coldfingers
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Posts posted by coldfingers
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Our pond has a balance of goldfish (3 generations, last years are about 5/8" long) and frogs/taddies. Goldfish don't really seem all that interested as long as they are well fed untill the taddies emerge. After that it's every man for himself.
We do have loads of rocks both in and surounding the pond which creates lots of hideyholes. Survival of the fastest :lol:
Regarding newts and frogs. Newts are really carniverous and are much more likely to thin out the frogspawn and taddies than the other way round. We don't have newts though but quite a large predator of the taddies are blackbirds. They stand at the pond edges and just pick them off!
If you have a nice pond it shouldn't be necessary to stock it with wildlife. The wildlife will find it soon enough and reach its own balance. That way you won't introduce disease into the pond from different sources - Red Leg is currently a huge problem for frogs and highly infectious.
Many thanks for the rapid reply and the info on newts. I ask because a freind has 3 sorts of newts in his dad's garden so we were thinking of introducing some. I would far rather have frogs because of the way they decimate the slugs. my garden has too many. <_< We do though have loads of slowworm in the garden that should do that job. Frogs sadly disappeared two years ago, no doubt because there was a serious outbreak of the frog disease you mentioned. They do seem to be recovering in many areas in Bognor now though. The pond we had was deep but steepsided but after 15 years the lining has given up and we had to remove the fish rapidly when the water level dropped drastically.
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It's that time of year again when a young frog's fancy turns to ... well ... lady frogs!
Our garden pond hasn't got any frogspawn yet but there is a mele of bodies and legs lurking in the shallows so it should be any day now given a bit of milder weather.
Anyone else expecting or, indeed, have had a happy event?
Sadly the spawn never had a chance in our pond with loads of carp, Koi and goldfish. Nevermind, this Spring we are building a wildlife pond and the fish had to go. Must find somewhere to get some frog spawn from. By the way, do tadplole interfere with newt young?
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Indeed Coldfingers, the local press in Reykjavik has been reporting the tremors and that the land has visibly moved in places along the ridge.
It will be interesting to see if an eruption takes place as has been noted the last eruption was around the 13th or 14th century i believe.
i for one will certainly be stuck viewing the data coming through for a wee while
Ah thanks for that additional info from the Icelandic press. I did see a few Icelandic press sites mentioned but google translate is more of a giggle than a real tool for me. I am not very good at reading around what the translation actually means. Must be getting old. Not too old to enjoy another eruption if it should happen though and this one I could gloat over without worrying about upsetting people who were flying as it is not likely to be an ash problem.
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Had a heavy rain/hail shower just. Can see the blue sky to the north now. I love days like this!
I don't!!! Got soaked two days running. Serves me right for not checking the rainfall radar I suppose!
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Very interesting I have been watching this myself and I see there has
recently been another 4+ earthquake.
It certainly is interesting, I have watched this on and off since this morning and thought it would all fizzle out again after a couple of hours. Got it wrong again! It increased rather than decreased with now in excess of 400 quakes in the past 18 hours. Interesting stuff but then I did read somewhere that this area hasn't had an actual eruption for around 700+ years which means no-one knows how long before that the previous one was. Could be due for some action and hopefully as Argyllcraig mentioned it will be a Hawaiian style eruption so not destructive.
Apparently at least 3 or these quakes have been felt fairly strongly in Reykjavik.
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Today my husband showed me two seperate female blackbirds sitting on nests in the local park. I don't know much about their nesting habits but would have thought this was unusualy early. Has anyone else seen such early nesting. Apart from mallards when I once saw a crazy pair nesting in December!!
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Hello all,
Lovely to see some sunshine again after such a wet and dreary day yesterday. In the last week I have seen a bumblebee, a couple of half dead looking ladybirds and two very much alive and brilliantly coloured butterflies sunning themselves in the unusual February warmth. Hope they found all somewhere warm to return to yesterday. Today is now up to 9.3C and I have now given up all hope of snow for the remainder of winter as it appears to have under gone a (gender?) change and thinks it is Spring. I am now looking forward to a little drier weather so that I can get the garden ready for some Spring planting.
I will pop in ocassionaly to see whether anyone else is around but it seems most have given up posting with the demise of any snow hope.
Don't know where else to post this and thought gottolovethisweather might be interested.
Today the temperature was a maximum of 15.1C and my husband is seeing two seperate female blackbirds sitting on nests in the local park. Is this unusually early? Also saw a few ladybirds very active, not half dead like the last ones I saw a week ago.
