I can barely get my arse out of bed in the morning if it is an ordinary work day but if there is an early start for a fishing trip I hardly even need to set the alarm. This morning was typical. I woke at around 5.00 am and decided to get up and hit the road. The alarm on my phone went off when I had already broken the back of the journey to the reservoir and my arrival coincided with the first bit of light that was good enough for fishing. View full article »
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It looks like the gypsy barbel are getting close to their spawning time. The males have prominent tubercles on their snouts, rather like carp develop, and so can be easily told apart from the females. Two of the three fish I took yesterday afternoon were males. View full article »
My A level Biology students get to use the word “fart” in exams which is something I feel they should be excited about. What other subject would let you get away with that? The farts in question are emitted from the rear ends of cows and are said to contain significant amounts of methane, an important greenhouse gas. Technically, the gas is much more abundant in cow burps but the word “burp” doesn´t quite have the same appeal. This methane is a by-product of the complex process of cellulose digestion and is actually produced by microorganisms residing in the cow´s intestines rather than the cow itself.
In Southern Andalucia we are spared the worst extremes of seasonal change. The cold does not hit us as hard as further north in Europe, and even Spain. But the changes of the seasons are evident from the passage of birds in the skies overhead as they make their way from Africa into Europe in the spring and summer and returning once again in the autumn.
There is one bird which is due to make an appearance soon and which, to me at least, signals the change of season as clearly as a leaf fall in the autumn. This is the bee eater… View full article »
It rained heavily last night and the rain continued to fall as I headed out in the late morning to take a look at the river. The weather seems to have been dry for some time now and I was curious to see how the fish would respond to the rainfall. Perhaps the disturbance of the droplets on the surface of the shallow river might animate them a little or, at least, make it a little easier to approach them unseen. I figured one thing was certain, the rain was unlikely to make them any wetter than they already were! View full article »
Vultures are in trouble. In India their numbers have crashed by some 75% and the cause of this appears to be drugs used to treat cattle but which prove lethal to the vultures which feed on their carcasses.
One of these, a drug called diclofenac, has been licensed to be manufactured and used in Spain. It is estimated that populations of vultures could crash if even one percent of the carcasses on which the vultures feed are contaminated with the drug.
Today is Sunday and I managed to complete my domestic chores by lunchtime and so headed off to the river for a spot of hydrotherapy. View full article »
Harry Abbott and I organised a rendezvous at the river the other day. It took us a little while to meet up. We both arrived at our chosen spot on the river at different times and Harry wandered off upstream and I ventured downstream! View full article »
Sometimes being Irish can be a bit of a drag. For one thing your political overlords are an inept bunch, the economy is teetering, the cutbacks are digging in everywhere. And, of course, the weather is always crap. View full article »
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