Wednesday 1 April 2020

Oh to Be in England Now That April's There

Robert Browning

Would seem by the tone of that, Robert is not a discontented Wild-lifer as the dearth
of subject matter continues and we would readily swap locations.
Written by the Bard in 1845 while on what seemed to be a ‘home sick’ ridden visit to
Northern Italy
it would seem safe to say (but not to go) that we would be getting more joy there birdwise?

Once again the message being
"Not A Lot"
To emphasise the point, as if our constant bleeting thus far hasn't already endorsed that enough,
we were reduced to clicking and videoing

MAGPIE
along with
BOG MYRTLE
still in brown shades of winter plumage.


The Greek nymph Nephele, goddess of the clouds and mother of the Centaurs, is a fickle beast, or at least she was that night - Monday. All keyed up to view the parade of 60 newly launched satellites from Cape Canaveral she wafted a thick blanket right across the heavens just in time to block out the predicted 21:17 arrival.
(Thanks Bomber)

At 03:45 on Tuesday morning I was woken by the full repertoire of certainly
2, but maybe 3, 
Tawny Owls 
giving it large just the other side of the
River Stour not 400 yards away.
Standing in the doorway it was immediately noticed that Sod had also played his hand (Law)
as every Heavenly body in the firmament was visible!
Maybe we’ll get another crack at it tonight??
 
No matter how small the improvement on Tuesday we were deserving of it
as a few locally common things came out to play.
While completing the early morning domestics the local
 male
 KESTREL
took to the high wire
perhaps performing a little longer than most readers would have liked.
Next up was a brief appearence of one of the
usually shy and captive
EMU
before heading up north
where the now cavorting 
pair of
COLLARED DOVE
are now well into the nuptuals at the
Eco Recycling Works
("one needs a little nap after all that billing & cooing")
At the Irrigation Pond one of the prospective parent
COOT's
seemed to be waiting in anticipation while the other continued incubating.
At the Gravel Pit it was now left to the boisterous
CANADA GEESE
to make up the numbers in their pursuit of finding a mate.
Again we were
Clutching at Straws - Marillion
on the Heath with only
PIED WAGTAIL
and a handful of
 LINNETs
 making up the numbers
What this one was doing we don't quite know but whatever, it wasn't phasing the still leafless
ASPENS
swaying in the breeze
The Best was left until Last as heading off for Sainsbury's to
Victual and Bunker Ship
and where one of the 'wonderful'
Check Out Ladies
was having a little moment bemoaning her lot.
My reply to her, which seemed to cheer her quite a bit, was to remember
"if you don't do what you do then I cannot do the same"!
I went on to say that thus far today I hadn't noticed a Bank Manager, Solicitor, Airline Pilot, Estate Agent
et al as the Governmental Diktat had quite clearly stated that
"only Key and Essential Personnel were required to go to work and you are one Lady"
'WE ALL NEED EACH OTHER'