"The Big Fight!"

Ohhhh!

Very exciting watchings in the garden at lunch time today...a big fierce fight.
...Buzzard  v  "Craws"....
...that's magpies and crows to the more informed!

I'm in the kitchen preparing a pan of soup...home made, delicious tho' I say so myself...
...the potter is next door in the studio glazing puffins...a good seller by the way...

and then the kerfuffle and the screaming of the birds... a lot of noise and beating of wings.

I had put out the seed, worms and peanuts as usual earlier. Mostly blackbirds, robins and bluetits frequent the "stall!" Oh yes and of course, those fat waddlers of the field...the wood pigeons.
But now and again the magpies will swoop in and devour the lot.
So whether the buzzard had foolishly come over at the same time as the "mags"... I'm not sure.
But one of them had the buzzard by the throat and another had it by the leg and the feathers were flying
... and we were left gobsmacked ...as they say!

The pack of crows that nest in the highest trees down the field , had gathered on the tops of the bushes nearby... crawing and jumping up and down like mad things.
The rest of the magpies who normally compete with the crows ...had joined the throng and were flying and swooping down on the fight taking place on the bird feeding stall.

I wasn't sure where to put my money. At times, the crows will beat off the little birds, and of course the magpies eat their eggs and babies....such is the reality of lovely nature...I like that in a weird sort of way. Life everywhere is tough. I would say dog eat dog ...but it's more bird eat bird!

Anyway the potter must have had his money on the buzzard...as it managed to struggle free and flew off at top speed...ahhh... beautiful bird.

Excitement over..the craws and other birds settled down again up in the tops of the trees...well that is except for the seagulls who always circle overhead on the currents coming up from the Mersey which is close by. They continued to cry with their childlike "mews". Often an unearthly sound.

Years ago when the "blessed" Tom cat was in his prime, he too had taken on the magpies.

The fight was fierce, and once again all the other magpies gathered around and swooped at him as he taunted the bird in his mouth. Again, in that instance, the magpie got away and Tom made a dash for the bushes to hide until the furore was over.

Ohhh!  what an exciting life I do live!  All back to normal now...potter in studio...me at the keys and the sun starting to shine.

Can I smell spring?  I think I can.

Hunter and Hunted

Once again we cycled down to the river.
The weather is on the turn now, but the Ferry area was just as calming.
The gulls were congregated on the bank opposite waiting for the incoming tide.

Why had they risen as one with such noise?

Then we spotted a lone bird hovering over the reeds.

More joined it, until there were four or five of them circling and hovering, still and menacing.

Suddenly up from the reeds came a caccophany of noise as a flock of crows rose high in the sky.

I managed to snap them as they rose.
Only later when I viewed on the Lumix site did I notice in amongst the crows a very different shape......
.......buzzards I'm told!
Nature is so many different things. We love the sense of peace that it can bring us...
.... but abhor the "red in tooth and claw". Yet one cannot be without the other.

Alfred Lord Tennyson wrote as part of the poem In Memorium A.H.H.   these lines......

Are God and Nature then at strife,
That Nature lends such evil dreams?
So careful of the type she seems,
So careless of the single life;

That I, considering everywhere
Her secret meaning in her deeds,
And finding that of fifty seeds
She often brings but one to bear,

I falter where I firmly trod,
And falling with my weight of cares
Upon the great world's altar-stairs
That slope thro' darkness up to God,

I stretch lame hands of faith, and grope,
And gather dust and chaff, and call
To what I feel is Lord of all,
And faintly trust the larger hope.