Bird strike and squirrel strike

 

We have had a bird strike. I thought that it only applied to ‘planes, but apparently not because that is what the engineer told me.

Yesterday, I saw a huge flock of corvids – the crow family – targeting a buzzard overhead. Crows and buzzards have increased here, and flocks of crows maraud over the fields looking for food. Their nests are clearly visible in the tall trees and the buzzard is frequently heard circling overhead with its mewing cat call. It is not so long ago that we would go out and stare in wonder if we heard a buzzard.

The wood pigeon population has also increased. There are lots of nests here in most tall shrubs. So, we have three types of birds that are on the increase, whilst the kestrel and curlew are in severe decline.

Last night our electricity went off suddenly. A quick ring round our neighbours revealed that their power was off too. I rang the emergency number; it was lucky that it was a summer’s night with no need for heating and no worries about lighting. The workers would be with us in the next three hours they said. How we take electricity for granted. No streaming TV and Radio, no kettle, and no computer, which stops about everything I could do, except read.

And with power cuts, of course, you cannot charge your mobile and it is the very time when you need it. In the end I went for a drive in my car and connected it to the charger, which is an obvious thing to do. I saw engineers over the field inspecting a small, isolated transformer. At last, they came to the door to check that all was well (it was) and to tell us that a ‘bird strike’ had been the problem. A pigeon and a crow were dead at the pole. “You have a lot of birds,” they said.

We also have a lot of squirrels this year and they are keen to eat our chicken corn and our fruit. We grow all our own fruit, and it is the time when we start to pick. Strawberries, raspberries, and blueberries are our main crops. Last year we had so many strawberries that we were able to make jars of jam.

It is a good job that we made plenty of jam because all the strawberries have been stolen. They were not in the fruit cage but were netted. The squirrels easily broke through the nets. There were six of them. There were four in the litter with mother and father. They had used our kestrel box to make a drey and rear their young.