Well into March and our wood-burning stove is still eating fuel like it's going out of fashion. So, my day starts with a trip down to the shed to get more wood in.
And today, I'm glad it does. As I'm coming out of the shed my ears turn in to a out-of-place bird call.
I'm pretty sure I know that harsh, rasping sound as soon as I hear it; a peregrine. That's my first thought, but then the second dismisses it - you don't see peregrine falcons in your back garden, do you?
That said, they do nest on the Pembrokeshire coast, which is 15 miles away. What I saw as I turned was a dozen wood pigeons flying along the valley in a flock that was spreading like buckshot.
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| John James Audubon |
Then that rat-ta-tat cry again and there was the falcon, wings a blur, just behind the last of the pigeons. On the flat it didn't have a chance of over-taking even the slowest of the target group and, as they disappeared from view, it seemed to have given up on the chase.
Presumably, the pigeons had managed to dodge the original dive-bomb ambush. Peregrines have been clocked doing over 200mph in a stooping dive, but that's all about gravity. On the flat, when its just about wing beats, the falcon is no more than an outside bet against a pigeon.
It has made my day, and decided me on the bird list rule question. The peregrine goes on the list; only counting birds that land in your garden is probably the way to go for a purist, but it misses out the fun stuff.
Ice on the pond this morning and flakes of snow on the wind. On the trip to fill the birdfeeders I decided it was a mistake not to put on a coat - or gloves.
High up, heading west, a couple of ravens. As they flew one peeled off to one side and then looped over its partner before returning to their businesslike, as-the-crow-flies course.
On completion of the manoeuvre one of the two "said" something to the other. To my non-raven way of thinking it could have been a "look at me", or perhaps it was "can you stop showing off..."
And how to describe the call? Not the usual raven croak, but something a step or two up the scale and somehow frog-like and rubbery.
I came back in and looked at the bird list on this blog, which is now quite close to having run its year-long span. I've seen ravens from the garden before, but have never remembered to put them on my list.
I wonder what else I've left out? Anyway, should I add these ravens? Can anybody help with a definitive garden bird list rule?
Should a bird that over-flies your garden be on its bird list? What about birds seen in the distance that don't fly over - or even a remarkable over-the-garden wall twitch?
Spring is on the way, or at least cuckoos are. The weather forecast here in Pembrokeshire is promising us a return to winter, but down in west Africa the BTO's radio-tagged cuckoos are beginning to head north once again.
It's probably a little too late in the year to be giving nestboxes their MOT, but yesterday I noticed that my sparrow 'terrace' box was looking the worse for wear. It's old and the roof had a crack in it that has to be letting the rain in.
So, out came the ladder and down came the box. Getting the roof off wasn't easy as the screws were badly rusted and when I took it off I wasn't sure what I was going to find inside; I knew it had been used last summer, but didn't now whether chicks were raised successfully.
But it turned out to have two nests inside - one a neat, little sparrow nest and another, a wasps' nest the size of a grapefruit. Quite a surprise.
I wonder if the sparrow chicks found that all that buzzing going on next door kept them awake. Or maybe it was soothing and lulled them to sleep.
