Bird Watchers, Fed Up Owls and Marsh Harriers.

Well, I decided to wander over to the Manea bird hides today and test out my new Nikon zoom lens. I bought this in Salisbury shopping centre last week when Carole. We visited Salisbury Cathedral.

I found myself a nice bird hide and poured a cup of coffee and sat there waiting for something to happen. I was hoping the kingfisher might put in an appearance or the Marsh Harrier. There is also a Short Eared owl that I keep on seeing, though I’ve not managed to get any good photo shoots yet.

I was taking photos of the flooded fen and looking out across the plain through the binoculars. Then a commotion came from the waterfowl. They began to scatter in all directions, which is always a sure sign of the Marsh Harrier. Sure enough, it was so, but it was some distance. Even at the maximum 300m upon the lens giving me a 1.3 something magnification of just over 400m; I still had a job getting the right shots. I had all the multiple clicks for movement and the camera automatically focused upon the first touch. I began machine gun firing on the photo shots as the bird of prey passed by. I ran out of the back of the bird hide to see the magnificent raptor fly over the dyke and into the fields at the rear. Most of the shots were no good but some were credible enough to put on the blog. I’m sure that one day, I’ll get some better shots.

I came back into the bird hide and sat down. I poured out a coffee and continued to wait patiently. There were many varieties of waterfowl etc., but I only get a buzz out of the birds of prey. Also, the kingfisher is striking.

A man came through a joining door to the other bird hide next door. He was very friendly and asked if I had seen the Marsh Harrier go past. I told him I did and had gone out the back to try and get some more photo when the raptor passed over the dyke from the flood plain. He laughed and said he thought he heard someone clicking. He just had a telescope. I could not see any signs of a camera. He referred to me as a twitchier, which I presume is someone who likes to photograph as opposed to just bird watching. We had a fine conversation and chatted about the many raptors that are increasing in numbers around the Fens. We spoke of seeing them often along the motorways and concluded that it might be for the various road kill one finds on the verges. Also, EU laws concerning pesticides on rodents mean that raptors are not dying from eating poisoned vermin. Also, he said that farmers in the past had exterminated them. I don’t know how much of this is true, but he spoke at some length and told me of his joy concerning the increasing raptor population. He recommended an RSPB reserve at Frampton in Lincolnshire. It is not far from the Fens and he told me of a Peregrine Falcon that is resident there along with a number of Marsh Harriers. He also spoke of a Boot-Legged Eagle in Suffolk. I’m certain there is one in the Fenlands close to where Doddington Minor injuries Hospital is. We spoke on how they look like Common Buzzards but are bigger. He got out a book and showed me images of the Boot-Legged Eagle and now I’m even more convinced that we saw shut a raptor in the fields while emptying the bins of farms in the remote part of the Fenland. The man bade me farewell and went on his way.

Again I was looking through the binoculars hoping the Marsh Harrier might return. I watched the waterfowl knowing they would all fly off into panic at the first sight of the dreaded raptor. It did not happen. However, a second bird watcher came in. Another retired man perusing his hobby. He said hello and I did likewise. He also referred to me as a twitchier, and I replied that I was. He then went on to ask about various waterfowl by species names. I had to confess that I knew very little of these types of birds and went on to say that I’m more interested in the raptors because I like to try and photograph them for my Retro Brit blog.

He went on to tell me all about his bird watching and how he does it mostly on weekdays. As we spoke he was walking around the hide and looking through his binoculars. He told me he had seen the kingfisher up at the pump house further along the river. He was from Leicestershire and was staying at Huntington in Norfolk for three days. I spoke of the Marsh Harrier, which he realised was about because he had also noted the waterfowl panicking earlier on when walking along the bridal way. As I was telling him about the short-eared owl I had seen on a number of occasions, he replied.

“It’s out there upon the scarp.”

I frowned and looked to where he was pointing. Sure enough, it was there standing in the long grass looking out over the flooded fen. It must have been there for ages standing still. I probably dismissed it as a bit of dried grass amid the greenery. It looked like a distant mole hill to the naked eye, but when I looked through my binoculars it was the very owl I was speaking of.

“Blimey,” I replied. “It must have been sitting there for ages and I never even realised.”

