Dave Dunnock & Barry Blackcap

Over the last month little ‘Dave’ Dunnock on the right there has been a daily back garden visitor.
He got a bit snitty when a pair of blackcaps (‘Barry’ being one of them on the left there) turned up to share his territory.
But now everything seems to have settled down into a delicate detente.

Barry flew in again today
He plopped upon the wall

Dave returned, to shoo him off
Gave out a warning call

Barry really wasn’t fussed
He wasn’t phased at all

He’d blackcap this durty dunnock off
In a beak-off birdie brawl

Dave didn’t fancy it
He didn’t have the balls

Better back off acting big
Resize to being small

So Dave and Barry call a truce
No need to fight and maul

Peck instead at snippy seeds
And share that huge fatball

– Illustration: Hazel Brown; Poem: Ian Nisbet

A Day of Limericking

A Day of texting Limericks, too many too naughty to post on here. But here are a few less naughty ones.

There was a young blackbird called Bill
Who constantly wanted to Trill
He sat on the wall
Continued to call
But the cat got Bill and his Trill
– Haze

Grumpy Groundhog squats in his den
He’s moaning with misery again
He grunts and he croaks
On spittle he chokes
It’s only quarter past ten!
– Ian

That Groundhog is dreaming of snow!
On his fingers,  he’s having to blow!
He fumes and he chokes.
Watched by all the blokes.
Who seriously wish he would GO!
– Haze

When you see this lady so fair.
You’ll notice her strutting the stair
With her haze wavy wriggle
And her elegant wiggle
She glides thro and graces the air.
– Ian

You need to do something to while away these dark dreary days.

Thaw

Illustration: Hazel Brown

Not much thaw going on this winter because not much frost and no snow (not down here in South Devon anyway)

But finally, this week, a couple of mornings with some frost icing the windows.

Winter Garden Birds

It’s possibly a bit of a stretch to call these ‘winter’ garden birds. We haven’t been having much of a winter up to now.

Dropping in are the daily regulars: a (non yellow-beaked, foreign) blackbird, wood pigeons, herring gulls, a little dunnock; and slightly less frequent magpies. There’s a crow stuffing bread in his/her beak to go bury just off camera to the right; will s/he remember to come back and find it? Probably. Crows are clever.

Haze sees that pair of jackdaws up there on that rooftop everyday. Usually cuddled up together; but like any married couple, they’re prone to the occasional tiff.

A robin and a wren had dropped in over Xmas but were too far out of camera shot to get a clear sighting.

None of these birds need much feeding in this unseasonably warm weather.

But they’re feeding us plenty though. Feeding our imaginations.

Words & Vid: Ian Nisbet

Sammi Squirrel

In Tessier Gardens this Saturday afternoon was a very fat and very tame squirrel.

It climbed up my leg.

Think we’ll call him/her Sammi. It might well be the same Sammi Squirrel we were feeding back in the autumn.

An easy peasi warm winter this is for squirrels.

Oh, and there was also a gull doing a comical worm dance.

Words & Vid: Ian Nisbet

Winter Birch Cloud Starlings

Another film of the silver birch outside my kitchen window.

Starlings hop in, hop on, hop off.

And marvelous clouds of skies pass through the silvery branches.

Light shimmers.

Dusk sets sun into winter cold red skies around, and through, and beyond, the birch.

It’s something I never want to get tired of.

Words & Vid: Ian Nisbet