Pairing Up

Most of the birds, like the siskins, chaffinches and goldfinches, that went around in flocks through the winter, have now paired up ready for breeding but one imagines that, when both of them come to the feeders at the same time, either the eggs haven't been laid or they're taking a very quick break from nesting duty.

As a result, the feeders are very busy at the moment. Here, Mrs Greenfinch is telling Mr Greenfinch that he ought to be getting rid of the siskin that's spoiling her meal: moments later, he did what she required.

Not everyone is going around in pairs. The wood pigeons don't seem to have sorted themselves out yet, so there's a great deal of arguing going on between two males, while the female ignores them and enjoys her meal.

There's also intense rivalry between some very smart blackbirds visiting the garden.

For a time we didn't see any robins in the garden but recently this one turned up, joined, shortly afterwards, by a second which, presumably, was of the same sex as there was some of the sort of fierce rivalry that is common in this species.

Another species which has been worryingly absent from the garden has been the dunnock. Long-time readers of this blog will know that I have a special affection for this unassuming little bird. Happily, one made an appearance yesterday, as usual clearing up the sunflower kernels dropped by the more greedy birds.

We've had a few newcomers into the garden. This male was one of a pair of house sparrows which has suddenly decided to visit us from a sparrow roost only a couple of hundred yards away. We've also seen a pair of starlings.

All this activity is costing the household budget a fortune in sunflower kernels, so the humans face having to do with bread and water until the bird breeding season is over. Happily, water - which is so important as all the puddles and many of the little burns, and our pond, have dried up - is free.

Servants - 4

We employed Blossom for the two years we were in Kingston, the Jamaican capital, from the time we moved from the pokey flat where we started to the bungalow on the school campus. Finding her was easy as she came with a strong recommendation - her sister Olda worked for Ian and Cherry, who had cottage number 4. Blossom did various chores around the house and garden but she was most valuable because she could look after Elizabeth when Mrs MW had a class to teach at the school.

Lizzie and Blossom got on extremely well, and Blossom....

....became even more useful when Katy arrived. Blossom, on the left, is seen here with Olda, sitting on the back step of our bungalow.

Blossom doted on Katy, and was quite certain that she would one day hold down a very serious job, like a brain surgeon.

We had no hesitation in leaving the children with Blossom, although if we went out of an evening, we took them with us.

Blossom was deeply unhappy when we told her that we would be returning to the UK at the end of our two-year contract. Not only would she miss the girls - she had no children of her own - but work was not easy to find. She was very keen to come to England with us, but that would have been very difficult to organise. So, with great sadness, we wished her farewell.

There was nothing servile about the jobs our servants did for us. It was work, in countries where good, paid work was difficult to find; and in their work they were much valued by us. Perhaps we were lucky, but all the servants we had, in Mombasa, Rhodesia and Jamaica, were lovely people who were sorely missed when we parted.

Blue Skies

It is as if Nature, puzzled by these continuous blue skies, has stopped to draw breath. Amongst the flowers, those whites and yellows of early Spring, seen in the gorse, snowdrops, daffodils, celandine, dandelions and daisies, are now so prolific they hardly deserve notice - except that the gorse is unusually spectacular this year - and there's nothing new to take their place. Similarly, in....

....the bird world, the calls of the residents, blackbird, thrush, chaffinch and so many others, now blend with the only migrant returnees so far, the chiffchaff, above, pied wagtail and whitethroat. Surely by now we should have heard a willow warbler?

In the fungus world the only species to have given us great pleasure through the winter is scarlet elfcap, though only a few tired specimens of that remain, yet....

....there's no sign of anything new except this lone specimen of a species I can't identify.

At least the fine weather has encouraged a few butterflies. It was good to see this tortoiseshell taking advantage of our many semi-wild garden pansies which have come on fast in this weather. So far this year we've counted two peacocks and two tortoiseshells: I do hope this is a better year for the butterflies, as they sorely need it.

With the coming of Spring, and the proliferation of leaves, seeing the local red squirrels will become increasingly difficult. This one was out this morning, chasing a rival which wanted to muscle in on the nut feeders.

A Walk in the Bush

A holiday in Namibia in 2009 was our first return to Africa after leaving Rhodesia in 1970, and our first stop on our safari was for two nights at Okonjima. In many ways it suited us well, as it was a short drive from Windhoek airport and made a very comfortable break before we journeyed deeper into the country.

The package came with a couple of drives into the bush and it wasn't until we started the first that we realised that the cats for which Okonjima was renowned were all locked up in runs. In fact, we found some of the wildlife visits....

