Five minutes

It is amazing what you can see in the space of a few minutes if you are looking. I’d taken the camera with me this morning. I usually do, of course, but hadn’t for a few days. I was probably being a bit protective of it. There had been a minor accident with a glass of wine and two days of utter panic as it whirred, buzzed and groaned while the screen fogged and the picture blurred. That was it, I thought. Ruined. But no… as it dried, slowly, it came back to normal and I heaved a huge sigh of relief.

Since then, it has stayed safely at home a little more than usual, what with all the rain, but after all, a camera is of no use unless it is in your hand, so this morning, that’s where it was. I took it through into my son’s bedroom with his morning tea. The bird feeder  is just outside his window and although shots through double glazing are never going to be perfect, it is a good spot.

The birds have become very tame. Knowing full well that they will be fed and never harmed, the residents of the trees surrounding the house have made the garden their home, raising their young and many of them bringing the fledgelings to the birdtable. Last year the starlings were a flying circus every morning, and the tiny little fluffballs hat were the baby bluetits a sheer delight.

There are birds all year round. A pair of nesting robins have become incredibly tame and do not mind being within a couple of feet of us. The pair of blackbirds, the male glossy, the female brown, are almost as inquisitive as the robins. The pigeons and collared doves too seem happy to be around people. The garden, of course, benefits in so many ways as the birds pick off the aphids. There is no place … and no need…for chemicals here.

The jackdaws are much more watchful and wary than many of the smaller birds, but the blue-eyed birds are a real joy to watch and meeting their gaze there can be no doubt of their intellect and awareness. The sparrows are just simply a joy to watch at any time.

The starlings are a noisy bunch, coming in, quite often, in garrulous mobs, squabbling all the time between themselves and trying to take the feeders for their own. Magpies live in the hawthorn that hangs over the fence and thrushes live in the elder that is just coming into flower. The robins, though, have  special place with their cheeky, intelligent stance and determination not to miss anything. And all of these we saw in just five minutes through the window this morning. Mind you, yesterday I would have liked the camera as the squirrel came in for breakfast too.. but I’m not going to complain. And there are still all the fledglings to come! If it is anything like last year, I’d better keep the camera handy 🙂