Well our recalcitrant pupil has a small effort to rehabilitate himself. In fact he was ambling forward rather nicely until the helper next door released four of the hounds from Hades. You can imagine the reaction of Redstart D. He legged it at pace.
I am tempted to put up a sign that says:
No Dogs Allowed (except Lulu who may not be a dog)
Bird Reserve. Please respect our wildlife.
I managed two artistic images of Redstart D. In Britain the Robin is only ever found on garden spades. I wonder whether our redstart friend is thinking of adopting the garden chair as an alternative. It looks as if it might be about to drum like a woodpecker. It didn’t
This is ruined by the flaky paint but that’s why it is ‘artistic’. That allows me to get away with anything. I am contemplating having a cubist redstart as my next work of art. It is marginally better than the archetypal ‘bird on a wire’. But not much. I was hoping for a Bird Bouquet of Barbed Bougainvillea shot but it never happened thanks to Cerberus.
Half an hour later Redstart D had still not returned. And who can blame him. I’m sure Matron’s sanatorium is a far more comfy place than a hostile classroom. All the birds in the garden were screaming and shouting vile abuse at some invisible intruder. I never discovered who or what it was. A cat possibly, a Crusty Goshawk perhaps. A snake in the grass? It went on for ages and our old chum the Black-collared Starling was so high on something or other that his eyes started to glaze over. The avian equivalent of a Whirling Dervish perhaps.
So there we are. Another day at Andrew’s Avian Academy for the Underprivileged comes to a close. It has been another trying day rescued only by your comments to which I shall now respond. Inshallah.
And a distant record shot of an unusual visitor here: Red-billed Blue Magpie, Urocissa erythroryncha. This is very distant and I have better shots but this is what I saw today and that’s what you get 🙂
All downhill from here 