Mick trapped this first NOVEMBER MOTH for Scilly in his garden at Longstones a few nights ago!
This 2nd winter Mediterranean Gull was feeding with over 100 Black-headed and a single adult Common Gull just off shore in the Gale-force SW winds at Porthloo yesterday
Martin got one of the irish Coal Tits from October at Holy Vale today. He also managed to see the 2 eastern 'type' LESSER WHITETHROAT and 2 Siberian 'type' Chiffchaff at Porth Hellick
All the same stuff was still at Porth Hellick. However, they were just in front of the hide in the dull light, until they saw my face! Then they swam to the otherside of the pool.
Waves crashing over rocks off Porth Hellick yesterday
PLEASE WATCH THIS VIDEO
Rachel Corrie: 'a true hero' was killed by the state of Israel, and by its brutal regime that practises not only 'mass punishment' but also 'ethnic cleansing'. The same regime that has displaced over 4 million Palestinians, and killed many thousands. The same regime that has denied the right to self-determination to the Palestinian people.
A regime that systematically destroys the lives of innocents every single DAY Here is the link to Rachel Corrie's Foundation for Peace and justice http://rachelcorriefoundation.org/rachel/emails
One of the possible EASTERN 'type' LESSER WHITETHROAT
A quick look at both Lower Moors and Porth Hellick this afternoon before the gale force winds comes in! It paid off and at the latter site, I had just left the gate from the crossroads towards the pool and could hear a loud 'tak' call. I ran like the devil, thinking it was the Lesser Whitethroat. When I got to where the sound was coming from, I was amazed to see that there were 2 possible EASTERN 'type' LESSER WHITETHROAT feeding together low down in the undergrowth. They looked identical to each other and separated. I stuck with the one that was just a few meters in front of me. It really didn't give a damn about me being so close to it. There was also 2 Siberian Chiffchaff calling nearby, with another bird at Higher Moors. At Lower Moors, there was another Siberian Chiffchaff calling, 5 Brambling, a lot more Goldcrest in, 15-20 and with them I got my second only Firecrest of the autunm. My time was up and I had to get back to work, but didn't to bad in an hour.
This drake Scaup arrived at Porth Hellick a few days ago and joined the 6 juvenile White-fronted Geese on the pool
"Over the new year 2009-2010, an international group of 1500 men and women from 42 nations went to Egypt to join a Freedom March to Gaza. They did this to protest the current blockade of Gaza. To protest the fact that the people of Gaza live in a virtual prison. To protest the fact that a year after the terror attack by Israeli armed forces destroyed most of their homes, hospitals, schools, and other public buildings, they have no possibility to rebuild because their borders are closed. The would be Freedom Marchers wanted to peacefully draw attention to the predicament of the Palestinian population of Gaza. The Egyptian government, (funded to the tune of $2.1 billion a year, by us, the US tax payers), would not allow the marchers to approach Gaza. How lame is that? And how predictable! I live in the USA and during this time Dec 25th 2009-Jan3rd 2010 I saw no reference to Gaza or the Freedom March or the multi national protesters gathered there. Anyway I was moved, in the circumstances, to record a new version of" We shall overcome".It seems appropriate. Roger Waters
Outside Barclays Bank yesterday in Wrexham to stand in solidarity with the people of Gaza
Barclays the largest investor in Global arms has £7.3 billion in shares and is amonsgst the top 10 largest investor in US arms companies.
-HSBC holds shares worth £450 million and has loaned £27 Billion to the industry.
-Lloyds holds shares worth £717 Million and serves as principle banker to BAE Systems.
-Aviva, AXA, Standard life and many other well known companies invest in the arms trade.
PLEASE READ THIS AND WATCH THE VIDEOS
Protesters yesterday handed out flyers to Barclays' customers, who were also confronted with a large board directly opposite the bank's shopfront entrance alerting them to Barclays' links to the global arms trade and Israel. The flyers included information about how Barclays profits from death, destruction and Israeli Apartheid, as well as a little background to the current escalation of the conflict by Israel and the terrible consequences for the Palestinian people of the Operation 'Cast Lead' bombardment of Gaza in 2008-9. Customers were encouraged to boycott the bank.
