This morning I braved a trip into town on my own. Okay, I caught the bus but even so, everything went fine. My foot ached a bit by the time I returned but I think that’s because of lack of use rather than anything else. The swelling has significantly decreased and the pain has gone. Yay!
On the way out I saw the most amazing thing. Amazing for me, I mean because I’m sure it’s not THAT amazing.
As I left the house I saw a big adult buzzard slowly circling our street, getting lower as the circles decreased in size. Suddenly, while I was still quite a distance away, it swooped down like a rocket, wings in, beak arrow-like and just as deadly. It disappeared behind a tree, on the footpath, so I couldn’t see what was happening. A car then started up and the buzzard flew away.
When I reached the spot where it had landed I realised what it had been doing. Two bits of a dead blackbird were scattered on the path – a head and a wing. I didn’t see the buzzard kill it but it must have and was just eating it when it was interrupted by the car.
After turning the corner, heading for the bus stop, I stopped as I spotted the buzzard coming back. It circled and circled then disappeared from view again as, no doubt, it finished breakfast.
Then, in another bird related episode, I saw a whole flock of sparrows standing on the chicken wire fence that runs between the Crazies Bed and the Wildflower Patch. Now, that might not sound that incredible, after all they do spend a lot of time carrying on in the hebe which is just the other side of the fence.
What was amazing was that they were all standing on the wire at 90 degrees to the ground…horizontal rather than vertical. One sparrow would be a bit odd but this was at least ten of them. It was like it was some sort of sparrow art installation. As soon as they saw me, they all flew away but for that moment I was part of something special.
Not so special is Emma’s new found love for cow manure. Late in the day Mirinda took them both up to the park and decided, not heeding Sue’s warning about Emma’s new thing, to go via the Queen’s Bottom which, this time of year, has cows in it. And cows mean lovely fresh, disgustingly steamy cow pats. She was gross. Fortunately Freya didn’t do the same (she has been known to eat them).
And Emma hates baths so much…
You do see odd things but interesting fancy birds doing that still they do lots of thing that us humans never see. Love mum xxxx