I can't understand why, but the feathered friends seem to ignore the "small birds only" sign and just pile in for the food. But there seems to be something going on. The little blue tits or robins hop onto the seed dispenser only to be chased off by a much larger bird that could be a crow. As they leave the tits/robins knock a fair amount of seed onto the ground where it is immediately hoovered up by pigeons.
This makes me believe that the crows and the pigeons have set-up some form of alliance to the detriment of the tits and robins. Being neither small nor large the Blackbirds now seem to be completely missing out!
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Earlier today I posted a lengthy piece about the day Manchester United trained on the Memorial Playing Field. This was based on the photographs of Malcolm Morrison. I promised to post a picture of myself with former Manchester United and Norwich skipper Steve Bruce. So here it is above.
The cutting is dated August 24th, 1984, and is taken from the Norwich Mercury Newspaper which alas is no longer in existence. At the time the newspaper was owned by Eastern Counties Newspapers (now Archant) and a blue plaque in Norwich (pictured above) states that the city of Norwich holds the record for the "longest continuously printed local newspaper" the Norwich Mercury which was founded in 1714.
I detest it when heritage and history is wiped out after centuries, but the Norwich Mercury met its demise a number of years ago as part of an Archant cull. It will forever hold a place very dear to my heart. I became a sub editor on the Norwich Mercury Series of newspapers in January 1979 working from Eastern Counties Newspapers' headquarters in Rouen Road, Norwich. The series of newspapers covered many country editions including the Wymondham and Attleborough Mercury, the Thetford and Watton Times, South Norfolk News, North Norfolk News, Dereham and Fakenham Times and, of course, the Norwich Mercury.
I became sports editor of the series of weekly papers from 1984 until 1989 when I left the company. My responsibilities included sub editing copy, designing pages, writing headlines and generally being in charge of the sport content of all the weekly newspapers.
For the most part I loved the job, but it was carried out during some rather turbulent times for the print industry with industrial disputes often hampering publication. Maybe I will expand on that in a later blog.
During my time as sports editor, I co-wrote a weekly column entitled "Eye on City" which covered Norwich City. For every home game we gave the Norwich players marks out of 10 for their performances with a presentation at the end of the season.
For the 1983/1984 season the winner was Dave Watson and the photograph at the top shows myself presenting the award to Dave with new signings Gary Rowell and STEVE BRUCE looking on. I looked reasonably smart in those days, although I'm not sure about the hair style (but at least I had some I hear you say).
I don't remember much about Gary Rowell but I do remember Bruce and Watson being very friendly and likeable people - not to mention arguably the best central defensive pairing Norwich have ever had (although some long term fans might vote for Allcock and Brown or Forbes and Stringer).
I got to know Steve Bruce a little and he was always approachable and polite and willing to be interviewed - something I am sure he took into his managerial career. Dave Watson was also a delight. I think I was the first reporter to interview him after he joined Norwich. He was a typical friendly Scouser and obviously missing his native Liverpool - I believe he was still a raw teenager when he joined Norwich.
Over the next few years, I saw David blossom from a relatively shy confused teenager into a confident young man and superb centre-half. In my next blog I will let you know what he is doing now and how many times the trio pictured played for Norwich.