Friendly robin

A robin and I have evolved a symbiotic relationship - I feed the compost heap on its territory with new piles of vegetation and it poses for photographs. It is getting very friendly - to the extent of sitting on the wheelbarrow less than a metre away or even perching on my wellies whilst I am sitting down

Corvid wars extreme

The corvids are always causing disturbances or arguing about something or other. The resident crows consider themselves top of the chain and they chase off buzzards or other corvids when they stray onto their territory. For a week or so the crows have been chasing and in turn been chased by a jackdaw, who I am guessing was intending to nest here. The noise was pretty incessant. At one point the jackdaw seemed to be joined by a whole crowd of jackdaws but they didn't stay very long. Yesterday it went quiet and it wasn't long before I found the jackdaw's corpse.

Heron on the lawn

It didn't stay long enough for a photo but at half past seven this evening a heron was stood on our front lawn. Out of the water and close up you can see just how huge these birds are. Apparently they are not averse to eating moorhen chicks but hopefully the young moorhens on the moat currently are a little bit too big.

'New' species - Dogwood

I finally got round to identifying a small tree growing next to the Old Carp Pond. It is a Dogwood (Cornus sanguinea).