Tag Archives: woodpecker

Tales of a Small Rabbit

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I’ve not quite made up my mind about my new blogging routine, but I am going to keep to the one a day (on average) plan until the end of the month. I’m thinking I may drop back to a couple of times a week after that. Half of me says that there is no need to change, as 250 words a day shouldn’t be a challenge. The other half of me says that practising longer pieces will be good for me and I should give it a go.

Whatever happens, I do know that I had a rejection yesterday. Rattle magazine runs a monthly ekphrastic poetry competition, amongst other things. It’s a good way of getting my submission numbers up, and giving myself a new challenge. So far, it’s also been a useful lesson in rejection, with me achieving a perfect record of three rejections in three attempts. I don’t mind these rejections, because they reject the poems because they aren’t good enough. Yes, I’m still banging on about editors who reject decent poems because they don’t match up to some wrong-headed vision of what a poem should be.

I will not go further along that line as it’s difficult to explain without becoming tedious. I’m thinking about this more and more because it’s coming up to the time when I will have to select a poem for a best of issue tanka, and I’m still not sure how to do it. I think I’ll just select the one I like the most and be honest about it. I’ll leave scholarly comment to other people.

Meanwhile, I just had two acceptances to balance up the rejection, and we had the woodpecker back on the feeders this morning. We have also got a small rabbit in the back garden. We aren’t sure how it got in, but are hoping it will be able to get out the same way as I wouldn’t want to see it trapped. It seems to have burrowed into the compost bin in search of vegetable scraps, but am not sure there is enough food in the garden to support even a small rabbit. The photo isn’t good, but it was done on a phone and enlarged without mercy.

It’s been a good time for wildlife – all the fledglings, the woodpeckers, a rabbit, a sparrow and the return of the goldfinches.

 

Third Post of the Day

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Julia’s new bowl – finished with wax so not to be used with food. You will be OK with nuts. Myself, I don’t see a problem but she has been lectured on it. If reports are to be believed, a little wax is not the worst thing I have eaten from shared bowls.

Spoiler Alert! Brace yourselves. This is the third post of the day. Number One is here and Number Two is here. You can probably get the gist of things but you will miss my masterful buildup of suspense. It probably isn’t worth worrying about, just thought I’d warn you.

Number One is an old post resurrected from 2018. I didn’t get on with it but when I cleared out my drafts I could never bring myself to trash it. I even managed to find the photographs to go with it.

Number Two poses a question about whether or not my keyboard change over was trouble free. And here is my answer.

No.

I unplugged the old one, plugged in the new one and . . . my world fell apart. Despite the promises from the manufacturer it was not a trouble free substitution. The screen size kept moving as I scrolled. I made sure that all my keys were set right and tried again. Same thing. When I tried to search for a way to remedy this I kept getting a strange screen coming up.

I was not happy.

So I plugged the old keyboard in to search for a remedy.

But it kept on doing it.

An idea formed. If the new keyboard is playing up and the old one is now playing up when it was OK before, could it be that the computer is at fault?

Switch off. Wait 15 seconds. Switch on. Plug the new keyboard in. It works!

I have no idea what went wrong, but I’m not really bothered as long as the fault doesn’t return. The new one is crisp in action, has no saggy keys and is much quieter in use – something that Julia used to complain about when I stayed up late to type. So far it only has one crumb in it. I needed a sandwich to keep my spirits up and one dropped. I tried to get it out but it disappeared under the “m” key and I don’t feel inclined to start dismantling a brand new keyboard.

And, talking of returns, the woodpecker came back. Well, almost. The one that came back (we missed a photo) had more extensive and more colourful underparts and had a red spot on the back of its neck, meaning that we had a female yesterday and a male today. It had a good time hacking away at the fat balls. We are hoping it will return.

Header picture is Julia’s new bowl. Then a heron and a gannet. They are always good and, being big, are easy to photograph.

Gannets at Bempton

 

 

 

A Mosaic of a Life

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We had a great spotted woodpecker in the garden this morning – Julia saw it and managed to get to a camera before it slipped away. She only managed one shot, but it was good. They are not rare in gardens, but we have been waiting eighteen months to see one.

Not the world’s most impressive bird, particularly for those of you who live in tropical paradises, or even Maine, but it’s quite bright for Britain. I could probably have edited it slightly better, but this way you see less of the fence, which needs painting. It has no red on its head so is probably a mature female. Males have a red nape and juveniles have a red cap.

She washed a yellow happi coat  in what they call a hygiene wash yesterday. It used to be a boil was, even though it only gets up to 60 degrees C. The yellow dye is not colourfast at that temperature and we ended up with a lot of yellowish underwear and tea towels. That doesn’t matter, but she also dyed a favourite t-shirt and is a little downcast by it.

