Happily Ever After
Life in The Rural Retreat with a beautiful wife, three cats, garden wildlife, a camera, a computer – and increasing amounts about running
Earlier posts can be found on Adventures of a Lone Bass Player, where this blog began life. Recent entries can be found here.
What Lies Beneath
by admin - 23:26 on 06 June 2013
There's a whole mysterious world beneath The Rural Retreat's garden, and The Fearless Ones are mightily intrigued.
For at least an hour today, Pandora stood guard beneath the apple tree bird feeder and Willow did likewise beneath the feeder near the gate. Neither were looking up; both fixed all their attention on the ground and (I presume) its subterranean comings and goings, as though they expected something to erupt at any moment.
And so it might, for several vole holes are handily placed to take advantage of the birds' spillage. However, it seems that most of The Rural Retreat's Rampaging Rodents are wise to the two sphinxes who lie in wait – in the past few weeks, very few ex-voles have been left for us.
Pandora (displaying the patch shaved during her recent trip to the vet) takes a break from staring at the ground to stare at the sky
Their rodent fixation is good news for the birds, although recent sightings have dropped appreciably as parents spend more time taking food to nests than stuffing themselves at the feeders. The nearby clamour of chicks that I can hear from the bathroom (but can't see outside – maybe they're in the loft) is ceaseless during daylight hours.
We've seen only a handful of fledglings so far but any day now the garden should be filled with them. This could be Good News, for my snap of squabbling youngsters sold at each of my last three markets, so more crowd-pleasing pictures could be useful.
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