Day 252 - Walking Dead

it's alive!

Over at my brother's house this afternoon I thought I'd stumbled into some dystopian nightmare when this lumbering zombie shuffled, moaning, into the room.

Turns out it was just the BirdZombie, reanimated after a miraculous display of self-healing, defying all the doctor's predictions, and back in the land of the living.

I recommended getting into cosplay immediately and heading for the nearest ComicCon...he looked at me blankly, and for a moment I was concerned that he is actually zombified...but no, he was just being a teenager!

Anyway it was fantastic to see him up and about, and I hear he's enjoying daily visits from the nurse, so you know, I reckon he's living the teenage dream! 

;-)

Following that we visited Kim to see how she's getting on setting up her new business.  Roob had built this elaborate light stage to get professional quality photo's for their website. 

light show

I'm really impressed at the quality of the work they're producing between them, and I'm sure they can make a go of their business...can't wait to see them progress!

Meanwhile, our local sparrows seem to be joining forces to make a lovely big flock that flit around the gardens and hedgerows...it seems as though several families are enjoying the safety in numbers, and the flock is now around 50 individuals.

superfly

This morning, they all appeared in the hedgerows outside my lounge window, and before long a clutch of them were in this loose, fine soil, where drainpipes have just been laid.  Some were grazing on the grass seed that's been sprinkled on the disturbed lawn, whilst others were taking the opportunity for a dust bath!

There are around 30 sparrows in this photo...whilst the flock includes two or three tree sparrows, I can't spot any in this picture...

(update - Anna spotted a tree sparrow, on the far left, just below the centre line of the photo) 

Anyway, to end this rambling weekend post, for those (hopefully few) of you who are still with me, here's a rare treat...

fro

This is Kim and I, around 1990, give or take...Kim just gave me this photo today, so I felt obliged to post it here for posterity...

I'm not proud...

:-/

Day 236 - The Mighty Tree Sparrow

case to rest

I don't know about you, but I thought I detected a hint of scepticism in Andy's comments on a recent post about local birds.

I'd mentioned that we have tree sparrows in the garden, but had failed to provide documentary evidence, and so apparently had not done enough to offload the burden of proof. 

Tree sparrows are much less common than house sparrows, and so I suppose it was fair to demand photographic evidence of my evidently bold claim.

Well, it's taken a while, but as I was getting dressed for work this morning, I spotted this little chap sitting high in the hedgerow just a few metres from our bedroom window.  

"I'm sure that's a tree sparrow!", I exclaimed, immediately failing to grasp the significance and rushing to grab the DSLR...fortunately Anna was there to point this out to me, so I dashed downstairs to get the camera and rattled off a few shots.

It seems I still had a reasonable dose of the usual morning fuzzy-headedness, as I completely forgot to adjust anything at all on the camera...so the pictures aren't great, to be honest...

...but that is definitely a tree sparrow!

cheeky chappy

This is a juvenile, but still you can clearly see the brown cap and the tell-tale dark dot on the cheek.

Thanks Andy, I accept your apology!  ;-)

Moving on...our walk down the lane this evening was notable in a variety of ways.

Firstly, it was distinct from our usual walks in that we hardly walked, instead deciding to travel by skateboard (or is it technically a long board...or both?).

This was good fun, despite getting a slightly scary wobble on at the steepest, fastest part of the lane, trying to avoid random stones thrown all over the road by recent harvesting traffic. 

Down at the bottom of the valley (sans decent camera, of course), we came across the beautiful sight of a pair of deer wandering across the stubble in the evening sunshine. 

At least I had my phone with me, so I got the proof (cough, Andy...) although pretty much failed to capture any hint of the atmosphere...

not too dear

Finally, I got my first 'boarding injury!!

ouch stings

As it happened, this wasn't from careering (or is it careening? Actually, both!!) down the hill, out of control...it was from doing tricks outside the front door...or trying to, at least.

Ok, ok, I was failing to do tricks outside the front door...or is it the back door?  That's a matter of some controversy! 

"What on earth are you doing skateboarding?!" I hear you cry...

Well, I'm not really sure, but I think it has something to do with my age...and a hefty dollop of denial thereof. 

Bah humbug!

B-/