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Quite an active weekend despite I think having a continuing UTI which gets uncomfortable to painful at times and can be embarrassing as well especially if I don't make the loo in time. On Sunday which was a beautifully sunny and warm out of the cool breeze, I visited with a few others of the mammal group to one of the committee members garden which also happens to be a nature reserve. They have dormice in their hedgerow, which was why I was there along with the others hoping to see some. The dormice weren't playing--well they weren't that day, it is still a little early and not that warm, however, our hostess did have something to show us - some harvest mice. Can you believe my blessed camera wouldn't work, stupid thing. I did manage to get a couple of pics on my phone. They were so lovely, even smaller than dormice but a similar sort of colour and almost as gorgeous. I want to see some in the wild now more than ever.
Today, I spent traipsing around looking for otter spraints without any luck at all. I did however get plenty of fresh air and exercise, some of it at the seaside, where I watched a herring gull bashing and eating an unfortunate crab but no sign of otters. We're looking to find evidence that they may use the coast for moving between sites. On the advice of an ex-colleague, she's just retired too, I went poking about in some ruined farm buildings near one of the sites I was surveying for otters. She said she had seen barn owls flying in and out of it. Sadly I didn't see any owls but I did eventually find some pellets which I suspect are from barn owls and also some which I believe are kestrel pellets, a pair of kestrels flew out as I walked towards the buildings.
So, once I finish converting my utility room to a laboratory and decide which binocular microscope I need, I'll have something to play with. Analysing the remains of prey items from the pellets. I saw insect bits, probably wing cases in the kestrel pellets, so that really will be a microscope job to try and identify them. I'm hoping eventually to find a friendly farmer or two to get a supply of pellets and as long as I know the site they came from, the identified species can be used for records in the mammal atlas compiled by the Mammal Society.
See, some of the material I use in my stories is based upon real life, if not all of it.
Comments
Quite an active lady
I don't know why it helps with UTI's but, Alka--Selza taken at the first sign pretty much stops the infection.
Here in New England, herring gulls don't migrate. Do they migrate in your part of UK?
I thought you were semi-retired from grinding down the odd toenail?
When buying optics, buy the next one up from what you can afford. When we were shipping equine semen around the country, we went cheap on the microscope and regretted it., ( We needed to examine motility before shipping) Post a pic of the lab when it's set up.
I always knew you were Lady Angharad, but did you start with a fender in the butt also?
Cranberries
Cranberries reputedly help prevent UTI's. I do have dried cranberries with my muesli and don't get infections but didn't before eating cranberries either. Good luck on the binocular microscope hunt both for the equipment and the samples - insects don't sound like much food for a kestrel but there are lots of hawks in New Zealand where giant wetas live which might not be a coincidence.
Rhona McCloud
I've probably drunk my weight in cranberry juice
several times over. Birds of prey and owls will eat whatever they can get their claws on. Buzzards eat loads of earthworms and all will eat large insects given the chance, as well as small furry or feathered things.
Angharad
Enjoyed the experimental validation of the claim that
cranberries help prevent UTIs.
"Cranberries reputedly help prevent UTI's. I do have dried cranberries with my muesli and don't get infections"
...but didn't before eating cranberries either.
UTI's
Can't for the life of me remember where it was I read about Alka-Selzer, but I keep a full box in the med cabinet. Just took some last week.
It truly seems to help, it's not the aspirin in it either. Like chicken soup 'it can't hurt'.
Can it be the increase in the acidity of the uric acid?
Karen
UTI
Well I've never had a UTI, pre or post-op. Now that said, I have been wearing panty liners due to urge incontinence for many decades now and that tends to keep my crotch dry and depriving those critters of precious moisture they need to get a pseudopod hold or whatever.
Lots of urine production helps keep them at bay too unless the urine has sugar in it say from being diabetic.