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enismirdal1. The birds in our garden bring me endless happiness.
Some time ago we invested in a squirrel-proof bird feeder for our tiny garden. Best decision ever. It's one of these kinds, weight-activated, so when anything bigger than a small starling lands on it, the "shroud" descends and covers the food. So far, the local squirrels haven't figured out a way to raid it, so it's a major hit with the small but lively selection of local East End birds.
We have an adorable family of dunnocks who currently have two whiny adolescents following around the parents and begging to be fed. Dunnocks are small and brown, but I love them for having cool variable mating systems and cloaca pecking. And the "teenage" dunnocks are impossibly cute - they ALMOST have adult plumage, but they still have pale, fluffy bottoms and are just a bit too round to be perfectly elegant.
We also have a nesting pair of great tits. You can tell apart males and females by the thickness of the black line down their front. They are presumably raising a little family somewhere about, though I'm not totally sure where! Less frequently, we get little blue tits, who take one seed and fly away.
Of course, we also get the big dopey woodpigeons, who are decidedly two sandwiches short of a picnic - one of them was sitting on the gate about 5 feet from me when I was hanging out my laundry, and looked utterly confuzzled when I started pigeon-cooing at it. Eventually it flew away but I think it was more because it found the situation too intellectually challenging than anything else.
The birds like our garden because it's a bit overgrown with lots of ivy and a little holly tree, accessible dusty soil and a small pond, so generally good for sneaking around in and finding insects. And because I'm at home a lot now, I get to watch them. It's lovely.
2. In an attempt to unite two disparate topics, I will now segue into the subject of the Europe-wide plane grounding by use of the theme "flying things". In this case, the lack of flying is rather more key, of course. So far I haven't been directly affected - no plans to go abroad for some months at least - but I've been indirectly affected in a few ways. My supervisor had to make a mammoth 2-day overland trek* to return from his Easter holidays (normally a 2-3 hour flight into Heathrow followed by an hour or two on the train), so I ended up doing a part of the organising of my viva dates myself, but that is now looking set for late May.
Meanwhile we have a friend to stay this week coming who's meant to be flying across the pond for a conference at the end of the week, but the odds of her getting on her flight on Thursday are looking raaather low, and I'm not optimistic that there would be space on any other flight either, given that I'm assuming the air companies, whenever they start flying again, will prioritise people stranded in foreign countries trying to get home rather than people flying out on new adventures.
So far the supermarkets still contain dwarf beans, babycorns, etc. but it'll be interesting to see how long that situation persists without the dubious miracles of airfreight. People might be forcibly educated in what's actually in season in Britain and Europe at this time of year...
In the meantime, I think all letters/parcels to and from Europe might run a little bit late!
I'm fairly sure the reason I'm bunged up and sneezing is a garden-variety common cold rather than any reaction to volcanic ash, as so far I haven't seen any...
*I'm British. 100 miles is a long way; 2 days of trains, driving, ships, etc. is unimaginable, some sort of arcane undertaking of doom...
That got long!
Some time ago we invested in a squirrel-proof bird feeder for our tiny garden. Best decision ever. It's one of these kinds, weight-activated, so when anything bigger than a small starling lands on it, the "shroud" descends and covers the food. So far, the local squirrels haven't figured out a way to raid it, so it's a major hit with the small but lively selection of local East End birds.
We have an adorable family of dunnocks who currently have two whiny adolescents following around the parents and begging to be fed. Dunnocks are small and brown, but I love them for having cool variable mating systems and cloaca pecking. And the "teenage" dunnocks are impossibly cute - they ALMOST have adult plumage, but they still have pale, fluffy bottoms and are just a bit too round to be perfectly elegant.
We also have a nesting pair of great tits. You can tell apart males and females by the thickness of the black line down their front. They are presumably raising a little family somewhere about, though I'm not totally sure where! Less frequently, we get little blue tits, who take one seed and fly away.
Of course, we also get the big dopey woodpigeons, who are decidedly two sandwiches short of a picnic - one of them was sitting on the gate about 5 feet from me when I was hanging out my laundry, and looked utterly confuzzled when I started pigeon-cooing at it. Eventually it flew away but I think it was more because it found the situation too intellectually challenging than anything else.
The birds like our garden because it's a bit overgrown with lots of ivy and a little holly tree, accessible dusty soil and a small pond, so generally good for sneaking around in and finding insects. And because I'm at home a lot now, I get to watch them. It's lovely.
2. In an attempt to unite two disparate topics, I will now segue into the subject of the Europe-wide plane grounding by use of the theme "flying things". In this case, the lack of flying is rather more key, of course. So far I haven't been directly affected - no plans to go abroad for some months at least - but I've been indirectly affected in a few ways. My supervisor had to make a mammoth 2-day overland trek* to return from his Easter holidays (normally a 2-3 hour flight into Heathrow followed by an hour or two on the train), so I ended up doing a part of the organising of my viva dates myself, but that is now looking set for late May.
Meanwhile we have a friend to stay this week coming who's meant to be flying across the pond for a conference at the end of the week, but the odds of her getting on her flight on Thursday are looking raaather low, and I'm not optimistic that there would be space on any other flight either, given that I'm assuming the air companies, whenever they start flying again, will prioritise people stranded in foreign countries trying to get home rather than people flying out on new adventures.
So far the supermarkets still contain dwarf beans, babycorns, etc. but it'll be interesting to see how long that situation persists without the dubious miracles of airfreight. People might be forcibly educated in what's actually in season in Britain and Europe at this time of year...
In the meantime, I think all letters/parcels to and from Europe might run a little bit late!
I'm fairly sure the reason I'm bunged up and sneezing is a garden-variety common cold rather than any reaction to volcanic ash, as so far I haven't seen any...
*I'm British. 100 miles is a long way; 2 days of trains, driving, ships, etc. is unimaginable, some sort of arcane undertaking of doom...
That got long!
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Date: 18 Apr 2010 22:40 (UTC)Anyway am rambling...just wanted to share your excitement! Enjoy your birds :*)
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Date: 19 Apr 2010 05:49 (UTC)I don't have a birdfeeder in my yard, but I do have a magnolia tree that attracts an assortment of bugs. Every year the mockingbirds and bluejays wage an all-out war over feeding rights to that tree. It's great fun to watch. The Jays always win, but that doesn't stop the mockingbirds from trying again the next year.
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Date: 19 Apr 2010 11:05 (UTC)