Otherwise known as the Hobby a fantastic bird to watch. It is a small falcon.  One of my favourites! I watched four of them hawking for insects today. I managed to see one of them passing it’s prey from talons to beak in flight-brilliant! There are beautifully streamlined and acrobatic birds flying at speed. I wish I could say the picture above is mine but they are so quick and my camera isn’t good enough!

One silly fact for those of us who once played the table football game Subbuteo (I wasted many of my formative hours) Originally its creator Peter Adolph applied to get the game called Hobby but it was refused as a trademark so he called Subbuteo instead. When I used to play the game I knew nothing about the bird!

The other picture below is a Ross’s Goose in Frampton this morning (so this one is my picture!) These birds are normally found in the Tundra in North America so it is a surprise to find one here. Some people suspect it maybe an escapee, but who knows?

Just watched the Moody Blues singing Go Now and thought it would be an appropriate title for today’s short blog!

Bookings are coming in for the summer so perhaps we can say Go Now! Just hope this latest variant doesn’t derail things. I am looking to plan a Book Launch for Pig the Legend so watching the news carefully because of potential numbers. Fingers crossed!

Made the most of a gap in the weather to do a decent ride today. if the weather plays ball I hope to watch Hobbies over the local lakes this weekend. Yesterday the female Blackcap turned up again in the garden for the first time in a month.

I meant to say yesterday’s Starling poem was really written to be read out loud and an emphasis on the word “murmuration”. 

Our lives have certainly changed over the last fourteen months! Can we really hug our loved ones again next week? Touch is so important for all  our well being and I really feel for those who live on their own. We are tactile beings!  Having said that I notice infections are slowly creeping up again.

Don’t know what is like for those of you in other parts of the country but it has rained here all day apart from an hour or so mid morning. The grass has exploded and the weeds with all this sustained wet weather! It did mean I spent time watching the garden birds through the window. We had five Greenfinches today-encouraging to see more of this birds again after having a hard time in recent years.

Well something completely different for today’s blog! Over the last fortnight we have had Starlings in the garden (must have a nest nearby because we don’t see them at any other time!) They have voracious appetites and bully our Blackbirds, and are all action. This past Winter we had some superb murmurations around the village. So the poem below I’ve tried capture their charismatic behaviour.

                                                   Murmuration

                           Gregarious and bold, strutting with real attitude

            A threatening group of thugs invading tranquil territory                              

                    Greedily gobbling up any offerings for themselves

                                               Murmuration.…..

                         Dull and unassuming at a distance

               Up close their feathers are bejewelled with colour

                           Sheens of purples and greens Illuminated in sunlight

                                                  Murmuration……..

                              Short tailed with stubby pointed wings

                  Prominent beak, slender pink legs

                                  The head jerks,  thrusts forward purposefully

                                                  Murmuration………

                        As the day ebbs, they meet in small rowdy groups

             Exchanging gossip, news, adventures and dangers

                             Numbers build steadily – tens, hundreds and soon thousands

                                                Murmuration………..

                        Transforming into aerial, acrobatic, artists , the sky their canvas

                 Painting complex black shapes in the gathering gloom

                                            Swooping and diving in perfect synchronized unison

                                              Murmuration……….

                        Thousands of wing beats, a pulsating collective,

                                             Swish, Whoosh !

                                              Murmuration……..

                      Part of their mesmerising hypnotic performance

                                               Bewildering any potential predators

                                                Murmuration…….. a real wildlife spectacular

I was supposed to be playing cricket near Pershore today. I drove through many puddles and when I arrived I found the ground locked and deserted! It had been communicated by email but I had already left. GRRRRRRRR!!!! It is typical April was dry and now May and cricket is here we have the rain.

Will try and do a longer blog tomorrow.

Our pond is almost full again after being well down in April. It is a magnet for the bird life in the garden despite a bird bath close by. The forecast doesn’t auger well for our cricket tomorrow- yet more showers expected!

Last football comment for a while! Really chuffed with the Mighty Hatters this season finishing in the top half of the table with one of the smallest budgets (we are sensible on the money front unlike most teams in our league.)

I got the draft proofs of Pig the Legend today. I have to print out all 150 pages so I can note any errors. Sadly a lot of paper has to be used! Now getting quite excited as we closer to publication! Likely to be plenty of updates over the next month, so be prepared!

As David Bowie might say!  Certainly life is different to a month ago. Starting to need to look at a diary to see if I am free. For months it was blank entry after blank entry!

Taking our grand parenting duties conscientiously so yesterday we dashed to Maidenhead to see our delightful grandson Owen. We managed nearly an hour solo planning for longer next time. He is a happy chap full of smiles and doesn’t seem to worry about these strange new people who have suddenly appeared after months of just mum and dad!

I played cricket for my club today  and captained a mixed team with many youngsters in. We came second but I managed to get everyone into the game. Body is stiff as I write this.

One job for this week is to do last year’s tax return. I don’t think it will take long this time!

One nature note from our garden. Have seen two male Blackbirds in full on fights this week with no quarter given. One bird being pinned down and given a good pecking. Normally it is usually bluff and counter bluff, but this was something different!

For the second time this year a pot hole jumped and attacked my bike tyre! These pot holes I am sure are working together and waiting for me! Perhaps they have a network of pot holes waiting to get you! Sadly my new  inner tube value kept coming out, so I kept trying to fix it again and again! Surprisingly I kept my cool! Perhaps I should write a story about the killer pot holes!

Quiz answers and some Terns today. Some pictures I took yesterday in Frampton we had eight Common Terns, screaming and diving gracefully on the sailing lake. Sadly the video I took is too big to put on this site which is a pity because you would of got the grace of the birds captured in the motion version! I can watch them for ages!

Yesterday’s Quiz answers below. My quiz team are feeling bruised we just got thrashed in our semi-final! The first three were all songs.

a) You’ve got a friend by Carole King  b) Sweet Caroline by Neil Diamond  c) Fly Me to the Moon was made famous by Frank Sinatra d) The Roman Goddess of Spring is Flora  e) Botticelli painted Primavera

Had a lovely walk with friends on the lower slopes of Rodborough to celebrate the wild garlic. Fantastic the Beech Trees looked wonderful in their fresh greenery and of course the garlic was everywhere although we were told should be even better next week. We were surprised we had never ever been through the wood before, we knew where we were as we emerged nearer the common.

Well yesterday I did play a new sport howling, hailing cricket! It was all something of an anti-climax for various reasons and the gale like wind was bitter and a violent hail storm finished us off!

Pictures below is more spring photos from our garden (at least the photos don’t show how cold this spring has been). The quiz I promised is after the photos!

Quiz questions on Spring (loosely)!

For the first three questions in which songs will you get the following lines?

a) “Winter, spring, summer and fall, all you have do is call”     b) “Oh wasn’t the spring, and spring became summer, who’d believe you’d come along”  c) Let me see what spring is like on Jupiter and Mars  d) Who is the Roman Goddess of Spring?  e) “Primavera” or Spring is a famous painting by which artist?