I can hear the woodpecker.

dreamdaisy

Opposite our house there is a sloped bank of trees. I think they are sycamore, most of the trunks are smothered with ivy, it's all rather bucolic for a town. The squirrels are very entertaining as they run through the bare branches, there's a lively population of blackbirds, robins, sparrows, pigeons and the odd magpie and, somewhere, a woodpecker. He's drilling away this morning with great enthusiasm.

I also see the odd mouse pootling along the base of the fence that separates the woody bit from the pavement - and the occasional rat: not so bucolic, then. DD

Numptydumpty

Hmm, the rat sounds more bubonic than bucolic!
Lucky you, hearing the woodpecker drill. I don't usually hear them drilling here until the spring. I do hear them calling though, I love woodpeckers, they sound so happy.

barbara12

Hi DD
We have fields across from us..and I love to watch the squirrels ..they do like there food...they seem to know when we are in for a cold patch...very active this week ...not seen the woodpecker yet...

stickywicket

I've not seen our woodies either or the goldfinches. The squirrels are charging round like kids in the playground, though.

jillyb1

Not many trees in our immediate vicinity , they are all further along at the top of the hill ; we have a lot of downland though so we are entertained by lots of rabbits , foxes , the odd badger and mice . We also have quite a few kestrels hovering overhead . Jillyb

Airwave!

The call of the woodpecker, is it a loud shriek? I can't see the bird that makes this call and never have my binos ready when I do see the bird so can't put the two together.

constable

We dont see lots of birds because we live in a Town, but what we do have is hedgehogs. Have you ever heard them. They drive us round the bend with the noise they make while mating. It sounds like a woman screamig. It does really sound awful. I would much rather have the birds and squirrels.

sugarbuttie

We live in the countryside but just on the edge of a town so we too get both 'town and country mice' here (just read 'The Town mouse and the Country Mouse' story with my daughter this week). We have a woodpecker 'going for it'!!! Makes me laugh when I hear him drilling away! X

dreamdaisy

He's been very quiet since the beginning of this week, maybe it's too cold for drilling? I have no idea what the call sounds like but the drilling is very distinctive, tat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat! Anyhoo, the trees are snow covered this morning so any drilling will surely only result in a snow mantle for said bird. Brrrrrrrrrr! DD

dreamdaisy

It's dark here, very cold, God's dandruff is steadily falling and there's a 'tat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat' somewhere out there in the gloom. Two pedestrians heard it, stopped, stared intently at various trees trying to locate him but they couldn't. DD

sugarbuttie

I saw a lovely little robin redbreast the other day. Do you know, he made me smile so broadly in the middle of the street??! I actually said to him out loud, "hello my little lovely robin redbreast".

Made me feel that i must finally be coming out of this deep depression that i have been in since sept. (hence my absence on here and at work....been off sick since sept).

That little robin with his lovely puffed out feathery chest might be a sign that i am out of the dark and into the light!!!

My rerurn to here this website is a sign i am not as deep in the black as i was.

Do u know, a pal of mine who has since emigrated to NZ, used to say that my silence was DEAFENING. Ie...when i went quiet.....something was wrong.....

She was so very perceptive...and still is on t'other side of th'world!!

applerose

I was standing at the bus stop after getting some shopping when 2 robins came and sat near me watching to see if I would feed them. Unfortunately, I didn't have anything at all in my bag that they could eat. Wish I'd bought some bread. Would have been better than nothing.

Sugarbuttie, I'm glad you are feeling better. It's the little things that don't cost a penny that make me smile.

tkachev

constable wrote:

We dont see lots of birds because we live in a Town, but what we do have is hedgehogs. Have you ever heard them. They drive us round the bend with the noise they make while mating. It sounds like a woman screamig. It does really sound awful. I would much rather have the birds and squirrels.

I didn't know hedgehogs were that noisy Karen. It is mating season for foxes ATM and they sound like women screaming so could it be foxes you are hearing?

I had a woodpecker in my garden last year or the year before.

Elizabeth

dreamdaisy

Hedgehogs make an astonishing amount of noise - we were routinely awoken by a pair in congress but as they were living in our garden we couldn't really complain.

We stayed at friends in Colchester on Saturday, I went to bed early and listened to a solitary fox barking steadily in the sleety night. DD