Country File

Started by Heedless Horseman, 13 June 2021, 02:04:19 PM

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Steve J

QuoteSome of the grass verges near to me are so overgrown they block line of sight, particularly at roundabouts and junctions.

Round our way these are cut so as not to block views of junctions etc.

steve_holmes_11

New pair of Elderly Ravens have started visiting the garden.

I'm delighted to see them keeping the Magpies and Herring Hulls in line.
You can't beat 3 inches of razor sharp beak to instil some respect into the filth and scum of the bird world.

FierceKitty


Good morning, Mr Magpie. Give my love to your wife and children.
I don't drink coffee to wake up. I wake up to drink coffee.

Steve J

No Ravens around here, but some around the Avon Gorge in central Bristol I believe. Plenty of other corvids though.

On another note, yet another unseasonably cool and wet August, the third year in a row for us. I pity those who have been camping these past two weeks with young kids, certainly this morning when it has been bucketing it down.

Raider4

Quote from: Steve J on 08 August 2021, 07:30:25 AM
I pity those who have been camping these past two weeks with young kids, certainly this morning when it has been bucketing it down.

Aye, I can see a lot of "used once" family tents becoming available on the 2nd-hand market in the near future.

"Why do we go abroad every summer?"
(looks at British weather)
"Oh yes, that's why"

Heedless Horseman

08 August 2021, 07:45:26 AM #260 Last Edit: 08 August 2021, 07:53:11 AM by Heedless Horseman
No Ravens...but a big old Crow gets 'respect' from the Magpies! Just thinking... there used to be a lot of Jackdaws, not seen for a while... maybe Magpies took over he 'hood'!
'Sons Of Anarchy' in the avian world?  ;D
(40 Yrs ago. I should have been an Angry Young Man... but wasn't.
Now... I am an Old B******! )  ;)

Techno II

Still haven't spotted any ravens here, for a good while. :(

Jackdaws, crows, magpies..a good few here......and there's a fair sized rookery, in the village, about a mile and a half away.

Don't know what's happened to the ravens......There were never oodles of them..but you'd often be able to watch them seeing off a buzzard, or a red kite.

Years ago, there was one who was a good mimic, and did quite a good impression of an 'old' mobile phone ring tone......and there was one (maybe the phone impersonator ?) who would make a 'kerplunk' sound as it flew overhead.  ;D ;D

Cheers - Phil. :)


steve_holmes_11

Quote from: Steve J on 08 August 2021, 07:30:25 AM
No Ravens around here, but some around the Avon Gorge in central Bristol I believe. Plenty of other corvids though.

On another note, yet another unseasonably cool and wet August, the third year in a row for us. I pity those who have been camping these past two weeks with young kids, certainly this morning when it has been bucketing it down.

We have 18th century waterwork nearby.
Dam and spillways from when the nearby town was a water driven textile powerhouse.

The site is heavily wooded now, and the dam holds doesn't retain a reservoir.
But the resulting wilderness seems to be a great Raven magnet.


Heedless Horseman

About Dams...Watched a Dan Snow TV doc series about 'The Dam Busters'... and the 'mock up' dam used to test 'small scale' explosives' is still there, in a wooded stream... complete with 'hole'! Rather weird!  ;)
(40 Yrs ago. I should have been an Angry Young Man... but wasn't.
Now... I am an Old B******! )  ;)

Steve J

Yesterday was a rather lovely late Summer's day here in Bristol, so after a bit of gardening, I just sat in the garden watching the bees and butterflies on the Heleniums, Buddleia and Verbena Bonariensis, which was lovely. It's nice to just stop now and then and watch the World go by :).

Heedless Horseman

Young small Birds and young Foxes Really going after food... do they 'know' something? Still too early to know whether 'Berries' are heavy or not, but does not look it. Last year, LOADS of berries... but SHORT, harsh 'wintery' spell.
(40 Yrs ago. I should have been an Angry Young Man... but wasn't.
Now... I am an Old B******! )  ;)

Techno II

Nature came indoors, this morning. :)

Went back to the kitchen to see whether the dogs had let themselves back in. (I'd been playing games on the 'puter')
Door wide open...so they'd been back and gone out again.....Called them to come in.

Then had one of those "What the hell was that ?" moments, ...It was a young blackbird flapping against one of the windows, making quite a racket !!
I didn't try and grab it, as it was in a panic already....And it stayed put while I opened the window...and away it flew. :)

Cheers - Phil.

Heedless Horseman

But, you only needed another Three and Twenty!  :o ;)
Have had Robins exploring the main room.

Next door had Jackdaws in the unused chimney for years. Come to think, haven't seen any around for a while, so maybe she had a hidden cover installed.

Thankfully, since the rotten floor was repaired last year... not so many Slugs in the Kitchen!  :)
(40 Yrs ago. I should have been an Angry Young Man... but wasn't.
Now... I am an Old B******! )  ;)

Techno II

Quote from: Heedless Horseman on 22 August 2021, 03:06:36 PM
But, you only needed another Three and Twenty!  :o ;)
Have had Robins exploring the main room.

No. Keith :).....But.....we (almost, without fail) get a very small portion of a swarm of bees, down the chimney each year.....which have to be gently coaxed out of one of the living room windows.
As far as we know...there are no 'domesticated' bee hives, anywhere near us.
So these have to be 'wild' bees.

They look like 'normal' bees to me. ;)

Cheers - Phil  :)

Lord Kermit of Birkenhead

Ok - to bee or not to bee
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