IOS Birds.

Finally, puffins! For 2 years we had looked for them in vain on Lundy but at last we got to see some when we went out on a boat to Annet. They only come ashore between May and August and once on shore they are hidden in their burrows so even when they are there it is hard to see them.

The special thing about the birds in the IOS was not so much the variety of species but the numbers of birds and their tameness.

The camp followers tended to be blackbirds, thrushes and sparrows while in the evenings we heard cuckoos, wood pigeons and collared doves. The dawn chorus was pretty loud too!

Only a common sparrow but I like the way he is posing on this impressive flower spike.

Again just another sparrow but look at the flowers around him.

This golden pheasant in the gardens on Tresco positively glowed in the sunlight.

And this was the bold chap who shared my lunch and even jumped on my knee.

I had a very good teaching day in school but it was just my luck that our visitor and his entourage came into the classroom late in the morning. All the children had worked hard on information writing as the outcome for a literacy teaching sequence but we had just put all their work away and were about to call some children for individual reading. It must have looked as if I wasn't doing anything with the children. I couldn't even go over and say hello because I had to deal with a crying child who had sore eyes. I expect that will all add to my boss' views on my lack of ability. At least the weather has been lovely today. Everyone was feeling tense today so at lunchtime I walked up to the High Street to buy some seeds and peanuts for my bird feeders. I haven't been to the High Street for a little while and a friend found me looking very bemused trying to work out where Evans had gone (I sometimes buy wide fitting shoes there). I'll have to look in the branch in Exeter when I go up on Monday.