londonbard

I've been completely swamped (and none too well) for a long time and I'm not sure if I'll ever catch up. I may only have fragmentary memories of some of it. That can be a bad sign. (Oh well, write those and the rest may come.)

I moved quite a short distance, but my new surroundings are very different. There is an old-fashioned, open wet-fish shop on the corner, here. Some years ago I read that vultures have no sense of smell. They tested it by leaving bait in clear sight - the vultures gathered, circled, fed. The scientists then covered the bait (which presumably smelled strongly by then) and no vultures came.

Gulls may be different. On some mornings it's like being on the coast; the seagulls mew on the rooftops and haunt the area of that fish-shop. (I suppose they can see the fish. It's just tempting to assume that they follow the scent because they are in the area where it is strongest. The gulls pass over my new home but they don't settle. OTOH, there is a taller block at about the same distance from the shop, and I suspect that the birds want that as a cliff-face.)

I heard several varieties of birds here, during the nesting season, but I don't see them and a fat-ball was ignored.