for sure for me

-- Edited by JOHN TYMON on Sunday 20th of November 2011 05:24:55 PM

the symptoms are back

Thank Steve, very well summarized, are you my phyciatrist now? I hope you work out better than my last one, he never really understood My OCD

Steve Suttill wrote:

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Andy Bissitt wrote:

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Steve has come over a little like Geoff Boycott...

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Thanks Andy - as someone who spent much of their youth following the Tykes at Headingley and Park Avenue, that's one of the best compliments anyone has ever paid me Watching birds can be just like watching cricket (or anything else for that matter). If you don't have boring or disappointing days, you wouldn't appreciate the good ones quite the same. If you saw a major rarity every day, it would eventually become boring! As for living in Greater Manchester, all I can say is "Pied-billed Grebe, Dusky Thrush..." Now, pull tha'sen together, get out their with them bins, and explore those corridors of uncertainty Steve

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Dennis atherton wrote:

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But on a good note, the good times are coming, the next 10 weeks anything can turn up, glasses half full and all the phycological babble, i do hear what you are saying, it would be good to get action all the time but thats just how it goes, last year mid summer i got lots of pleasure finding juv whitethroats, willow warblers, sand martins, make the most of it, thats all we can do, a bit like life i suppose, oh dear, getting deep again, call the therapists

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and trying to get hobbys pictures at Risley moss

Thanks Dennis. You are a little more understanding than others. Steve has come over a little like Geoff Boycott (cricket fans will know what I mean). I do live a very boring life, so when the birding situation remains static for any length of time, it gets me down. I rely on birdwatching for my entertainment, but being in Greater Manchester I am probably expecting too much. I have to say that I often read about the therapeutic effects of birdwatching and how it can help combat depression. However, the people writing these articles never seem to consider that when you are seeing your birding patch torn apart (see John Rayner's Ludworth Moor entry for today), and bird life becoming scarcer, it can have the opposite effect. Still, I'm up for whatever the next couple of months brings.

Andy Bissitt wrote:

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Dennis, ... come the end of May, that's it, you've seen it all. Then you have a 16 hour day to fill with the same old birds

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there must be a therapist who can help...

Dennis,

Yes, I think everyone is glad that the spring is here, although I'm not too keen on the daylight length stretching out to 16 hours plus. The return of our summer migrants is certainly to be welcomed and brings a feeling of mounting excitement. But I hope we also get a decent crop of scarcer stuff as well, otherwise, come the end of May, that's it, you've seen it all. Then you have a 16 hour day to fill with the same old birds. Luckily, that's when butterflies, moths and dragonflies start to kick in. They are what really make the summer worthwhile, so lets hope for better weather than the last three summers.

Oh, and by the way. There is not an extra hours daylight from this weekend. The day length only grows by a few minutes every day. All that happens is the goalposts are moved, so to speak.

dave broome wrote:

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Only another seven weeks until the days start getting longer
In the meantime get your fix of House Sparrows in Coronation Street. It's the last winter for the Bird Atlas in Weatherfield

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ill be counting down those 7 weeks everyday

I agree with Bill, if you wake up look out of the window and it is dull, dark and raining what do you do? yep get back into bed, the weather perfectly mirrowing our day

My own mild version of S.A.D isn't brought about by the clocks changing and shorter days in late October but mine comes at the end of the bird breeding season. The breeding season - the most important and exciting time of the birding world! - full of action, birds singing, the dawn chorus, birds fighting, birds pairing up, birds setting up territories, birds defending territories, migrants coming to our shores to breed, birds mating, birds laying eggs, birds incubating, birds succeeding in their breeding attempts, birds failing in their breeding attempts, birds trying again after earlier failures, birds nurturing their young......life and sometimes death but all for the continuation of the species. It really is bird life at full tilt! A vibrant, colourful and noisy time that is jam-packed full of interest. The countryside is alive and it makes me feel the same.

The end of the breeding season - so what is there for a bird to look forward to? The drudgery of trying to get enough food and find safe shelter to get through another day. All that every bird is just trying to do is hang on through the harsh winter months. Survival, survival, survival is the only objective. Sometimes it can be grim survival for those that are lucky or strong enough to hang on. And why this battening down of the hatches to try and get through these harsher, shorter days....well, just so that they can try and make it through to a time when they might be able to have the chance to breed and bring the world to life again and bring new life into the world.

My own version of S.A.D has nothing to do with day length but I know it will suddenly start to evaporate when I hear that first Skylark singing over the moorland in February and with the sighting of that first Sand Martin of the year and I know I will be totally non-S.A.D by the time I hear the rich, cascading sound of that first Willow Warbler songster! Can't wait for spring!

Actually, when I think about it, doesn't our own moods and mindsets throughout the year by and large mirror that of the rest of the natural world?

Cheers,

Bill.

I am with Den,It's the time of year,I realise that working for a living,is actually Living to work,I only see the outside world in the dark in winter,and feel even more jelous of the people who don't/can't work than at any other time of year,and sometimes I feel like just stopping birding altogether,has its almost impossible,to get any decent ,sunny days at the weekends in winter,it always seems sunny in the week and wet at weekends-think I have it worse than you DEN

i have been suffering in silence for years i am glad i am not the only one