Merry Christmas To You All

I wish all the readers of this blog a Merry Christmas

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Visitors To Garden this Week Ending 19th December

I took the opportunity as it was such a nice day and fairly mild to do a bit of bird watching from the bedroom window and the back door.
I did have a fleece on though – I’m not that brave!

I was pleased to see a buzz of activity especially as the garden had been quiet earlier in the week.

Cyril the Squirrel was busy collecting the peanuts we put out for him while a Wood Pigeon kept him under observation from a nearby tree. The Blackbird was ‘eye-ing up’ the seeds on the feeder tray and eventually plucked up the courage to go to it and feed (it is not a usual sight to see the blackbird on the feeder tray as he normally forages around on the ground). His visit was short lived though as he was brusquely bullied out of the way by the Feral Pigeons who, as is there way, continually squabble for a turn on the feeder tray.

The Robin and the Blue Tit are always a pleasure to see.

Click on an image to see a larger version of it.

A pleasant hour or so spent watching the birds and then it was a cup of coffee and a read of the paper. Life can be tough at times!

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Slow, Slow, Quick, Slow, Slow.

No, this isn’t how I dance the Foxtrot! It’s the speed of my Computer over the last few weeks. The CPU has been running at 100% and I have struggled to find the cause. I have gone through nearly all processes running. This has to be done when the CPU is at 100% and takes ages. I have been surprised by how many Window’s process’s can contain malware but you are warned that if you stop one doom and gloom will descend on you and the ‘blue screen of death’ will visit. I think through a process of elimination the culprit has been caught, well, the PC has been stable for a week now so I am ‘up and running’ .
Fingers crossed – now that is a good description of how I type!

I took this image during that last really frosty morning.

I am hoping to have an expert look at the PC this weekend. Once I have plied him with the ‘red nectar’ I am sure Tony will be only to happy to help – what do you think, Janet?

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Carols at Deal Bandstand

This Saturday (6th December 2008) the Pfizer Wind Orchestra will be playing at Deal Bandstand for the annual Carol Concert.

I am indebted to the Deal Memorial Bandstand Trust Website for the use of this image from their site.

We start playing at 5.15pm and will be accompanied by children from Sholden Primary School who will be leading the singing.

Wrap up warm.
I have been practicing the flute wearing gloves – someone has observed that I sound as if I play wearing mittens anyway! Harsh!!!!
I will have to wear fingerless gloves for the piccolo so if you hear any ‘accidental solos’ then my fingers will have frozen to the keys and I will probably be a few bars behind the rest of the orchestra!! (no change there then I can hear the Conductor saying).

See you there.

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Sparrow Hawk

We have been to Prague (or as the locals say – Praha) for a long weekend. More of which on a later post but it leads me onto the topic for this entry.

We had been home for an hour or so when I thought I had better look out and see what the back garden was like. To my surprise there was this largish bird eating a meal at the rear of the garden. I quickly identified it as a Sparrow Hawk and rushed to set up my camera. The light was fading fast (It was about 3.30 – 4pm) and even with my Canon 350d with 600mm Telephoto Mirror Lens at ISO1600 1/60sec f2.8 I only managed to capture this one useful shot. Excuse the not perfectly focused, poorly coloured and under lit shot. I did my best!

I have not had many visitors, such as Sparrows and Greenfinches, for the past week and the food I put out in the feeder was by-and-large untouched. Could this bird of prey’s presence be the cause?

The Blue Tits and Great Tits are still flitting about but they spend a lot of their time amongst the branches of our trees and only pay a fleeting visit to the feeder so I would consider them fairly safe from this predator.

It is a shame to see the remains of a bird in the garden, but, as the French say – “C’est le vie”

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