Sunshine singers & badger intruder

THE warmth of the sun today not only quickly cleared the frost, but also encouraged the birds to sing their territorial songs - an early hint of spring.  In an urban garden north of London, I heard 2 male dunnocks singing to each other, a rasping greenfinch, blue tits and a robin.  I am sure that there were others but I fell back to sleep!

On Saturday starlings and a song thrush were loud and clear in the south west

What have you heard so far this year...?

...gosh I nearly forgot to mention...

Yesterday my neighbour very excitedly regaled me with the tale of a loud banging at his french windows early in the morning (1am?).  He was really surprised to see a badger up against the glass!  I was thrilled.  We have had one night where badger type holes appeared in the garden, and on Friday I found that something strong had tried to dig under the shed.  I assumed that it was a neighbour's dog or an urban fox - but I guess not.  So tonight I have trained a remote camera on the spot and will check to see if our guest reappears...

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ALTHOUGH my blog is exclusively about my personal wildlife and landscape observations, I have broken the rule this time with this cartoon which  very nicely sums up where we are all  heading - "too often living life through a lens to validate our experiences"...

This cartoon has been copied from the Guardian and is by Stephen Collins.  The original is at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/cartoon/2013/jan/26/2# and was picked up by another blogger http://wildnatureblog.wordpress.com/.

Wellow - high water at the ford

IN the picturesque village of Wellow in Somerset the level of the ford has put off all but the most rugged of vehicles from crossing, not to mention the locals:

Not too sure if I can catch that stick now...

Essence of dog