Author: David Miller

The information about the village water supply I found interesting to do, so I thought I would photograph the way the watermill at the village mill gets it’s water as a follow up. Simple watercourses like our little river (the Fender) had mills all the way down it, each farmstead would grind their own corn using the force of rivers & burns to power them. It has been established that on maps as far back as 1590 yes 1590, this particular lade going to the mill was shown on them, so thou of course it has been rebuilt many times over those years, the original route has been in existence all this time.

So Fender joins the River Tilt, which is the lovely spate river you see above, just above the road bridge part of the river is diverted into the lade.

The stones on the right are what is used to divert the flow & as this is a spate river that can flow very fast during torrential long rain storms or snow melt from the hills, these stones move, allowing greater flow on the river. So these stones need constant attention to build that barrier up. This is not an easy task, for one, Rami at The Mill has to get permission from the Environment Agency to do it. Then he has to hire a digger to go into the water and build the barrier up again. When the water is as low as in the pictures in this article it is impossible to get enough energy into the flow to actually turn the water wheel. If the water runs through the lade to fast it could rotate the wheel to quickly & damage it. So Rami has to control the flow by using the first sluice in the shot below.

This is a simple gate valve sluice, but getting the flow correct, is far harder, but over the years the master baker has mastered it.

Firstly sorry about the out of focus shot. This is the sluice from the other side & you can see it collects a fair bit of debris, yet another job for the mill staff to keep it as clear as possible for that constant flow.

Just further along the lade is this old sluice that allows you to divert more water away from the lade, I just liked the simplicity of the turn screw & how it fitted on the gate, craftsman at work.

At this point the lade crosses under the road which is the entrance to the caravan site, normally this little bulge is full of ducks as the children from the caravan site love to feed them from off the bridge. The two fields either side of the roadway are where Atholl Estate place two Highland bulls, the only reason that I can see for this is as a tourist attraction, especially as for the last couple of years these bulls have been black highlanders, which are not so common, so more people stop to admire them, Just as I have below.

As you can see on this last shot, the lay-by next to them is in constant use by the visitors.

From here the watercourse disappears under the castle drive & the main road & comes out on the village green, with a few ugly pipes attached to the bridge. Also because the ducks get fed here also, in the shadow of the tunnel you can occasionally see some wee Trout.

From here it goes through a few back gardens, as shown below.

From this point it disappears from view for a 50 yard stretch as it goes under the railway line, which is just beyond the fence. You can also see another grill to stop debris which has to be kept clear.

So once it has come out of the tunnel it is on the homeward section, visible to all from The Mill car park. The gearing to the left of the wheel is the final sluice that stops the water taking its natural course & diverts it onto the mill race feeding the insatiable appetite of the wheel. You can see by the very low depth of the water that it would not feed the wheel on the day I took the shots, as it takes more than a trickle to turn that very heavy, well built wheel .

Most of what I write about on here is modern up to date subjects about (mainly) wildlife, gardens & village events, though with the present pandemic not many of those are happening at present.

As you are aware by now we live in a pretty remote section of the southern end of the Cairngorms National Park, roughly a mile above the village of Blair Atholl & when I say “above” I mean up in the hills in Glen Fender. That means that of course any river that flows through the glen is bound (as ours is) to be called after the Glen, or the Glen is named after the river not sure which way is right. SO about 50 yards below our house is the River Fender, which feeds into the River Tilt, which feeds into the Garry, continues onto the Tummel which lastly joins the Tay & on to the North Sea., Our little contribution to the Tay system is what is known as a spate river, one day it can be a wee trickle, 24 hours of rain it turns into a raging torrent, with all the water coming of the hills, a day after that it can be back down to a trickle.

in the section of river below us is a series of weirs and a manmade channel leading off this with pipework going onto a blue hut. When we moved in we were told that this was a feed that went down into the village via a pipeline & filled the steam trains in the sidings & engine sheds, beside Blair Atholl railway station. It wasn’t until I went to write this blog that I discovered it was far more important than this, in fact it was at one point in time the water supply for the whole village, with gravity filling 3 water towers down there. A lot of the structure up with us is still there & this is what I would like to share with you today.

