I looked up open gardens in London. It sounds very interesting to visit and like a lot of work to prepare for. You live in my favourite city.
Here, there seems to be a bald eagle around trying to raid nests, and all of a sudden it's clear how many crows breed around here. They're yelling their heads off mustering a defence. I suspect the eagle will head out of the area with that. There are a lot of bald eagles that nest half an hour north of here, but we don't usually see a lot of them on this stretch. The next two weeks are the visiting hours, as there are plenty of young birds in nests for them to plunder.
This is a kingdom of smart crows. From the gradual drop in volume, the predator's on the run. I can hear the other birds again.
Crows are funny. A bunch of young ones, maybe 75% grown, just landed on the wires out front looking very pleased with themselves, but very irate. Sometimes their society looks and sounds like a High School hallway. Their drama is life and death, but a lot of them still bask in it.
I fixed up my fry rearing set up yesterday. I think I may have lost my Hoplisoma atropersonatus spawn - there my be 2 or 3 in the weeds but not enough I can share any of them out. This is a dead spot for shops and fish availability, but there is great interest in aquariums. So I keep trying to find species that aren't hard to keep, but are impossible to find locally. I have experience and connections in the hobby, so I can generally find fish that others can't. If I can breed them in reasonable numbers (20 or 30 will do) I can put them in local club auctions, which gets them to others and helps finance the club. I don't do this as a business or for profit. It seems the nature of a hobby that you spend on it. I enjoy the fish, and if I can breed and distribute various species, so do others.
But I got slack on preparation. I should have realized they'd breed now, with the fishroom windows opening and the arrival of outdoor live food. I find with my new attempts to breed the cory group, the most important thing is they are time consuming. You have to watch them closely, or you don't catch the spawning and the eggs are eaten. They're a delight to keep in social groups, but there are always a few that trail behind the spawning group eating eggs.
I just put in an order with a friend a distance away who will send me reasonably ordinary fish I just happen to like - Brochis splendens, Pseudomugil luminatus, Hyphessobrycon metae and a lot of cardinals. I've managed t breed my own cardinals, but not consistently and in good numbers. These are wild caught and a good price, so they are going to look good. H metae is a bit plain, but I haven't kept them before so I'm curious. Brochis are lovely lumpy things, and there will be club interest in luminatus, a fish I used to breed often.
Online shoppers read pricelists of names, and see stock photos. If thy don't actually know what the fish are, from further reading or from 'aquarium culture', they buy the same old same old everyone around them has. They buy the familiar. A lot of bread and butter species are becoming rare in the hobby, as they're out of that loop.
Actually using PayPal is a bit safer.
