Spring 2012
Mid March.
The Celandines are varnished yellow against the deep green of freshening grass. The Daffodils and Narcissus in their tens of thousands line the highways and the byways, nodding in the breeze their trumpeting heads. Skylarks sing ecstatically as if their very lives depended on it. Curlews bubble as they lift on quivering wings and then gently downward glide. Lapwings “ peewit pewee” in a display of staggering stunt flying. The house reeks of freshly flung mouldering muck! AAAAhh, spring is here at last!!!
The weather on Orkney of late has been changeable. Cold wet and windy one day and then bright but cool the next. I think only the Primroses really know what is going on for they seem not to be fooled by the sunny days and just rest peeping a fragment of yellow watching and waiting for the real bud bursting warmth to massage them from their reticence.
Early April.
The weather if anything has got a lot colder and the Primroses still peep smugly and snugly from their cosy buds and my nuts are still being ignored!
Maybe I should explain. Two weeks ago I was bemoaning to my good friend and fantabulous bird artist Tim Wooton the fact that any bird feeders I put out in my garden are demolished by the extremely high winds that blow straight of off the sea. I live as I am sure a lot of you know only 100 yards from a cliff edge. These cliffs suffer westerly winds that have to be experienced to be believed. I then went on to explain to him that I had the idea of attaching sturdy feeders to blocks by way of screws and then they in turn would be screwed onto poles set firmly in the ground. He thought it was a good idea or at least one that had enough merit to be tried and asked when was I going to put my cunning plan into action.” Oh sometime soon” I answered. “Do it today” he said the sooner they are up the sooner you will have the pleasure of watching birds feeding while you stand at the kitchen sink doing the washing up. I couldn’t argue he had a good point.
Well to cut what could be a long and tedious story short by the end of the following day I had not only erected 3 feeders that hurricane Hilary would have trouble dislodging but below the feeders I had set into the earth an old ceramic shower tray that I lined with stony cement to give a more natural look, and even if I do say so myself the whole set up looked pretty good. However despite all my well intended efforts my nuts have not seen one visitor, not one nut nibbled or even looked at. Ah well, the best laid plans and all that.
Late April.
It is with great pleasure I can report that not only are my nuts being nibbled they are being demolished at such a rate I have to fill the feeders up every 2 days. Ok, at the moment it is House Sparrows and Starlings tucking in to the free nosh. Certainly nothing rare and exotic but it is fabulous to watch them and all their comings and goings bickering and squabbles. It puts me in mind of a school playground.
However there is one fly in the ointment or should I say “Chicken in the Bird Bath”. One of my 6 year old Light Sussex Hens has worked out that if she hangs around under the feeders she can rely on a steady fall of tasty seeds as the birds can be very choosy about what seeds they will deem to eat or not as the case may be. As a consequence, this rather fat hen has been stomping about the flower bed. Some plants have either been pummelled to nothing or scratched out in her endeavours to find any seed that might be hiding from her murderous and ever working beak. Not only that but she keeps walking into the bird bath with mucky feet to find seed that is either floating or on the bottom, this means the water is forever dirty and not very appealing to the rest of the other avian population that share the amenities. Something must be done!!! Watch this space.
A Bit Later April.
As I write the sun is shining there is a cool breeze blowing and that ****** hen is still causing devastation in the flower bed! Something has got to be done but I am not sure what at this moment in time. I am loath to send her to the great hen coop in the sky because she has been with me for so long and she is past the ‘Good to eat stage’.
While we are on the subject of hens I am relieved and glad to report the hens and the ducks have started laying with a vengeance and I now have eggs in abundance, so much in fact I can sell some to visitors and friends.
The difference between an egg bought from a shop or supermarket despite the label saying ‘Free Range’ and an egg that is FRESH as well as free range, believe me is immense.
The date today as write this is 24-4-12 and I have just seen my first Swallow of the year sitting on the barbed wire fence outside my kitchen window. I also had a Song Thrush feeding in the vegetable garden. The first I have seen at Craiglands in the 9 years I have lived here. Because of the location we do not get what many people “Doon Sooth” would call the more common birds such as Greenfinch, Goldfinch, Dunnock, Robins and the members of the Tit family. It is a real treat to see a Robin, Wren or Goldcrest. However this is more than made up by the fact that I see on a daily basis hunting outside as I eat my meals in the kitchen, Hen Harriers and Short Eared Owls I also see Ravens, Hooded Crows Great Skuas, Arctic Skuas, Arctic Terns, Fulmars, Kittiwakes, Peregrine Falcon and Merlin. And on the cliffs just 100 yards from my door all types of breeding seabirds including Puffins.
I think you might also like to know that there are reports of Orca sightings in a couple of areas around the Orkney coast.
I must be of now to open the byre in the hope that the Swallows will once nest in the rafters and keep me company through the summer with their familiar call and exhilarating flight.