The above is the storage tank that held the water it is a concrete tank that sits at ground level I would say just over a 3 feet deep & covers the full size of the hut. Not full of water anymore, just a storage area.

About 150 yards up the hill from the storage tank, is what I presume was the control hut that controlled the level of water in the reservoir.

A pipe below the water level feeds the flow into the channel covered with the blue tarpaulin & that is the other side of the hut from the previous shot, any surplus water flows over the weir & continues on to the River Tilt.

Allowed myself an indulgence with the two shots of that weir by giving the blurred effect on the water, just a show off of artistic licence.

Upstream of this the river has recently been widened to allow extract of the gravel & larger stones from off the river bed. I often go down to this section when I am a bit fed up, take my smallest fly rod, a very light line & extremely small fly & have a cast for the 4oz (if your lucky) wild Brown Trout that inhabit these pools. Of course they go straight back, but the fun of doing this will lift any fisherman/women. My ambition has been in all the years I have lived here that on a hot day I would go down here & have a swim. Two things have stopped me:_1/ We don’t get that many hot days & 2/ What ever the time of year water coming of the hills is freezing, I know I am a big softie, one day maybe I will.

As a little bit of absolute pleasure I would like to leave you with the garden of Jock down in the village, every year he devotes himself to this garden, it is not very big but boy it is so full. If you can enlarge the shot & just look at the detail that is within, a pilgrimage to see it every year is an complete must. Love the Seldom Inn pub.

Went for our usual Sunday morning stroll up the glen, as per normal I walk halve the distance of the wife as I just stop & photograph everything. As every Sunday is, the single track road was busy with it being a fairly decent day people were going to the far end to climb the two local Munro’s, though we did wave to Christine our local retired district nurse & I had a long chat with our semi retired gamekeeper, so a couple of friendly faces.

So below a few shots from the walk, why is it that butterflies tend to give me a hard time, I just manage to focus in on them, in a spot with no real obstructions in front of them , such as grass & they fly off to somewhere totally impossible to get a shot of them. I suppose I need to hone my skills of being patient ‘

A Ringlet butterfly (of which there are hundreds on the moors at the moment) actually settling on a thistle , with no obstructions in front of it & allowing me to get one decent shot of it.

A Hover Fly just sitting there posing for me, why cannot butterflies do the same.

It got even better than the above shot, as while I was looking around I noticed this thistle had three insects on it. Got the Hover Fly & the insect in front (do not expect me to name it) nice and easy to see but the back insect you notice the antennae first, then you can just about make the shape out.

Could the cows & calves ask for a better view than this, seems fine on a fairly sunny warm day like today , but imagine the wind howling across here & an added bonus of snow and maybe not so nice.

A calf with attitude, no way was it going to be out starred by me, such a cracking looking beast and though this shot does not do it justice, it has a real sheen to it’s coat.

Another beautiful cow standing so patiently allowing it’s calf to have a drink. I wanted one of the many calves to drink from this side of the cows, but not sure if it was because they were aware that I was was this side and they felt vulnerable, none of them did.

This bond was adorable between the two of them, mum licking the calf’s face and the baby just so enjoying it shutting it’s eyes with contentment. Annoys me that that piece of grass is near the calf’s nose, but I couldn’t really ask them to eat it & pose again, could I?

Same pair, with the calf just saying “you missed a bit just there mum”.

A closer look at the cow’s view, Blair Castle bottom left, the A9 snaking through the middle of the shot, House of Bruar top right & of course the hills beyond, which uo until two weeks ago still had a few patches of snow on.