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I've got a comprise just keep British summertime all year round and stop moving the clocks around.
Ah if only they would stop keep changing the clocks!!!
I don't care whether they set it one hour ahead or one hour behind GMT or even 2 hours ahead or behind. Just so long as they don't keep upsetting my sleep pattern every 6 months. Wonder if that could be the true cause of ME (which I don't have) as all that stressing the body like that can't do it any good. I have suffered sleep adjustments every 6 months for 60 years now and am heartily sick of it.
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Hello all,
Lovely to see some sunshine again after such a wet and dreary day yesterday. In the last week I have seen a bumblebee, a couple of half dead looking ladybirds and two very much alive and brilliantly coloured butterflies sunning themselves in the unusual February warmth. Hope they found all somewhere warm to return to yesterday. Today is now up to 9.3C and I have now given up all hope of snow for the remainder of winter as it appears to have under gone a (gender?) change and thinks it is Spring. I am now looking forward to a little drier weather so that I can get the garden ready for some Spring planting.
I will pop in ocassionaly to see whether anyone else is around but it seems most have given up posting with the demise of any snow hope.
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From the Icelandic Met Office's website:
"Presently, there are no signs of an imminent volcanic eruption in Iceland.... If signs of an eruption were apparent, IMO would issue a warning immediately."
This was referring to speculation in various news media that an eruption was extremely likely from Bardurbunga volcano after a few series of earthquake swarms in the area.
Daily Mail of course was again in the forefront of 'doom-mongering' about a severe eruption with a 'screaming' headline -
Not again! Icelandic volcano set to erupt dwarfing last year's devastation, warn scientists
Read more: http://www.dailymail...l#ixzz1DUUeDDMX
I wouldn't mind having a bet on the few choice words the Icelandic geologists have for this sensationalist newspaper!
So sorry to previous posters. I wrote the above before realising this point had already been made. Teach me to read back in the thread before posting!! -
I did actually coldfingers! And I love Cheval, the huge fella with the long hair who plays for France (but his hair was tied back tonight) - he reminds me of a caveman who could....anyway I'll move on lol
Well I appear to be able to forecast who fancies who slb, LOL.
As to weather forecasting I leave that to the clever ones and look for hopeful signs. bad when you are looking out into FI though. However from the 17th looks interesting for snow. If only that could come off it would be a wonderful few days. But a gotto says, it is far to eary to tell yet BUT it has shown snow for two days now. Ah if only
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This weather is truly dull and uninspiring with nothing that exciting on the horizon except more of the same. At least I'm watching the italians play rugby (and I'm interested in the rugby, honest!
)Yeah right!
Which one did you fancy then, the big fella with the long hairy mane? :lol: As you see, I like rugby too, honest!!! I must agree about no sign of anything even vaguely interesting showing in the near future. Even FI doesn't look exciting really.
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I'm amazed too. Queensland has handed Yasi very well. I guess most just got the hell out of there!
No.actually plenty of people were still in the area. The difference is that the Aussies have the sense to listen to warnings. Also they did get warnings!!!! Cairns 'only' experienced winds gusting to 85mph but they listened to the warnings and almost everyone took shelter. (other areas obviously were much higher winds) Here in the '87 storm we had no warning and experienced winds gusting up to 110 mph on the coast. People died as they never knew what was happening.
By the way, I am not blaming anyone for '87, forecasting has moved on tremendously since '87 but people still need to realise in this country that it doesn't need a hurricane to kill you. Any storm force wind can do so, even gale force in areas not prone to gales.
Rant over. :blush:
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They were truly brave men! I remember the day and the sad news that rescued and rescuers had perished.
Please everyone, next time you go to pass by a lifeboat charity box, remember these men and give generously. It isn't only seamen who are rescued, it could be your child or grandchild on a day trip to the seaside.
To me the saddest thing is that these brave men aren't supported by government funds but only by public charity.
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A Japanese volcano featured in the James Bond film You Only Live Twice has erupted covering surrounding villages with ash.
The Mount Shinomoedake volcano, in southern Japan erupted into life on Wednesday throwing ash almost 5,000ft into the air.
Roads have become unpassable and trains and flights to the area have been cancelled as officials assess the situation.
No injuries have been reported but a 1.2 mile safety exclusion zone has been created around the site.
The volcano has been active before, erupting in 1959, 1979 and most recently in 2008.
