Exotic Bird Sighting

pic by Prabhatgupta at Wikimedia Commons

A few weeks ago our area was swamped with twitchers because there had been a sighting of a South African hoopoe nearby. I kept my eyes open but didn’t get a glimpse myself. But this morning when I took Jade to our deserted park, there it was strutting around under the trees and every so often dipping its head to forage for some morsel it fancied. At first Jade saw it too and moved towards it so that it flew off. I thought that was that, then we came round an evergreen and there it was again, this time in the open ground about 10 feet away, giving me a great view of its ruff and striped wings. I stood and watched it for about 5 minutes before we continued our morning stroll.

Kingfisher Sighting

I felt really privileged today when I was out walking Jade along the Holes Bay footpath. I heard a peep-peeping and looked out over the reeds. Hovering over the water was this beautiful kingfisher. As I watched it turned upside down and streaked down into the shallow water. I was too far away to see what was caught when it emerged and flew to a nearby mudflat. When a large crow flew down to investigate my lovely bird flew away and I thought that would be the last I saw of it. We meandered on our way along the shoreline and suddenly there it was again flying low over a little inlet and singing away. We were treated to its dancing flight for a moment or two more before it flew off into the distance.

pic from Wikimedia Commons by Tony Hisgett

I've seen a kingfisher only a couple of times before and always on rivers. I didn't realise it would fish out of shallow seawater and hover without a branch to perch on. It was a lovely interlude in my busy day.

Holes Bay Again

I took Jade along the side of Holes Bay today, so I thought I'd post some more pictures of the area. They were taken in the autumn of the year we moved here when I was doing lots of exploring. Things haven't changed much in the couple of years since. In the first one you should be able to make out the railway bridge on the line that dissects the bay in Poole harbour.  I'm quite blasé about that train trip now, but at first I got so excited whenever I travelled that way across the water.

The second pic shows where the footpath comes up against Cobbs Quay and you have to walk out and around the roadway to the other side of the marina if you want to continue beside the shore. A colony of Canada geese have set up home here so I always stop a bit short with Jade.  I don't want her even to think about chasing them. She does love to stalk and chase smaller birds if they come down to earth, but of course they always fly off before she reaches them.  I'm not sure what the geese would do and I don't think I want to find out.

Today we also saw one egret and a swan, as well as some seagulls. There seems to be one lone swan now at this end of the bay. We think it must have lost its mate during the summer. It must be feeling very lonely, poor thing. A couple of weeks ago I was very intrigued by the antics of the seagulls at low tide. They were all hunting for something under the water.  They would fly up a short distance, then up-end themselves and drop down beak first, ending up with their heads in the water and legs waving in the air, a bit like ducks who can do it without lifting themselves right out of the water first. I saw one doing this first, then looking around I noticed some others in different areas of the shallow water.

If you want to see more pics of Holes Bay, look here or here or here or here or here.  There's always something different to see at Holes Bay.

Feeding the Birds

I often throw breadcrumbs out onto the terrace outside our dining area. We love to watch the birds that come and feed from it through the French doors beside our dining table. Mostly they are blackbirds and sparrows, occasionally a robin or a thrush. And they take no notice of us sitting so near but behind glass, only flying off if we get up and walk towards them.

Our neighbours hang out birdfeeders with more apporpriate food for the tits and finches and we can also see those flitting around in the trees over the hedge. I enjoy seeing the goldfinches best of all. Yesterday several of them were chased off by a small flock of starlings who came to visit. I had thought that after they got a resident cat, the birds were staying away, but a good few have been back in recent days.

We hope to be able to make our own garden more bird friendly in time. At the moment it's looking very bleak, despite all the time we lavished on it last year. We failed to think any further than the planting for spring and summer, and I'm not very proud of it at the moment.

Along with many others, I had been concerned about the effect on the birds and other wildlife of the oil spills last year. Today I visited The Joy of Bird Watching and Living a Simple Life and read a post about how people had been trying to keep some of the migrating birds away from the affected coastline. It's great that there are people employed, and those who volunteer, who are coming up with ideas and making them work. It's worth a read, so do hop over there and take a look.

Pic by Marine Photobank ar Wikimedia Commons

Sad Story; Happy Ending?

pic by Keven Law at Wikimedia

Recently my son came back to live with me. He and his girlfriend had shared a flat in a rural area. She had some low paid work but he couldn’t get any work. They couldn’t pay their rent and got evicted. She’s now living with her mother and he is with me, an hour’s drive away. But of course they have no cars. That’s the first sad bit.

The day after he arrived here, he started job hunting and signed on with various agencies. The following week he started working on a building site not far from here. This work will only last until it is finished, but hopefully then the agency can send him somewhere else. He’s just had his first pay cheque. That’s the first happy bit.

The construction company is building an extension to a school and my son is helping to fit windows. One day he came home and said he had found a robin’s nest full of baby birds inside the area being built. The parent birds were very agitated because of the building work getting closer and closer to them, but they did come in now and then to feed their young, who were of course screaming for food all the time. He thought if the nest wasn’t moved the babies would not survive. He told the site manager but didn’t know what was going to happen. That’s the next sad bit.

The next day when he came home he said that the young birds had jumped down out of the nest. The lads on the site joined forces to catch them and put them outside where their frantic parents soon shepherded them out of harm’s way. Sadly one didn’t make it because it went into a hole in the brickwork and they couldn’t get it out. This all happened at the end of the day just before everyone left; perhaps the parent birds would have found it and coaxed it out before morning. So hopefully, that’s the happy ending.