A couple of days ago we had a brief spell of semi decent weather, not sunshine you understand, just no wind or rain. So I decided to go up Glen Fender & photograph some of the wild grasses & flowers that inhabit these wonderful moors, with a special look at the wild Orchids that live there. Under no circumstances did I expect to see what I did see, but I will keep that until the last shots, as it was furthest on in my journey & thoughts.

So the first Orchid is one that we have in our garden, but this one is from up on the moors & is the Northern Marsh Orchid, fairly common up here but so bright & cheerful especially in it’s natural surroundings.

The two above are just variants of the same Orchid the Common Spotted, it can range through from the white to a deep purple not unlike the Northern Marsh above & it actually lives up to it’s name & is very common up here. A delicate & beautiful Orchid that shines out so brightly on these dull days.

If you look at the flower structure of this plant it seems to my untrained eye to be a cross between an Orchid & a Heather, it is in fact an Alpine Bistort & is very prolific up here, I like it & so do Greenfinches, saw a few eating the seeds.

After Thistles, Clover & grasses this is most probably the most common plant on the moors with the weird name of Ladies Bedstraw. As yellow is my favourite colour I love seeing this plant , being fairly tall it waves around in the wind & looks “proper hansome”, as some might say.

There are many different types of Thistle & as it is the emblem of Scotland thought I ought to include at least one.

Now follows a load of different plants I photographed while progressing uphill out onto the moors.

I also saw mainly these two butterflies feeding on this rich diversity of food, first ls the Common Blue & the Dark Green Fritillary, why it is called that is apparently the underside is dark green. My ambition is to get a shot of the Chimney Sweeper Moth that was also about, but is so small & fast I never managed it on this trip.

Now I have seen Curlew on the moors before & have got shots of them on the ground, but never managed to photograph them in flight, so this was a first for me, it could have been a better shot if I had changed my settings on the camera (the shadows are to dark & it needed a bit more definition) but to capture this was a bonus to me. Though in some ways the bird was a nuisance as it gave out a warning cry that I was about, which in turn gave warning to the creatures in the next series of shots, which came as a complete shock to me. But by alerting these animals allowed me to get some great shots once they saw me & was the surprise for my little jaunt out to take wild flowers. So here they are.

The first sign I had of these magnificent beast was this one looking over a ridge at me from about 150 yards away, I thought “wow this is a bonus a loan stag on the hill”, wrong.

Because the next thing I knew was this lot arrived from my left & out of sight of where I was standing. This time of the year all the male Red Deer get together away from the ladies .But then the whole herd came out on show, maybe 40 odd stags, before they decided my camera might be a rifle & ran off.

I think there are 30 in this shot & more behind them, I would never have seen them if the Curlew had not given out it’s warning call, as they were over a ridge that I would not have gone towards. I can assure you I was like a school boy in a sweet shop just totally elated & the adrenaline pumping, made my week & most probably month, a sight to remember.

Hope you enjoyed these shots, I intend getting some of the later flowering plants & grasses over the coming months, as I am so lucky to have such a rich diverse area on my doorstep & need to learn to appreciate it more..

During the winter months we were becoming fairly concerned that we had not seen many Reds in the garden, we were fully aware that they partially hibernated & we had had some cold weather, but they just were not showing. Our 2 permanent neighbours we realised were also feeding them but the report from them was they had not seen many. As Spring turned to Summer we would see the occasional one, but over the last two weeks we have had 3 regular visitors which was a great relief to us. One of these was a lot smaller than the other two so we imagined it was a youngster & was aware that they are born very early Spring so we were pleased with that. Unable to sleep this morning I got up a bit earlier than usual, nothing special just maybe half an hour earlier. Looked out the living room window to see 4 squirrels competing to get on the feeding station, so good to see I can assure you.

So I have taken a few photos, not I think of all 4 as one is particularly nervous around us, but definitely of 3 of them, so I hope you enjoy them.

This one is really used to us & allowed me to get within 10 feet of it to take this shot, just love the fact that it’s tail is longer than it’s body.

