Urban birdsong

I live in a very built up area of East London, and although I am on the outskirts of the borough it isn't very far to the edge of Epping Forest. I have cats, so don't often see birds in my little garden, but there is alway the twittering of the dawn chorus....even as early at 3.30 in the morning...a time when, for some unknown reason I often wake up and can't go back to sleep, so I wander downstairs and sometimes have a cup of tea.

The dawn chorus round here always sounds the same, but this year I've noticed a different little twittering, so I've been on the web to see if I can identify it. I found this great web site from the BBC where you can listen to all our different bird songs. (I can't get a clickable link to show up, but this is the address if you want to copy and paste http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/science/birdsong.shtml )

Well I think the only one that sounds remotely like it is the Bullfinch. Not a bird I would associate with east London!

Pretty isn't he!?

So now you know.....

Why one HobNob just
isn’t enough!


Why is it so hard to stop eating just
one biscuit and so easy to finish off
the packet? Speaking to the Daily
Mail, Dr Carel Le Roux (Medicine) says
that fructose,
which is a sugar derived
from fruit, may be to blame. Fructose
is mixed with corn syrup and used in
processed
foods such as fizzy drinks
and biscuits to make
them sweet and last
longer. Fructose gives
us confused messages
about satiety,
explained Dr Le Roux:
“When we eat sugar,
our body releases
insulin
which tells the
brain that we have had enough to eat.
High insulin levels are one of the factors
that dampen the appetite.” He said:
“However, fructose doesn’t trigger
as
much of an insulin response as regular
sugar, so the brain doesn’t get the message
that you are full.”

I've copied this from our staff newsletter (you may or may not know that I work in a university) The quote is from one of our research staff. And there was me thinking that Fructose was "better" than refined sugar. Obviously not! Especially if you have no will power (like me!)