Sunday, 7 October 2012

The wild cemetery

 Sunny, mild sunday, I go for a walk to my local cemetery. It is a beautiful, autumnal morning, with the background sound of the Robin and occasional Wren. As soon as I arrive, I scare a couple of Brown Rats feeding on seed and bread left by people for the birds. It is the third time I see rats in the cemetery. I manage a couple of shots, but they run away. I sit on a headstone waiting for them to re-emerge, but although I stay still, they seem to smell me, and after the first coupe of shots, they are reluctant to leave their refuge under the headstones. They have an alternative feeding site and I can see both of them running to the next spot up the path where seed has been left on the ground, and they feed there with a grey squirrel and a blackbird. They are much more timid than Grey Squirrels, and they go back and forth to the food.
A Brown rat deciding if to come out of its hiding place. It was most hilarious to watch how it twitched its whiskers
  I hear the rattling alarm call of the Carrion Crow, I find the crow chasing a Sparrowhawk onto a tree, and then over the houses.
Great Tit landing
Chaffinch
Robin
Grey Squirrel enjoying the bird food
  A Woodpigeon laying on the ground, sunbathing, in perfect Blackbird style. It is the first time I see a Woodpigeon sunbathing.
To top it all, I manage to spot a Treecreeper, alerted by their 'see, see, see' calls, and watch it as it climbs up a tree.

Bird list
  1. Blackbird 
  2. Blue Tit 
  3. Carrion Crow 
  4. Chaffinch 
  5. Coal Tit 
  6. Dunnock 
  7. Feral Pigeon 
  8. Goldfinch 
  9. Great Tit 
  10. House Sparrow 
  11. Long-tailed Tit 
  12. Magpie 
  13. Robin 
  14. Sparrowhawk 
  15. Stock Dove 
  16. Treecreeper 1 
  17. Woodpigeon
  18. Wren

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