Chats & Thrushes - Bird Blog 5

This blog has been a long time coming, apologies for the suspense, and I haven't seen the Whinchat illustrated above, but I have seen regularly on my travels across Hastings Country Park since lockdown began, a number of birds from this family, notably the thrushes. Indeed, a couple of our most familiar birds, and often seen in gardens too, are the Robin and the Blackbird. These are mostly ground-dwelling birds that find the majority of their food on the ground, and who hasn't heard and seen Blackbirds regularly foraging in undergrowth?!?

Male Stonechat

The Stonechat is the only non-thrush of this group that I have seen during this period as far as I am aware (who knows what I may miss among the fast flights across my path and in the distance?), and I have quite taken to the Stonechat too, once I knew what I was observing. Their orange-red breast, and the male's black head and white half-collar, made them stand out for me at first. They like heath and grasslands, and particularly the gorse that grows at Firehills, openly perching and taking off from the gorse and other vegetation there. Stonechats eat insects and worms, and have a distinctive 'chak-chak' call with an added whistle (YouTube).

Song Thrush

The Song Thrush and Mistle Thrush have been enchanting to see and hear, the Mistle Thrush being the slightly larger of the two. Both eat berries, worms and insects, and the Song Thrush also eats snails, and they both visit gardens as well as living in heaths, fields and woodland. I observed them more in the earlier months during the lockdown, and was delighted to see and hear a Song Thrush singing loudly from on high (YouTube) during a specific visit to the old disused Sand Quarry at Fairlight, what a beautiful sound!

Juvenile Robin

The Blackbird, another wonderful singer, and the Robin, are well known to us all, with songs written about them, and they are both great singers too, perhaps the Blackbird's song being the best known as it sings so loudly and clearly (YouTube). The habitat of both is widespread, and the Robin eats mostly insects, whilst the Blackbird also eats worms and berries. I have included an image of a juvenile Robin because I saw one a few days ago, and it took me a while to realize just what I had seen.

That's enough today for this chapter of my bird observations, and the next chapter of the book* is called Larks, Swallows, Wagtails, Wrens, Dippers, Accentors and Allies, consequently, the Birds Part VI blog will be called similar, although probably a shorter title, but please do watch out for it, and many thanks for reading the blog.

* John Gooders The Complete Birdwatcher's Guide.

All 3 photographs of individual birds are with many thanks to the RSPB, and specifically for the image of the Song Thrush singing with thanks to Chris Gomersall, and of the young Robin to Andy Bright.

John Gooders used to live in East Sussex before he died 10 years ago, sadly, and had previously been Chair of Friends of Rye Harbour Nature Reserve and the Mayor of Winchelsea.

Hastings Museum reopens today.

Hastings Museum & Art Gallery reopens today (blog from earlier this year in more 'normal' circumstances), although, as we expect in these health crisis times, with 'mitigations' due to Covid-19, eg shorter opening times, restricted numbers allowed to visit, one-way system, face masks to be worn, and free tickets must be booked in advanced. For further details and to book a ticket go to their website.

inBloom Video (website) video regarding guidelines and procedures (YouTube).

Covid-19 and have people, pubs and bars lost it?!?

I wrote about the latest Government advice about drinking and eating in pubs, bars and restaurants in a blog at the beginning of July, and it appeared pretty clear what licensees were meant to ensure was carried out on their premises if they wanted to reopen and stay open. The first 2 weekends, 4th/5th and 10th/12th of July saw a not unexpected heavy police and licensing authority presence touring the licensed premises of Hastings, indeed, bars were closed down and/or had their opening hours curtailed.

Added to lighten the blog

However! It appears that many licensees have forgotten they could, and probably should, be closed down because it appears they are now being totally disrespectful of the rules, disrespectful of their staff, and disrespectful of their customers and the general population. What is not to understand?!?

I am not a 'going out in the evening' regularly person, getting older changes your habits, but I have heard from 2 separate sources from the Saturday evening just gone (22nd of August) that most of the pubs and bars in George Street were, frankly, completely disrespectful of the rest of Hastings population! I shan't name and shame particular pubs/bars, but it appears that few had 'track & trace' facilities being carried out, 'social distancing' rules were completely ignored, people were standing up drinking rather than sitting at tables, indeed tables were not being cleaned/sanitized, toilets were dirty/not sanitized and up to 6 people were seen in a pub/bar toilet at a time, entrance and exit door policy was ignored by many, and there was insufficient staff on duty to ensure that safe rules to ensure the Government expected 'mitigations' were in force.

Don't be surprised when pubs and bars get closed down again...

Walk to Firehills, Sloes, and a Recipe for Sloe Gin - plus!

