Rattling On...

Waterworld...

I am thinking of opening the garden as a nature reserve... this pair are today's new attraction.

I looked out of the kitchen window to see them making themselves at home. No doubt feasting on the frogspawn as well... not much you can do about that kind of thing really. Nature and all.

I went out to photograph them and was followed all the while by the female blackbird nagging for food. I then had to go and get the tub of mealworms and put them in the feeding spot in the front garden. She was there before me.

Back to say... hold the front page. I've been out with the garden rake to scare them off. Why? Because I was just wondering what the female had in her mouth after surfacing from her dabble when I realised it was onre of my frogs. Well, the effrontery. My frogs are my frogs.

The flew off quacking and not very happy to be evicted. I think I now know how the pond pump has been dislodged in the past...

Corvids...

It is still bitterly cold here, the snow has not gone and more is forecast. But it is getting lighter in the evenings, meaning the dog walks are more interesting as we can actually see the goings-on around us.

In the fields at the edge of the woods I often stand and watch as the rooks swoop in to roost for the night. They are noisy and there are a lot of them. I love the way they are so communal and so vocal.

It's incredible to think they survive this freezing weather, up there in the tree tops, open to all the biting winds. That's why I don't begrudge them feeding in the garden (though I don't like their baser behaviour of eating baby birds in Spring...).

I think you have to embrace all Nature, not just the cute stuff, especially such hardy birds as these. And they look so good silhouetted against the evening skies...

Hanging around in the garden...

It's amazing what a good set of toenails and a head for heights can achieve. This one is a regular garden visitor, he eats everything. Especially the mealworms in the special holder in the front garden. He has expensive tastes and it's showing on his waistline. Corpulent is the word for him this year, though after last winter it must be good for all the garden creatures to have an easier time of it.

It's a very wet winter so far. We had almost ten inches of rain in December, and still it comes down. At least the days are getting a little longer if not brighter, there were 17.75 sun hours last month, which is about half an hour each day. Except quite a lot of days there wasn't any.

There's a weather page for the town which is well used by people living here as well as visitors who are coming to go walking and such. Last year's stats make very grim reading, but that's Nature for you. 

Only tomorrow left before work kicks in again. I honestly don't feel there's been a moment to sit still and can't decide whether that's a good or bad thing.