Bird Visitors.

Warmer and wetter today.

Even though the morning was quite wet I decided to go to the zoo. That was mainly to see what was happening with the seeds I sowed into trays and left in the tortoise house the other week. When I looked at them the first surprising thing was the amount of dust (the seed trays are on a raised platform that holds some electric heaters) on the cling flim I'd put over the trays. The next weird thing was that when I removed the cling film the compost below was steaming. Some of the seeds have germinated but I don't hold out much hope for those seedlings. However another option for the mixed wildflower seeds is to sow them direct into a safety moat next to the wolf-dogs. A good idea but first the overgrown carpet underlay needs taking up and I'd made it clear this was too much for me (or rather my back) to tackle. However today there were a group of young workers/ volunteers on site and they were tasked to dealing with the carpet. Once they take it up I can sow the rest of the seeds directly into the ground.

My job for today at the zoo was to prune the buddelia. This was a relatively simple job with the secateurs after last year's efforts when I had to use the loppers and saw to reduce years of growth. Once I'd cut the branches I gave them to the goats as they enjoy both the leaves and the bark. I left a few branches in with the rabbits as well. Last year I wasn't sure how the two buddelia in the rabbit run would survive after having most of the bark eaten. I fenced around the base of the bushes and I see that as well as growth on the main branches there is a lot of growth inside the wire fencing. I was just getting to the end of my pruning when down came the rain, a veritable deluge but it wasn't worth stopping and I carried on. By the time I got home and out of my soggy clothes the rain stopped and I don't think we've had much since.

At home I still had time to do some more shelf painting. I've only painted one side (and the edges) and will finish off the other sides tomorrow after class.

It is recycling day and before I put out the food waste I check the fridge to see if there's anything lurking that could do with throwing out. Very little food gets thrown out in this house but today I found a slice of stale bread. Rather than put it in the food waste I put it on the lawn for the birds to see who would turn up. The dunnock (above) is a regular visitor for the seeds on the terrace but also enjoyed some bread. 

Next came a pair of jackdaws who were adept at picking up three or four pieces of bread at a time.

Although similar looking the dark eyes and larger size identifies the next visitors as common crows. They ate a lot of the bread first before gathering up several pieces each to take away.