This is Bird Watch Weekend when the twitchers are meant to count the number of birds in their gardens in a one hour period. The wife is in charge of this operation as Huttonian gets confused by the similarity of brown jobs-how to distinguish between sparrows and dunnocks for instance. The wife is proud of our giant spotted woodpecker so it has to be included if possible-thus the hour starts when it appears-no sign so far but we have already had 9 sparrows, 4 chaffinches and 4 starlings whom I suspect will be included post hoc even if it is not precisely within the witching hour. One erotic* so far-the resident Cock Pheasant has strutted his stuff. But no sign of the Wood Pigeon who is a late riser not interested in the early worm in face of the daily feast laid out on the 'patio' by the wife.
Rosie the cat may also be doing her own bird watch but with advancing age she is not the threat she once presented and prefers dozing beside the Raeburn dreaming of flying feathers long ago.
Stop Press The Woodpecker and the Pigeon have just arrived. We're on.
* Surely exotic? Blog-ed
