All Our Yesterdays

[undisputed 1,664]

The one thing my dad says he always regrets, was swapping his prized egg collection for a pair of football boots when he was a kid, Unfortunately, ive grown in a busy city with no woodland around for miles, And the only egg collecting I could have done was feral pigeons in the roof, Good read Undisputed, I'd rather be an old fella(for lack of a better term lol) with good stories like that than a young'un who only knows his way around a full english (Me being the latter)

 

Been known to have a few full englishes in my time mate I gave my egg collection to my mates lad wish I'd kept it....one of those things were you think I can always get another one. More than half the birds that where common when I was a kid have gone now. There's still the odd place that holds them but theyre few and far between. There was this one tree that had blue tits nest in it every year from when I was a boy it was always guaranteed to hold them went this year to have a look and the tree had gone...shame that

 

 

It truly is a shame, All these stories of proper childhood's from way back when, and all kids learn today is were stop pouring hot water in a pot noodle and a chicken actualy has batter and breadcrumbs for skin, I've always been interested in wildlife ever since I could talk, I havnt got the knowledge that alot of the old timers have but this love of wildife will only grow and hopefully one day i will have the knowledge, ive been trying and trying to get my 9 yr old sister interested but she just doesnt want to know. She just cares about were the next tooth destroying sweet is coming from lol

 

 

To be fare there wern't the distractions around that kids these days have.....how many would own up to stealing tumshees and strawberrys from next door...lol or raiding orchards, going for chessies to play conkers with? even the weathers different all the old ponds used to freeze over during the winter and we'd be on them skating now your lucky to see a bit of frost....lol I sound like Victor Meldrew

[Swampy 147]

Nice one.

Yes it does make one feel a bit sad. those days I'm afraid they're gone forever.

It is down to you Undisputed to carry on the old ways, I say that because I'm not THAT old!

I was lucky enough to be taught by my grandfather and father. Hopefully I will remember most of what they taught me and pass it on to my kids.

Thanks for making me feel my age.

 

Swampy

 

Ninging down memory lane

[Catcher 1 639]

Something I read in here awhile back got me thinking about how we learned things as a kid. Also in relation to the amount of obese kids you see these days. Now this isnt one of those grumpy old men type rants lol(honestly) but those of us at that certain age can remember what it was like before the advent of mobile phones and PC's. The state of the art video games were two white lines and a wee white dot that went blip blip. There I go off topic already. Anyways it got me thinking about things like bush craft and how we learnt to hunt.

 

Most of our time as kids was spent out doors playing footy, building bogeys from old prams and sliding down bings on bread boards. Remember all the daft games you played as kids, chap doors run away, hunt, hide & seek etc etc. Our whole year was divided up so we knew when it was time to collect frogs newts & lizards from the old pond and brickwork. In the winter we made slides on the roads & pavements. I was always facinated by wildlife, projects in school were usually about birds (feathered variety) or animals. My mates uncle owned ferrets and if we were lucky we got to go out with him on a Sunday. Usually we were the bag men carting a big heavy ferret box over your shoulder or carrying what felt like giant rabbits for him (well we were only about 6 or 7yrs old).

 

It was bloody hard work at times and you learnt to be quiet and follow instructions to the letter with a boot up the arse if you did something that caused a rabbit to escape. We learnt to set nets the right way recognise signs that burrows were occupied or ones that hadn't been used in a while. Over time you become quite adept at setting snares under fences where rabbit runs went. All great learning experiences, I was about 9 or 10 before being trusted enough to go out on my own with dog and ferret. Most of these trips were pretty uneventful and never produced anything of great note. But I continued to learn from my mistakes and became pretty useful at the ferreting game with or without a dog.

 

Now of all the things I got up to out doors my favourite pastime was bird nesting. In between Coatbridge and Viewpark we had what we referred to as the Glen which was basically a 7 mile stretch of wood land that ran from our scheme all the way to Glasgow zoo. This was our playground as kids, there were ponds and old coal bings to explore all kinds of wildlife and birds and we knew exactly where and how to get to it. Egg collecting was one of the major pastimes for us as kids we could spend the whole morning and afternoon looking for eggs and often did. Manys the time I returned with the ass out my trousers skint knees and splinters on every part of my body covered from head to toe in muck. I remember finding a long tailed tits nest and sitting patiently till the bird returned and entered.. For those of you who have never seen one or its nest Its like a small round ball of moss on the outside with a small enterance to the front. Inside its a completely different, its litterally hundreds of small feathers from top to bottom and has a silky texture to it. Well I trapped this very small bird and gently removed it from its nest which it was still building. It has got to be one of the smallest most delicate creatures I've ever handled. The tail is almost bigger than its body a truly beautiful little thing. After I had held it for awhile I let it go it never did come back to the nest which was a shame. Theyre eggs have got to be among the smallest I've ever seen. Its funny although there are plenty of blue and great tits I have never seen a long tailed tit for years now.

