Death, life and, er, more death

Seemed like a trip back to that great old oak might cheer me up. So, I hot-footed it to the Reserve. Passed on the way the kind of car and country folk and horse boxes that suggests there was a hunt locally. They don't chase foxes any more. Well, that's the story. There was a woman in a hat like a Fifteenth Century minstrel made of green tweed with a pheasant feather stuck in it. I thought in expletives.

Anyway, came to the oak and that's when I found the remains of a crow.

OK, it may have been a jackdaw or a rook. But this was not what I needed after the pigeon experience. Plus, there's me getting all witchy-feely about my crow energy and I go to a tree and find a corpse of my totem animal. Ah, you say, that's cos I went to an oak tree, not a poplar. Whatevs, as the young folk used to say about 12 years ago.

Still, I climbed onto a thing and could look into the sort of bowl made by the branches. It was pretty cool up there. No arboreal worms. Good view though.

I saw Michael walking along and he said he'd heard a marsh tit - and seen it. Off he went. I turned on Merlin app and lo! Marsh tit! Also long-tailed tit, great and blue tit, blackbird, meadow pipit, jackdaw, crow, treecreeper (I watched one climbing up and bobbing down an oak), chaffinch, goldfinch, goldcrest, jay - I saw most of these. Not the jay, but their calls are unmistakable. It heard Canada goose and greylag goose and coot - so did I but I didn't see them. Rather surprisingly, it also claimed to hear little owl and cetti's warbler.

I just played this video to see if I had heard a little owl. I had heard something like this. But the headline is that it really freaked out the cats. Eyes as big as an owl's now. They weren't so interested in the warbler. If I'd seen it, I'd've thought it was a wren. Will have to ask the Other Nice Man if it's at all likely that a little owl and a cetti's warbler could be in The Cover.

Anyhoo, this was all very pleasant. I was enjoying the peace and getting over the crow and it was a lovely day! You might even see long-tailed tits in the video...

I could even appreciate the twinkle of a spider's web (sadly, the photo doesn't show that well) and the... shininess of rabbit poo!

There was also a tree growing in another tree.

On the way home, I passed all the people gathered to see whatever they expected to see. A few miles on, I drove over (wheels didn't touch) the body of a freshly run over fox.

On which note, no sign of the pigeon in the garden. But I didn't exactly crawl through the bushes.