CRITTERS SUNDAY - WHITE CAT MYTHS

This is the same friendly cat I photographed for Critters Sunday in a previous post. What is it about cats and gutters? Is it the best place to have a good scratch. It must be because this one always seems to be lounging around the gutters of Ramsey along with the black cat I had last week. So we all know about black cat mtyhs, but are there any white cat myths and superstions? Apparently yes there are, but very few.


In cat lore white cats are a symbol of light and good.
In the UK a white cat crossing your path is considered unlucky.
It America it is considered lucky if a white cat crosses your path.
Also too though in America it is considered unlucky to see a white cat at night
To dream of a white cat is considered a fortuitous omen, a portent of glad tidings, creativity and a contented spritual life.
To kill a white cat leaves your soul to the devil.
A white cat is often considered an angel, say hell0 and they will watch over you.

Unlike the black cat myths, the white cat has little attached to it in mythology. In some versions of the tale of Rapunzel she had 3 white cats to help her spin her hair into a golden ladder for her lover. Unlike the Manx cat and the black cat, the white cat seems to be relatively myth free. Perhaps you know of a white cat myth of superstition in your part of the world?

For more wonderful camera critters see MISTY DAWN Camera critters and be sure to leave a nice comment for Misty' s own outstanding posts.

CRITTERS SUNDAY- THE DECLINE IN NUMBERS OF THE HOUSE SPARROW

SAVE THE HUMBLE HOUSE SPARROW

This is a house sparrow chewing a fly for his lunch. It was odd for me to snap a garden bird along the beach, but perhaps not so now with this particular bird anymore. The poor house sparrow used to be the commonest garden bird in the UK. Every garden had dozens of these friendly little birds, not so now. So why has the bird declined in numbers?

Modern living. I could elaborate and do a weeks worth of blogs in one post, but to put it in a nutshell that's it. What though do I mean by modern living?

Modern housing estates. It's all very well building nice shiny little boxes to live in, but please plant some hedgerows with them. These cute little birds thrive amongst the hedgerows. No hedgerows, no sparrows.

Off road car parking. Again a great idea, but birds don't live on a pile of concrete. Would it hurt to surround car parking areas with a little greenery for nesting birds.

Less gardens. Again birds don't live on gravel drives.

Too tidy gardens. Mow your lawn by all means, trim your hedges too, but don't obliterate the foliage. Keep it neat, but keep it.

Birds don't live in apartment blocks. Renovate existing building, not throw up new faceless ones. Birds love eaves. Where have all the eaves gone?

Save parks and and Nature Reserves! For all of us really. We really don't need another empty office block or supermarket buying land they will flatten and never use, just to stop a competitor buying it. Sparrows need green areas, hedgerows, trees and grass. In fact don't we need those too. Sure you dog that needs walking or your children kicking a ball would agree!

My garden has the house sparrow as a visitor. We too live in a modern house, but we have a garden, full of nuts, seeds and water. A tree to hide from sparrowhawks. Space under the guttering to nest.

Too find a humble house sparrow, scavenging for food along the beach, competing with the more adept shorebirds just wasn't right. We share this planet, we don't own it.

For more camera critters see MISTY DAWN Camera critters.

CRITTERS SUNDAY - THE SEAGULL HAS LANDED!

I know it's a really bad pun but I couldn't resist it.

Ramsey Harbour, Birds File 5

Having a sort out of the photos and came across this one hiding amongst Birds file 5. As it's been a pretty bad week for birds and animals around Ramsey, and atrocious weather, I went for a reliable image. I like these kind of shots. Best left as they were taken. As you can see it was grey light day but his dramatic entrance really livened things up . To the person who commented "do I always have a camera with me," in the main yes, and this kind of shot is why. You can't plan these they just happen and are best left as taken.

I'm still looking for the escaped wallaby from the wildlife park, but no luck. It could be a myth of course but apparently there have been some reliable sighting. No seriously, there is an escaped wallaby roaming the hills outside Ramsey. Possibly with the Loch Ness Monster, a flying pig and a pink elephant entering the local pub. Sounds like a bad joke!

For more camera critters see MISTY DAWN Camera critters.

A RED PANDA - CRITTERS SUNDAY

Due to there being lack of pictorial evidence of the escaped Wild Wallaby, Big Manx Wild Cat, and no new sighting of George the escaped pelican, I give you a very cute Red Panda all the way from Curraghs Wildlife Park here in the Isle Of Man.