 

Now leaving aside the morality of the thing for a moment remember these were the days you could walk up the road with 4 or 5 rabbits over your shoulder and no one would give you a second glance, more often than not you would be patted on the back and told well done...lol. Anyway what it did do was give me an education I couldn't get in school. I knew all the types of birds by sight what their eggs looked like and where they nested, I could even tell what the bird was by looking at the nest. Some of the scrapes we got into trying to retreive eggs from nests that were in trees that must have been 30 odd feet tall quite a feat for a 10yr old. We would shimmy up cliff faces for rock doves or rock pipits wade waste deep in the foulest water to get to ducks or Moorhen eggs and even fight of bloody great big swans for our prize. Between us we had one of the most sought after egg collections in our scheme. From Linnets, yellow hammers, swallows and house martins, to Herons and kestral hawks and owls we knew where to look and how to extract eggs from the trickiest of places. Anyone who has tried to extract a blue tits egg fro a tiny hole in a tree will know what I mean.

 

Everyday was an adventure for us and without thinking about it conciously we learnt all sorts of things from the wildlife and the environment around us. We even had a kind of moral code that you abided by and if you didn't stick to it you were out the gang. We had a rule that you never "herry" a nest which meant you never took all the eggs. You could only have two of a kind of any egg and you never took anyone you didn't know to nesting sites. This was how I learnt my field craft and still to this day when I'm out I still look for tell tale signs of birds nests and I dont suppose this will ever leave me. I remember us being the envy of all the scheme when a mate of ours nicked an ostrich egg from a glass case in our school, no-one else had seen one nevermind had one...lol. Any this kinda brings me back in a roundabout way to the point I was making about fat and obese kids. How many of these kids have ever climbed a tree or would recognise a blue tit from a sea gull? not many I'd wager. As kids we had a great degree of freedom to explore our surroundings and take risks which we did on a regular basis. Does it make us better people I dont know but I would like to think so. We had respect for our elders we didn't rob or abuse old folk, will kids ever get that kind of freedom again? I dont think so which is sad cause theres a whole world of experience out there and things to be explored it would be a shame if it was lost to whoever follows us next in this world.

 

ATB

 

 

Great read ma man.I remember it well.Got a little tear in my eye Thinking about it.Can you recall the day i fell about 30 yards of a tree down the 100 feet.Cant remember what nest i was trying to get to.I was OK Landed on my head lol.The branches broke my fall.We could walk all day and no farmer ever gave us any hassle.Not like that know.Remember viky the fox.Told you i could train anything.lol.See you later mate. Catcher 1

 

 

There wasn't many trees that could hold your weight mate aye I remember that fox cub well lol the fecker bit me

 

 

Being nice to you again and you start salging.Lets put this to bed.The two of us are about 5/9.How come i am 11 stone 9 and you are 15.Rest my case.Must take you to the gym with me.any way it was still a great read mate Catcher 1

[undisputed 1,664]

Something I read in here awhile back got me thinking about how we learned things as a kid. Also in relation to the amount of obese kids you see these days. Now this isnt one of those grumpy old men type rants lol(honestly) but those of us at that certain age can remember what it was like before the advent of mobile phones and PC's. The state of the art video games were two white lines and a wee white dot that went blip blip. There I go off topic already. Anyways it got me thinking about things like bush craft and how we learnt to hunt.

 

Most of our time as kids was spent out doors playing footy, building bogeys from old prams and sliding down bings on bread boards. Remember all the daft games you played as kids, chap doors run away, hunt, hide & seek etc etc. Our whole year was divided up so we knew when it was time to collect frogs newts & lizards from the old pond and brickwork. In the winter we made slides on the roads & pavements. I was always facinated by wildlife, projects in school were usually about birds (feathered variety) or animals. My mates uncle owned ferrets and if we were lucky we got to go out with him on a Sunday. Usually we were the bag men carting a big heavy ferret box over your shoulder or carrying what felt like giant rabbits for him (well we were only about 6 or 7yrs old).

 

It was bloody hard work at times and you learnt to be quiet and follow instructions to the letter with a boot up the arse if you did something that caused a rabbit to escape. We learnt to set nets the right way recognise signs that burrows were occupied or ones that hadn't been used in a while. Over time you become quite adept at setting snares under fences where rabbit runs went. All great learning experiences, I was about 9 or 10 before being trusted enough to go out on my own with dog and ferret. Most of these trips were pretty uneventful and never produced anything of great note. But I continued to learn from my mistakes and became pretty useful at the ferreting game with or without a dog.