Bouncing back from yesterday’s adversity I have found a poetry magazine that is accepting submissions, and it will suit the five I had returned yesterday. Tonight I will tighten them up and then I will send them. Even if they are returned again, it will be good to show confidence.

These are the small things that make up my day.

Poppies growing from cracks in concrete – I really must try to get some established around here.

And, of course, naps.

We also prepared a box of stuff that No 1 son left behind on his visit, and presents for the grandson’s first birthday. International postage has got more complicated over the years, and more expensive.  I cut the box down to make sure it passed as a small parcel in both height and weight, then arranged for the Royal Mail to collect it tomorrow. It is considerably cheaper if you book it via the internet rather than taking it into a Post Office. About £11 in this case, which seems wrong. The Royal mail and the Post Office should work together. Soon all post offices will be closed down, I expect, through lack of business, and people won’t have anywhere local to conduct business as the internet will have taken over.

Puffins at Bempton – they are lovely birds, but always seem a bit glum. This one appears to be contemplating throwing himself off a cliff. However, along with that mournful expression his creator gave him wings, which will prevent any unfortunate events.

 

 

 

A New Bird for the Garden

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Green Woodpecker – previous residents had them in the garden but we have only seen them in the trees next to us. So near, yet so far.

The big news of the day is that we had a Greater Spotted Woodpecker on the peanut feeder today. based on previous experience we are hoping this may become regular and I may actually get a photograph. By the time I had got the camera, put a card in (I’d been using it for working on a coin article) and got back to the window, it had gone.

It was, at least, there longer than the parakeet, and being able to access the food, should have been happy. The woodpecker was a regular visitor to the feeders on the farm and is not a problem to other birds. We were talking about how to extend the variety of birds that visit and we have decided that we don’t know.

We tried pasta. They threw it all over the lawn. we tried white rice (recommended by many people) they turned their noses up at it. We try fruit. The squirrels like it. It seems that white bread is the only thing they like apart from seeds, peanuts and fat based foods. And mealworms. It’s just that we don’t particularly like feeding mealworms. They need soaking before serving and you don’t always feel like soaking dried mealworms at 7am.

GReat Spotted Woodpecker on a feeder on the farm

We are keeping our fingers crossed for something interesting on 23-25 January, the weekend of the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch. You can also do it in small gardens or, in fact, anywhere. So far 265, 725 people have signed up. One year we did it at my Mum and Dad’s house with the kids and turned up to find three jays in the garden. We’ve only had jays here twice in a year so I doubt that will happen. I also, in Nottingham, spent ten minutes waiting as  a Sparrowhawk perched on next door’s chimney and resisted the temptation to fly into our garden.

I have suggested putting cat food down to tempt the kites but Julia has vetoed the idea. It would scare the others, it makes them easier to poison (assuming you would want to) and it is, she says, cheating. I agree with the last one, as it will skew the records, but that’s just how I am – fair-minded and under the thumb of my wife.

This was going to be a post about daily word targets but it seems to have been derailed. Maybe later . . .

Great Spotted Woodpecker – and an admission that I should have labelled my photos better.

What we did next

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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.

Group photo with Halloween masks
Julia and Emma looking scary
Aaron, Alasdair and Dave (who is old enough to know better)

 

Green Woodpecker
Green Woodpecker feeding on ants
Green Woodpecker feeding on the floor

 

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.

The third day

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With nine visitors with learning difficulties and our normal Wednesday six, we had a lively day as everyone decided there were no strangers, just friends they hadn’t met.

Today’s pizza count was only 14, but I had to prepare all the dough myself, ready for topping (it’s a long story featuring a glitch in timing).  Actually I made dough for 18, but we only used enough for 12, and took my two emergency gluten-free bases out of the freezer.  I used the extra dough, with a selection of olives and fresh-picked rosemary to make a loaf. It’s quite good, though the flour is just cheap flour, rather than strong white.  I didn’t take a picture, just made a cheese sandwich. It was good.

My arthritis is now playing up, as kneading the dough for 18 pizzas is not quite what the doctor ordered. Strange how when you’re young and healthy you don’t look at a pile of pizza dough as a challenge. How things change.

The keets are looking perky, and several of them are exhibiting a tendency to have a go at flying. The grey one is actually developing a taste for showbiz by the look of things and Julia says it’s almost impossible to put your hand in the pen without it throwing itself at you for selection.

The woodpecker came back to the feeder, the sun shone, a mistle thrush did its stormcock act in a tree top and  all in all it was the sort of day that makes it all worthwhile.

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Things that went badly – checking up on allergies. Things that went well – emergency gluten-free pizza bases, new friendships, Gemma’s felted teddy bear (made with alpaca wool).