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Saturday, 5 August 2017

Continuing In A Not Quite An Englishman's Country Garden!


Ahh, the things you find in the Summer in your garden.  Some can be quite mysterious. Some can make you scream out "What's that?!"  If you are in the UK the answer is not Bigfoot!

The thing is that most people only pay attention to their flower bed or the height of their grass and most have no idea about insects or wildlife...or things insects leave around.  Such as this....
 Not great photos (I need a new camera!) but this brownish ball is a gall of Andricus kollari Andricus kollari.  More information can be found here:https://alchetron.com/Andricus-kollari-1700793-W

DO NOT panic as they are harmless to your trees and there is no treatment anyway.
 Now if I had a better camera it would look like this, from Nature Spot UK http://www.naturespot.org.uk/taxonomy/term/19701

Below: Wondering what that other stuff was ~everything in one shot!
 Below (left) in photo are the brown clusters of Common spangle gall (Neuroterus quercusbaccarum)
 To the right (above) the pointy items is a gall of the Oak gall wasp
AndricusNeuroterusBiorhiza and Cynips species More information as well as photos can be found here: https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?PID=803
Round brown objects on leaves (above left) Common spangle gall (Neuroterus quercusbaccarum) on Oak (Quercus robur)

My ornamental cherry tree has had clear sap coming from it for years.  Now, if you do a web search "sap coming from ornamental cherry tree" you get this:


Common name Bacterial cankerScientific name Pseudomonas syringae pv. morsprunorum and Ps. pv. syringaePlants affected Prunus speciesMain symptoms Sunken, dead patches of bark and small holes in leavesCaused by BacteriaTiming Cankers form in mid-spring, shotholes on foliage from early summer
Now, my tree does not have "shot~hole" so I need to up its feed and I just used the last of the chicken pellet fertilizer on it.  Leaf cutter insects I find plenty of evidence of!  But there is one thing I encourage and that is any type of garden spider building its web between branches.  

 So I do not have to worry and as fruit trees do tend to release sap and this one does this every year, has good looking green leaves and an abundance of cherries (ask the jackdaws, crows and rooks how they taste  because they were grabbing them almost as fast ~but not quite~ as the squirrel.



Oh, and I did as suggested and cut the sap away and no 'sawdust' indicating bore worm just solid wood.

Plenty of snails, as well as empty shells from where blackbirds have eaten the snail.  Slugs. Quite a few and of a lot of different types (they tend to have a meal on the food put out for foxes and the hedgehogs!).  They also make a great addition to The Green Man (photo top of page).

I've watched a couple of very large hedgehogs, who do not give a damn how much noise they make by the front door (food station in poor weather) nor how many times I have to get up to make sure it isn't burglars!

As both fox and hedgehogs alter their visiting times I was worried that I might just be feeding cats ~a good few pass through here~ and I wanted to make sure.  The old trick is to use a "sand trap" an inch thick (2.5cms) layer of sand around a food dish (in this case) and see what tracks you get. I had no sand so resorted to an old ghost hunters trick ~a layer of talcum powder.

The tracks next day showed a large gull, magpie and cat tracks but also hedgehog and fox. The hedgie tracks don't show up well but the fox ones are reasonable.
 Above, top left the rounded pad of a cat. To the right of that a canid (fox) track showing a nail print.
Below: WHERE to begin! Cat and fox but if you look at the upper right side of the manhole cover you have magpie tracks.  You can also clearly see the webbed gull tracks!

I've also seen the small vixen close to and there was no sign of mange.

There are other indicators of hedgehogs, of course. Poop.  Yes, I know that it should not but it makes me smile seeing it.  It shows if the hedgehog in question is healthy or not.  So when I walked out my front door in June and almost stepped on this I had to go fetch the camera!

I knew one neighbour who used to talk about his arguments with the neighbour who "chucked bits of black tar" onto his lawn.  Never ever saw him do this and pointed to some of this "tar"...hedgehog poop.