 

Now of all the things I got up to out doors my favourite pastime was bird nesting. In between Coatbridge and Viewpark we had what we referred to as the Glen which was basically a 7 mile stretch of wood land that ran from our scheme all the way to Glasgow zoo. This was our playground as kids, there were ponds and old coal bings to explore all kinds of wildlife and birds and we knew exactly where and how to get to it. Egg collecting was one of the major pastimes for us as kids we could spend the whole morning and afternoon looking for eggs and often did. Manys the time I returned with the ass out my trousers skint knees and splinters on every part of my body covered from head to toe in muck. I remember finding a long tailed tits nest and sitting patiently till the bird returned and entered.. For those of you who have never seen one or its nest Its like a small round ball of moss on the outside with a small enterance to the front. Inside its a completely different, its litterally hundreds of small feathers from top to bottom and has a silky texture to it. Well I trapped this very small bird and gently removed it from its nest which it was still building. It has got to be one of the smallest most delicate creatures I've ever handled. The tail is almost bigger than its body a truly beautiful little thing. After I had held it for awhile I let it go it never did come back to the nest which was a shame. Theyre eggs have got to be among the smallest I've ever seen. Its funny although there are plenty of blue and great tits I have never seen a long tailed tit for years now.

 

Now leaving aside the morality of the thing for a moment remember these were the days you could walk up the road with 4 or 5 rabbits over your shoulder and no one would give you a second glance, more often than not you would be patted on the back and told well done...lol. Anyway what it did do was give me an education I couldn't get in school. I knew all the types of birds by sight what their eggs looked like and where they nested, I could even tell what the bird was by looking at the nest. Some of the scrapes we got into trying to retreive eggs from nests that were in trees that must have been 30 odd feet tall quite a feat for a 10yr old. We would shimmy up cliff faces for rock doves or rock pipits wade waste deep in the foulest water to get to ducks or Moorhen eggs and even fight of bloody great big swans for our prize. Between us we had one of the most sought after egg collections in our scheme. From Linnets, yellow hammers, swallows and house martins, to Herons and kestral hawks and owls we knew where to look and how to extract eggs from the trickiest of places. Anyone who has tried to extract a blue tits egg fro a tiny hole in a tree will know what I mean.

 

Everyday was an adventure for us and without thinking about it conciously we learnt all sorts of things from the wildlife and the environment around us. We even had a kind of moral code that you abided by and if you didn't stick to it you were out the gang. We had a rule that you never "herry" a nest which meant you never took all the eggs. You could only have two of a kind of any egg and you never took anyone you didn't know to nesting sites. This was how I learnt my field craft and still to this day when I'm out I still look for tell tale signs of birds nests and I dont suppose this will ever leave me. I remember us being the envy of all the scheme when a mate of ours nicked an ostrich egg from a glass case in our school, no-one else had seen one nevermind had one...lol. Any this kinda brings me back in a roundabout way to the point I was making about fat and obese kids. How many of these kids have ever climbed a tree or would recognise a blue tit from a sea gull? not many I'd wager. As kids we had a great degree of freedom to explore our surroundings and take risks which we did on a regular basis. Does it make us better people I dont know but I would like to think so. We had respect for our elders we didn't rob or abuse old folk, will kids ever get that kind of freedom again? I dont think so which is sad cause theres a whole world of experience out there and things to be explored it would be a shame if it was lost to whoever follows us next in this world.

 

ATB

 

 

Great read ma man.I remember it well.Got a little tear in my eye Thinking about it.Can you recall the day i fell about 30 yards of a tree down the 100 feet.Cant remember what nest i was trying to get to.I was OK Landed on my head lol.The branches broke my fall.We could walk all day and no farmer ever gave us any hassle.Not like that know.Remember viky the fox.Told you i could train anything.lol.See you later mate. Catcher 1

 

 

There wasn't many trees that could hold your weight mate aye I remember that fox cub well lol the fecker bit me

 

 

Being nice to you again and you start salging.Lets put this to bed.The two of us are about 5/9.How come i am 11 stone 9 and you are 15.Rest my case.Must take you to the gym with me.any way it was still a great read mate Catcher 1

 

 

Youv'e never been in a gym in your life 11 st 9 thats just the one bum cheek.....you been looking in the funny mirrors again I'm 15 st of pure muscle mate.

[undisputed 1,664]

That was great old timer wish i was around they days need to get a day out with you & Catcher

 

and yous can show me some of the stuff yous got up to great read bud well done

 

atb keano

 

 

Some of the stuff Catcher got up to was well dodgy go out with him at your own risk

[anythingoes 28]

Undi,i blame you for all the problems in kids today

I have family fae Coatbridge,maybe you know them ?