The volcano and surrounding area in southern Japan was used as the centrepiece for You Only Live Twice starring Sean Connery.
http-~~-//www.examiner.com/natural-disasters-in-national/nighttime-eruption-of-japan-s-mount-shinmoe-captured-on-video-video
Is it this one? http://webcam-svo2.p...cal/camera.html
If it is then it is certainly putting on an impressive show. Well worth watching, particularly during their night time when you will see a fantastic fireworks show.
You may have to wait a while for it to load.
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Wall to wall blue sky, and 2.5C, fabulous weather
Wall to wall blue sky and 6.1C, even better weather!
Wonderful to see after all the grey wet days. -
Well I actually saw and felt about 10 grains of snow today. Nothing to compete with December I don't think.
Hi slb, glad to 'see' you back posting.
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Hello all. Nothing here but grey skies I am afraid. Good to have temperatures down at a more seasonal 3C currently.
Actually I will be pleased to see cold and dry weather for a while as all the rain has left areas of the park a very muddy mess with the poor Spring bulbs struggling to send up green shoots from the quagmire.
Nice to hear some got a slight covering today and maybe they will get a little more to top up later today. Here it is too warm for anything to settle anyway.
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Interesting article in the Daily Mail today.
Oh dear, just in time for 2012. *sigh*
No wonder they call it the Daily Fail. It is begining to make the Sun seem like a serious paper not the mens comic it really is.
Now a bit of sense from someone who knows more than I do.
From http://bigthink.com/blogs/eruptions/
Yellowstone: The public and media obsession with the caldera
Erik Klemetti on January 25, 2011, 12:13 PM
Sometimes I think that people have an unhealthy obsession with Yellowstone Caldera. Sure, it is big, powerful and the stuff that disaster movies are made, but in terms of a volcanic system that poses a high threat to life/property in the U.S. on a daily basis, it is relatively low. I know what you are thinking (well, some of you): "How can you say that? Look at how big the past eruptions were?" Yes, indeed, the previous eruption from the modern Yellowstone Caldera were indeed big, some of the biggest we have identified on the continents (it is still no Fish Canyon Tuff), so I'll give you that. However, looking at the recent volcanic history of Yellowstone, you'd see that these big "doomsday" eruptions are only a very small piece of its activity, so even if tomorrow the caldera began to show signs of imminent eruption, there is a very good chance that it would be a relatively minor eruption - possibly on the scale of the 2008 and onward Chaiten eruption in Chile. So, why is it that when a fairly innocuous paper comes out, everyone gets all riled up? National Geographic had a piece about a December 2010 article in Geophysical Research Letters by Chang and others called "An extraordinary episode of Yellowstone caldera uplift, 2004-2010, from GPS and InSAR observations". Alright, I can see why it might catch a reporter's attention: "extraordinary episode" combined with "caldera uplift" all in the recent past (2004-2010) seems juicy. Well, dissecting the article it seems that the key findings are (a) a large area of the Yellowstone caldera has been rising since 2004 (http://nwstatic.co.uk/forum/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/cool.gif from 2004-06, the surface was rising 7-5 cm/yr; from 2006-08, rising 4-2 cm/yr and from 2008-2010, rising 2-0.5 cm/yr and © the source of this uplift was likely a sill intruding at 7-10 km depth (see figure below). The Yellowstone Volcano Observatory press release about the paper is pretty subdued, which isn't surprising considering that if research like this makes it to publication, then the data in it is "old news" to the scientific community. Whenever you read about a "shocking" new research paper, remember, that data is likely a year or more old and has been vetted by many people in the research community - not exactly breaking events.
Now, should we expect this at an active caldera? Yes! Does this mean that the caldera is going to erupt soon? Maybe! Will it destroy us all? Probably not!
However, much like much news on the internet, information gets run through a massive game of telephone. This news about Yellowstone morphed into more 2012-style doomsday news. Some fine examples:
Tuscon Citizen: Fairly reasonable look at Yellowstone Caldera until you get to the bottom, where the National Park Service assessment of the activity at Yellowstone as being fairly low with no signs of a "catastrophic eruption is imminent" is juxtaposed with the findings in the Chang et al. paper. This is exactly what you shouldn't do as there is no indication in the paper that its findings are in conflict with the idea that a catastrophic is not around the corner.
