The Birds

I've never lived in the depths of the countryside before, and wondered whether I would like it. Admittedly, we have arrived at the best time of year, but the cottage is in a glorious location and even when the weather is poor, it is never depressing.

As cat lovers, we have never had an opportunity to study wild birds close at hand. And in Bognor, the fat stupid pigeons, noisy herring gulls and nasty magpies were all we could see. Since arriving here, we have become fascinated by the antics of the wild birds. In fact, our garden is known as a good source of food for all the local bird life.

Our first weekend, we went out and bought a couple of bird feeders and a bag or two of food. Very soon, we had greenfinches greedily pulling out beak-fulls of seed, dropping most of it on the ground. Then a pair of blackbirds appeared, eating what had been dropped. Then a male pheasant -- probably one that had survived last year's hunting season. He's a handsome bird (getting fat) but has lost his long tail feathers. Within two days, all the seed had gone and we had to buy some more.

By the end of the first week, we had seen four pairs of greenfinches, a pair of red-legged partridges, a pair of collared doves, chaffinches, blue tits and a great spotted woodpecker. The greenfinches are the most determined and can easily empty the bird feeder in a day. The pheasant sits underneath the feeder and the food rains down on his head. Another male pheasant has appeared -- slimmer and with a full set of tail feathers. Little do they know that the hunting season will start again soon. Today we saw a pair of woodpeckers with a youngster; they were showing him how to eat peanuts from the feeder.

Someone told me today that he knows people who spend £20 per week on food for their garden birds. Maybe that will be us soon. We can go hungry, but at least the birds will eat!

Needless to say, I take no credit for the photos. These are taken by Paul, right outside our kitchen window. On the left is a great spotted woodpecker, smiling for the camera and on the right a red legged partridge. At the top of the blog are two greenfinches on the feeder on the apple tree.



Sorry if you are bored by this talk about wildlife. It is a new experience for me. Next time I might write about work.