From the photos you will see there are plenty of acorns this year. So squirrel should be okay though I spied one of the gardens further along has a squirrel feeder in it (YAY! People beginning to get more wildlife friendly around here at last).  It also means the Jay will be back so I need to sort a feeder out for it.

Lola the cat from somewhere (aka: killer bitch queen for the number of mice, at least one juvenile rat and shrews she has killed) helped out by climbing trees I was trying to inspect and cut back.  And she also helped by attempting to tackle my boots.

Below: Lola on patrol.

Black ants.  oh the black ants. They do say the red ones bite.  Right. The black ones really bite in, especially if I put my arm against the oak tree while filling the bird feeder...in fact, the main type of ant I've seen in the garden (front and back) are black ants.  I used to watch them as they herded aphids in the already mentioned cherry tree.

Below: Kingdom of the Ants!!

All the cut branches from a while back are now stored and will probably be used as supports for other plants, etc..

Below: wood pigeons.  At one point these birds and collared doves were almost wiped out in the UK but since the 1970s have come back in numbers.

The collared doves, wood pigeons, magpies, rooks, jackdaws, crows and of course, pigeons, are still flipping around and so are the smaller birds.

So much of the local habitat has been cut back or destroyed and as new people move in and out gardens are turned over, concreted, paving slabbed and shrubs and bushes done away with. It is nice to see people plant more things these days and not realize ~or realize~ it encourages wildlife.  If you dont have the habitat you don't get Eye Hawk Moths breeding.  These two were, uh, "snuggling up" last month on my back wall.


Not great but this photo shows why how they got the name.

There has also been one or two very large moths shoot out from the shade of the barrel planted potatoes.  Too fast for me to see what they were.  Next year I plan a survey.

Below: potatoes in a bin!
 First year after repotting ~my apple tree

Yes, with foxes, cats, hedgehogs and no real soil here, we reverted to the old trick of planting potatoes in an old plastic barrel bin.  I had planned to use the plastic compost bin, however, we have a colony of bumble bees in there so it's their home now!

Next year is also the planting of more vegetables and fruit in barrels because that means no chemicals and we know where it all came from!

Also, the 12" (30cms) tall nightshade plant has...er...grown a bit. Need to move it from the front door where it is suitably identified as toxic in case some idiot plays about with it.




So that's my update. At least it was a sunny day!

Sunday, 30 July 2017

The SOHA Project and Bigfoot

I think that my original call was correct.  Please read through as I have added a newer video exposing things at SOHA.

But the question will be should researchers tread through another researcher's survey area?  When it comes to wildlife and if it is on public land then other researchers may want to confirm claims or findings based on published research.  That is usually done by contacting the original field researcher.

If you are looking at not setting up cameras or anything other than walking through an area and noting the flora and fauna well you do not need permission for that unless it is on private property. This is all Wayne and Streufert did.  They simply had a curiosity because of the claims made.

If you are dealing with trampling over the area of a wildlife survey and its cameras etc then out of courtesy you let a research team know but members of the public do this all the time and have no idea a wildlife survey or study is taking place because there are no huge signs announcing that.

In this case, again, Johnson was making wild claims and offered no substantiation or evidence so scientific curiosity steps in.  I was unaware of the head injury Johnson suffered which may well explain certain aspects ~in claims of both ongoing paranormal and UFO activity I have found certain percipients to have suffered head trauma in the past and even forms of epilepsy.

I do have to now call into question Adam Davies' reputation, however.  Based on the area description given by Wayne it has to be concluded that Davies did not do a survey of the area on foot prior to events as described.  This is basic for any naturalist or researcher on a field trip. If the so called None Disclosure Agreement has silenced Davies then it should not because he was on Bureau of Land Management territory.

Personally, I always respected Davies who has done much field work into mystery hominids around the world.

Davies should reveal what he knows or suspects because this whole SOHA Project blunts most serious scientific interest in Sasquatch ~as does the Finding Bigfoot teams inability to identify clear owl calls~ and it slaps down all the work he has done because when I heard the claims I know I thought "What the hell are you doing and saying?!" so what others thought I can only imagine.