Great read buddy

 

we used to batter the coatbridge boys they wernt allowed out after 5 o'clock just ask anythingoes he's still like that and he's nearly 40

prick nice 1 mate , you ceas sees to amaze me

youre gettin on bud you and catcher

[undisputed 1,664]

Undi,i blame you for all the problems in kids today

I have family fae Coatbridge,maybe you know them ?

Great read buddy

 

we used to batter the coatbridge boys they wernt allowed out after 5 o'clock just ask anythingoes he's still like that and he's nearly 40

prick nice 1 mate , you ceas sees to amaze me

youre gettin on bud you and catcher

 

 

Aye we'll be going for Hydro Therapy next

[anythingoes 28]

Undi,i blame you for all the problems in kids today

I have family fae Coatbridge,maybe you know them ?

Great read buddy

 

we used to batter the coatbridge boys they wernt allowed out after 5 o'clock just ask anythingoes he's still like that and he's nearly 40

prick nice 1 mate , you ceas sees to amaze me

youre gettin on bud you and catcher

 

 

Aye we'll be going for Hydro Therapy next

Hydro therapy ,,,,,,,,,,,, Right then , you are a tight arsed c**t who wont part with 10 bob never mind £20

[Catcher 1 639]

Undi,i blame you for all the problems in kids today

I have family fae Coatbridge,maybe you know them ?

Great read buddy

 

we used to batter the coatbridge boys they wernt allowed out after 5 o'clock just ask anythingoes he's still like that and he's nearly 40

prick nice 1 mate , you ceas sees to amaze me

youre gettin on bud you and catcher

 

 

Aye we'll be going for Hydro Therapy next

Hydro therapy ,,,,,,,,,,,, Right then , you are a tight arsed c**t who wont part with 10 bob never mind £20

 

 

He still keep.s his cash under the floor board,s and think,s hydro therapy is takeing a shower That,s why he,s 15 stone why spend £20 on the dogs when you can eat it. Catcher 1

[undisputed 1,664]

Undi,i blame you for all the problems in kids today

I have family fae Coatbridge,maybe you know them ?

Great read buddy

 

we used to batter the coatbridge boys they wernt allowed out after 5 o'clock just ask anythingoes he's still like that and he's nearly 40

prick nice 1 mate , you ceas sees to amaze me

youre gettin on bud you and catcher

 

 

Aye we'll be going for Hydro Therapy next

Hydro therapy ,,,,,,,,,,,, Right then , you are a tight arsed c**t who wont part with 10 bob never mind £20

 

 

He still keep.s his cash under the floor board,s and think,s hydro therapy is takeing a shower That,s why he,s 15 stone why spend £20 on the dogs when you can eat it. Catcher 1

 

 

Keep my money for useful stuff....you can buy life jackets that will fit bunnies and your dog can chase them in the pool Catcher we'll see what happens when its time to march with your dog....taxi for Catcher

[scoop and digger 1]

Something I read in here awhile back got me thinking about how we learned things as a kid. Also in relation to the amount of obese kids you see these days. Now this isnt one of those grumpy old men type rants lol(honestly) but those of us at that certain age can remember what it was like before the advent of mobile phones and PC's. The state of the art video games were two white lines and a wee white dot that went blip blip. There I go off topic already. Anyways it got me thinking about things like bush craft and how we learnt to hunt.

 

Most of our time as kids was spent out doors playing footy, building bogeys from old prams and sliding down bings on bread boards. Remember all the daft games you played as kids, chap doors run away, hunt, hide & seek etc etc. Our whole year was divided up so we knew when it was time to collect frogs newts & lizards from the old pond and brickwork. In the winter we made slides on the roads & pavements. I was always facinated by wildlife, projects in school were usually about birds (feathered variety) or animals. My mates uncle owned ferrets and if we were lucky we got to go out with him on a Sunday. Usually we were the bag men carting a big heavy ferret box over your shoulder or carrying what felt like giant rabbits for him (well we were only about 6 or 7yrs old).

 

It was bloody hard work at times and you learnt to be quiet and follow instructions to the letter with a boot up the arse if you did something that caused a rabbit to escape. We learnt to set nets the right way recognise signs that burrows were occupied or ones that hadn't been used in a while. Over time you become quite adept at setting snares under fences where rabbit runs went. All great learning experiences, I was about 9 or 10 before being trusted enough to go out on my own with dog and ferret. Most of these trips were pretty uneventful and never produced anything of great note. But I continued to learn from my mistakes and became pretty useful at the ferreting game with or without a dog.

