Jun 21st, 2015

Author: donich_admin

Where have all the flowers gone?

Looking out from my new office window (faces towards the front of the house, Lochgoilhead and Beinn Beulah whereas my old office faced to the rear and Beinn Donich), I saw a beautiful roe deer and her fawn. They munched some long grass (I desperately need to do some strimming but the midgies are awful at the moment) for a while and then started on the bed of primulas. I shoed them, but ten minutes later they were back….

It rather reminds me of the Saki story about the Prince who when faced with a choice between having flowers in his garden or pigs, went for the pigs, even though most people would have chosen differently…..

We have lots of young animals about at the moment – the other day I counted eight baby red squirrels chasing about by the feeder, and all the young birds have emerged from their nests. The young tits are very funny; they are as big as their parents, but really just balls of fluff. They can feed themselves at a pinch, but if they get a chance they will still flutter their wings and clatter their beaks to get their long suffering parents to give them fragments of fat ball. We also have loads of siskins now – they are feisty little things – more than capable of driving off chaffinches of twice their own size.

What I would really like to see would be a young badger, but if our pair do have cubs, they don’t seem to bring them for a share of the nightly peanuts.