birds – My London+

It has been a while since I wandered over to The Wetlands at The Hamptons, so one morning last week I took a stroll over and was lucky to find a Heron as well as a Canada Goose and two Egyptian Geese. The swans seem to have flown, but maybe they will come back later in the year.

The rats must have been around but were being allusive, except I did see one swimming in the pond. My son tells me that rats are good swimmers. His pet ones don’t particularly enjoy water, but wild ones have no problem with it.

How regal do I look in my coat of crowns?

The field belonging to the Lower Morden Equestrian Centre had occupants and they all seemed to have brand new coats. Work is still going on at the Centre but they are still functioning. The field (I call the horse field) is one my favourite parts of the walk.

I took a walk through the cemetery on my way back home where trees were in blossom. Along the path that runs alongside the cemetery, flowers and trees were bursting into life, but with the lack of rain, the little stream that runs long there was dry.

I’ve also been taking photos of birds and squirrels in my back garden. I find them amusing, and there is one pigeon who seems very bold and comes up quite close to me now. They have learned that this is the garden where food is put out. The Magpie and the Starlings love the pond. It needs a good clean out, but it doesn’t seem to stop them from bathing in it. Often there are four Starlings in it together. We have various containers of water in the garden, so there is no shortage of bathing pools.

The Starlings love the suet we put in the feeder and get very narky when we put seed in! They give a disgruntled squark and fly off.

I have spent a long time trying to get the garden going this year. Lockdown finally tried to make a gardener of me last year! I am nowhere near being the gardener my mum and grandparents were, but I like to think they would be amusingly proud of me. The bulbs I put in early April have surprised me are seem to be coming up. I have Lily of the Valley poking up their stems and I can’t wait to see them in flower again. I will probably lose some of the plants I have grown from seed, but I hope there will be enough for a fair show. My tomatoes are still small, but if they all make it, I shall have some to give away. My peas are doing grand. If you grow no other vegetable, grow peas. They are so easy and come up every time. By now it should be okay to plant seed directly into the ground. I grew mine in pots as I wanted to start some off early, and I planted them out in March.

I am keeping an eye on the weather for a good day to walk. At the moment it looks like Friday. Here in the UK we have a Bank Holiday today. Over this weekend I have been painting the kitchen and today it is time to put the shelving back. How many cookery books does one need? Now is the time to have a look through and make a few decisions.

Finally, snow worth taking photos of! I ventured out while it was snowing to do some shopping and came back via a local park where a brief blizzard ensued. With freezing temperatures I have also been taking care of the birds. Each morning I break the ice on the water bowl and throw out handfuls of seed, top up the peanuts and suet. The squirrel is rather partial to the nuts, of course, but it has encouraged a pair of robins, a great tit, pigeons, wood pigeons and starlings. In fact, the robins seem to have moved into the variegated bush and I am hopeful that in the future there will be a whole family of little robins.

At the end of last month I took part in the Birdcount run each year by the RSBP. We didn’t have many visitors in the hour I did my count. They all came in flurry towards the end. When I say all, I mean a wood pigeon and a starling! The pair of robins showed up at the beginning, so there was a lot of staring out of the window watching lots of birds fly over, but they had to land to be included in the count.

Now the weather is colder, the birds are more frequent and they are getting through mounds of seed. It gives me a good excuse to get out my camera and take a few photos. Enjoy!