 

Now of all the things I got up to out doors my favourite pastime was bird nesting. In between Coatbridge and Viewpark we had what we referred to as the Glen which was basically a 7 mile stretch of wood land that ran from our scheme all the way to Glasgow zoo. This was our playground as kids, there were ponds and old coal bings to explore all kinds of wildlife and birds and we knew exactly where and how to get to it. Egg collecting was one of the major pastimes for us as kids we could spend the whole morning and afternoon looking for eggs and often did. Manys the time I returned with the ass out my trousers skint knees and splinters on every part of my body covered from head to toe in muck. I remember finding a long tailed tits nest and sitting patiently till the bird returned and entered.. For those of you who have never seen one or its nest Its like a small round ball of moss on the outside with a small enterance to the front. Inside its a completely different, its litterally hundreds of small feathers from top to bottom and has a silky texture to it. Well I trapped this very small bird and gently removed it from its nest which it was still building. It has got to be one of the smallest most delicate creatures I've ever handled. The tail is almost bigger than its body a truly beautiful little thing. After I had held it for awhile I let it go it never did come back to the nest which was a shame. Theyre eggs have got to be among the smallest I've ever seen. Its funny although there are plenty of blue and great tits I have never seen a long tailed tit for years now.

 

Now leaving aside the morality of the thing for a moment remember these were the days you could walk up the road with 4 or 5 rabbits over your shoulder and no one would give you a second glance, more often than not you would be patted on the back and told well done...lol. Anyway what it did do was give me an education I couldn't get in school. I knew all the types of birds by sight what their eggs looked like and where they nested, I could even tell what the bird was by looking at the nest. Some of the scrapes we got into trying to retreive eggs from nests that were in trees that must have been 30 odd feet tall quite a feat for a 10yr old. We would shimmy up cliff faces for rock doves or rock pipits wade waste deep in the foulest water to get to ducks or Moorhen eggs and even fight of bloody great big swans for our prize. Between us we had one of the most sought after egg collections in our scheme. From Linnets, yellow hammers, swallows and house martins, to Herons and kestral hawks and owls we knew where to look and how to extract eggs from the trickiest of places. Anyone who has tried to extract a blue tits egg fro a tiny hole in a tree will know what I mean.

 

Everyday was an adventure for us and without thinking about it conciously we learnt all sorts of things from the wildlife and the environment around us. We even had a kind of moral code that you abided by and if you didn't stick to it you were out the gang. We had a rule that you never "herry" a nest which meant you never took all the eggs. You could only have two of a kind of any egg and you never took anyone you didn't know to nesting sites. This was how I learnt my field craft and still to this day when I'm out I still look for tell tale signs of birds nests and I dont suppose this will ever leave me. I remember us being the envy of all the scheme when a mate of ours nicked an ostrich egg from a glass case in our school, no-one else had seen one nevermind had one...lol. Anyway this kinda brings me back in a roundabout way to the point I was making about fat and obese kids. How many of these kids have ever climbed a tree or would recognise a blue tit from a sea gull? not many I'd wager. As kids we had a great degree of freedom to explore our surroundings and take risks which we did on a regular basis. Does it make us better people I dont know but I would like to think so. We had respect for our elders we didn't rob or abuse old folk, will kids ever get that kind of freedom again? I dont think so which is sad cause theres a whole world of experience out there and things to be explored it would be a shame if it was lost to whoever follows us next in this world.

 

ATB

 

nice we article well put together bud

[KAKA 10]

Something I read in here awhile back got me thinking about how we learned things as a kid. Also in relation to the amount of obese kids you see these days. Now this isnt one of those grumpy old men type rants lol(honestly) but those of us at that certain age can remember what it was like before the advent of mobile phones and PC's. The state of the art video games were two white lines and a wee white dot that went blip blip. There I go off topic already. Anyways it got me thinking about things like bush craft and how we learnt to hunt.

 

Most of our time as kids was spent out doors playing footy, building bogeys from old prams and sliding down bings on bread boards. Remember all the daft games you played as kids, chap doors run away, hunt, hide & seek etc etc. Our whole year was divided up so we knew when it was time to collect frogs newts & lizards from the old pond and brickwork. In the winter we made slides on the roads & pavements. I was always facinated by wildlife, projects in school were usually about birds (feathered variety) or animals. My mates uncle owned ferrets and if we were lucky we got to go out with him on a Sunday. Usually we were the bag men carting a big heavy ferret box over your shoulder or carrying what felt like giant rabbits for him (well we were only about 6 or 7yrs old).

