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Another month, another apology for my absence, especially to all those blogs to which I subscribe. I do get some of your posts on my phone and have enjoyed reading them, making a note to self to drop a like or a comment by, but obviously to no avail. I plead a writing commitment, that … Continue reading
We’ve had the first batch of babies through here: baby Great Tits and Blue Tits (who together form a gang which dominates the airwaves and the feeders); baby starlings (ditto); baby sparrows (babies well-behaved, it’s the adults that are little highway bandits with the bird food, especially worms); baby squirrels; baby magpies; one baby … Continue reading
…for the UK Grey Squirrel cull, although some others are not reluctant to toss it around. From the Telegraph: Andrew Tyler, the director of Animal Aid, said: “People have been responsible for wiping out the red squirrel. It’s an excuse to blame the grey squirrel. “They’re on a list of animals that are considered … Continue reading
***Warning! Rant in middle of post! It’s summer, so we can either be aggravated by swarms or entertained by Baby Watch 2014. The summer around here did not just begin with bees leaving their homes, but all kinds of birds fledging. We were actually privileged to watch a family of baby blue tits leave one … Continue reading
Depends on your perspective. Take, for example, the humble but cheeky-with-it UK House Sparrow (passer domesticus). Beloved in Great Britain where it is believed to be in decline. Who could think ill of anything with “domesticus” in its name? But in the USA, it is public enemy number one. Why? Because of these guys– Sialia … Continue reading
Yes, capitalized on purpose, because it is supposed to call to mind Hitchcock’s The Birds. Maybe you will understand when you look at this: I know they don’t look like much in this picture, but there were anywhere from 30-50 starlings repeatedly landing in the garden. That was bad enough, but if you look closely … Continue reading
Moaning about the Weather The weather is and has been what anyone in the UK would call ‘pants.’ Not just for the last day or even the last week. More like the last two weeks with no end in sight. It’s not just the rain, but the cold, winter cold. We have had heating on, fires … Continue reading
A Squat in April And that’s because we only knew of our lodger’s presence when we noticed a leak above our bedroom window, right beneath the eaves of the roof. We knew we had a slipped tile towards the end of winter and tried to fix it as best as we could, but would most likely need … Continue reading
The wildlife keeps popping into the yard, as if they have been sprung from somewhere, probably the farmer’s field where the booming of the crow scarers go off all day. He’s a Daddy-O! As of this very weekend, Fuzzio is now a Daddy-O. We finally located the robins’ nest in a tree in our driveway, … Continue reading
Ah, the Dunnock, Responsible for the Awakening to Promiscuity in the Scientific Community (She says that like it’s a bad thing: no really I am aware of the erroneous implication here and I am sticking by it!) It appears we may have some threesomes in our little biosphere. In a previous post, I talked about … Continue reading
My Latin Notebook 