In this shot the one on the right was feeding & the other sneaked up behind it, when the feeding one saw it gave chase, but the other was just to fast for it & while the feeder went around the back of the tree he sneaked down onto the feeding tray & grabbed a peanut.

Some times one will sneak up on another, wait patiently for it to have it’s feed then go down into the nut box for it’s turn. But if the feeding one see’s it it will chase it away. Because I want to encourage the new Red to feed as well (it is not either of these) I leave the feeder lid propped open so it can find the peanuts easier. Though the old hands now know how to lift the lid when it is closed, when a new arrival comes along it can smell the nuts, but not know how to lift the lid. So by leaving it open it learns the entrance, then I can close it & it will eventually learn how to open it. If I leave it open all the time I would need to be a millionaire to feed them as every second the squirrels are not there a member of the Tit family will be in like a shot & pinch a nut each.

As it is the older squirrels are having their feed & then taking nuts into the garden & burying them as a winter store, not that they ever go looking for the buried ones as it is so much easier to go to the Miller feeding station, which is always open. Good job peanuts do not grow in this country as I think we would have our very own peanut farm.

I find this so funny, we have put two old mugs on a branch filled daily with bird food, one of the youngsters who cannot get near the nut box because of the adults, has learned that the sunflower seeds, sultanas & seeds are just as tasty & is not adverse to sticking it’s snout in for a feed.

This is the culprit from the previous shot & you can see it is a youngster as it’s tail is not as bushy as the adults, though as I was only some 20 feet away from it, it seems to be getting used to the click of the camera & stayed around for a while.

So I hope you have enjoyed seeing these lovely animals that we have the privilege of seeing daily, as they bring a smile to our faces in these difficult times.

This time of the year, maybe a few weeks later than Southern England we start to see those birds that were feeding their young in the nest from a couple of post’s ago, actually introduce the fledged youngsters to our bird café.

I have tried to capture a few of the new arrivals to show you here, but some are tending to be a bit allusive when I get the camera out, I had hoped to put the new hide up to capture them, but the weather over the last week has either been a bit blowy or rain showers up to chucking it down in a gale force wind. So have attached the few youngsters I have captured in between the weather.

Before the fledglings though I must show you a capture from a week or so ago. SWMBO said there was a bird of prey or Cuckoo on the power cables in the field in front of the house, looked through the bino’s & was still not certain, so of course out came the camera with the big lens & on the tripod. I managed to sneak into the field & get a little closer than from the garden, even so it was still 100yds away. I can confirm it is a Cuckoo, my first really decent capture of one, so well chuffed.

So what follows are the youngsters that I have had in the garden, still to get caught through my lens are , the family of House Sparrows, that live on the front lawn, well until the camera comes out they do. The Greater Spotted Woodpeckers, of which I think we have 3 babes, two males & a female. The very small but adorable Red Squirrel, which is really independent, but so small you feel it should still be at home keeping warm.

This baby Robin, is so tame, I am trying to get it to eat out of my hand & is only inches of of doing so. I wont include the photos I have of it’s left eye as it has not been very pleasant, some experts I have asked seem to think it had picked up a tick near to it’s eye & had scratched it off, causing swelling & temporary blindness in that eye. It is slowly recovering, but whether that scratching caught a nerve because as you can see from the shot, most of the time it’s beak is open, though it does close when it is eating something. we have talked with it every day & now when I get the mealworms out in the mornings, it is the first to the feeder & as I said, virtually eating out of my hand, I am sure I will succeed in accomplishing this. As you can see he is also not very upright for a Robin, as is illustrated in the next shot of a Robin of about the same age, might even be it’s sibling.

A Greenfinch looking about the same as an adult now, this one is a member of a family of 4 & though it is now eating independently it still pesters the parents for extras that they get for them. It is good to see this family as Greenies have had a hard time along with other finches, getting a type of canker, that causes their mouths to get covered in a mucus film which eventually stops them from eating & they die.

