|  3.15
pm, Thornhill Rectory Park
A wood pigeon clatters its wings in a dipping flight
between horse chestnut and lime when another flies across nearby.
  A
treecreeper investigates the numerous crevices in the
warty bark of the overhanging branch of the chestnut.
Nest Hole
   A
great tit appears with greenery in its beak, possibly
a leaf or flower from the horse chestnut and takes it into a nest hole,
that resembles a navel in a swollen joint of the tree. I've heard it suggested
that some birds incorporate greenery into a nest as a kind of natural
insecticide; some parts of the Horse chestnut are poisonous and extracts
from it have been used in the past to treat haemorrhoids and wounds. It
gets its name because it was used to treat horses.
Sparrows and Sandpiper
 We
heard chiffchaff and willow warbler
singing, not may of them but it's good to have them back from Africa,
and we were pleased to see four tree sparrows in hedges
near the Figure of Three locks. There has been concern
about their decline in recent years but hopefully they'll build up their
numbers again.
We're surprised to see a sandpiper fly down the canal
and land at the water's edge. We've seen them on the river but I don't
remember having seen one on the canal before. 
Richard Bell, richard@willowisland.co.uk
|
