Category: Birds
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Sharing broodiness
I feel sorry for the hens when I rustle underneath them to feel for their next eggs. Not quite so sorry when they each peck my hand! But they’re not fierce — they just don’t want to be disturbed in their hormonal delirium. The Barnies are the best layers we’ve had; their eggs are large…
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Blowing the cobwebs out . . .
Our coastal adventure was an easy reconnoitre, for sure. Just along the road beyond Gatehouse of Fleet, at the protected bay, deep in the recesses of the Solway Firth, we stopped at the tiny public car park and walked through the gorse bushes to the beach. It was so bracing to enjoy the fresh air…
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Willow warbling
But we only caught a brief glance of one little bird through our ageing binoculars before it flew off to another more distant tree. Meanwhile, our walk along the marsh dyke beside the River Ken was like entering an echo chamber of warbles. Every quaking aspen and willow tree seemed to have its own occupier,…
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A moonlight experience on the high fells
I’m delighted to add a guest experience to the joyful collection today. Jeff Richardson writes about the midnight perambulation I alluded to a week or so ago: “Couldn’t sleep Saturday night so went for a walk — set out on my adventures about 12, into a night illuminated by a full moon. Walking down the…
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Random acts . . .
Yesterday was Random Acts of Kindness Day, the 17th of February, as it’s been apparently since 1995, over a quarter of a century now. And this coming Sunday, another event in the calendar of the ‘Kindness’ movement, has been designated Random Acts of Poetry and Art Day, since its inception in 2012, a decade ago.…
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Harbinger of snow . . .
My brother wrote to me that Sunday morning had turned into a beautiful bright and dazzling snowfest, and also, incidentally, that inspired by my bird feeding musings, he seems to have got the new suet block feeder up just in time! The little birds are very keen already, as his photo shows. I’m wondering if…
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Where do things start?
Sometimes I think that things need to percolate a bit, or maybe it’s more like stewing, but after the simmering, new projects emerge almost as if they’re fully formed. But they have to start somewhere. The current tally of nest boxes around our little smallholding, up on the high fellside of Sparty Lea, is seven…
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Great bar snacks . . .
Delighted to serve you, sparrow friend. Your presence has brought a little joy into our kitchen. Not so colourful as their colleagues the blue tits, the chaffinches or gold finches, nor so cheeky as our cock robin, nevertheless the chatter of the hedge sparrows and the dunnocks, when the wild bird seed is laid out…
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All the comforts
Up here on the high fellside, our beloved neighbour has developed his artistic hobby to a high degree, and intriguing birdhouses line the walls of our sheds. This one, a verbatim copy of my man-cave, the eponymous ‘Elf Hole,’ delivered with aplomb on my birthday, is meant to accommodate a friendly blue tit family. When…
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If you plant it, they will come . . .
In the film ‘Field of Dreams‘ Kevin Costner, responding to some bidding voice — ‘If you build it, they will come’ — builds a baseball diamond out of a section of his corn field, and the iconic baseball players of the past, including and most especially his deceased father, appear to play an enchanted game.…
Roads to Joy 