My first post

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Hello This is my first blog posting! I hope to post lots of intresting things in the future about wild life in my garden.

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The dangers of living in the country

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I know that you might think that living in the country we do not get to see people very much. And it is true that I cannot walk out of my door and have a natter with a next door neighbour and I can’t just pop in to a cafe and catch up with friends who happen to be there. But you would be surprised how often I do meet up with friends – it’s just that you have to make more of an effort and it all has to be arranged and planned and when we do meet – we never stop taking – you see there is so much to say after only having our pets for company.
Well, anyway, I am trying to tell you about what happened last night. Now the nights are drawing in we all agreed to meet up for an evening meal in our nearest town to cheer ourselves up. I offered to pick up a friend in a nearby village and drive to the nearest town miles away.
What a good time we had catching up on news and ... well, just talking to a person and not a cat or bees or the like.
But at the end of the evening I was dismayed to find that …
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Is this the 'darkling thrush'?

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This morning I opened the bedroom window at dawn, and I heard a little song. Not the full-blown song of springtime, that would be too much to ask. Not the sharp call, either, of birds warning others to keep away. This was a little plaintive noise, but it was certainly a song.


The sky was calm and cold with yellow and pink below dark blue. The sun was struggling to rise and had only managed an inch above the horizon. There wasn’t much light yet, but there was just enough to see the outline of a bird on a high perch in the black branches of the ash tree. 


The bird is in silhouette. I can’t make out the details, but I know him by his song. It is a thrush, not yet fully repeating its song ‘twice over’ as he does in the spring. Today he has only two notes and I think he could be singing ‘New Year’, bravely piping in 2020 for all he is worth.


The thrush is on the RSPB famous red list and you don’t see them much today. There is a pair here though, in our garden in the spring and summer. They ma…
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Swimming in lockdown

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The endangered spotted fly catcher bathing in the bird pool
I would give anything to go for a swim right now. I used to swim, twice a week – in the old days b.c. (before coronavirus). I met my friends and took health giving exercise. Now I don’t even know where my ticket is. In any case, I expect it is out of date. Early in the week some little creatures took an unexpected swim. A pair of blue tits have been in and out of the nest box, on the old apple tree, for over a month now. The young fledged this week. Four of them flew uncertainly into the long orchard grass. Their colours of pale yellow and faded blue are good camouflage so they can hide from predators. They are small and about the size and weight of a wine bottle cork. But there is one danger, which has never caused a problem before, and that is our wild pond. It is on the corner of the orchard. It was a warm day and I imagine that the young blue tits were thirsty. They went down for a drink and three of them fell in. What a g…
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