Monday 12 July 2010

The Birds (& the bees)

We wake every morning, rain or shine, to a persistent chatter. Look out of the bedroom window & there's continuous action. If its not the bunnies hopping around, eating everything in sight (Grrrr!), there are gangs of young birds charging around madly, just like kids - starlings, blue & great tits, chaffinches, greeenfinches & goldfinches, house sparrows & dunnocks, house martins & swallows. There's a woodpecker comes to the birdfeeder & being smaller, the tits & finches have to wait, but the sparrows just barge in anyway. Then the dunnocks and blackbirds hop around underneath. When we look through binoculars, there are other less familiar birds, chasing from tree to tree....then, reluctantly... one really must get going.

But, then...there's two hares in the field below the house, together. Eat a bit, then chase. Eat a bit more. Have a roll about.. hop off a few feet. And there's a rabbit in the field on the right. And jackdaws circling from the barn to the side.

And then there are the bees. Constant comings & goings. Some arriving heavily laden with pollen in the sacs on their legs. They don't seem to mind a great heavy lump (me) just a few feet from the hive. Absorbing. It's very easy to stand & stare.

And then....MUST get on !