Barclays Bank are profiting from EDO’s complicity in civilian deaths in Palestine, Afghanistan and Iraq. Barclays are the largest UK investor in the global arms trade. Bankers and institutional investors are the glue that finances the state terror wreaked by the arms trade.
Companies like EDO do not operate in a vacuum but are propped up by the networks of corporations and investors which constitute the global capitalist system which puts profit before peace, greed before people.
As ITT Exelis’ market maker, Barclays act as a middle man, purchasing shares from a seller and holding them until such a time as a buyer becomes available. This ensures the stability of Exelis’ share price by allowing shareholders to sell off their assets at any time, even when a a buyer is not immediately available, and vice versa. Barclays also profits from this enterprise by selling Exelis’ shares at a small markup, which nevertheless generates considerable income when spread across large sales.
Barclays capital are the New York Stoke Exchange (NYSE) market maker for ITT Exelis. ITT Exelis own EDO MBM.
For more information on ‘market makers’ click here.
A single picture can speak a thousand words
“ When Israelis in the occupied territories now claim that they have to defend themselves, they are defending themselves in the sense that any military occupier has to defend itself against the population they are crushing... You can't defend yourself when you're militarily occupying someone else's land. That's not defense. Call it what you like, it's not defense.” ~ * Noam Chomsky * ~
New research today reveals that all of Britain’s main high street banks are using customers’ money to finance the weapons industry, including the sale of cluster bombs which kill and maim innocent civilians.
The report, launched by the anti-poverty charity War on Want as UN Disarmament Week starts, exposes for the first time how the lenders back the arms trade with billions of pounds from consumers’ savings and current accounts. War on Want says its evidence will increase public mistrust of banks, which has soared amid the current financial crisis.
The charity is calling on the British government to move towards regulation that would stop high street banks funding the arms trade. War on Want says banks are making a killing from a weapons industry which fuels conflict, poverty and human rights abuses around the world in countries such as Israel, Colombia, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Afghanistan.
The study is drawn from databases AMADEUS and ORBIS that until now have only been seen by the financial sector and a select number of academics. Both HSBC and Barclays invest in companies that produce cluster munitions and depleted uranium. In the last decade HSBC, Royal Bank of Scotland, Lloyds TSB and Barclays have provided loans to at least one producer of cluster munitions. According to HSBC's corporate social responsibility policy, the bank claims to "avoid certain types of business, such as financing weapons manufacture and sales".
Yet HSBC is main banker to UK arms firms BAE Systems and Meggitt, holds shares in the global weapons industry totalling £450.6 million and over the last 10 years has been part of 43 syndicated loans to the arms sector worth £27.1 billion. Each of the banks hold shares in all of Britain’s top arms firms, with Barclays’ holdings in the global arms sector worth £7.3 billion.
The Royal Bank of Scotland heads the lenders' funding of weapons companies, at £44.6 billion in the past decade. All five top lenders act as principal banker to at least two of the leading British arms manufacturers. Barclays and Royal Bank of Scotland are bankers to four of the biggest ten firms. Last year the UK topped the list of global arms exporters with a record £10 billion ($19 billion) in orders, more than any other country.
According to the UN, civilians represent nine in 10 people killed or wounded in armed conflict. Ruth Tanner, Director of Campaigns and Policy at War on Want, said: "People have seen the mess that the banks have made with customers' money. But few know they are using our cash to fund arms companies. The British government must introduce regulation to stop banks making a killing from the arms trade."
Two people an hour are killed or injured by cluster munitions. One in four cluster munitions casualties are children. Cluster bombs have killed and injured tens of thousands of civilians in the last 40 years
PLEAES WATCH THIS VIDEO It shows you the billions of dollers that banks are pumping into funding cluster bombs
Despite global calls for a ban, banks continue pumping billions into cluster munitions, including two of Britain’s biggest names: HSBC has underwritten $665 million bonds for Textron, the US firm which claims its products leave a “clear battlefield.” Barclays Bank lent $222 million, as well as funding Lockheed Martin.While nations sign up to a convention to outlaw clusters, lenders are dodging the detail.
