WET WOODY
A couple of days ago, you know the one, when it rained! A Wood Pigeon settled on my shed roof looking in a bit of a state (the Pigeon, not the shed roof! Although my wife’s favourite saying at the moment is “you know that shed roof will need fixing soon”) anyway as I said, the Pigeon looked in a bit of a state I think it possibly had had a bit of a run in with a car or maybe the local feline.
It sat on the shed in the rain for about two hours looking very fed up and occasionally shaking the water from its head. Eventually it moved to the top of the bird table where it sat for another half hour or so with the rain bouncing off its head, allowing me to go outside in slippers and t-shirt and with the camera covered in a tea towel, to take some close-up pictures.
It’s a good job the neighbours were all at work and couldn’t see me wandering around the garden getting wetter and wetter taking pictures of a thoroughly fed up Pigeon!
The good news is that it eventually it moved onto the bird table proper and started to feed on the seed and the next day it was back in the garden feeding as normal, if still looking a bit dishevelled.
THE DARK INTRUDER
While out walking in the woods the other day I encountered something that I had only seen briefly twice before, both times whilst I was driving the car and couldn't stop.........Black Squirrels!
There are a couple of theories as to where the Black Squirrel came from. One is that it is a mutation of our native Grey Squirrel (having excessive quantities of the black pigment melanin) and the other theory is that native American Black Squirrels were introduced to Woburn Park Bedfordshire at the end of the last century by the then Duke of Bedford and that they promptly jumped the wall and escaped.
I don't know which one is correct but now that I know where I can find them I will go back some time and see if I can get some better quality photos.
