So why the Shat Birder?

I got a bit of stick for calling my blog The Shat Birder and contrary to the jibes it is not a description! Shat is actually (believe it or not) the local name for the village in which I have lived all my life, Skelmanthorpe.
Skelmanthorpe is on the outskirts of Huddersfield and in the 1870’s during the construction of the railway line (which is now Kirklees Light Railway), local unskilled labourers were drafted in to chip away at the rock that would later carve out Shelley Tunnel. These local lads were nicknamed stone “Shatterers” by the Irish navvies who had been employed to lay the line. The taunting from these “foreigners” actually ended in a 200 man mass brawl, which saw one of the Irish workers getting part of his ear bitten off! It was this incident that coined the phrase “Shat lug oyl biter” which when translated from broad Yorkshire is basically “Skelmanthorpe Ear Hole Nibbler”. Since then though, nearly 140 years on, Skelmanthorpe is still known as Shat! And all its inhabitants by the abbreviated “Shatters”!

Wednesday 4 January 2012

Better Late Than Never?

Given we went to Lanzarote in October I have been somewhat lacklustre in getting the few 'bird' photos I took onto the blog. It was two weeks of chillout, so very little birding was done, although I did keep my eye out. If I wasn't laid on a sunbed judging people through dark glasses I was in the sand pit arseholing kids at French Boules. A feat that earned me a certificate, a certificate that was presented on the show bar stage in front of 500 pissed up Scots by Dizzy the Dolphin and Shades the Shark. A proud moment.

Berthelot's Pipit





The hotel had a decent garden area which became a regular route if Boss Man needed settling. It was very good for migrants in particular, with flycatchers and warblers being present every day. The scrub around the hotel itself also bagged me Southern Grey Shrike, Berthelot's Pipit, Hoopoe and Trumpeter Finch.

Spanish Sparrow



Yellow Legged Gull

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