Today I resolved to walk the Old Tramway to Rye Harbour for the first time since I moved the boat from Rock Channel to the River Rother. I got as far as Sea Cruisers on the Old Winchelsea Road. Here I spied my old sailing skipper Master Mariner Gilbert White hobbling across to his boat from his car.

Gilbert has always had a hate for lawns, grass and the mowing thereof. Three months ago he took his obsessions to unreasonable heights by breaking his ankle as he set off upon the hated chore. Today was only his second time in Rye since the accident.

After an hour or so chewing the cud I took my leave and hurried across Brede’s Sluice before something else delayed me. The reports were correct. There was action at the far end of the Rye Harbour Road. Work has really started on a Cycle Path. Only six months late…and only destined to go to the start of the footpath along the tramway. But let us be thankful for small mercies. Perhaps my advice will be taken and the route will now follow the Old Tramway.

While this was the purpose of my ramble it turned out not to be the highlight. I was puzzled to see a species of bird over Castle Waters that I had no memory of seeing before. It looked like a tern with all the dipping and diving and the forked tail I would associate with terns. But it was black and not white. I no longer have easy access to my references so I had to wait until Monday to satisfy my curiosity.

It turns out that there is such a bird as a Black Tern which spends its summers in the marshes of Northern Europe and then migrates to West Africa for the winter. This autumn they have been seen in lakes and reservoirs in many parts of England. They belong to a group of terns that have black bodies in the summer and go by the name of Marsh Terns.

Some of these passing migrants still have their dark plumage which in winter eventually retreats along their bodies until just their head remains black. They look like bird shadows as they flit lazily over the water or drop down to take insects from the lake surface. The few I saw were in pairs but on Mediterranean and African estuaries they gather in enormous flocks in much the same way as the starlings do here on Romney Marsh when preparing to fly south.

Over the next few weeks we have a few exciting cosmic events playing around with Sea-Level Data ensuring that future generations will have their work cut out massaging Recorded Data to deliver reliable Adjusted Raw Data to their Climate Models.

First there is the fortnightly Spring Tide…as in rise up not as in Nigel Kennedy playing Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. The next three of these straddle one of the two annual Equinoxes when the Sun, Earth and Moon are in alignment and the Sun is directly over the Equator…which in terms of Local Cosmic Dynamics means that the Earth is doing a hand-brake turn at the far end of her elliptical orbit around the Sun.

Every four and a half year a high Spring Tide coincides with a Perigee…when the Moon is closest to the Earth. We have one of these this weekend. But what makes the Global Warming Priesthood rub their hands in glee…in the hope of much flooding and generalised water-borne catastrophe…is that every 18.6 year the Moon reaches the extreme of its orbit around the Earth…you are there before me…and this is where we are this week.

The Doom & Despair Brigade now long for a couple of local weather events to spice this Cosmic Brew…a severe storm in the English Channel whipping up big waves. And a low pressure drawing the sea up higher than normal.

Present forecasts suggest that the Carbonistas will be out of luck…at least this coming weekend. But they have a couple more chances before everything settles back down to normal. But meanwhile the probability of extravagant claims being precipitated by an array of Global Warming Interest Groups and Abrupt Climate Change Advocates remains high.

Anything that happens will be attributed to Man of course. And will be used to make strident calls for a New Kyoto Protocol and the immediate tightening of Global Carbon Emission Targets. Ignore them. They are Scientific Humbug. We live in a Cosmic Universe with chunks of molten…and not so molten…stuff moving around at a hell of a rate of knots. As for the other 96% of matter in the universe. We haven’t the foggiest idea what it is.

Since the collapse of the September Radical Consultation I have devoted most of my available computer time to Climate Change and have finally completed a 9000-word Tavern Talk with Bill Shepherd ready for posting onto my Shepherd on Climate website. My animated conversation with the Environmental Lawyer Constanza Calderón, the Hollywood-based Environmental Advocate Margaret Kennedy and the Californian TV Presenter Thomas H. Naylor Jnr. has discussions of five specific subjects that will be extracted and introduced into next week’s weblogs. The five subjects are Glaciers, the Kyoto Protocol, Redwood Forests, environmental management history in Yellowstone National Park and Extreme Weather, Hurricanes & Tornadoes.

At the beginning of the 20th Century the English died of Infectious Diseases. By the end of the century the biggest killer was Cardiovascular Disease…heart attacks and strokes in layman language. But stupendous advances in the prevention and treatment of blood pressure and heart-related problems means that Cancer is now the biggest BritKiller. Perhaps when Being Normal means never going to see a doctor we will all die of Old Age?