Thread 51 - Covid GCSE Cohort - Summer 24 - End of Uni Yr 2

[Oblomov24]

2024 Summer, end of year 2 for those at Uni.

This is a support thread for our young adults post GCSEs 2020, regardless of their educational setting, and their results ( or life updates for those who went into work or have had results earlier). It is respectfully requested that all are supportive and helpful to each other. If you want to start a debate, e.g state vs private, uni vs employment please don't within this thread.

Some of us have been here since first thread back in yr10, some will be new. Everyone has been friendly and helpful in the past. Everyone is welcome. It is hoped this will continue. We were previously on the secondary board and then further education, now we shall be here in 'Parents of Adult Children' gulp

Our DS/DD may continue down various pathways ( employment, apprenticeships, higher ed). Experience is that everyone is welcomed wherever, whatever their child is doing we have some in work, gap years , apprenticeships etc too. Lots of contributors with different experiences and always sympathy and advice to be had.

Previous thread 50:

50

Cantonet that sounds like perfection.

@EwwSprouts Love your story about the poorly hedgehog. I have a not so heart warming story of wildlife in our backyard. There's a fox that been coming for yrs to our garden digging up the soil and drilling massive deep holes in the soil and just ruining everything, plants, and all my nice flowers. I've tried everything to get rid of it but no! there it is clambering over the fence, sitting on the grass sunning itself all stretched out,scratching its arse/neck or whatever.

I've chased it, many times and it usually just gives me..(ooh! got this one from another thread), 'bombastic side eye!". Then I got what I thought was a very clever idea and bought one of these fox/cat repellant things that emits a sound and keeps them away permanently. DS just came to call me to see what was going on in the garden - there it is stretched out on top of the fox gadget that's now flattened to the ground but i can see part of peeping out from underneath fur. Fox turns round when it hears the patio door open just gives a annoyed glance and remains.

@Shimy you need a man to pee around the garden . Only males!…

That picture has such character @PhotoDad .

@Cantonet badgers love to eat hedgehogs so anyone in the countryside where there may be badgers probably won't see hedgehogs. There aren't so maybe badgers in towns so I expect that's why. I've not seen many recently and I know there are badgers about.

I used to see lots of foxes where I grew up in Surrey. But the past 30 years that I've lived in Suffolk I've seen 2.

We had a little owl in the garden for a few months, dh and I would sit outside watching him in the evenings. Then a few weeks ago there was pile of feathers on the lawn. We didn't see it again. The work of a sparrow hawk.

We have a family of common buzzards nearby, they screech a lot. We also have a pair of oysters catchers that we hear, we aren't that near the coast, so that's nice. When we lived on the farm there were barn owls nesting in a box dh put up. A man from the local owl place came to ring the babies, so we got to hold them. That was lovely. DH also collected lots of owl pellets which were taken to the primary school when ds3 was in year 6. They all enjoyed breaking them up to see what was inside. DH also found a snake skin, I took that to school thinking they'd be thrilled, but the teacher said it might not be safe for the dc's to touch. So didn't want it. Different teacher to the owl pellet one. He'd have liked the snake skin.

The most common things here are pigeons though. Dh being a retired farmer hates them! He hates squirrels too. We have plenty.

@shimy Oh sorry that made me laugh. Side eye plus!

We get loads of mangy foxes in our South London garden. We back onto a railway line which doubles up as the fox M25 I think! We use the ultrasonic deterrents to try and keep them out as they make so much mess and bring other people's rubbish into the garden 🤢
We have lots of wood pigeons, blackbirds, blue and great tits and magpies. Robins nest in our ivy every year. We also get loads of parakeets - really noisy! And they eat all the fruit.

@Cantonet Further research has just led me to lion pee! who knew? Man pee ..how old a man are we talking here? I don't think i could stand the smell of human wee in the garden, it's bad enough on the london tube and i don't know if lion pee smells as strong really but might try it. I'm starting to fantasize about getting a shot gun and blasting it (not that i would EVER do that!) but each day i survey the new damage i lose it more. Such different experiences of wildlife- a lovely hedgehog, a barn owl and the narcissistic fox.

@PhotoDad That pic is lovely, reminds me of Beatrix Potter.

@icanbewhatiwant Is there anything that loves to eat foxes?

Will get the Merlin app … I have a bird call app that doesn’t let you tell it it’s wrong, and it frequently is. We have the usual fat pigeons and crows round here, plus starlings and magpies. The latter are loud. The best bird I've seen in the garden is a goldcrest, so cute and tiny. There are great tits and a resident robin. Also the one time I looked up and there were THOUSANDS of seagulls high up. Really weird.

I have the Merlin app which overall is great but it doesn’t recognise a particular bird that I have never seen but only heard. It’s been frustrating me since lockdown.

I stayed at DD's new uni house on Wednesday night. OMG seagulls. They're evil, loud and everywhere. Her housemate had one fly out of the wheelie bin at her and now refuses to go in the garden. DD won't open her loft room window in case one flies in. One stole food out of her hand last semester, on her birthday. The joys of living near the sea I guess.

Ooooooh! I’m so jealous!

It’s probably a red kite. Don’t know why it can’t iD that

I love that picture @PhotoDad . Reminds me of books I used to read as a child. The bird pics are amazing

I once threw a Wellington boot at a hedgehog. In the days of bin bags ours had ripped and I saw something in there with a yoghurt pot and thought it was a rat. Luckily my aim was appalling and I missed by a mile

I'll try Merlin on our plethora of red kites and see what it does. The fox story did make me laugh out loud am sorry to say ...

DS RAF medical tomorrow. Am not confident. Loads get rejected and he did have childhood asthma and then there was the whole appendix saga.... we will see... He has online interview the following day for a job for post graduation too so busy week

Fingers crossed for him @craggyrat

@icanbewhatiwant we had a pair of oystercatchers pecking around our holiday home earlier in the year, noisy things but nice to look at.

We get the occasional fox, there's been one at the allotments this year. I was at a football match a few months ago when one casually strolled across the pitch.

Thanks @Delphigirl. I have listened to a red kite now, it’s very similar but I’m not fully sure it’s the same. But very similar..🤔

All the best for today @craggyrat ds!

Best of luck to your DS @craggyrat .

We get the odd seagull here, but I am often woken at 4.30-5 am by a huge flock flying overhead! Norwich what you expect 30 miles from the sea.
A few years ago we had jackdaws nesting in the trees along the railway embankment - they really are noisy.
I forgot the jays. We sometimes have 2 or 3 sitting on the shed roof. They are beautiful.

Hope all goes well for your DS @craggyrat !

@craggy the welly wanger is a whole new image! Fingers crossed for the medical.

@Seeline Envious of the jays. Don't see them round here. Did you know they are not actually blue at all? Went to a lecture with DS years ago and the light effect behind it is used in the paint industry.

We have huge flocks of jackdaws at dawn and dusk, mainly notice them in winter they seem to be much louder then.

🤞 next 2 days for your DS Craggy

Good luck to @craggyrat DS!

I didn't know that! Occasionally we find very small feathers that definitely look blue, but I shall have to examine them more closely next time I find one.