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• Post #4279202

  I had my first curry on the Curry Mile in the late seventies. This bigoted stripling imagines that (a) the Curry Mile is the result of a recent influx of immigrants, and (b) that banning curry houses would be a great selling point in Greater Manchester. Just in case you were wondering how in tune Rupert Lowe's Peculiar Party is with ordinary people and knowledgeable of Greater Manchester. #UKPolitics #Manchester https://www.thepoke.com/2026/07/31/restore-britain-campaigner-used-manchester...

• Post #4092307

  A walk over to Woolston Eyes in the quiet season of the birdwatching year. #Birdwatching #WoolstonEyes https://heywoodbirdwatching.blogspot.com/2026/07/woolston-eyes.html

• Post #3983572

  Nothing to see here. Just the Vice-President who wears more slap than Widow Twankey getting the horn after watching an old man eat ice cream. #USPolitics #JDVance https://www.lbc.co.uk/article/jd-vance-joe-biden-ice-cream-suggestive-5HjddmF_2/

• Post #3672861

  FWIW a few musings on the Clacton by-election. I'm no expert, I just know what I've read, which is probably less than what you have, but here we go. First point: Farage hates being an MP. He knew he was going to hate it and tried to avoid it. As an MEP he had a platform for grandstanding and no pressing responsibilities. As an MP he doesn't, he's just another backbench MP in charge of a handful of backbench MPs and he is expected to serve his constituency, which is a bit of a dr...

• Post #2273742

  Mostly ruffs at Marshside and avocets on Crossens Marsh. #Birdwatching #Marshside #CrossensMarsh https://heywoodbirdwatching.blogspot.com/2026/05/marshside-and-crossens.html

• Post #2273739

  After the excitement of the local election results the real story of the elections will begin, starting next week, and will be scarcely reported. Whatever the party panjandrums, pundits and psephologists say, in real life it's messy and sometimes neither publicly acknowledged or admitted. Back when I worked in local government we had a time when one council was administered by a coalition that dare not say its name as the Labour and Tory politicians discovered they hated the Lib Dems mo...

• Post #2273737

  I went on a bit of a local twitch to Pennington Flash and struck lucky then had a stroll through Byrom Hall Wood. #Birdwatching #PenningtonFlash #ByromHallWood https://heywoodbirdwatching.blogspot.com/2026/05/leigh-bumper-bundle.html

• Post #2273734

  "It's the internet I was promised in 1996. It only took thirty years and the complete collapse of American journalism to get here." https://matduggan.com/boy-i-was-wrong-about-the-fediverse/

• Post #2237340

  My sister tells me that Reform sent personalised election leaflets to every member of the household. Including the cat.

• Post #2213244

  Unfortunately, we just know that Labour's takeaway from the local election results will be: "Reform has won lots of seats, we must be even more like Reform," rather than: "Reform has won lots of seats, how did we lose so many people who didn't vote for Reform?" #UKLocalElections #UKPolitics

• Post #2210477

  The local election results so far illustrate just how much local factors (and turnouts) produce extremely variable results. FPTP doesn't seem to be as effective in homogenising these results the same way it does in General Elections. Having said that, the national public agendas of wanting to give Labour a kick in the shins for being a wilful disappointment and Reform's appeal to people terminally disillusioned with Westminster politics is pretty evident. The results so far in Greater M...

• Post #2177078

  There's no reason for me not to visit Bickershaw Country Park more often than I do. This is another reminder why I really should get over there more often. #Birdwatching #BickershawCountryPark https://heywoodbirdwatching.blogspot.com/2026/05/bickershaw-country-park.html

• Post #2148536

  Voted. I've been quite insistent over the years that local politics is local and national politics is national but this time felt different. Had my local councillor stood on their own merits without party affiliation I'd have voted for them in an eyeblink. I might even had held my nose and voted for them in the end despite the current government and its pursuit of The Hero Reform Voter. The clincher was Labour's odious local elections campaign which said not one jot about how it'...

• Post #2070363

  "I remember when these were fourpence," is my current go-to conversational gambit in shops, it covers everything from penny chews up to and including Jensen Interceptors.

