Tycjan Chmiel
@TycjanC
Fat cat citizen of nowhere. Urban dweller, lover of urban wildlife. Am now on the happier butterfly place, same name, account etc. 😺
A #ŚląskaSwifts slo-mo special as one of our non-breeders (it’d better be - I don’t fancy rescuing young in Sept again after the parents’ve gone to Africa!) leaves box 10. ‘Our’ birds don’t have the luxury of dropping out of the boxes, but with the right technique it’s a doddle!
Summer holidays in #Szczecin, with the idiots driving in circles looking for spaces when there’s a car park 1 min away (but it’s too hard to drive into 🙀), the grass all yellow, Big Ginge moaning in the background, the Sparrows chirping away, and … did I mention #Swifts? 😻
If you build it they will come! Much evidence of swifts taking up residence in new nests across the city For FREE advice email [email protected] Or see website sheffieldswiftnetwork.org Childhood' by Scott Buckley - released under CC-BY 4.0. scottbuckley.com.au
As well as our #ŚląskaSwifts, we have other visitors to our balcony, who enjoy the peanuts hidden away at the back. Here we have a House Sparrow, which has to duck every time a Swift whooshes past 😹
#ŚląskaSwifts update - our 1st fledgling! Yesterday morning it was fairly hanging out of the box & peering around, then going back in for a practice flap. This morning at 9.15 it made its bid for freedom but crash-landed 🙀 Luckily I rescued it from the corner and off it went 😻
There’s a right way to do this, which is what they do in Germany. And it’s this: you use both lanes until they merge, whereupon you take it in turns - one car from the left lane, one from the right. No pushing, no blocking, no ‚cheating’. Thank you.
Some would say, "Why not just let him in?" and anyone that drives for a living would say, "Why couldn't he have merged 2 miles ago when the sign said right lane closed ahead?"
The Loitz tenement house in Szczecin, #Poland The tenement house is a unique example of a bourgeois residence from the turn of the Gothic and Renaissance periods. It was built in the 16th c. It is one of the few preserved examples of old bourgeois architecture in Szczecin.
On a visit to Hamburg I came across this humongous Beech tree on a street corner. How much has it seen over its long life, I wonder? #ThickTrunkTuesday
Well it seems to be #FlyingAntDay on my street, and Mr Blackbird is most appreciative! I bet the Swifts will be having a good go at them as well 😹
It’s #ManholeCoverMonday again here in Central Europe, and today I have a splendid example from the wonderful Hanseatic city of Hamburg, in the courtyard of the Rathaus (City Hall) 😺 (more info in alt text)
#ŚląskaSwifts update - got back home from holiday to find not one, but two little faces in the doorways! So boxes 1 & 4 have young ready to fledge! Unfortunately also found a tiny mummified baby on the balcony floor - suspect it was never fed as bird in box 6 lost its partner :(
For #PostboxSaturday here’s an example from Hamburg that illustrates pretty much the whole town - there’s an astounding amount of graffiti and stickering that covers pretty much every empty space. It made me realise that the counter-culture vibe is still really strong in DE.
If you find a grounded swift, it needs expert & urgent help. Please contact me so I can link to rehabber. These birds can’t easily take off from the ground & in hot weather, chicks who 👀 like this aren’t quite able to fly & often are pushed or jump out of their nests.
As a cat owner and resident of the Baltic Sea (more or less) I can get behind this 😹 #Hamburg #CatsOfTwitter #CatsOfX
Best time of the year to watch Swifts prospecting and going crazy! Get those calls going now! 😺
30 screaming Swifts in a ball up high over mine, likely to be returning non-breeder maybe with the first newly fledged chicks up there too. These will return down tomorrow to scream around nest sites so play those calls, we’ve 2 weeks of super displays to enjoy @suffolkwildlife
As ever, endless nonsense spoken about this. Your money has not already been taxed. Inheritance tax isn’t a tax on your wealth. It’s a tax on the windfall of the person receiving it, which they have not earned. We tax earned income too much and unearned income too little.
Am visiting the absolutely fantastic Hanseatic Hamburg (more pics & thoughts later) and in the Rathaus there’s this stunning surround with all the flora and fauna of the woods around this beautiful wrought-iron door. How many species can you spot? #Hansa #Hamburg #Germany