The SOHA Project, Adam Davies and Portals

I am sure that anyone with an interest in Sasquatch have heard of the Southern Oregon Habituation Area (SOHA).

I will include a link here to statements by Adam Davies, who I have a lot of respect for, regarding what happened to him on a particular night. To be honest I thought that he was joking. When I sent a link to a friend who has no interest in Sasquatch I jokingly added "explain this!" to it. The reply I got was "holographs".

Now, looking at what Davies and his companion described I realised that, as there had been no actual physical contact between the witnesses and 'guardians', yes, what was reported could be achieved by a man made  light show.  But then I thought "That would cost a LOT of cash" so I followed links my friend sent. It was nowhere as expensive as I thought.  And if the expected remuneration from such a hoax seemed high enough....

Here Adam Davies and John Carlson discuss what happened the day after but seem far more intimidated in stance or, perhaps, not intimidated as much as being careful to report what they saw exactly-did they suspect something?  Certainly, their accounts and what Johnson claims vary a lot.


And here on Binnall of America:

You then get this -read the comments with this as it all starts sounding like low level tech hoaxing. "Matthew Johnson's account of what happened and his descriptions of events is vastly different than those of Adam Davies and John Carlson."
Now it seems Johnson expects anyone visiting the area to pay hommage to him. This is a rather greasy video and watching this finally convinced me that this SOHA project is not legitimate.  In forty years I have met many people with odd claims.  Con-man? Deluded but genuine? I know which one I'm going for.  The attitude and body language is clear.


Let's see the "mind blowing" evidence to be presented next April. Personally, I don't care. I think this is a big hoax and people should just back away quickly.  Of course, Johnson has that cult following that will never believe anything negative.

You will see this following in the You Tube comments sections as well as online.  But you also get totally out-of-hand abuse and name calling on what you might think were respectable sites. Read the next bit then check the site's comments.

People still wonder why I work alone?

In January 2016 Bigfoot Evidence posted this:http://bigfootevidence.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/debate-rages-on-between-warring-bigfoot.html

Debate Rages On Between Warring Bigfoot Factions


image via bigfootlunchclub,com

The following is a guest post from bigfoot blogger Daniel Dover:

Drama in the bigfoot world went bump in the paranormal night when the Bluff Creek Project outed and video taped the location of Dr. Matthew Johnson’s SOHA site where mystical sasquatches inhabit and inter-dimensional portals open and close. Dr. J, as he calls himself, fired a volley back with his own video, calling Streufert an a-hole over and over, even after expressing some piety, saying, “I forgive you.” So, reminiscent of times of old when parties selected their weapons of choice, e.g. dueling pistols, they’ve opted to duel with opposing videos.

It was late December 2015 when the Bluff Creek Project produced a video outing the location of Dr. Johnson’s habituation site called SOHA (Southern Oregon Habituation Area). The Bluff Creek Project subsequently took down the video but here is the write-up they made accompanying the youtube video.

“So for a while now we have been looking for Dr J’s Southern Oregon Habituation Area so we could visit it and debunk his supernatural claims. Last week Mitchell Wilson found a match on Google Earth with the blurry screenshot he posted a couple years ago. 
Steven Streufert and I visited the site on Monday and confirmed it. We were respectful and didn’t leave anything behind. It was late so we only hung out for a few minutes. At this time we won’t reveal the location but after going there we now know that this is probably the last place a Sasquatch would be. It’s right next to houses and is only a 20 minute leisurely 4×4 trip from the highway. We investigated Adam Davies portal as well and we are sure we have that figured out. There is a house 3/4 mile away with flood lights on it that point up the ridge. You can see it when you look low through the trees. 
We could have chosen to mess with Johnson or hoax him to embarrass him but we thought we should just announce it here. Steve will be constructing a blog on it soon. 
We do have intentions of doing a night investigation up there sometime but we will not be secretive about it or play any dirty tricks.”