• Post #2052149

  Grackle-hunting at Speke Hall and a potter about a couple of parks. #Birdwatching #SpekeHall #SeftonPark https://heywoodbirdwatching.blogspot.com/2026/05/urban-birdwatching-liverpool.html

• Post #2006824

  I'm old enough to remember the promise that information technology was going to usher in a new Golden Age, the weary drudgery of everyday life would be cast aside and we could spend our days smelling the roses and catching the sunlight. Instead we are spending 16 hours a day trying and failing to dodge advertising, being asked for passwords and being required to set up and account for every little thing. Katherine Argent summarises our brave new world. #Enshittification https://www.th...

• Post #2006221

  Big data is the accumulation of lots of small data. I'd encourage anyone to submit data to one or more of the citizen science projects kicking about. I use Birdtrack and iNaturalist, there are plenty of others to choose from. Even if the only thing you record is your first swallow or cabbage white of the year, a lot of people doing that helps scientists pick out patterns and variations over geography and time that feed into bigger pictures about the natural world around us. Study highli...

• Post #1929600

  A wander round Pennington Flash. And a reminder that little ringed plovers would be beggars to spot if they kept still for any length of time. #Birdwatching #PenningtonFlash https://heywoodbirdwatching.blogspot.com/2026/05/pennington-flash.html

• Post #1699387

  That thing where you forgot you've got a packet of roasted pistachios and think to yourself: "That peanut was a bit crunchy." (I thought it was a long-forgotten packet of Lions Sports Gums when I found them in the pantry.)

• Post #1595552

  An afternoon stroll on the Salford Mosses, including an old man making heavy weather of identifying a whinchat. #Birdwatching #IrlamMoss #ChatMoss #LittleWooldenMoss https://heywoodbirdwatching.blogspot.com/2026/04/mosses_20.html

• Post #1152458

  A twitch and a stroll along the prom. #Birdwatching #MyerscoughQuarry #Morecambe https://heywoodbirdwatching.blogspot.com/2026/04/lancashire-bumper-bundle.html

• Post #1095447

  There are times when I'm not in the driving seat when I'm going for a walk. And there are times when this works to my advantage. #Birdwatching #EtherowCountryPark #KegWood https://heywoodbirdwatching.blogspot.com/2026/04/etherow-country-park.html

• Post #1033218

  A wander round some of the old sand quarries of Chelford. #Birdwatching #Chelford #AcreNookQuarry #LapwingHallPool https://heywoodbirdwatching.blogspot.com/2026/04/chelford.html

• Post #1024856

  @j_bertolotti@mathstodon.xyz @tempusfelix@wehavecookies.social @syntaxxor@sk.girlthi.ng @pluralistic@mamot.fr Imagine the knowledge-based shopping involved in the list of ingredients.

• Post #944218

  One of those visits to the lavatory that conclude with that moment of fearful indecision: do I flush the chain or put its name down for Eton? I can't be doing with the responsibility. What if I do irreparable damage to the space-time continuum? I'd best start rehearsing my responses for when the time travellers call round. "Well, yes, young lady, your century is ending in flames but it would have been strangled at birth had I not flung half a bottle of Domestos down th...

• Post #944216

  I'm re-watching the 2005 Ashes series. I'd forgotten just what a nail-biter that second Test was. #Cricket

• Post #944214

  The lessons learned process is immensely important after any experience, especially one as catastrophic as the second Trump administration. For me, the lesson learned is that Trump voters didn't just make the same mistake twice, they did it aggressively and actively bought into the whole rancid package. If they have buyer's remorse now, then I don't see how they can just expect forgiveness, they have to earn it. And the least they need to do is to fo the post mortem, ide...

• Post #944211

  A stroll from Hindley to Wigan via Amberswood and the Wigan Flashes. #Birdwatching #Amberswood #WiganFlashes https://heywoodbirdwatching.blogspot.com/2026/04/wigan-bumper-bundle.html

• Post #944210

  A gloomy day visit to Leighton Moss. #Birdwatching #LeightonMoss https://heywoodbirdwatching.blogspot.com/2026/04/leighton-moss.html

• Post #944208

  Merry Sunday. I hope everybody found where The Easter Hamster has hidden their chocolate teapot.