....to our veranda were more exciting than viewing the cheetahs and leopards from a Toyota Land Cruiser driven by an armed ranger.

We were surprised then to be given the okay to walk by ourselves in the bush in the area around the main buildings. I love walking in the African bush: it brings me alive but, as we wandered further, I became increasingly nervous. There were animals around us but we had difficulty in spotting them, and I finally decided I'd had enough when some baboons started calling from a ridge a few hundred metres away and....

....we finally saw one of the animals near us, a kudu.

So, yes, I was frightened - but that is the point of these walks. We've forgotten what it's like to be frightened, to be virtually defenceless, to not be in control.

We had several more walks during that holiday and I became more accustomed to the fear, even though some of the walks were in places where leopard, rhino and elephant roamed. As at Okonjima, all the other walks were guided by armed rangers except for those led by Denis at Etendeka - by far the best camp - who was unarmed. Yet I felt completely safe in his company.

Servants - 3

When Mrs MW and I arrived at Bernard Mizeki College near Marandellas in Rhodesia in 1967 it was made clear to us by other teaching staff living on the campus that it was 'sort of' expected that we would employ a domestic servant. I recall our discussing whether we really needed one, and were certain we didn't want one to do the cooking, but in the end we employed Titus (above) to care for our quite extensive flower garden, to tend to our very productive fruit and vegetable patch, and to do some of the chores round the house. I can't remember how much we paid him, but I don't think we were ungenerous, and his wages included some food, particularly meat, and accommodation on the campus.

I liked Titus. He was cheerful and keen to learn though, as we discovered when he first started, he wasn't accustomed to working in a modern house - for example, early on we found him washing up the electric kettle.

After he'd been with us for a couple of years he asked to be taken home to his village in the African 'reserve' because he was feeling ill. This was a journey I had done before when he had holiday due, but this time he didn't come back. It was difficult to get out of anyone what was wrong but it appeared that he thought he had been bewitched, something which had also happened to a member of the estate staff who helped me with the rabbit farm. So, after waiting some time for him to reappear, we, very sadly, replaced him with a relative of his, Alexander. Alexander was okay, but we missed Titus.

Firsts

This is a gloriously exciting time of year for the increasing numbers of 'firsts of the year'. So, over my two walks yesterday and today, I chalked up four of these firsts, the first of these firsts being this almost immaculate peacock butterfly. How did it manage to stay so smart after overwintering in this grim climate?

To see the peacock would have been enough excitement for one day but only a few further steps further along the track I found the first tortoiseshell of the year. Then, today, deep in the woods, I found....

....just one small patch of wood sorrel. There was nothing special about this spot so I have no idea why a dozen or so sorrels should have choses to thrive so early there.

Then, walking along the path below Dunrobin Castle, I heard the unmistakeable calls of sandwich terns. Several minutes' hunting with the binoculars finally located them. The camera could only just cope with the distance but, if you look very carefully, there are three terns in the centre of this picture, two on the larger rock and one on a smaller rock just in front of them.

I love these terns, mostly for where they've been over the winter, far, far to the south on the west coast of Africa.

Tree Creeper

I'm not a great lover of forests and trees, preferring open skies and wide horizons, so on a beautiful morning like this morning I wouldn't normally have chosen to accompany Mrs MW on her favourite walk through the Bheinn Bhraggie forestry to the village shops - but I'm so glad I did, because....

....all the birds in the woodland seemed to be out singing. So we started with a song thrush which was far more worried about getting his song heard by the local females than how close we were. Then, above him, a....

....wood pigeon began calling. In our time we've seen far too many of the wood pigeons of East Anglia which congregate in vast numbers in the region's extensive grain fields while these ones actually do what they're supposed to - live in the woods and only occasionally venture into our garden to share the small birds' food.

Then, high above them, we had....

....skein after skien of geese, too high for me to identify them though I suspect, from the way they first flew north and then flew back again, that these are still the pink-footed geese which have been doing this sort of daily to-ing and fro-ing all winter.

Meanwhile, back towards ground level, we were identifying, either by seeing or, using the Merlin app, by hearing, a variety of small birds: robin, wren, great tit, coal tit, chaffinch, goldfinch, chiffchaff, blackbird, song thrush, goldcrest, collared dove, and, suddenly, a tree creeper.

We haven't seen a tree creeper in ages yet we saw four in the space of an hour. They're not easy to photograph, particularly with my camera which has a nasty habit of focusing on everything except the bird, but I did, in the end....

....manage one half decent picture.