 

It was bloody hard work at times and you learnt to be quiet and follow instructions to the letter with a boot up the arse if you did something that caused a rabbit to escape. We learnt to set nets the right way recognise signs that burrows were occupied or ones that hadn't been used in a while. Over time you become quite adept at setting snares under fences where rabbit runs went. All great learning experiences, I was about 9 or 10 before being trusted enough to go out on my own with dog and ferret. Most of these trips were pretty uneventful and never produced anything of great note. But I continued to learn from my mistakes and became pretty useful at the ferreting game with or without a dog.

 

Now of all the things I got up to out doors my favourite pastime was bird nesting. In between Coatbridge and Viewpark we had what we referred to as the Glen which was basically a 7 mile stretch of wood land that ran from our scheme all the way to Glasgow zoo. This was our playground as kids, there were ponds and old coal bings to explore all kinds of wildlife and birds and we knew exactly where and how to get to it. Egg collecting was one of the major pastimes for us as kids we could spend the whole morning and afternoon looking for eggs and often did. Manys the time I returned with the ass out my trousers skint knees and splinters on every part of my body covered from head to toe in muck. I remember finding a long tailed tits nest and sitting patiently till the bird returned and entered.. For those of you who have never seen one or its nest Its like a small round ball of moss on the outside with a small enterance to the front. Inside its a completely different, its litterally hundreds of small feathers from top to bottom and has a silky texture to it. Well I trapped this very small bird and gently removed it from its nest which it was still building. It has got to be one of the smallest most delicate creatures I've ever handled. The tail is almost bigger than its body a truly beautiful little thing. After I had held it for awhile I let it go it never did come back to the nest which was a shame. Theyre eggs have got to be among the smallest I've ever seen. Its funny although there are plenty of blue and great tits I have never seen a long tailed tit for years now.

 

Now leaving aside the morality of the thing for a moment remember these were the days you could walk up the road with 4 or 5 rabbits over your shoulder and no one would give you a second glance, more often than not you would be patted on the back and told well done...lol. Anyway what it did do was give me an education I couldn't get in school. I knew all the types of birds by sight what their eggs looked like and where they nested, I could even tell what the bird was by looking at the nest. Some of the scrapes we got into trying to retreive eggs from nests that were in trees that must have been 30 odd feet tall quite a feat for a 10yr old. We would shimmy up cliff faces for rock doves or rock pipits wade waste deep in the foulest water to get to ducks or Moorhen eggs and even fight of bloody great big swans for our prize. Between us we had one of the most sought after egg collections in our scheme. From Linnets, yellow hammers, swallows and house martins, to Herons and kestral hawks and owls we knew where to look and how to extract eggs from the trickiest of places. Anyone who has tried to extract a blue tits egg fro a tiny hole in a tree will know what I mean.

 

Everyday was an adventure for us and without thinking about it conciously we learnt all sorts of things from the wildlife and the environment around us. We even had a kind of moral code that you abided by and if you didn't stick to it you were out the gang. We had a rule that you never "herry" a nest which meant you never took all the eggs. You could only have two of a kind of any egg and you never took anyone you didn't know to nesting sites. This was how I learnt my field craft and still to this day when I'm out I still look for tell tale signs of birds nests and I dont suppose this will ever leave me. I remember us being the envy of all the scheme when a mate of ours nicked an ostrich egg from a glass case in our school, no-one else had seen one nevermind had one...lol. Anyway this kinda brings me back in a roundabout way to the point I was making about fat and obese kids. How many of these kids have ever climbed a tree or would recognise a blue tit from a sea gull? not many I'd wager. As kids we had a great degree of freedom to explore our surroundings and take risks which we did on a regular basis. Does it make us better people I dont know but I would like to think so. We had respect for our elders we didn't rob or abuse old folk, will kids ever get that kind of freedom again? I dont think so which is sad cause theres a whole world of experience out there and things to be explored it would be a shame if it was lost to whoever follows us next in this world.

 

ATB

 

Great read that fella

[KAKA 10]

Something I read in here awhile back got me thinking about how we learned things as a kid. Also in relation to the amount of obese kids you see these days. Now this isnt one of those grumpy old men type rants lol(honestly) but those of us at that certain age can remember what it was like before the advent of mobile phones and PC's. The state of the art video games were two white lines and a wee white dot that went blip blip. There I go off topic already. Anyways it got me thinking about things like bush craft and how we learnt to hunt.

 

Most of our time as kids was spent out doors playing footy, building bogeys from old prams and sliding down bings on bread boards. Remember all the daft games you played as kids, chap doors run away, hunt, hide & seek etc etc. Our whole year was divided up so we knew when it was time to collect frogs newts & lizards from the old pond and brickwork. In the winter we made slides on the roads & pavements. I was always facinated by wildlife, projects in school were usually about birds (feathered variety) or animals. My mates uncle owned ferrets and if we were lucky we got to go out with him on a Sunday. Usually we were the bag men carting a big heavy ferret box over your shoulder or carrying what felt like giant rabbits for him (well we were only about 6 or 7yrs old).