There are currently 77 nations who stock cluster bombs. With 31 countries still polluted and suffering the after effects of the munitions. 98% of cluster bomb casualties are civilians. And 30% of those are children. That's according to Handicap International. Britain is not alone. Citigroup and Deutsche Bank have loaned more than a billion dollars between them. Campaigners say if their everyday customers knew where their money was going, they would be furious. “They have customers worldwide who have given their trust in these companies and we feel it is up to these banks to end this involvement because these customers do not want their money to be invested in these producers of cluster munitions,”said Esther Vanderbroek of Netwerk Vlaanderen.
The activists’ protests demanded answers from London’s banks. Only Barclays responded, touting its anti-cluster policy, but admitting it lent money to Textron as a “broad-based weapons manufacturer.”
90 countries have committed to banning clusters by next year, but only a quarter have so far made it law. The US has not even signed up. Israel used them against Lebanon in 2006, and they have been used in both Iraq and Afghanistan.
Governments and weapons manufacturers undoubtedly have blood on their hands over cluster munitions. But although lawmakers may be in charge, it is the banks which hold the keys to the cash. Campaigners say that, until they work together, there is little to stop the trade in gruesome, horrific death
Barclays is listed as banker to a number of arms manufacturers including BAe systems, VT Group, Cobham and Meggitt. The bank also invests in a number of arms companies including BAE Systems, Rolls Royce, QinetiQ, GKN, Babcock, Ultra Electronic, Chemring, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, General Dynamics, EADS, Finmeccanica, United Technologies, and ATK.
Moreover the bank even has investments in five companies (GenCorp, Lockheed Martin, Textron, Raytheon and Thales) that produce cluster munitions, a weapon strongly criticised by campaigners the world over for its long term impact on civilians. ⇒
Corporate Watch recently called for direct action against Barclays Bank as the British bank with the most substantial investments in Israeli companies, including companies based in Israeli settlements. ⇒
The bank also had operation in a number of other oppressive regimes including Zimbabwe; Saudi Arabia; Israel; Nigeria; Pakistan; India; the Philippines; China and Russia
The treatment of its customers doesn't appear to be much better.
Last year Barclays was fined twice by the Financial Services Authority within the space of a week. The first fine, of £7.7m was for failing in the advice it gave to customers and selling them investments that were completely unsuitable. The second, of £1.1m, was for breaching rules on handling client money, failing to ring-fence it for the appropriate length of time.
With investment in everything from tar sands to cluster munitions Barclays is as far from ethical as you can get. The company might have an 'Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) policy" but it's out of date (from 2009, with targets set for 2010 that it missed) and fails to mask the blatant disregard the company shows for both the environment and society through its investments and banking relationships.
Boycott Barclays poster from the 70s - Don't Bank on Apartheid Barclays was also a major supporter of the South African Apartheid regime and was the subject of a concerted boycott campaign in the 70s and 80s, eventually pulling out of South Africa in the mid-80s
If this is upsetting you, then do something about it! Raise awareness about the role of banks in fuelling conflict! Cancel your account with your high street bank.
Unless your with the Co-operative Bank. The bank, as far as I'm aware, you can trust! Watch this Co-operative video 'There's is a Landmine in Your Cinema'
The Co-operative Bank’s Ethical Policy is based on extensive consultation
with customers and reflects their ethical concerns surrounding how their money
should and should not be invested. It also informs the The Co‑operative Bank's
choice of partners and suppliers. The policy covers the following issues:
Human Rights
The Arms Trade
Corporate Responsibility and Global Trade
Genetic Modification
Social Enterprise
Ecological Impact
Animal Welfare
During 2005, The Co-operative Bank turned away some 30 businesses whose
activities were in conflict with their customers’ ethical concerns. As a result,
income worth some £10 million was denied to the Bank. At the same time,
significant monies were directed to businesses whose activities were supportive
of the Bank's customer’s ethical priorities.
