Stoat Sometimes when you’re dodging the mad drivers who often use our lane as a race track, you could be forgiven for considering shooting the locals as a viable control option . There is no footpath and there are those, usually boy racers but not always, who never even dream…
Life’s decisions are never easy. Today, I woke up at 4am. My two remedies for getting back to sleep are: 1. Roll over and relax, or 2. Read my current book until I’m sleepy again. This morning, I opted for number 2. In the first chapter of Alexander McCall Smith’s…
It’s the 11th May and things have moved on since I last wrote about the owls. Now, I know there is not one but two young tawny owls in the box half way up one of our ancient apple trees. I’ve been photographing them peeping out of the entrance and…
Nothing is ever certain in life, but less so in the wild animal world. On Tuesday evening I waited for my tawny owl to appear but there was a marked difference. He arrived in the sycamore tree, silently, unannounced. There was no alarm call from the blackbirds whose strident and…
I’m reading a book given to me by my good friends in California, entitled ‘The delightful horror of family birding’ by Eli J. Knapp. It’s a great way of passing the lockdown time but it is also an excellent read. Eli is an American professor who teaches courses in ornithology…
Tawny owl I’ve had my trailcam out on the birds feeding patio during the night and discovered badgers visiting the garden to eat the few dog biscuits I’ve left out. These will be the animals from the sett nearest our home and it’s great to have them here. Except that…
My brother just asked me what I was doing. Same as yesterday. Except that today, for a change, I cleaned the Dyson. And I found a filter that I hadn’t noticed before so I watched a Youtube video of a guy who was showing watchers how to service a DC40….
I slept last night while my trailcam monitored what was going off in my garden. There was a lot of activity in the owl box and a good number of visits by one of the birds, each one prompting frantic calling, so much so that I’m fairly sure there are…
No, It’s nothing to do with Coronavirus, Donald Trump, Boris, the NHS or Brexit. Even though it’s not going to make the papers, for me, it’s more exciting than any of those. Tonight at 7pm, I went down the garden to feed my tawny owl his day old chick. He…
Great blue heron If you ever go to Florida, you should spend a day or two on Sanibel Island on the coast of the Mexican Gulf. It is beautiful on a number of fronts. First, you’re hard pushed to find even a scrap of litter. The landscape is tended…