Daily Mail: The headline alone takes it to another level: "Is the world's largest super-volcano about to erupt for the first time in 600,000 years, wiping out two-thirds of the U.S.?" I can't remember who said this, but if the title of your article can be answered with "no", then maybe you need to rethink the title, or the article in general. Sadly, it gets worse as the potential eruption at Yellowstone is described as "spewing lava far into the sky" and the U.S. will become uninhabitable by "toxic air", then goes on to say that a new "supereruption" could be coming in the "near future". There is much less information about Yellowstone in the article and very little from the original GRL article - heck, it isn't even mentioned. I'm not even sure what the "scorched earth" image is halfway through the article. And other media websites that have picked up this piece have morphed the title to "Largest volcano 'to erupt after 600,000 years, wipe out 2/3 of U.S." Ugh. (This spoof does a good job describing the Daily Mail's coverage)
San Francisco Chronicle (picked up from Benzinga): Now, we get completely wrong headlines from Jonathan Chen of Benzinga.com: "Could the world's oldest volcano wipe out more than 50% of the US?" Where do I start? Yellowstone is clearly not the "world's oldest volcano". Not even close. Could it wipe out 50% of the US? Maybe it could, likely it wouldn't (see my note for the Daily Mail). Here, the study is cut down to two quotes with very little info beyond the absolutely terrible and wrong headline.
Gawker: At least Gawker was having a little fun with Yellowstone, right down to the hashtag #volcanofail. Even their brief synopsis of what will happen during a catastrophic eruption isn't too bad, at least saying that the caldera will erupt ash to 25 km rather than lava. The best line, though, sums up the Yellowstone hysteria nicely: "But who do you trust, some kind of "professor," or your overactive imagination?"
There you go. Yellowstone is pretty calm as giant caldera systems go. We have such a small record of the behavior of a "restless caldera" that this inflation at Yellowstone could very easily fall into the realm of normal, non-eruption-causing behavior. And if you ever worry, Yellowstone is also well-wired to see all the real time data, including earthquakes in the region and in the park, temperatures of hot springs, webcams, deformation within the caldera and hydrologic changes in the area. You would expect that if Yellowstone were headed towards an eruption, we would see lots of rapid inflation, lots of constant seismicity that gets shallower through time, a change in the temperature/composition of the hydrothermal systems and possibly even cracks forming in the land around the caldera. In other words, there will be lots of signs. So, the next time you see a doomdays article about Yellowstone, remember, calderas are busy places and the media loves its disasters.
Top left: Grand Prismatic Spring at Yellowstone Caldera
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Hi Polar Bear, i am still around and lurking but find it hard to get excited about any precip in the next couple of days as it is showing very light which usually means nothing for Bognor.
However I am hoping everyone else away from the coastal strip will at least have a chance to see a few flurries. I must admit to being a trifle diappointed that that is all that most are likely to see, just snow flurries.
For me, I am happy with what we had in December so am just happy to see a bit of colder weather, even some frost would be a welcome change from this too warm (in my opinion) winter weather.
Regards, CF
(and hoping slb is coping OK.)
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Evening all, hope everyone is well even if the weather is quite unexciting. I'm very sad right now as a good friend passed away yesterday so it could be snowing blizzards and I probably wouldn't notice. I will go out this weekend and try to appreciate whatever the weather as we just don't know what's round the corner. Take care all x
Hi slb, so sorry to hear about your loss, I reckon your way of coping by going out and appreciating what there is around us to enjoy is a very good idea.
Hope we get plenty of sunshine for you this next week as things never seem so bad to me when it is sunny.
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Hi Polar Bear, I think that as it is now well and truly summer weather, ie, two days of sunshine down here, then most of the 'coldies' seem to have gone into aestivation.
Was today as sunny in Brighton as it was in Bognor? Glorious sunshine all day here and my daughter wasn't the only idiot in a tee-shirt.
By the way, not a lot colder here, a max of 7.2C and in the sunshine feeling a lot warmer.
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METO radar showing a large white blob that looks to be from Basingstoke to Newbury and I would think heading for Reading. As that is the highest level they show for rain which is a downpour then I would expect a lot of localised flooding in the area.
It is looking and sounding very unpleasant outside here at the moment and we are only showing as heavy.
So much rain this month we shouldn't have any hosepie ban in the summer as our rain comes from underground aquifers in the chalk downs and they must be pretty full now.
So sorry to previous posters. I wrote the above before realising this point had already been made. Teach me to read back in the thread before posting!! 
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Which one did you fancy then, the big fella with the long hairy mane? :lol: As you see, I like rugby too, honest!!! 
Wonderful to see after all the grey wet days.
General Volcanic Activity Thread!
in Space, Science & nature
Posted
lovely video here of new fissure eruption on KILAUEA slopes/ http://www.bigislandvideonews.com/2011/03/05/video-first-look-at-new-volcano-fissure-erupting-in-hawaii/