So, what have we been doing apart from egg-based humour?
Well, we ate doughnuts, made Halloween masks, and I tried to take a photo of a green woodpecker through dirty triple glazing. The doughnuts and masks were successful. The photographs weren’t, as the glazing and dirt mess with the autofocus. When I went out to try for some clearer photos the woodpecker (a) hid and (b) flew away.
later I saw a kestrel perching on the brush shaft of the hooded youth statue. I got my camera, I switched it on…
…and got the Battery Empty message.
So I swapped batteries…
…and got the same result.
I then remembered that I hadn’t recharged them, because they’d run out late one day – too late to recharge at work and too stupid to remember once I got home. Bah!
Can’t really complain though, as we got great views of kestrels and a buzzard perching by the roadside on the way to work. The buzzard was on a fence post along the new A46, perching at about eye level. We couldn’t have asked for a better view.
Later in the afternoon we cleared some beds, played a Dracula-themed snakes and ladders game (Julia kept winning) and finished off Monday’s biscuits. They had kept well, and we really should have left them a few days longer, but you know how it is.
I can vouch for most of my biscuit recipes lasting three days. If you ever find me vouching for them lasting longer, ask yourself why they are still not eaten.
At least, having seen two small falcons today, Julia was able to make a quip about the coming of night and the fact that we would be having Orkestrel Manoeuvres in the Dark.
Pop music puns can be tricky as they are sensitive to the age of those listening, but for those of us who remember the band, it’s a quality pun.
Love those masks! And my own green woodpecker photos are far less satisfactory than yours–too far away and blurry. Yours are nice!
Thanks – nice to know other people have trouble with them too. 🙂
Yes, sympathy in numbers, or something like that. But I do keep hoping the woodpecker comes back. It hung around our garden for a few days several years ago–attacking a very large ant hill by the pond. I want it to come back and finish the job!
They call in the trees and fly over quite regularly, but rarely settle. In five years we’ve only seen it settle 3 times.
Wow! I now feel privileged that it came several times that one season, and passed through once or twice since!
Especially given the circumstances, those woodpecker pics are not too bad. Anything that can fly does whenever I reach for my camera.
Thanks Derrick – I have a theory that the auto-focus alerts them. 😉
I like the masks! I find green woodpeckers are very nervous and will take flight as soon as they see anything suspicious – especially me with a camera!
Yes, the masks went well. And yes, this was actually the closest we’ve ever seen a green woodpecker on the farm – other sightings have been much further away – I suppose I should be grateful for the few half-decent shots I managed to take.