The old bird watcher replied in his Midland accent that it was a pleasing find as I took my camera and started clicking away. After a time we began to ask ourselves if the owl would do anything. Like, fly off so I could get a couple of photos of it in flight. It would not. It just sat there with its head going from left to right. The raptor’s vision was sweeping across the flood plain, but that was all.

“I’m wondering if it has eaten its fill,” I said.

“Maybe,” replied the man.

I assumed it might be fed up. That is where we get the expression, ‘fed up’ from. When a bird of prey gorges itself, it gets stuffed up to its chest cavity and will not eat further. It needs to sit back and digest. Hence; fed up. I’m not saying the Short Eared Owl was fed up. Just that it might have been on account of it just sitting there and doing nothing but watch the water fowl. Another bird watcher like us for the time being. Sometimes the owl turned and starred directly at us, but did not seem too disturbed by our presence. This went on for about half an hour. I waited patiently hoping to photo the bird taking off in flight. It never happened. It started to groom itself and then seemed to go down a dip. Almost as though it went into a hidden hole. I know British owls don’t live in holes in the ground so I’m assuming it disappeared behind a mound. Out of sight soon out of mind.

 I said farewell to the Midland man and made my way back to the car pleased with some of the shots and content with the Marsh Harrier and Short Eared Owl. While driving home, I did see a low flying Common Buzzard but I had a car close behind and could not stop to take photos along the country road. I would have had to stop too abruptly with the car behind me. I turned left over a bridge and the car went on along the straight road. Once again I was alone in my car and spotted a lovely looking kestrel on the telephone cable. I stopped and got a few shots of this bird too.    

Giving You The Last Fatal Duel in England was in 1852.

Louis Napoleon’s coup d’état of 1848 caused a hive of activity among France’s socialist fractions - small groups of political dissidents who tried in vain to bring about counter revolutions against the late Napoleon Bonaparte’s nephew.

Among these disgruntled people was a large course man who had only been released from prison a year earlier. This man had killed a gendarme in 1839. His name was Emmanuel Barthelemy and he was a member of the Blanquist society – a French socialist movement. Among such members was Karl Marx. Barthelemy had a strong dislike of Marx and even plotted to have him killed. This was when many of the French dissidents had come to England as political refugees.

Emmanuel Barthelemy spent the first few years, in England, among his fellow countrymen in exile, but many of these left wing groups squabbled with one another more than they did against the French government in power that had brought about their exile. Barthelemy was regarded as one of the most argumentative of them all. He was tall and a brash bully. Many regarded him as a loose cannon and a murderer too.

By 1852 he had been in England a few years and his unruly reputation as a bully with a short fuse grew all the more. He picked an argument with another French dissident from a different political fraction. An ex-naval officer called Lieutenant Frederic Cournet. He had read out Victor Hugo’s proclamation during a botched attempt at overthrowing the Napoleon III government in 1851.

Cournet had been in England for only a matter of weeks when Barthelemy challenged him to a duel to settle a difference of opinion. Barthelemy claimed that the ex-navy officer had said something detrimental about a former girlfriend. Lieutenant Frederic Cournet accepted the challenge with great confidence. He had fought a number of duels and had won them all. It was also a chance to put the unscrupulous bully to rights.

Each man selected two seconders and decided upon a field outside London close to a place called Engle field Green in Surrey. The field area was known as Priest Hill. The group of men set off aboard a train and travelled to their destination of Windsor Rail station and thence to Englefield Green. Six men in all, including the two duellists. It was 19^th October 1852.

Once upon the secluded field, the seconders gave each man a pistol. Frederic Cournet had won the toss of the coin and got to choose weapons. The choice of pistols was not to Barthelemy’s liking as he felt more competent with a sword. Also Cournet was said to be a marksmen with other duelling victories under his belt. He also got to take the first shot as he had won the flick of the coin when the duel had been decided.

Both men stood sideways to present as small a target as possible. Then against all odds Lieutenant Frederic Courbet fired and missed Barthelemy completely. The ruthless Emmanuel Barthelemy may have grinned as he raised his pistol, but as he took aim and pulled the trigger the pistol jammed. The entire affair came to a brief halt as Cournet came forward and offered the use of his own recently fired pistol. One of Barthelemy’s seconders reloaded the pistol that Courbet had used. The ex-navy Lieutenant resumed his stance with ill deserved, or perhaps misplaced, courtesy and awaited Emmanuel Barthelemy’s second attention.

