The Eclectic Interweb

The sister just sent be a picture of a woodpecker sitting on her bird table. Ntp sure if she’s going to upload it to the gallery so I’ve reproduced it here.

It’s a little fuzzy because she shot it though a window quickly to catch it before it flew away, but it’s clear what it is anyway.

Actually, even allowing for the fuzziness, it’s a nice shot of the bird table with the flower baskets around it. Is that pretty or what?? 🙂

It’s winter here and I forget how nice the UK can look in summer… and it isn’t far from summer over there now! Don’t blink tho, you might miss it!

Talking of ‘shooting’ reminded me that when I was a callow youth and knowing no better I used to wander about with a gun shooting anything that moved and one day blasted a Blue Jay out of the sky simply because I thought its wings were really pretty and wanted to take them home.

The idea that perhaps the Jay itself might have preferred to keep it’s wings to itself never entered my head. Nor did the possibility that by killing it I was preventing it from breeding and producing *more* beautiful things to look at.

In retrospect it was a dreadful thing to do and I’m pleased that both I and a large chunk of the population have woken up to the fact that nature is best left alive and unspoiled. Now if we can just persuade ‘business’ that this is the way to go maybe more woodpeckers and Jay’s will live on to delight us and our children’s children. We can live in hope.