The weather has turned again and it looks like 2012 will end in a rather soggy manner. I have not been inspired to do much birding recently but as often happens at this time of year, I’m looking forwards to starting all over again in the New Year.
On Saturday 15th we went to the Nexus Christmas meal at the Queen’s Hotel in Bournemouth. Considering how many quests there were throughout the hotel, the food was good, served promptly and hot. There were several other groups sharing our dining room including a very boisterous group of young ladies and a another group dressed up as film characters. Considering that the Nexus organisation is being wound up there seems to be plenty of enthusiasm for keeping the local group going.
The Dorset Nexus group joined with the Salisbury group and about 40 members attended the Christmas dinner dance.
Don’t we scrub up well?
Rosemary struggles with one of those noisy party balloons.
Margaret
Another group in another room had a James Bond theme as shown by this ice sculpture.
One group dressed up as film characters. By far the best was this Princess Fiona from Shrek.
Margaret enjoys a bop
On Sunday it was Margaret’s choir’s Christmas concert at St Peter’s Church at Ashley Cross. Unfortunately the heating had broken down and although they used some industrial heaters before the start it was still chilly. The choir and orchestra were excellent, although I found Benjamin Britten’s ‘ A Ceremony of Carols’ at bit tedious. Anita, John, Janis, Andy, Amber and Kara all went, along with our friends Gio and Jessica Pietrangelo and Ann Bunn. Afterwards Gio, Jessica, John, Andy and I went across the road for a drink where John and Gio had a humorous conversation comparing how the same English phase was pronounced in a South African or Italian accent.
Barclay House Choir at St Peter’s Church
Tuesday was a nice sunny and still day and Kevin, Simon and I went ringing at Holton Lee. We had such a lot of new birds last time that most of today’s catch was retraps,which of course produces valuable data about site fidelity and given that 14 of the retraps were from last winter, about longevity and survival rates. As before, tits made up the bulk of the catch with a surprisingly high number of Coal Tits, but two Great Spotted Woodpeckers, four Nuthatches and a Siskin were also caught.
The pond at Holton Lee with the Lytchett Bay reedbeds beyond
Female Siskin
After a couple of years of little support for the New Year bird race, this year we have a lot of interest. My team of Nick Urch and Trevor Warwick have been joined by Paul Morton and we had planning meeting at the Baker’s Arm at Lytchett Minster on the 18th. The evening was going well until the pub quiz started, so wishing some peace and quiet we left and reconvened at St Peter’s Finger just up the road. Guess what, the had a pub quiz on as well! so there was nothing to it best to retire to my house where we could plan in peace.
L-R Paul, Nick and Trevor. At least there was no pub quiz back at our house.
We had another pub get together on the 19th at the Blue Boar and many came wish their friends a Merry Christmas I think it was the biggest turn out we have ever had in 20 years of ‘Bird Pub’ with 18 birders present. The pub was quite crowded anyway and with such a large group it was very noisy but really good fun.
The biggest Bird Pub ever. Another six birders are out of shot.
And finally this could be, if some are to be believed, the last Bird Pub, my last blog entry and the end of the World altogether. Apparently the World will end on the 21st if the Mayan calendar is correct. I have lived through a number of these bizarre ‘end of the World scenarios’, although I must admit the Cuban Missile Crisis seemed pretty real. There are many threats to life on the planet, both natural and man-made, but I am confident that Earth itself will survive until it is swallowed up when the Sun becomes a Red Giant some five billion years from now!
gryllosblog 
Thant is one SEXY granny!!!! margaret you fox!!!