DR JOHNSON’S RESPONSE 

In response Dr. Johnson produced a video to chastise Steve Streufert for his invasive trampling of the land of SOHA.

Here’s a transcript of some of what Dr. Johnson said on his New Year’s Day video. He is addressing Steve Streufert at the Bluff Creek Project with these remarks. (11:15 – 14:00)

“You found SOHA, yea, it’s good for you; it’s your’s. See what you don’t known is for the last couple of months of my being up there, the SOHA squatches have kinda been shutting down the area kinda giving me a message that its time to move on to the new location. You don’t know that but I’m telling you now. They weren’t taking the food, they pushed trees down over the road that I had to remove. I think that actually happened after the first time your scout went up there. That’s when I found the trees. . . .

So, anyway, I was getting this message, “Time to move on.” I’m moving on to a new location. Ha ha not going to tell you obviously. But to be honest I don’t know where it is yet either. But what I do know is I’ve been in the field for 15 years when the needle in the hay stack found me above the Oregon Caves 15-years-ago. And I’m confident of this one thing, in all 3 research areas, 4 if you count WAHA right here, I never found them, they found me. And I’m confident that moving on the squatches are going to lead me to my next research area. . . . I trust them. They will guide me and lead me to find the new area.”
Now please watch this (begins about 12 mins in)

Saturday, 29 July 2017

A Reminder: The Halt Perspective

 The very much anticipated book, The Halt Perspective, moves away from the Rendlesham Forest fantasy to facts.  I can hear blood vessels popping from here.


Product details

  • Paperback: 788 pages
  • Publisher: Haunted skies Publishing (9 Aug. 2016)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0957494491
  • ISBN-13: 978-0957494497
  • Product Dimensions: 18.9 x 4 x 24.6 cm

all books can be ordered here


http://www.hauntedskies.co.uk/


Haunted Skies ~The Books

I have been investigating and researching  UFOs, amongst other things, since I was a teenager and got involved with UFO groups in 1974.  I have, therefore a LOT of publications and books from the late 1940s onward.

I own a complete set of the original Haunted Skies ~all 11 volumes and I can tell you without any bias that they are the best books looking at UFOs and UFO history I have ever seen.  The photographs and research, not to mention the interviews carried out by the authors, make these books a must for anyone seriously interested in the subject. If you can find copies.

I have not seen these volumes, however, I have been privvy to glimpses and I do know that now that Hanson and Holloway are in overall charge these are going to be even better.

As soon as ordering details are available I'll post them



Monday, 17 July 2017

Re~introduce Lynx To UK?

photo https://org.elon.edu/ncwildcat/nc-eurasianlynx/funfacts.html


Yes, the man UK reporters dubbed "The Big Cat detective" (seriously) ~me~ has had phone calls asking for my opinion on re~introducing lynx to the UK?

There are millions of wild rabbits, rats, mice, etc., not to mention millions of deer from various species in the UK.  Ample food.  Leave the cats alone and they will create a balance that is really needed in UK fauna and flora.

Healthy cats do not attack people ~especially the lynx.

And, after 40 years or so years (1977~2010 as a UK police forces exotic wildlife advisor) which has included historical document research, I can tell you that lynx have been living and even breeding in the wild in the UK on and off since at least the 1800s (1800 was the historical cut off point for record research).  There are plaster casts of paw~prints, hair samples, DNA and many eye witness accounts and these accounts come from people who think they are reporting a puma ~tell them it was a lynx and you get blank looks and "a what??"

Farmers are covered by insurance if a dog kills sheep or lambs and if lynx are re~introduced then there has to be an official killed livestock compensation scheme for the rare cases where a lynx might kill something.  But it needs to be provable that a lynx was involved.

The lynx also require full legal protection.
http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/12519/0

Lets see how this goes.

And the lynx is not a big cat!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/science-environment-40628037/will-wildcat-lynx-be-reintroduced-to-the-uk