Wednesday 16 November 2011

Til life do us part

The Safari went off to physio and came back needing to go again next week - we were hoping today would have been our last session.
Last night Blackbirds heard going over at night and five on the grass verge looking for the early worm on the walk up the hill before dawn this morning. Also this morning Magpie Wood got its first 'proper' count of the season - 27, but there could well have been more as we need to get back into the routine of looking carefully through the treetops.
The gi-normous juvvy Peregrine was on the tower before we set off for the physioterrorist appointment.
After lunch we took Frank around the short version of Patch 1. As we returned to Base Camp the female half of a young couple coming up the hill towards us stopped to peer at something lying in the grass at the side of the road. We could just about make out the rounded form of a Hedgehog, but having Frank with us we couldn't go to investigate.We left him with our Extreme Photographer who is doubling up as our Extreme Tiler today grabbed a box and went on a Hedgy rescue mission. Too late :( the poor wee mite had already succumbed to either cold or starvation or a combination of the two, he hadn't been run over.
Bringing him back to Base Camp we had a look in the garage for something to bury him in and found a deceased Long Tailed Field Mouse by the side of the spare fridge - probably snuffed it due to eating something it shouldn't...like the tub of chain-saw oil or some other McNasty he's chewed his way into.

Looks like they'll end up in the compost heap and be fertilising next years crop of tomatoes!
The feeders were pretty quiet today with just a few Greenfinches and the odd Blue Tit dropping in...no sign of the acrobatic Dunnock, wonder if we'll ever see him again and if we do will he stick around long enough to be captured on digital film.
Where to next? With a bit of luck we may be able to get the Land Rover pointed somewhere a little further than very local and see if we can remember how to drive. We've had to add one of those easy steer ball thingies to the steering wheel and what a difference it makes!!! All cars should have one!!! Made parking in a tight hospital car park a doddle!!!
In the meantime let us know what has sadly succumbed in your outback

1 comment:

Warren Baker said...

As you saw on my post Davo Ducks succumbed in my outback!!

I had a dead hedgy in the garden a couple of weeks back, very sad to see :-(