Another member of the Finch family the Chaffinch, again a good size but feathers that are so pristine it looks like it has just been pampered with a shampoo & wash.

The best I can get (so far) of one of the baby House Sparrows screaming at it’s mother, just out of shot, that was about to feed it, but had spotted me. Of course the babe just had eyes for the food & totally ignored the mothers warning calls that I was around.

A baby Great Tit one of many, maybe a family of 5 or 6 , I would like to think they are the ones from the nest box at the top of the garden that I photographed being fed in the box, but not sure as I never am up early enough to see them fledge.

A couple of maybe 6 baby Blue Tits in the garden at present, they also are feeding by their selves, with supplements from both parents. It was mainly for the Tits that I started breeding the Mealworms, but I have yet to see one of them feed on them, which has been a surprise when you see the size of the Caterpillars they were feeding the young in the nest box.

Lastly a shot of one of the parent Blue Tits, after all this hectic feeding of the young, they look so tatty & worn out, such dedication pays a price on these small little birds & to think some of them go onto have another brood. A feeling that all parents of newborns feel I know.

Though the weather has not improved much since the last blog, still windy, still cold, still dull, one consolation is that the flowers just keep coming & of course with that come the pollinating insects. Also have you noticed that with fewer cars on the road, I for one, there seems to be more insects slaughtered on the front of the car & windshield. Of course my family will say the reason for that is less traffic means an increase in speed of my vehicle, of course that is utter nonsense. Seriously though this is weird how it has gone back to insects on the front of cars, as I felt they were disappearing.

Had some spare time today so just went out & about in the garden snapping away at points of interest, well to me & hopefully you as well.

Seems to be a good year for Lupins, most probably the best year we have had since being here. They are not fully formed yet & it looks like there are still loads to come, which is good as they are one of my favourites.

As you are aware I am useless with plant names, but this stunning, colourful plant comes up every year & just brings a brightness to an otherwise dull day. Just been told by “you know who” that this is a Thistle (weed) that grows wild in the hedgerow, all I knew was that I liked it & it comes up every year.

Always think this flower should be coming up with the Primulas, most probably the same family & I will definitely be told off by SWMBO for not knowing it.

Just a bit of art form coming into my photography here (who would have thought that of me?), just like the way the sun gave such a great shadow on the path.

Is it worth going in? These Foxgloves have just started coming out, the majority of the ones in the garden are from wild seed, but we love them as well as the Bees.

Might as well give it a go. I wonder if there are any claustrophobic Bees?

Wow this nectar is fresh, will have some of that & looking at the pollen sack it is not the first plant it has visited today.

Talking about Bees I saw on Gardeners World one of the presenters made a Bee hotel from a piece of wood like above & that it was fully occupied. So I did the same thing the next day, no residents yet, but hopefully the solitary Bees will find it one day (I will let you know).

Down by our pond the Iris in the water are just coming up, I love this delicate flower with just a hint of mauve coming through.

Finally a plant very common up on the moors in boggy ground is this Cotton Grass, I took a few roots & it has now become an established plant in the pond & I like it, so it can continue to thrive & bring joy, along with the Buttercup that came with it.

Into June now, still in lockdown, Scotland a bit behind England, not sure if that is exerting power or because we started later than England, but at least we can get out a bit more, including fishing 🙂 .

But who wanted to go out these last couple of days, gale force winds , plenty of much needed rain a freezing cold, down to 5C most mornings. To think last week it was shorts weather, well for most, my legs do not really suit shorts, so just had some summer trousers on instead. But I did get out & about in the garden that fine week before this one, so of course the camera came with me. Hence the rather large chunk of photos I have put onto this blog. Lets get through them, shall we?

Good news the Mill is open for takeaways on Saturdays, all marked out for social distancing, only two allowed in the café at once, most bread has to be ordered, but some spare for those that forgot to order.

