A Wildlife Special - live from a village just outside Carlisle

Many people have been commenting on how they have noticed more birds in their garden, that there are more bees , butterflies and flowers in the hedgerows. Surrounded by trees as we are here in Wooding Towers, we often have an influx of feathered friends but birdsong does seem to more prolific, although this may be because there are less cars on the road and generally less noise all around. Of course, in my quest to document the local lambs recently I commented on the fact that they were hard to find but on my bike ride this morning there were many fields peppered with the little white creatures. The sheep have returned to their fields and are now evident everywhere.

Taking onboard the comments on the natural world, I have been keeping my eyes open when on my daily exercise. This is no episode of spring watch, more amateur observations when escaping from the house. In a nearby field, we have a family of horses with a wee foal shadowing its mother and father, a rather lovely scene and somehow reminded me of 'War Horse.' Rabbits seem to be emerging from the undergrowth and making a mad dash across my path when I am plodding nearby lanes. Their little white tails bobbing about as they shoot past. We often hear the noisy calls of pheasants and sometimes have them visit us in the garden. They too are prone to emerge as I run down lanes flapping furiously to get out of my way. We also have deer living nearby although I have not seen any in the last couple of weeks. I last saw a group of three fawns grazing in a field when I went past on my bike but they soon bounded off when I trundled past. A few years back I was greeted by a stag in the middle of the road - not sure who was most startled me or him (and he had horns so in my book had priority on the road) but he disappeared over the hedge and into a nearby field. Phew, I was out running so think he would have won any sort of stand off! There are cows at the local farm with their calves, neighbours cats wondering through our garden (which disgruntles Trooper but he's inside and they are the other side of the glass and he is not so disgruntled that he needs to leave the comfort of his home) and our chickens. It really feels like an episode of Emmerdale Farm round here.

Now, whilst on the subject of chickens I have not updated you about the poorly fowl that has been moping about our lawn. Sadly, she is no more. She did not emerge from the hen house on Thursday morning and when we went to investigate rigamortis had set in. Tall child asked what we had done with the carcas (as she ate her chicken paella for tea).  I looked at her lovingly and after the initial teasing about the contents of her meal, we confessed to having disposed of the body in a suitably respectful way ie in the bin. No point in burying her. The local fox would be licking its lips if we chose that method of disposal. This line of thought was leading me to talk about the local bird population (nice link? or a bit too obvious?) which inhabits our garden. We have a resident robin which meets and greets me when letting the chucks out in the morning, mainly in the hope of a bit of their food before the ladies consume it all. Two of our four bird boxes are currently inhabited by families of blue tits and we have starlings nesting in our eaves right by the front door. Mr Starling gets a bit cheesed off if we are hovering around as he (understandably) gets anxious about huge humans and potential preditors in the area of his offspring. With the amount of noise, there are certainly a few offspring who will soon be vacating the warmth of our roof space and flying off to pastures new. Hopefully. Then we can sort out the entrance to their bird AirBnB and prevent future lovebirds moving in to rear their families in our house.

But as I speak, the main creature that dominates our life is the huge ginger tom looking out the patio window onto the sunny garden from the warmth and comfort of the carpet. I am always amazed that we have so many birds visiting our place when he is about but to be honest, he has more of a penchant for field mice which he likes to bring into the house and proudly show us. I had noticed that since lockdown we had not had a wee beastie in the house, dead or alive, when I walked into the kitchen recently tripped over the cat who was hovering over the dead mouse he had left just behind the door. Great. I am not one to remove dead animals but needs must. Picture the scene - me with broom and dustpan trying to manoevre the wee beastie onto the pan to dispose of it. Much to the disappointment of the mouse catcher, who watched with bemusement at the performance before him. Thanks Trooper, you are a mouse catcher extrordinaire...just don't bring them into the house!

Able to daily go into the surrounding countryside whilst on furlough has given me the opportunity to notice more wildlife. No herds of elephants or roaming tigers, but horses, cows and sheep in nearby fields and the variety of birds visiting our garden. I am sure that they are always there but having the time to notice the world around me has been one of the positive sides to the current situation. Long may I stay observant and appreciate the natual world when we gradually start to return to some sort of normality.  

Meanwhile, here is a photo of one my bluetit family members posing for his picture this morning.