Apologies for going on and on about birds but had some positive moments today. I have mentioned that we have had a male Blackcap in our garden most of the winter and I have posted a couple of pictures. Well today we had a female Blackcap in the garden so fingers crossed we may get a nest nearby! My second piece of bird news was when on my walk today I saw two Spoonbills on the scrapes near Splatt Bridge – it was a recent quiz question. After I identified them they flew off in the Slimbridge direction; a quick fumble with my camera and I got a distant shot of them flying South. ( murky picture below).

Started playing with the idea of a short story for younger children today for a Telling soon.

Rather than a quiz today a couple of quirky bird facts.

The USA has about 200 million Starlings and it is all because of Shakespeare! a gentleman called Eugene Schieffelin thought it would be a good idea to introduce as many of the birds mentioned by Shakespeare’s works into the USA. In 1890 he released two flocks of 60 Starlings into New York’s Central Park!

Legend has it that Ian Fleming named James Bond after a neighbour and close friend of his who was the author of Birds of the West Indies when he glanced at his book.