And while we’re on the subject of the superiority of cycling over driving: I was on my bike this morning, cycling slowly up a hill between two high hedges on my way to get a paper. I was a little startled when a young bluetit – possibly on its maiden flight – hopped out of one of the hedges and started to fly across my bows. It was quickly joined by a sibling and suddenly there were two young birds circling over my head and cheeping madly while I was just cycling along, laughing like a loon.
Seriously, when was the last time that ever happened when you were in a car? And besides, even if it did, the first thing you’d know about it would be when you were wiping the baby bluetit feathers off your windscreen or picking them out of your grille.
Town Mouse 
I was extolling the virtues of my morning walk into work for similar reasons this morning as a grey heron appears to have joined the pair of Egyptian geese that live on the river.
The last bird related incident in the car went like this:
Fiancée: “Oh my god! Did you just hit that little bird?!”
Me: “What bird?”
You weren’t wearing a Snow White costume, by any chance? It sounds a bit Walt Disney….
Dom – it’s more disturbing when you do see the bird.
Autolycus – it was totally Disney. Although my commitment to cycling in normal clothes does not extend to a Snow White costume…
NINE! Count them! Nine sparrows on the bird feeder this morning after I chased off the local “hoodies” aka the Starlings….. who are eating me out of house and home!
They may be suffering nationally but there’s hordes of Spyugs in our garden!
Excellent. Spadgers are normally ground feeders though, so you may get even better results if you scatter seeds on the ground.
It’s the woodpecker that eats us out of house and home here. Don’t have the heart to chase it off, somehow…
it might be a Snow White costume, more likely an Uncle Remus costume though…
…Zip-a-dee-doo-dah, Zip-a-dee-day…
I have not mown the lawn this year yet, this is after I saw a RSPB guy say that letting the grass grow longer will help the birds, more insects about I suppose. anyway thats my excuse.
John
cha0tic – easier to cycle in, too
John – good idea.
The wee Sparrows have worked out they can stand in the little hanging house (which has seed and mealworms in) and still feed from there. I do chuck some on the floor though but the woodies normally hoover them up!
That’S on my list that I give people when they ask me why I don’t drive, along with sunrises, wind in the trees, being paced by red kites…
[…] If you’d just learned to fly you’d be the same, wouldn’t you?). We’ve been here before, but you know what? Watching little baby birds flying around in a slightly crap yet endearing […]