Rami with his son David, plus all the ordered bread laid out ready for you to pick up, plus the all important, you can get coffee & Hot Chocolate to take away. Becoming a little ritual now on a Saturday morning, into Pitlochry to the Boating Café to pick up the weeks supply of scones, then onto Rami’s for bread & drink, could get used to this.

Back home we are having mixed responses to our nesting birds. The first shot of the Blue Tit I am afraid did not succeed in raising their young, they were the first nesters in the garden & I just do not think there was enough food about for them.

The Great Tit was struggling to find food, but feeding increased & I think they are doing well.

Only just found this other Blue Tit nest, not been occupied for 2 years so never really looked, but out of the corner of my eye one day I saw some movement around it & discovered a very active pair of adults feeding young, unfortunately the nest is well in the hedgerow & so very dark, but did manage to snatch these two shots, though seeing the backside is not the most glamourous of shots.

The Greater Spotted Woodpecker definitely has young as it spends most of the day on the feeders or taking mouthfuls of peanut butter away, eventually the parents will bring the young to the feeders, so maybe next blog I will have some shots of the youngsters.

The time it is not on the feeders the pair are ripping apart the old Ash tree stump looking for food, doing a fair old job of it they are as well. That is all ripped out by them, we have not touched it.

On a walk I noticed this wild Cherry with a cobweb stitched onto it & if you look middle left you can see a few remaining caterpillars within it.

Across the glen from us a field was treated with a weed killer & now has been ploughed & seeded, it looks so neat & a credit to the lonely driver in the cab, though the gulls following must keep him amused.

Because those first Blue Tit babes perished through lack of food, I have decided to start breeding Mealworms to subsidise their diet. Never successfully done this before so it is very much experimental & with the help of You Tube videos I hope I can succeed & keep an endless supply throughout the year. You buy them in this stage & then they turn into beetles, which you have to separate off as they will eat the remaining mates, then the beetles lay eggs, which again you have to separate. You keep them in any form of meal, oatmeal, cornmeal etc., these are in oatmeal, plus they need cover, hence the egg box & then moisture to drink which comes from banana skin, apple & potato. The last shot is all that is left of a slice of potato when they are finished with it. Really fascinating for children to grow on & learn lifecycles, plus the added advantage that my birds & pond fish enjoy them. Though it has taken the only birds to eat them so far, the Robins, 3 days to find them.

Unfortunately birthdays come around every year & I for one realise that I really am not getting any younger. This week was no special birthday but with lockdown & not really the exercise & workload of normal times I do feel a bit older. But it is surprising how birthday treats & presents make you feel happier about things. I had a delicious rib eyed steak for main meal, with a great glass of red wine, which always helps & then there was the my presents. I had an exhausted Ipad so the wife contributed towards a new one for me, one of my sons has got me a swivel head for my camera that will be so useful for some close up work on bugs & buds. The other gave me a portable bird hide, so when lock down is over I can go up on the moors early & photograph the wildlife close up (well in theory anyway). So old age isn’t so bad when you can have such a special day.

Below are a few shots of the hide & images taken from it, plus a few more.

On my last blog I showed you one of the two lambs in the field & it looked like it was dead lying so flat out asleep, above is proof that it is very much alive & healthy.

You have seen it before, but this is my homemade hide, which has been great for taking the static shots of the pond activity& will remain where it is for that purpose.

Well this is my pop up, portable hide, has four seating level openings & one ground level window for those low level shots. The thing with most pop ups is that they are easy to erect but not so easy to put away, as I found out last evening. 🙂

The first image taken from the hide, not sure if this is a baby Robin or Dunnock, but it was cute.

Not a fan of taking birds on feeders, but Woody was so close I just had to, this is a female & both it & the male are feeding young close by in the woods, not sure where the nest is.

Last one from the hide, late afternoon & the sun was just catching it’s eye & beak, which made it stand out against the blackness of it’s body & background, to be honest I totally love this shot, it was just a pity it had all that messy food in it’s beak.