Obviously the Red Panda, or Lesser Panda (shining cat) is not a native creature of the island. Well if we don't have foxes we are hardly going to have these cuties running around. Curraghs Wildlife Park has been paramount with the breeding of the cute little animals which are sadly on the decline, for many reasons ie. habitat fragmentation in their native dwellings of China, Nepal and Myanmar to name a few. So much so that they are classed as "threatened" on the Conservation List. Thanks to not only the wildlife park, but others around the world, these other wordly cuties are currently breeding and hopefully can be saved.

Pichu and his mother Isla, the escaped Red Pandas from Scotland were of course originally from the Island. We breed adventurous spirits here.

Gary and I are both a little unwell this weekend and mostly been confined to the house. Gary by the way added his comment on my skywatch pic out of his own volition, about him being my witness, being there when the image was taken. I am still annoyed at the idiots who dropped some lousy comments on about the image not being real, and if it continues I may have to rethink the blog. This also goes for the emailing idiots. So apologises for not visiting, just hadn't got the inclination too.

For more camera critters see MISTY DAWN Camera ctritters.

CRITTERS SUNDAY SEAL IN PEEL AND A VIKING FIND

This is a very friendly seal, who popped up to say hello, is in the town of Peel, situated on the east coast of the island. Yesterday I posted a photo of Peel Castle and it's Viking history. This image was taken on the far right of the castle in the harbour. Peel is a great place to see seals up close as they are often in the harbour competeing with the fisherman for fish.

I have been having a Viking theme and it's history in relation to the Isle of Man. I had planned on posting a lot more but I have a very poorly laptop. I am in the middle of saving and backing up all my photos before it dies completely and have been off the net all day, and may be for sometime.

Here though is a historical Viking find found at Peel Castle.

Pagan Lady’s Necklace

The Pagan Lady’s necklace, excavated in 1984 from a grave at Peel Castle, Peel, German

Dimensions: Largest bead diameter 3.3cm. Manx Museum Accession Number - 1984-16/L 483

Thought to date to mid to late 900 AD, a total of 73 beads were found in the grave of the “Pagan Lady”, mostly clustered around the area of her head, and probably forming one long necklace.

Every bead is different: most are made of plain glass (white, red, yellow, green, orange and blue), coloured patterned glass, and a few others are of amber and jet. Their shapes also vary - round, square, rectangular, oval, flower-shaped, melon-shaped, spiraled and grooved beads are all represented. The largest bead is 3.3cm in diameter, whereas the smallest is only 0.3cm diameter. Both the number of beads found and their variety is striking. Perhaps the beads had been collected by the “Pagan Lady” herself, or had been brought to her as gifts from trading or travels around the Viking world.

The shores of the Baltic and the North Sea provided sources for amber during the Viking period. The only known source for jet was the Whitby area of North Yorkshire. Glass and bead making took place throughout the Viking world, including Great Britain and Ireland.

The necklace was certainly a demonstration of wealth and status.

The beads, and other objects from the grave, are on display at the Manx Museum.

A selection of Viking objects -

• Pagan Lady’s Necklace
• Bronze Balance
• Ballateare Sword
• Gold Rings
• Annular Brooch
• Gold Pin

If you get the chance take a look at yesterday's pic to see Peel Castle, where the necklace was found. We have had many Viking finds and this is considered to be quite an important one.

Got to run and save my photos, thousands of them.

For more camera critters see MISTY DAWN Camera ctrittrers.

CRITTERS SUNDAY - RED ADMIRAL

Lots of butterflies around this week that are actually settling long enough to photograph. Think it's the warmer weather. Even the critters want to take time out and rest. Good for the photographer.

This is quite a common butterfly, a red admiral. Are you all familiar with this butterfly? I say it's common, but that's in my part of the world. Be interesting to see if he's a widespread as I think. He was so vivid that I chose to desaturate the distracting background emphasing his orange/red bands more.

A short text today. A very busy two weeks for me as the tourists for the TT, the motorbike races have hit town and I 'd like to capture a few for the blog as the locals just run away when my camera appears. At least the critters don't as you'll see on "monday's odd shot." They see to flock round me to have there image taken.

For more camera critters see MISTY DAWN Camera ctrittrers.