 

It was bloody hard work at times and you learnt to be quiet and follow instructions to the letter with a boot up the arse if you did something that caused a rabbit to escape. We learnt to set nets the right way recognise signs that burrows were occupied or ones that hadn't been used in a while. Over time you become quite adept at setting snares under fences where rabbit runs went. All great learning experiences, I was about 9 or 10 before being trusted enough to go out on my own with dog and ferret. Most of these trips were pretty uneventful and never produced anything of great note. But I continued to learn from my mistakes and became pretty useful at the ferreting game with or without a dog.

 

Now of all the things I got up to out doors my favourite pastime was bird nesting. In between Coatbridge and Viewpark we had what we referred to as the Glen which was basically a 7 mile stretch of wood land that ran from our scheme all the way to Glasgow zoo. This was our playground as kids, there were ponds and old coal bings to explore all kinds of wildlife and birds and we knew exactly where and how to get to it. Egg collecting was one of the major pastimes for us as kids we could spend the whole morning and afternoon looking for eggs and often did. Manys the time I returned with the ass out my trousers skint knees and splinters on every part of my body covered from head to toe in muck. I remember finding a long tailed tits nest and sitting patiently till the bird returned and entered.. For those of you who have never seen one or its nest Its like a small round ball of moss on the outside with a small enterance to the front. Inside its a completely different, its litterally hundreds of small feathers from top to bottom and has a silky texture to it. Well I trapped this very small bird and gently removed it from its nest which it was still building. It has got to be one of the smallest most delicate creatures I've ever handled. The tail is almost bigger than its body a truly beautiful little thing. After I had held it for awhile I let it go it never did come back to the nest which was a shame. Theyre eggs have got to be among the smallest I've ever seen. Its funny although there are plenty of blue and great tits I have never seen a long tailed tit for years now.

 

Now leaving aside the morality of the thing for a moment remember these were the days you could walk up the road with 4 or 5 rabbits over your shoulder and no one would give you a second glance, more often than not you would be patted on the back and told well done...lol. Anyway what it did do was give me an education I couldn't get in school. I knew all the types of birds by sight what their eggs looked like and where they nested, I could even tell what the bird was by looking at the nest. Some of the scrapes we got into trying to retreive eggs from nests that were in trees that must have been 30 odd feet tall quite a feat for a 10yr old. We would shimmy up cliff faces for rock doves or rock pipits wade waste deep in the foulest water to get to ducks or Moorhen eggs and even fight of bloody great big swans for our prize. Between us we had one of the most sought after egg collections in our scheme. From Linnets, yellow hammers, swallows and house martins, to Herons and kestral hawks and owls we knew where to look and how to extract eggs from the trickiest of places. Anyone who has tried to extract a blue tits egg fro a tiny hole in a tree will know what I mean.

 

Everyday was an adventure for us and without thinking about it conciously we learnt all sorts of things from the wildlife and the environment around us. We even had a kind of moral code that you abided by and if you didn't stick to it you were out the gang. We had a rule that you never "herry" a nest which meant you never took all the eggs. You could only have two of a kind of any egg and you never took anyone you didn't know to nesting sites. This was how I learnt my field craft and still to this day when I'm out I still look for tell tale signs of birds nests and I dont suppose this will ever leave me. I remember us being the envy of all the scheme when a mate of ours nicked an ostrich egg from a glass case in our school, no-one else had seen one nevermind had one...lol. Anyway this kinda brings me back in a roundabout way to the point I was making about fat and obese kids. How many of these kids have ever climbed a tree or would recognise a blue tit from a sea gull? not many I'd wager. As kids we had a great degree of freedom to explore our surroundings and take risks which we did on a regular basis. Does it make us better people I dont know but I would like to think so. We had respect for our elders we didn't rob or abuse old folk, will kids ever get that kind of freedom again? I dont think so which is sad cause theres a whole world of experience out there and things to be explored it would be a shame if it was lost to whoever follows us next in this world.

 

ATB

 

Great read that fella

[KAKA 10]

Something I read in here awhile back got me thinking about how we learned things as a kid. Also in relation to the amount of obese kids you see these days. Now this isnt one of those grumpy old men type rants lol(honestly) but those of us at that certain age can remember what it was like before the advent of mobile phones and PC's. The state of the art video games were two white lines and a wee white dot that went blip blip. There I go off topic already. Anyways it got me thinking about things like bush craft and how we learnt to hunt.

