The beautiful House Sparrow
I certainly never take the garden birds for granted, they have for years given me many hours of pleasure watching their antic's, sometimes it is a real struggle just to survive, most of the time there is a real competition for food, there is always the danger of the evil Sparrow Hawk who frequents my garden from time to time quickly putting a swift end to life helping themselves to the easy pickings my bird table provides in the form of Sparrows and Goldfinches.
Baby Spadge
There is also the bloody moggy, i read somewhere that domestic cats are solely responsible for more than three million bird fatalities each year, little sod's.
Anyway, i had some fun watching the baby House Sparrows begging to be fed, seeing the juvenile Starlings fighting for space in my birdbath, why do they all want to bathe at the same time i wonder? Then there is my friendly Robin who comes each day for his quota of meal worms put out for him in a small dish on the sun room windowcill, when he's emptied the dish he comes in the the house as if to say, come on then, its tea time, get that dish topped up.
House guest
I walked up the garden to take a look at the cattle that reside from time to time in the field that borders my garden, it was so hot, no wonder these two decided to take a drink.
Thirsty work
As i gazed over the field in the hope of a sighting of the Little Owl, which until last Winter was resident in the Ash tree next to the five barred gate. Unfortunately this tree was blown over in one of the gales and their nesting site was lost, i have not seen them since. I made a Little Owl nest box that will be sited in the next tree along the hedgerow in the hope of attracting this pair,or maybe some of their offspring for next breeding season.
One bird i am always pleased to see in my garden is the Great spotted woodpecker, we are graced most days by their presence and today was no exception, this time it was the female, i just manages a quick shot as she was leaving.
Female Great spotted woody
Over to my left i noticed a rabbit that had obviously got me spotted too by the way he had crouched down into the grass, either that or he had got wind of the Fox that made a meal of my Grandaughter's three pet ducks last Winter, either way he was being a little wary, by the way i bear the Fox no malice for upsetting my lovely Martha, although i wish he would give me the opportunity to take his picture now and then, sly little devil him.You aint seen me, right.
A few quick flower pic's for fun, bloody hard work though this close up stuff, how the folk who do dedicated macro work manage it i can't imaging. I am happy just playing around with this type of photography from time to time.Foxglove & fly
I was pretty well rested now and lets face it you can only spend so long doing sod all, anyway Jac would be back home soon and would be saying can you just do this or that before you go out? Time to make a swift exit i thought.
Where would I go? Maybe i could call out those fox cubs again or hopefully see or hear the Green Woodpecker at Gumley that had eluded me on my previous visit. Gumley it was, as i said in an earlier post it is a wonderful area just being there with the anticipation of what might appear if i was lucky today was enough for me, so plonking my bum down on a fallen beech tree i gazed into the distance, after around thirty minutes i was aware of a mewing sound that can be mistaken for a cat but i just knew it was the Buzzard, looking skywards i saw two (maybe a pair) gliding at approximately 200 feet directly above me, no they were not eyeing me up for their next meal but certainly the local rabbit population should be worried. They started to descend and in fact came quite low, my presence was not to their liking i reckon as they continued to call/mew at me. I did manage a few images, one in flight also and one in a tree as it landed for a short time.Common Buzzard
I decided to leave them in peace and make my way to the wood in the hope of seeing the fox cubs again, maintaining a low profile i proceeded to make a few calls with the fox squeaker, as if by magic one of the cubs showed itself but only briefly, i blew my lungs out for the next ten minutes with no further effect, these cubs are not daft even at this young age.
I continued my walk down into the valley just enjoying the solitude really, when out of the blue i heard the distinctive call of the Green Woodpecker, it is an unmistakable sound and i was so pleased to have heard it, i also saw one in the distance the undulating flight pattern is unmistakable. It was time to head back home, the realisation of the task before me set in as i looked up the valley, i had a hard walk in front of me, it was easy going down but with a dodgy knee i was not looking forward the climb, especially as i was pretty much dehydrated by now, why do i always forget to take a drink with me?
Eventually i got to the car and headed home. I had some images to post process for a budgerigar magazine so i sat into the night on the laptop, it was around 12.45 when i heard a snorting noise on the patio, looking out of the still open patio door i was party to the courting process of a pair of hedgehogs.
The courting couple
Yes I have images of the deadly dead but i am too much of a gentleman to post them on here. It had been a long day and was time for bed, i tell you now, if i thought i felt knackered when i woke up, i was now completely done for. I reckon tomorrow i might just have a day in the garden.