View from Firehills Earlier

I own up, I've been walking over to Firehills, and usually beyond to Pett Level/Pett Village/Winchelsea/Icklesham/Rye (whichever), for years, but since the Covid-10 lockdown began, I walked across Hastings Country Park Nature Reserve for my daily exercise (eg see blog from March), and still do more days than I don't, and taken more notice. So, lovely, and not too hot this morning, with a decent breeze, and, okay, I've noticed them lots before, and I've already picked berries and placed a couple of bags of them in my freezer. Anyway, SLOE BERRIES! There are so many about, and so early in the year to be ready to pick, indeed, they've even been dropping free already.

Sloe Berries at Firehills Earlier

So what do I suggest? For a start, if you like sloe gin (and other sloe-based recipes, eg sloe port and sloe brandy), hurry up and pick your sloes before it's too late. Then wash the berries, leave to dry, and place into freezer bag/s to be frozen; this helps them to develop better, and to crack them when they are later placed into gin whilst frozen, helping the flavour and colour to come out. Otherwise, if using the berries straight away, then comes the laborious task of pricking every berry with a sharp knife! I strongly recommend freezing them before using them. 😉

SLOE GIN EASY RECIPE: There are many sloe gin recipes about on the internet and in books, this is my basic recipe, I tend to add a little less sugar (personal preference) and, depending on how many berries I've picked, usually a few more berries, especially as I use the berries again a few months later.

Place 500 grams of frozen/pricked berries into a litre of gin in a larger sealable container, stir in 250 grams of caster sugar. Then shake every day for at least a week (I tend to shake every now and then after the first week, you gradually see the colour going red), and leave for 2-3 months. Again, I'm impatient and tend to not last the 3 months, and I've never been disappointed. Then pour off the berries into sterile bottle/s. I wash the bottle/s (unless it still contains a wee bit of gin, which I make sure a 75ml bottle does), and use 2 or 3 of those smaller glass-sized wine bottles which have been washed, then had gin swirled around inside them to sterilize.

Here's one I made earlier!

Drink when you like, but better to leave for a little while to mature, if you can remain patient enough! Then, what do I do with the berries? Use them again, that's what! Years ago I had a book with recipes in it (no idea where that went, I think I may have sold it with other books when I was short of money) which had a recipe for sloe brandy, which is very good (a bit like brandy with ameretto, so I discovered - if you don't like almonds, give them a miss!), and I found recently a recipe for sloe port on the internet.

SLOE BRANDY: To the sloe berries, following the gin being poured off, add up to 200 grams of caster sugar (amount can be personal choice), a bottle of brandy and some crushed almonds (I may try almond essence next time, just to see if it works, and I don't see why not). Shake for 2 months, leave for another month, then drain off into sterile bottle/s. Leave for a month or so, your choice, and drink!

SLOE PORT: Similar to sloe brandy, only add to the used gin-soaked sloe berries 100 grams of caster sugar, 200mls of brandy, and a bottle of red wine (I used a reasonably cheap 14% full-bodied red from the New World). Shake daily, if you remember, for 6-8 weeks, leave for a month or so, and drain the sloe port off the berries, 'tis good!

Or you can look up other recipes on the internet, enjoy!

Wee Weekend & Weather Blog

I do like an alliteration! 😉

The weather has certainly already effected the weekend and things to do, for example, Live & Unlocked on Hastings Pier was postponed yesterday (facebook) thanks to the rain and strong winds (and little chance of setting up due to the weather); I don't believe there is any live music today, but it is still worth a visit these days, great views, and more businesses getting on board regularly. Tomorrow (Sunday 23rd) there will be DJs and Pier Pressure from 13.00 to 18.00 (facebook), it looks to be a wee bit windy still, with sunshine and maybe showers (Met Office), so be prepared! By the way, the Pier now opens from 08.00 to 23.00 (way to run a pier - are you watching Mr G?!?).

And why the photograph looking down on the local fishing industry quarter early doors? First of all, I was sure I'd written a blog about the history of the local fishing industry in the past, but looking back I don't seem to have, although I have written quite often about the contemporary local fishing industry, eg the blog about when Greenpeace came to town. Hmmm, must have written about it somewhere else! 

Anyway, I know it was the largest beach-launched fishing fleet in Europe when I started writing my blogs (many thanks to Jimmy Toller - R.I.P. - for information I was given many years ago now), but, since I started writing my blogs it looks like there are about 10 fewer boats actively going out to fish from the beach (and thanks to Jack for information here too, cheers!). Which is why the photograph is published above as it was taken by me a couple of days ago when the weather meant the working boats were not launched that morning, so I counted the numbers, about 15 still working/licensed to fish.

But back to this weekend and, whatever you do, please do still be careful, and enjoy yourself! (Cue music) 👍