 

Most of our time as kids was spent out doors playing footy, building bogeys from old prams and sliding down bings on bread boards. Remember all the daft games you played as kids, chap doors run away, hunt, hide & seek etc etc. Our whole year was divided up so we knew when it was time to collect frogs newts & lizards from the old pond and brickwork. In the winter we made slides on the roads & pavements. I was always facinated by wildlife, projects in school were usually about birds (feathered variety) or animals. My mates uncle owned ferrets and if we were lucky we got to go out with him on a Sunday. Usually we were the bag men carting a big heavy ferret box over your shoulder or carrying what felt like giant rabbits for him (well we were only about 6 or 7yrs old).

 

It was bloody hard work at times and you learnt to be quiet and follow instructions to the letter with a boot up the arse if you did something that caused a rabbit to escape. We learnt to set nets the right way recognise signs that burrows were occupied or ones that hadn't been used in a while. Over time you become quite adept at setting snares under fences where rabbit runs went. All great learning experiences, I was about 9 or 10 before being trusted enough to go out on my own with dog and ferret. Most of these trips were pretty uneventful and never produced anything of great note. But I continued to learn from my mistakes and became pretty useful at the ferreting game with or without a dog.

 

Now of all the things I got up to out doors my favourite pastime was bird nesting. In between Coatbridge and Viewpark we had what we referred to as the Glen which was basically a 7 mile stretch of wood land that ran from our scheme all the way to Glasgow zoo. This was our playground as kids, there were ponds and old coal bings to explore all kinds of wildlife and birds and we knew exactly where and how to get to it. Egg collecting was one of the major pastimes for us as kids we could spend the whole morning and afternoon looking for eggs and often did. Manys the time I returned with the ass out my trousers skint knees and splinters on every part of my body covered from head to toe in muck. I remember finding a long tailed tits nest and sitting patiently till the bird returned and entered.. For those of you who have never seen one or its nest Its like a small round ball of moss on the outside with a small enterance to the front. Inside its a completely different, its litterally hundreds of small feathers from top to bottom and has a silky texture to it. Well I trapped this very small bird and gently removed it from its nest which it was still building. It has got to be one of the smallest most delicate creatures I've ever handled. The tail is almost bigger than its body a truly beautiful little thing. After I had held it for awhile I let it go it never did come back to the nest which was a shame. Theyre eggs have got to be among the smallest I've ever seen. Its funny although there are plenty of blue and great tits I have never seen a long tailed tit for years now.

 

Now leaving aside the morality of the thing for a moment remember these were the days you could walk up the road with 4 or 5 rabbits over your shoulder and no one would give you a second glance, more often than not you would be patted on the back and told well done...lol. Anyway what it did do was give me an education I couldn't get in school. I knew all the types of birds by sight what their eggs looked like and where they nested, I could even tell what the bird was by looking at the nest. Some of the scrapes we got into trying to retreive eggs from nests that were in trees that must have been 30 odd feet tall quite a feat for a 10yr old. We would shimmy up cliff faces for rock doves or rock pipits wade waste deep in the foulest water to get to ducks or Moorhen eggs and even fight of bloody great big swans for our prize. Between us we had one of the most sought after egg collections in our scheme. From Linnets, yellow hammers, swallows and house martins, to Herons and kestral hawks and owls we knew where to look and how to extract eggs from the trickiest of places. Anyone who has tried to extract a blue tits egg fro a tiny hole in a tree will know what I mean.

 

Everyday was an adventure for us and without thinking about it conciously we learnt all sorts of things from the wildlife and the environment around us. We even had a kind of moral code that you abided by and if you didn't stick to it you were out the gang. We had a rule that you never "herry" a nest which meant you never took all the eggs. You could only have two of a kind of any egg and you never took anyone you didn't know to nesting sites. This was how I learnt my field craft and still to this day when I'm out I still look for tell tale signs of birds nests and I dont suppose this will ever leave me. I remember us being the envy of all the scheme when a mate of ours nicked an ostrich egg from a glass case in our school, no-one else had seen one nevermind had one...lol. Anyway this kinda brings me back in a roundabout way to the point I was making about fat and obese kids. How many of these kids have ever climbed a tree or would recognise a blue tit from a sea gull? not many I'd wager. As kids we had a great degree of freedom to explore our surroundings and take risks which we did on a regular basis. Does it make us better people I dont know but I would like to think so. We had respect for our elders we didn't rob or abuse old folk, will kids ever get that kind of freedom again? I dont think so which is sad cause theres a whole world of experience out there and things to be explored it would be a shame if it was lost to whoever follows us next in this world.

 

ATB

 

Great read that fella

Edited January 5, 2010 by KAKA

[rob.i 26]

Great read hundreds of miles apart and did the same stuff.Even now I point out every bird to my grandies and name it for them all get is that stupid old duffer look of em