Saturday, May 28, 2011

It’s Weird

Now I’m really stumped, trapped indoors with the rain and/or wind for the umpteenth day and unable to see a number of blog comments after readers tell me they can't post remarks to the blog.

So apologies, but Blogger says “Tuesday, May 24, 2011. We're investigating an issue which is preventing login and comment posting for some users, and hope to have a fix released shortly. Thanks for your patience in the meantime”. Well Blogger, it’s now Saturday May 28, I hope you are sure because GG is just bursting to have a pop at me for taking the hummingbird off the header, while many a reader is aching to complain about yet more pictures of cute little owls.

Ruby-throated Hummingbird by Ken Thomas

Little Owl by Phil Slade

It gets worse. I browsed through the blog stats to see just who and where the latest readers come from and for any clues as to why comments are going missing and I found a series of hits on the blog from the “Bing” search engine by people entering the phrase “El Nido bird’s nest soup”. OK the phrase includes the word “bird” but I’m fairly certain I would remember writing about a soup made from the nest of the Edible-Nest Swiflet, (Aerodramus fuciphagus) a bird found in the Philippines. So the mystery of why and how almost 20 new visitors found my blog yesterday and today must remain. And, just in case you were wondering, the recipe I found assumes a less than satisfactory understanding of basic hygiene – “Before cooking, the bird's nest must be soaked overnight in cold water. The softened nest should then be cleaned and devoid of any foreign matter, such as feathers and twigs”. Oh Really?

Edible-Nest Swiflet by Lip Kee Yap

At least someone found partly what they were looking for when they searched Google to buy a Hermann’s Tortoise in Alberta Canada but ended up looking at a picture of one in Menorca hiding from the glare of publicity on Another Bird Blog.

Hermann’s Tortoise

It’s time to get the kettle on now so to finish here’s a couple of unweird pictures of good old common British Birds on sunnier days, a Stonechat for PW and a Corn Bunting for me.

Stonechat

Corn Bunting

And if I don’t get out tomorrow, come hell or high water, I will go bonkers.

18 comments:

Jane said...

Beautiful bird shots, the wind is non-stop here as well. Thanks for sharing and I think Blogger fixed their issue from last weekend.

Jidhu Jose said...

nice shots.
mine is here : http://jidhujose.blogspot.com/2011/05/day-221-one-tusker.html

Snap said...

Wonderful shots and you had me laughing/crying!!!! Ptuiiii on burping blogger! Happy Critter Day!

Kay L. Davies said...

I love the Swallow on your header, Phil, looking like it's about to swallow the camera, photographer and all.
Everyone is having trouble with Blogger. My list of followers keeps disappearing, but I see it's back today so I'll have to remove the item on my sidebar that asks "Followers, where are you?"
Yes, I saw the pont d'Avignon, but we didn't go up onto it. It was crowded, and it seemed they were charging for the privilege, so we took photos of the bridge from the roadside. Another check-mark on my bucket list.
— K

Kay, Alberta, Canada
An Unfittie's Guide to Adventurous Travel

??? said...

I love your header, it made me laugh out loud. I sometimes wonder about what brings people to my blog and why my blog when there are about 20 pages of Google results before that that are more useful. Ah, wonders of the internet!

The stonechat is adorable wit the short tail and huge head :)

Peter Fearon said...

I had my first juvenile Whitethroat and Blackcap turn up in the net this morning. Early for Whitethroat don't you think?

Unknown said...

Great post!! Same weather here. Boom & Gary of the Vermilon River, Canada.

Caroline Lind said...

Beautiful set of shots! Love the owl, so cute:)

eileeninmd said...

Funny post and I love the birds and the photos.

Dave Cawkwell said...

Great set of photos.

Armindo Tavares said...

Olá Phil,
Parabéns pelas fotos e sobretudo pela ave que abre o blog, uma andorinha; está espetacular.
Saudações ornitófilas.

Beatrice P. Boyd said...

Hi Phil, I am a new visitor who dropped in from Grammie G's blog. Since she mentioned your bird shots, I had to check them out for myself. The header shot of the barn swallow was wonderful. We had a nest of these birds on our front porch and while it was fun for one year, they do make an awful mess. We actually had to put newspaper on the porch to keep it from getting so messy! I'll be back again and invite you to visit our little blog spot now that blogger seems to be functional again (slow that's for sure).

mick said...

The www can be a weird and wonderful place and search engines the strangest of all! Great bird photos as usual!

Martha Z said...

I love the swallow shot and enjoyed your entertaining post.

Larry said...

Great post Phil. I always wondered about bird's nest soup, sounds horrific!

Great shots of the birds as always. I love the Little Owl.

Phil Slade said...

Hey. thanks everyone and it looks like Blogger works now for most folk so keep blogging all of you.

Kelly said...

Hahaha! You made me laugh... Nest soup...egads. The Stone Chat is a beautiful little bird, and the Corn Bunting looks so sweet.

Feather Chucker said...

Good stuff, got to love edible birds nests.

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