An occasional journal
wildlife
Firebird
Jun 6th 2020
An iridescent cloud dancing in the sky.
Admin2 is rereading Spook Street by Mick Herron.
Night Fox
Jun 3rd 2020
Earlier we heard it yelping outside our front window; later it sneaked round the back and prowled around the garden.
Admin2 is rereading Real Tigers by Mick Herron.
Flying the Nest
Jun 2nd 2020
Hottest day of the year so far: 31.1 °C and some newly fledged baby birds were leaving home for the first time. Most just shot off like rockets but this little long-tailed tit just hopped from twig to twig in an agony of indecision and anxiety; the adorable patsy in cartoons and wildlife films everywhere. Hope it doesn’t end up as cat meat.
Admin1 is rereading Saints of the Shadow Bible by Ian Rankin.
Critter of the Day: Cinnabar moth
May 27th 2020
Admin2 has been chasing this creature around the garden for days but Admin1 found it while mowing the lawn.
Admin1 is reading The Woman in Blue by Elly Griffifths.
Critter of the Night: Hedgehog
May 6th 2020
We set up the motion-triggered night-vision camera yesterday, and last night we caught a rat, various cats, and this cute fella. Apologies for the quality.
Admin1 is reading The Last Protector by Andrew Taylor.
Critter of the Day: Hedge Sparrow
Apr 24th 2020
A dunnock preening itself on our rubbish pile on another abnormally sunny day, well over 11kWh. Maybe the lack of contrails makes a difference.
Admin1 has been watching Doctor Who for weeks. Admin2 is reading Nothing to Hide by James Oswald, a pretty rubbishy book featuring a ‘posh cop’ on the trail of a ‘muti’ killer.
A Whiter Shade of Pale
Apr 22nd 2020
A blank Pieris rapae waiting to be coloured in on another >10kWh day. In the past week we have had 5 of the top 6 sunniest April days of all time.
Critter of the Day: Speckled Wood
Apr 16th 2020
Orange tips, cabbage whites and small blues are also flying around, on another >10kWh day.
Flower of the Day: Camellia
Apr 7th 2020
And another battle-scarred peacock.
Today was the warmest day this year: 22.7 °C. It was also the sunniest: 9.12 kWh.
Admin2 is reading The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman.
First Peacock of Spring
Apr 3rd 2020
Aglais Io on a forsythia.
Admin1 is reading Elysium Fire by Alastair Reynolds. Admin2 is reading The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman.
Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep
Mar 29th 2020
A red red robin singing in the holly tree; what could be more Christmassy? We even had a minuscule sprinkling of snow (graupel, really) and many people have a long, long holiday but not the poor old emergency services, maintenance crews and shopworkers (and us).
Admin1 is reading Pushing Ice by Alastair Reynolds.
We had a family gathering around our screens and scored 9 on the GWQ.
First Butterfly of Spring
Mar 24th 2020
A comma on a skimmia on our warmest day this year: 21.0°C. We are digging for victory in the garden. Admin2 is reading The American Boy by Andrew Taylor and we are watching Better Call Saul, season 2.
Critter of the Day: Squirrel
Jan 2nd 2020
This cheeky animal is eating next door’s birdseed.
Admin1 is rereading Spook Street by Mick Herron and Admin2 is reading Dan Leno & the Limehouse Golem by Peter Ackroyd: music halls and murders.
Fox News
Dec 24th 2019
This creature has been lazing beside our pond for a couple of days but we assumed it was one of the numerous ginger cats that hang around our garden, until alerted by our neighbours — whose Christmas card features … a fox. Only today we were having a boring conversation about the lack of wild garden animals compared to London.
Admin1 is reading For the Missing by Lina Bengtsdotter (Nordic Noir featuring the most annoying detective in Sweden … stiff competition there) and Admin2 is reading Remembrance Day by Henry Porter.
God Jul everybody!
Critters
Nov 15th 2019
Today we went to Lusaka National Park to see ‘white rhino, giraffe, eland, hartebeest, zebra, sable, kudu, blue wildebeest, waterbuck, black lechwe, impala, puku, bushbuck, reedbuck, warthog, pangolin, and axis deers’. We saw:
a lizard
a chongololo
a dragonfly
and absolutely nothing bigger than a pigeon.
Back home we saw some particularly horrible but harmless hunting spiders
Admin1 is reading The Bourne Ultimatum by Robert Ludlum. Admin2 is reading The Tin Heart Gold Mine by Ruth Hartley. Meh.
Some Things We Saw on Our Travels
Nov 6th 2019
A herd of wild elephants
A radioactive HOT spring
A handsome warthog
and lots of animals and birds around a watering hole
Admin2 is reading Green Hills of Africa by Ernest Hemingway: a man’s quest to bag a kudu, as below.
Elusive Butterfly (not)
Sep 17th 2019
Red admirals are everywhere.
Admin2 is reading Confessions by Kanae Minato, more repercussions of a murder, this time commited by schoolchildren.
Coffee of the day: Burundi Sangira: super fruity, yumms!