Learning

Tony is safely down on the ground in Italy and heading towards his Dolomites adventure which is good.

He's taken the sunshine with him so it's been a day for going through my list of short term and longer term jobs.  I popped down to the village to post a letter and check out our immunisations at the pharmacy.  Do we have a blip expert who can advise on whether or not we need whooping cough boosters???

I took time out to watch the birds in the elder tree as they have returned in force and are busy cleaning out the sunflower seeds.  It's interesting to see how their choices change over the seasons.  The fat bits/mealy worms have taken second place, although not with the starlings, but the small birds are definitely favouring the seeds for their winter protein.  At one point there was a gang of a dozen bandit goldfinches in the tree, doing their usual falling out in heaps whilst the tits just got in with eating and ignored them.  There was also a bunch of juvenile goldfinches, of which my blip is one, learning how to land safely on the feeders.  This one managed it after several attempts but then took several further attempts to reach the seed.