ALSO WATCH THIS VIDEO BY JACKSON BROWNE 'CASINO NATION'
Here are the lyrics
In a weapons producing nation under Jesus In the fabled crucible of the free world Camera crews search for clues amid the detritus And entertainment shapes the land The way the hammer shapes the hand
Gleaming faces in the checkout counter at the Church of Fame The lucky winners cheer Casino Nation All those not on TV only have themselves to blame And don't quite seem to understand The way the hammer shapes the hand Out beyond the ethernet the spectrum spreads DC to daylight, the cowboy mogul rides Never worry where the gold for all this glory's gonna come from Get along dogies, it's coming out of your hides
The intentional cultivation of a criminal class The future lit by brightly burning bridges Justice fully clothed to hide the heart of glass That shatters in a thousand Ruby Ridges And everywhere the good prepare for perpetual war And let their weapons shape the plan The way the hammer shapes the hand
Lyrics by Jackson Browne Music by Jackson Browne, Kevin McCormick, Mark Goldenberg, Mauricio Lewak, Jeff Young
Note the amount of white on the outer-tail feather. As I heard it give a tak call, then maybe a possible blythiLESSER WHITETHROAT? It proved very mobile feeding at the top of the Sallows
With overnight drizzle with a SE breeze, it gave the idea that it could be promising today. However, at first light, there was nothing moving in the garden or overhead. The only Blackbirds we saw, were the 3 locals on the grass. Graham made his way to Lower Moors and I gave half an hour down Porth Hellick. Here there was some movement all heading ESE again. 8 Blackbird flew over, but after that it was mainly 2's and -3's. A total of over 300 Fieldfare and 50 Redwing also flew through in 3 different flocks. There were also a single Lapwing, 10 Siskin, 3 Crossbill and a good count of 9 Brambling. Then I heard a tak in front me and rushed to where it had come from and out popped a Lesser Whitethroat. In the few minutes that I observed it, it showed well. It had sandy upperparts contrasting with the head, buffy flanks, and a large amount of white outer-tail feathers and all I could think of was, oh no, not another one! Infact it looked identical to the blythi 'type' I found on the Garrison in October just gone. And with this one also giving a tak call on and off, then possibly this too, is a bliyhiLESSER WHITETHROAT. After I informed the guys, I had to get to work and thought I would return later to have a look for it.
This was taken almost in the dark, however, you can still make out the pale upperparts.
Later I relocated it by call and again the light was crap and this was the best I could do before it disappeared. Lets hope that the bird sticks around and shows in better light conditions
Over 300 Fieldfares moved through at Porth Hellick with smaller numbers elsewhere on the island
It wasn't until after mid-day that I returned to Porth Hellick. It was still murky with drizzle, but after an hour I managed to relocate the possible eastern 'type' LESSER WHITETHROAT by call and found in the tops of the Sallows. Also in the same area above me, I could see 6 birds. 2 Chiffchaff and 4 Siberian Chiffchaff! A flock of Siberian Chiffchaff! Over and over again, I counted 4 and 2 gave themselves away by their Dunnock 'type' call. The other 2 I didn't hear. I had already seen the one at Higher Moors and I knew that Graham had heard one of singing males at Lower Moors. On the beach there was an immature Black Redstart and 2 Grey Wagtail and I could hear the Reed Bunting in the reeds. One species that did arrive overnight was Woodcock. Altogether I kicked 29 Woodcock, including 11 beside the boardwalk. That's 28 more than we had yesterday. When I returned home, I flushed another 10 in the coppice behind me garden. 39 Woodcock in total!
Were all the grey and white chiffchaffs all Siberian? At the time when I took these pics, the light was crap!
2 of the 39 Woodcock that I kicked today
Nearly all the Blackbirds that I saw on the deck were 1st winter birds
There were still a lot of Blackbirds around with over 100 in the Porth Hellick area and I observed at least 30 birds feeding under an apple tree at Holy Vale. But, it was nothing like yesterdays numbers.