Showing I am young at heart, I could not sleep on my birthday morning, call it excitement or maybe the call of the loo, not sure which. Anyway I decided to take the camera out into the garden in my dressing gown & see what was about. 3 Red Squirrels, that were to quick for me at that time of the morning, usual Blackbirds waiting for their sultana feed at the back door. Plus when I looked in the pond the Goldfish were having an orgy, now this is a sight I have not witnessed in my pond before virtually all 9 were gathered in the shallow section above the weed bed, with truly frantic movement. Went out an hour later (when dressed) & nothing, so maybe they were aware of my normal time of feeding them & were to embarrassed to exhibit such raw sex in front of me.

Not sure if I agree or understand the lifting of restrictions in England, but seems we might have some news on Scotland’s progress this week. As it’s my birthday week it would be a great present for me if Nicola said we could go fishing, most easily rule making sport with regard social distancing. Anglers have always had rules with regard how close you can fish near another angler, a sport of etiquette observing normally a 10 yard from each other rule be it competition or pleasure angling. Where I fish most occasions I am at a loch all by myself, almost the same as within our hamlet, could go days without seeing anybody.

I am not saying I am bored with this lockdown, after all the wife can (and does) find me plenty of jobs to do. But to get the rod out & catch a few trout would be great & add to the diet a bit more, after all during this time I have tied enough flies to last for the next ten seasons, just want to see if they work.

The weather lately has not been brilliant (minus 5 mid May is not brilliant), even on days when we have had some sun there has been a very cold Northerly or Northwesterly wind, which has left me with no desire to go sit in my hide & photograph the birds. Yesterday the wind did drop a bit & the sun did come out, so this window of opportunity allowed me to spend an hour in it. Below are a selection of te birds I saw.

Also, even though with no rain there is not a lot of grass for them, the sheep have been very active, another naughty lady has gone & had a baby out of wedlock, though the two lambs seem to be just staying with mum & not interacting like I thought they might. The sheep are getting desperate to be sheared & are constantly rubbing against the power poles & fencing, trying to get rid of their fleeces. Some have been fairly successful & are in various forms of nakedness, which is amusing, also photos below.

Not much more to tell you, hopefully next blog will contain a couple of Rainbow Trout on it?

A proud Mum Dunnock standing watch over her youngster (below).

It was funny watching this baby, it would sit on this log, flutter its wings as though it was bathing, then start to tidy it’s feathers as though they were wet. hasn’t quiet got the hang of washing yet.

A wee Coal Tit, lovely little bird spends all it’s time taking black sunflower seeds out of the feeder & burying them ready for winter, they very seldom find them, hence we get sunflowers appearing in our garden in some really strange places.

Got to admit these are my favourite small bird, this is a Male Siskin, beautiful colours & quite a thug on our feeders, does not take any nonsense from bigger birds.

What garden would not be complete without the show off of the bird world, the Robin, always willing to pose for you, always around when I am filling the feeders, in fact I was a bit late in putting some food out this morning & one was sitting on the feeder as if to say ” come on your late” & it never moved while I filled it & got it’s favourite seed out before any other bird knew food had arrived.

I know this looks like the lamb is dead, but it is just stretched out having a good morning nap. This is in fact the second & newest lamb born, both from Blackfaced Mums. The shot was taken from over 200m away, as neither mum brings the babies anywhere near us, they are very protective.

The other lamb, just a bit more active , but not much.

This is one of the perfect fleeced sheep, just to show you what they can look like fully clothed.

Will not take long to shear this one, a couple of days ago she had rolled onto her back to get rid of a bit more of the wool & I had to go out in the field to help her. She had been there sometime & as I got 3m away she was panicking & righted herself, so much for me being the rescuing hero in front of the wife.

Just like a lot of people at the moment she is in need of a hairdresser.

These last two are of the same sheep just from a different angle, in the one above she does not seem to weird, until you see her below.

Thanks for looking, please feel free to leave some comments, what you would like to see, what you have seen enough of etc. I would appreciate it.