Sunbathing in Wintertime

pigeons sunbathing 23 November

About 10.00 this morning these pigeons had fluffed up their feathers and were clearly enjoying a safe sunbathe.

12.12.22: Winter companionship

smart

We have a neighbour who feeds the pigeons (and indirectly the sparrowhawk). This morning the pigeons were not ranging the snow-covered fields, but gathered in the lime tree, keeping company, conserving energy, and waiting for the grain to be scattered in our neighbour’s garden.

A Sunday walk from home

It was already warm at 10.00, so we took our walk early. I had a foraging bag in my pocket and spent a few minutes in the scented shade of a lime, or linden, tree, gathering the blossom to dry for tea – a soporific I’m told – and working alongside the bees, hive and humble.

I’m always reminded of a primary school teacher who insisted, heavy-handedly, that there were no green flowers, but see above; and that grass was always green. See above and below. Use your eyes!

Use your eyes? It was our ears alerted us to the peacock, but he is surprisingly well camouflaged in the dappled shade below. His markings effectively break up the outline of his body; he looks like part of the tree and part of the shadow.

Final picture, another bird whose camouflage is effective. This wood pigeon is sitting in next door’s birch tree; the passageway between the two human houses channels and increases whatever wind there may be. Pigeon is probably enjoying a gentle breeze.

The first ripe blackberry today, only a few days later than usual.

Squab in October

I like the name squab for a young pigeon. This one is sitting on next-door’s new fence just the other day. His nest is 7m high in the birch tree, just out of sight to the right.

Going Viral VIII: local birds

Thanks to the virus, George is working from home, keyboard steaming away, but still time to observe the birds in Mile End, London. This morning at 7.30 our street in Canterbury should have been busy with drivers off to work but the only traffic was a pair of pigeons and two magpies, pecking at discarded takeaway food. The birch tree was busy with long-tsiled tits a few minutes later.

Feed the …

A rustle in the bark chippings next to me as I walked home through the park. A blackbird? No, a Rat.

Ten yards ahead, a woman was feeding the ducks and pigeons …

Those pigeons again.

One of the pigeons has discovered the feeder by our kitchen door. Not that the bird has learnt to alight on the narrow perch and peck grain from the trough, but this morning, when the door curtain was drawn back, and more than once since, it was pecking up the seeds dropped by sparrows, who can be messy eaters.

Is it the lengthening days that led the pigeons to be paired off in the two trees, lime and birch, sitting closer together and calling to each other? The views of the ground feeder at our door reveal how splendid their plumage is.

Big Bird Watch 2020, 2: in the shed.

At L’Arche Kent we cannot let a year go by without some of us joining in the BBC and RSPB’s* annual  Big Bird Watch – spending an hour at the Glebe,§ watching to see how many species and how many individuals call in to our feeding stations.

Nothing exotic here! The parakeets have not arrived yet, there must be plenty  of pickings in the Thanet seaside towns to encourage them to say.

But we saw seven sparrows at once and a pair of moorhens: as you see, we are at the riverside. We were quite surprised not to spot any wood pigeons, but when our photographer went to speak to someone at the other end of the garden he saw that they had been there all the time, behind the shed and out of sight. The rats were there all the time too, but then it was the first day of the Year of the Rat.

As ever, the afternoon ended with a shared meal, in thanks for a shared afternoon  enjoying creation.

*BBC – British Broadcasting Corporation, the radio and tv people; RSPB – Royal Society for the Protection of Birds.

§ Glebe: a plot of land for the priest to grow food on: a church allotment.

Wood pigeons in winter – a second glance

This morning, as the curtains opened, here were three wood pigeons in the birch tree – and one still next-door, in the lime. Everyone in this picture is keeping a social distance, but it’s still four weeks to the birds’ wedding day on Saint Valentine’s.

Wood Pigeons in Winter – just a glance

Every year the wood pigeons nest in the tall birch in next door’s garden, while there are two old collared doves’ nests in our apricot tree.

Usually the pigeons stick together, perched in the same tree, even upon the same branch, but this month one of them has been resting in one of the lime (tillia) trees we planted after the hurricane, which are now big enough to take a collared doves’ nest at least.  The two birds were within sight of each other.

Which tree would the wood pigeons choose? Were they utterly estranged, or perhaps strangers to each other; I had no way of telling. But this morning both were in the birch tree. An early sign of Spring?