RSPB bird watch - did you remember.

I want to clarify something right from the off - a narcoleptic does not make a good bird watcher!

I was really looking forward to this RSPB bird watch and while I was eager to do it yesterday the weather was atrocious so I decided today would be the day.
I chose to watch the bird table round by the polytunnel because there's usually more activity there due to all the surrounding hedges. The problem with this bird table though is that I cannot hang anything from it because the Rooks arrive in their droves if I do and scare all the small birds away so there's just the one bowl of food in an area that won't allow anything bigger than a Starling to get in.

On the menu today was bird seed, mealworms, pinhead oatmeal, crushed peanuts, mixed seed, mixed dried fruit and scraped suet block.

I gathered pen, paper, binoculars and camera and set myself up in the hen house which has a good view of the feeding station although because the feeding station is so tall - 7ftish - this was never really going to be a photo opportunity.

I had quite a few regulars show up such as a lone Robin. The Blue Tits and Great Tits were of the greatest number and you could tell them a mile off because they fly so funny.
I also saw 2 Blackbirds that were cleaning up the part of the feed station they could access - the edges, 1 Starling and 2 Blackbirds and a few house sparrows. Not really a fantastical number - I thought there would be much more and I was a tad dissappointed that the Wrens weren't showing up because I know there's plenty of them around - usually in the polytunnel. Just as I was coming to the end of the hour 1 Wren showed itself on a pile of wood below the feeding station and started feeding from the seed scattered below so that cheered me up a bit.

I made various notes during this 1 hour of sitting in the hen house in the freezing cold, in fact my page consists mainly of doodles and little snippets in barely legible hand writing as my fingers began to freeze and refuse to function.
"I'm cold" followed by "I'm bloody cold" topped off with "I'm frozen".
"Even the birds are too cold to eat" I wrote that while I sat there for at least 10 minutes of absolutely no bird in sight and not even a teeny tweet.
"Hens make some weird noises" - they all decided to stay around my feet and they made some really weird sounds as they sat there talking to one another.
"Stupid binoculars" - every time I tried to look through them they steamed up within 5 seconds.

I did enjoy the process, despite freezing my do dar off and I've decided I shall do it once every season at the same time each year to compare results.

I did get a show from this little lot though - Rooks, I hate them and they arrived by the hundreds thanks to the Rookery next door. The noise they make is awful .

Also a huge flock of these appeared - I'm assuming Blackbirds or Starlings or something? Certainly a lot smaller than the Rooks and way too agile for Rooks.

So in the field we had a flock of Rooks, a flock of whatever the smaller birds are a whole load of Graylag geese - at least 200. The geese arrive every year, stay for a couple of days and then head of to wherever they go next. Love seeing them, though they seem a tad earlier this year.

Had to have a little chuckle at the hens a couple of days ago. The pond had totally frozen over and I was trying to stop the dogs from walking on it when I noticed mama hen making her way over to me

All cocky as she was the only one brave enough (or stupid enough) to attempt it and then Huntly appeared and noticed her. Mama hens courage was short lived and she turned tail and ran while I had to make sure Huntly didn't attempt to take off after her on the frozen pond. TheShepherds had been on it but I wasn't risking Huntlys weight on it.

First line of defence - chickens!

The fish in Mr TGs pond were extremely active yesterday - a highly unusual sight for this lot. From early morning till late evening they were chasing a particular Goldfish around like a posse of mad men, this flurry of activity though caught the attention of Saffy, our Birman cat.

Now before y'all go "Ahhhhh what a beautiful puddy cat", beauty is as beauty does and there is nothing beautiful about the antics of this cat. Bought as a house cat along with her sister they were the cutest kittens we'd ever laid eyes on - too cute even for here cos you'll lose yourself in their cuteness. Oh ok, here's the cuteness, but don't be fooled

Drunk cat and Devil cat.

Anyway these cats turned out to be THE most destructive house cats I have ever had the displeasure of owning - they could (and did) strip a house of its wallpaper over night. They also had a killer instinct second to none that saw them bringing back live rabbits to the house, thankfully these were wild rabbits, not someones prize Angora 'Mr Squiggles' rabbit - see where this is headed?
Anyway, like I said the commotion in the pond got the attention of Saffy and twice I had to run downstairs and chase her off the garden - though chase is hard to do when the cat just lays on the floor and wants you to rub its belly!
The third time this happened, I chased Saffy off but saw her lick her paw, that's when I realised she'd actually been dipping into the pond the entire time. I figured I'd remove her completely (No, not kill her!) and then let the dogs out cos she'll steer clear while they're out.
So there I am carrying her to her sleeping area in the shed, telling her off while she looks all cute and stupid and then I almost stepped on a ruddy Goldfish! The little moo had snagged the biggest fish, carried it round the garden, dropped it at the shed door and gone back for more - typical senseless killing from a cat.
I dropped placed the cat on the floor and picked up the rather dirty Goldfish which surprisingly started flapping away in my hand, so I legged it back to the pond and held it in the water figuring it would die anyway but nope, it started gulping, then flapping and then sped off.
It didn't look too agile, in fact it looked drunk as a skunk as it banged into things and kept laying on its side and I did feel terrible for it when the rest of the fish resumed their chasing of it. I did consider taking it out and putting it elsewhere to recover but then I figured while it's being chased it doesn't have time to think about dying - logic!

It's the big Goldfish in the middle being mobbed.

Poor thing!

I watched the fish for half hour or so (ssshhhh, I didn't admit to that) but it seemed fine so I decided to work on defences because the cat was surely going to come back now it knew what to expect!
I decided on a two pronged tactic, the first line of defence being a posse of hens led by the notorious 'Big Momma' who was up on a murder rap a few months ago (reduced to manslaughter on grounds of diminished responsibility) and head Honcho 'Romeo' who's name is deceiving.

Should Saffy make it through this first line of defence I had back up installed on the garden in the form of 'Atlas' who is a bit doddery now and prefers to ignore the cats but has done enough chasing in his past to warrant a reputation

And Huntly who would most certainly enjoy capturing a cat and forcing it to be his best friend cross dribble cloth

Suffice to say the fish were safe for the rest of the day because Saffy is too lazy to access the pond via the other 3 unmanned garden fences and as for that fish, well it's still alive - amazingly. once the water had cleaned it the scratch or teeth marks from the cat are evident but by the end of the day it was whizzing round as easily as it was before Saffy played tag.

On a relevant note, I decided I hate the pond, it's not big enough or deep enough and that next year the whole thing is being re-done. Mr TG agreed - of course!