Y'know what really grinds my gears?

[Mikey]

I've had a sparrow-hawk in my garden TWICE in the four years since we moved here. Until you've experienced proximity to a creature evolution has told: "No, that's it... you're pretty much spot on" it's hard to articulate what being that close to nature to nature really feels like.

They are magnificent beasts, aren't they? I see one on a regular basis in, or more often bombing through, our garden. It even does some plucking - our cat surprised it (well, more the other way round) as it was dealing with a pigeon. The Sparrowhawk has even fwooshed about a foot over my head once - incredible! I live in a town centre too in a terraced house, but there's no access to the gardens except through the houses, so it's a bit of a clear run and reasonably safe for common wildlife (bats and hedgehogs too). Unfortunately, the town itself is a bit of a shithole, and full of bell ends.

[Hawkmumbler]

Funny little tit bit, Sparrowhawk remains can be found in Piacenzian deposits in north eastern Englnad, the exact same species as can be found nation wide today. So when Jim say's "Feck it, your pretty much perfect" bare in mind this one predatory avid has remained completely unchanged for nearly 2 million years. Hows that for milage?

[Jim_Campbell]

They are magnificent beasts, aren't they?

Oh, yes. The first time, I was washing up at the kitchen sink, looked up and became aware that several birds in the garden were completely motionless and then the penny dropped: there was a sparrowhawk methodically dismantling a sparrow as it sat on the back fence.

Cheers

Jim

[JamesC]

I think I mentioned on here at the time but I once saw a Peregrine Falcon take a pigeon on my way home from work in Norwich.
We had (and still do I think) a nesting pair on the Cathedral. Anyway, I was on a residential street very close to the city centre when I saw something fall to the ground out of the corner of my eye. The falcon was mantling the pigeon by the kerbside. I was about to take a photo on my phone when a kid came around the corner on a bike and scared the falcon off. Incredibly the pigeon was still alive and though it looked a bit shell shocked and was surrounded by a ring of shed feathers it flew away.
Lucky for the pigeon but not good news for the falcon. They use a great deal of energy on the hunt, particularly while hunting for the chicks too and can't sustain too many failed kills.

[shaolin_monkey]

My daughters and I came across this Sparrowhawk in the middle of Cardiff a few weeks back:

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/bird-prey-determined-not-pigeon-10885556

[ThryllSeekyr]

I've had a sparrow-hawk in my garden TWICE in the four years since we moved here. Until you've experienced proximity to a creature evolution has told: "No, that's it... you're pretty much spot on" it's hard to articulate what being that close to nature to nature really feels like.

They are magnificent beasts, aren't they? I see one on a regular basis in, or more often bombing through, our garden. It even does some plucking - our cat surprised it (well, more the other way round) as it was dealing with a pigeon. The Sparrowhawk has even fwooshed about a foot over my head once - incredible! I live in a town centre too in a terraced house, but there's no access to the gardens except through the houses, so it's a bit of a clear run and reasonably safe for common wildlife (bats and hedgehogs too). Unfortunately, the town itself is a bit of a shithole, and full of bell ends.

Somebody here called me a Bellend once, but I think that meant it in a good way. Like a endearment.

[JayzusB.Christ]

My last tuppenceworth on why I prefer smaller towns -

I like drifting along the river or canal in my (battery-powered, inflatable) boat, mooring occasionally for a bite to eat or a bottle of beer.
I also like picking wild garlic and cooking it in a meal, or picking sloes to put in gin.  I like gathering my own holly at Christmas, and wood to light a fire in winter.
I enjoy a quiet beer garden on a nice day.

There are things I like about the city, but all of the above are among my favourite things in the world and are very hard to do there.

[Jim_Campbell]

When I lived in Nottingham, I lived in Forest Fields -- one of the city's most heavily Asian/Indian-populated areas. I miss the samosas. I VERY MUCH miss the samosas.

Cheers!

Jim

[SuperSurfer]

Journalists who can't write to save their lives. Who litter their articles with typos and unfinished sentences, who go into detail without any introduction, leave gaps in their text which they indicate with asterisks as they can't be bothered to find out missing info, who can't be arsed to check the names of people they refer to so supply some without first names.

And then get arsey when I point out their text was not ready to use as supplied!

FFS!

[DaveGYNWA]

Being asked to study training material for a new product and being told "Oh, it shouldn't take long....about 3 hours" and then looking at the training material to see that it is all video based, and totals to just shy of 24 hours of content.

The person who told me '3 hours' is now fully aware that this won't be finished by the end of today as requested.

[Jim_Campbell]

Being asked to study training material for a new product and being told "Oh, it shouldn't take long....about 3 hours" and then looking at the training material to see that it is all video based, and totals to just shy of 24 hours of content.

Add to the gear-grinding — the ever-increasing insistence on linking to/providing video in order to convey information that I could extract in a fraction of the time from boring, old-fashioned text.

Bah!

Jim

[Mikey]

This came to mind yesterday - people who don't know the difference between a number or letter sequence. I did some fieldwork involving numerous sample sites that had letter codes, and they constantly referred sites as 'number AE etc'

Give. Me. Fucking. Strength.

[ming]

This came to mind yesterday - people who don't know the difference between a number or letter sequence. I did some fieldwork involving numerous sample sites that had letter codes, and they constantly referred sites as 'number AE etc'

Give. Me. Fucking. Strength.

Just ask them to pick a number between A and D... 

[TordelBack]

... they constantly referred sites as 'number AE etc'

That's just Site Number 174, innit?

[JayzusB.Christ]

I have no idea what you're all talking about