Shortest day of the year. There is meant to be nine hours of daylight, but, it is such a dreary day that we are unlikely to see anything like that much true daylight.
There are plenty of birds around the garden, but, with the high winds and driving rain, not much could be seen on my usual walk.
However, there is always one bird that I can guarantee to see, and this probably applies to most people in most parts of the country, for, this has become a truly ubiquitous bird.
I am of course talking about the wood pigeon.
This bird has continuously increased in numbers despite man's continuous persecution. In addition, there has been a rapid increase in natural predators, including sparrow hawk, goshawk and peregrine falcon. Whilst the urban fox populations has definitely contributed to their predation. Nevertheless, it appears not to have been adversely affected by changing farming practises or climate and clearly breeds with great success.
One thing the weather did not deprive me of was my second sighting of the water vole, witnessed by Daphne who had only once previously seen this endearing creature.
No comments:
Post a Comment