New Home

Anyone with an exceptional memory (so that excludes me for a start) might recall that I have bird nesting boxes in the garden. The one that I've shown on the blog in the past was a 'three bay' box sitting on the north wall of my garage and visible from the house window that overlooks The Minch.

I'm sure that the view is the last thing in which  the sparrows who occupy my boxes are interested. The old box succumbed to the ravages of the Hebridean weather and old age in a northerly gale at the end of last last year and is no more.  The new boxes were too late for last year's nesting season but this year the alpha male sparrow has invited his potential mate to view the property.

"Look pretty much the same to me!"

"Well!  What do you think?"

"I think we'll have this one."

SID 43 Catching Up - That Was April

Is it really 11 days since I visited Blogland properly. I used the word 'properly' because I have made the occasional Covid-19 type skirmish there hoping that The Authorities would not notice that I was travelling further than strictly allowed when on gardening leave. We, on Lewis, have had one of the longest spells of constant sun that I can recall for a couple of years. We have had the occasional shower in the last few days and the wind has been very chilly from the North East but I have managed a great deal of garden and external house maintenance. Much, I have to say, to the detriment of my letter writing. My coffee's in The Woodlands have been replaced by virtual WhatsApp and Zoom coffees (or G & Ts depending on the time of day).  Well, everyone has to have coffee breaks.

I have discovered that it's easy to walk 4 miles in a day when gardening and add to that the 'hard labour' humping 100l bags of compost and removing small tree/shrub stumps etc and it's a good workout each day. Apart from trips to the local postbox and a trip to the medical practice for my Trial Review bloods and my 3-monthly bumjab I've not been off the property. 

Of course I miss the family (who are now out of quarantine but still subject to lockdown rules which are not quite as strict as my self-isolation) but I confess that the days are flying by at an alarming rate and I've hardly scratched any of the items off the 'To Do' lists. I am fortunate generally to sleep well but a day in the garden certainly leaves one pleasantly tired (I was going to say 'knackered' but that's not very polite). Apart from the news I've hardly even watched television.

However the birds have been enjoying the garden even with me working in it. 

Bird box in use. Note to self: clean it up next autumn.

Meadow Pipit: Bathing; Checking claws; Under wing clean?; Aren't I a pretty pipit?

 Blackbird. "These raisins are good." 

Golden Eagle exiting over the sea. 

Female sparrow looking for extra nourishment for egg laying in the form of delphinium leaves. 

Blackbird bathing in the waterfall.

A Little Bit of This and That

Those of you who also read the blog of my brother CJ, John, Scriptor Senex will have a reasonable idea of what has been happening in Eagleton over the last few weeks whilst CJ has been here and since Jo arrived earlier in the week.

The Nighthawk has had its brain re-programmed and is now as right as rain and raring to take me and my visitors wherever they may wish to wander. This particular journey was with CJ to Callanish.

CJ and I went to the shore at Barvas accompanied by magnificent skies:

 and whilst CJ searched for pebbles I photographed the surfers

CJ and Jo at the Butt of Lewis with CJ using Jo as a photographer's rest to photograph a gannet

On the way from Ness I was left musing as to what the Council was doing allowing such a plethora of road signs on a main road where the high volume of traffic (note position of tongue when uttering this statement) could cause a pile-up whist drivers' concentration was distracted. 

If anyone thinks that the people of Lewis in general and Ness in particular are staid and unimaginative then think again. However the real reason I included this was so that Spesh would suddenly realise that David had a job to do before this 'summer' is over.

The weather has been such that the young sparrow have been sheltering from the strong cold winds and taking advantage of the stones warmed by the sun at the same time.

 or sheltering in the lee of the garage. It's a hard life arriving in the world to a 'summer' like this.

A New Colony

Oh dear. More emails. "Why are you not blogging?" It seems that if a week goes by and I don't blog (not because I don't want to but because I'm just living other parts of my life) that is the magic trigger for the 'are you ok?' emails. You know what? I really love that there are people out there who care enough to ask. Thank you.

One of the things that has been very rewarding this week has been seiing a new colony of Sparrows establish itself in the garden. As I said in a post a few weeks ago entitled Lucky I have a colony of sparrows living in the roof above my bedroom. Perhaps ten years ago I set up a nesting box on the wall of the garage. It was badly sited because it’s on the North wall and has never been occupied……until this spring. I first noticed a sparrow going into it a few weeks ago but now it’s clear that it has established itsef as a little overspill colony.

My Sparrows

I wonder why that happens? The birds eat more when the sun shines. They have eaten a kilo of food in three hours this morning. When it rains it can take most of the day. I love the wild birds in the garden (except the Rock Pigeons and the Starlings because they make such a terrible mess of the roof) and feed them. As theye were beginning to become a tad expensive at 2 kilos of seed a day they are now limited to 1 kilo a day but there's plenty of natural food so they won't go hungry. What feeding them does seem to mean in that the sparrows in particular seem to have many broods each year and this year in August they are still producing young.

A Spa Bath to Ease the Aching Limbs

In contrast to the heat of today, Monday was a cold and miserable day and my body ached more than I cared that it should because the previous day, amongst other things, I'd put two coats of paint on the kitchen ceiling and two on the walls (The Kitchen). So by 1700 I was ready for something to ease away the tiredness. I treated myself to Dvorak's First Symphony and a relaxing soak in the spa bath. Something I very rarely do. I've spared you that picture!

The Urn has a short story attached to its location in my bathroom. I have no conceptual ability. So when I'd said that I wanted a sort-of-white tiled bathroom and designed the layout as best I could I naturally sought Fiona's advice on the detail. In amongst the advice she gave (and which I followed almost to the letter, I have to add) she said that it would need one large splash of colour somewhere. This urn had been in Uncle Eric's bungalow on Anglesey and had been eyed with some slight disdain (for want of a better word) by CJ and I. However we eventually came to the conclusion that it was because it had held an enormous bunch of Doris's artificial roses. The urn on its own turned out to be quite pleasing. So it became my bathroom's splash of colour.

Birds Play. Or Do They?

When I was a young man I sat on top of Skiddaw and watched the Ravens below me tumbling around in the air. They appeared to me to fly upside down. I didn't realise then that Ravens can fly upside down. There are a pair of Ravens nesting near here and they frequently fly around and play in the air. They chase each other. They perform quite elaborate synchronised flying manoeuvres. It's a joy to watch but I have difficulty getting my camera to focus on them because they are so small compared with the sky.

I have never been conscious of any other birds playing until a few days ago when a Sparrow was chasing a feather in the wind. He was joined by two or three others and they had a great time chasing it, catching it and then letting it go again. Then they would stand and 'chat'. It was a most odd occurrence and it happened right outside the Study window. Unfortunately it had not then been replaced and the condensation between the glass has affected the photos.

Starlings v Sparrows

A few days ago I blogged on the subject of Starlings. I received a comment from thingsoftheday qv. The gist of the comment was that starlings and pigeons were welcome visitors in their garden. It gave me to ponder on the issue perhaps a little more rationally. Then I realised how futile that was. The truth is that there's nothing rational about it. I just don't like starlings en masse (individual ones can be amusing because they are intelligent birds and great mimics) whereas I am happy with sparrows en masse and that has happened in the garden on an occasion a few years ago when I counted 78 sparrows waiting for breakfast: