A quiet day today – at least regarding wildlife: There was quite a lot of sound at Benslow where I coached duos on music by Bohuslav Martinu and Rebecca Clarke! Brenda didn’t manage to get out anywhere at home, and there were no moths in the moth trap.
But – in my patch of free time after lunch – I did manage a leisurely walk around the Benslow garden. It’s a lovely urban oasis and I know that Brenda has some quite specific flowers that she’s looking forward to seeing here in May, when we are running a string quartet course. Today it was peaceful with just blue and great tits, robins, blackbirds and wood pigeons. However I did spend 15 minutes or so watching (or more accurately trying to see properly in the tangle of trees!) a goldcrest.
And it was nice to just stand quietly and enjoy the shapes of the trees against the blue sky.
Brenda writes: “Yesterday I cleaned and refilled our bird feeders. We haven’t have much success here – unlike previous gardens where we have had all sorts of birds. They seem to fly across our garden to more tempting offers and our small pond is the real draw. It’s not unusual to see a pigeon or blackbird having a bath and it has been trashed a couple of times by mallards. Today I sat in the dining room in gaps in my working day to see what was around. It seems that the only birds I have attracted so far are starlings, who have been enjoying the fat balls. Better than nothing…!”
No new species for February 7th:
TOTALS TO DATE:
Birds = 116
Moths = 3
Wildflowers = 15