Dear Steve,
I read through Letter XI, and I confess, I was more than a bit surprised by the first paragraph. Gilbert had acquired a dead falcon. Taking it into his home, he took measurements of it, and looked at its characteristics. That kind of floored me a bit. What could I do that was in any way similar to that?
I wouldn’t pick up a dead animal and bring it into the house, and then start poking and prodding it, so there seemed to be no equivalent activity that I could comment upon. But then I remembered Road Kill.
Deer, foxes and badgers are probably the most common animals that I’ve seen at the roadside. It always saddens me when I see them. I wonder if there are people who would stop and pick it up, especially the deer, as that means venison. I also wondered if there was any legislation that deals with roadkill, and organisations responsible for removal? I had to Google that question.
The law is very confusing. Not even a search could clarify things for me. Apart from the health risks of picking it up for food, it’s probably best to just let the local authorities or police know it’s there.
Gilbert’s letter XI goes into a lot of detail on his local bird population, including species names. I’m not going to do that, but I do like talking about the birds and other life that we get. The starlings in particular deserve a lot of attention.
I do feel a little bit guilty. I could have used the word entertaining when watching the birds in the garden, on the table and at the feeder. We are being entertained by their urgent need to hunt for food. I just don’t think it’s right that we draw pleasure from their activities, but at least I do put food out for them, and it is lovely to see them take that food.
Hover flies are fascinating. I quite often sit in the garden and watch them. They do settle, of course, and if I were to get a photo of them, it would be then. The chances of getting a picture of them in flight would be verging on impossible for me. They are so fast, and their direction appears to be random.
Another area that I can explore and introduce a regular update on my blog is the two compost bins we have. They are both full at the moment, and when I lift the lids, there is frantic scurrying. We even have slowworms, which we see occasionally. I am going to keep an eye on how the bins are doing and will comment if I see any big changes.
All The Best
Bill
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