This time the pistol worked and Frederic Courbet let out a cry of pain as the musket ball ripped into his chest. He fell a victim to his gallant consideration and Barthelemy’s sure aim. As the mortally wounded man hit to the ground, Barthelemy and his two seconders took the pistols and re-packed them. They made off immediately for the rail station and a train back to London. Also one of Cournet’s seconders hastened away too. The stricken duellist’s other seconder, Edmund Allain, remained to try and get help. He left the field and ran out onto a country lane to stop an approaching horse and trap. By chance it was being driven by Doctor Hayward who went to the stricken Cournet’s aid. The doctor and Edmund Allain managed to get Cournet onto the trap and then to the village pub called the Barley Mow. The police were called amid the village excitement and Superintendent William Biddlecombe was soon at the scene. He wasted no time in alerting the police at London upon hearing that the other duellist and seconders had boarded a train for bound for Waterloo station.

Upon getting off the train at Waterloo station Barthelemy and seconders, save one, were arrested and brought back to Windsor. One managed to evaded capture and saunter off into the crowd while disembarking from the train. His name was Brissot and he had the two pistols that he returned to the gun shop to reclaim his deposit. He made his way back to France and evaded capture for his part in the duel.

Despite Doctor Hayward’s efforts he was unable to save Lieutenant Frederic Cournet. After several hours the Frenchman died of his wounds in considerable discomfort.

Some months later, Emmanuel Barthelemy went to court with two others and it was he who stood trail for the murder of Lieutenant Frederic Cournet. The French custom of honour and duelling was not recognised by English law. However, during the course of the trial, Emmanuel Barthelemy and his legal team managed to convince the jury with eloquent speeches of being ignorant of English law as far as European duelling was concerned. The jury was won over and they returned a verdict of manslaughter which only covered a term of seven months in prison. Five months of which they had already spent on remand. They served a further two months and were released as free men.This was the last recoded fatal duel in England. 

There would be a further twist to Emmanuel Barthelemy’s story, however. Two years later, the unruly man would try to blackmail an employer. Barthelemy visited the man’s home to execute his blackmail plan, but it did not work. During the altercation and fight that preceded the attempted blackmail, Barthelemy would shoot his employer dead. As he tried to make his way out of the back yard of the house, another man would try to apprehend him and he would also be fatally shot. As Barthelemy continued with his escape attempt from his botched blackmail attempt, he would be stopped by another witness and then more would wrestle and hold him to the ground until the police arrived to arrest him.

During his second trail there would be no smooth talk to the jury. He was found guilty of murder and hanged publicly outside Newgate prison in January of 1855.   

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Is the UK is playing a part in Reforming the EU or are we highjacking it? (Professor Stephen Haseler makes good points)

There is so much about the EU that I find annoying. I don't like the idea of the UK being in it. However, when I stop and take a pause. I am forced to think logically. I'm not impressed with the way we get the unelected leaders via a committee inside a closed room. At the moment there is a democratic unaccountability for it all. Its creating all sorts of problems.

Then I find myself thinking of the consequences of the UK leaving. I don't think it would be disastrous but I do think long term we might come to regret it all. This EU is very flawed and does need to change. I don't think its just the British who are screaming this out. I do believe the EU can and will change in the long run.

Viviane Reding is interviewed at an Oxford University gathering. Some of the questions are tough and I think Viviane Reding did moderately well. However, the BIG and SCARY let down was when she spoke briefly on EU foreign policy. I thought Professor Stephen Haseler made a good point of past UK foreign policy being nothing more than agreement with American foreign policy. Viviane Reding was well supported by this remark, but then blew it all away by not knowing the name of a young Italian lady who is responsible for the EUs foreign policy.

As an EU citizen who was not given a chance to vote about the EU commission in charge of us all, I'm not too impressed that an unknown young Italian lady is responsible for the trading blocs foreign policy. Many EU members accuse the UK of not taking the commission seriously. I would argue we do and raise strong views on the organisation's many short comings.

The saving grace for this debate was Professor Stephen Haseler who did manage to point out good reasons and arguments for the evolving EU. I think we must UNDERSTAND that the EU is evolving. Also, there were occasions when Viviane Reding made some poignant points.

I thought UKIP raised good points but they are anti EU through and through. Is that the long term solution for the UK? We know the internal workings of the EU will and must change - ie evolving. The long term future is what we make it. Is the UK is playing a part in this or are we hijacking it?