A-Z Challenge 2021 Photo Shoot - 'B': Bull, Bullfinch & Barnaby

 I always remember Tommy Steele singing - 

Little White Bull

I guess this little fellow was too big to be called a bull when he turned up in a Michigan garden.

A regular visitor to our UK garden came to grief for a while after crashing into our lounge window.

Bullfinch in recovery position

I'm pleased to say that he lived to fly another day.

For TV fans you may well be familiar with the village of Midsommer where a lot of murders occur. I can say that I know of none in the village where we live but we do have our own detective to sniff the villains out.

Barnaby on the trail

Garden Birds in 2020

 The first visitor to our garden in 2021 was this colourful bird - shame it would not look in my direction.

Bullfinch

I keep a spreadsheet of the type of birds that I see in my garden each day. I only saw the bullfinch on two days in 2020. The top ten of the 35 species seen were - 

• Wood Pigeon - every day
• Rook - every day
• Gull - 79% of days
• Blackbird - 63%
• Starling - 63%
• Jackdaw - 51%
• Collared Dove - 45%
• House Sparrow - 41%
• Coal Tit - 40%
• Blue Tit - 34%

The robin that appears regularly when I'm gardening was next at  30%.

On average we saw 21 different birds each month and 8 each day.

My records go back to 2003/4 - but were less complete back then.

I wonder whether this bird will come back more than the once it visited in 2020.

Sunday Stamps 'P4' - Belgian Congo, Benin, Greece

A flower, one of my favourite birds and a philanthropist feature on my stamps this week.

Belgian Congo - 1952

This is 'Protea lemaire'.

My next stamp is from Benin - the bird has the Latin name 'Pyrrhula pyrrhula' but I'm sure that you will recognise it. A pair visit our garden every year in May when the apple blossom appears.

Benin - 30 July1977

I had problems with reading Greek characters in the name of this man, but tracked him down eventually.

Greece - 5 November 1975

Georgios Rizaris founded a religious organisation in the newly formed Greek state that would educate priests. Today it stands in the Calandri suburb of Athens.

For other 'P' related stamps just cross over to Sunday-stamps-p and follow the links.

Birds of a Feather - Thematic Photography

Carmi couldn't have made a better choice of a topic for me this week.

Feathers abound on the grass by the side of the road along which I take my morning walk.

A feather down

And if that is not enough - 

Four feathers

But not from a thrush.

Tail feathers

However there is a sad tale to this as these feathers are all that remained of a wood pigeon demolished by a hawk.

Man, the worse predator of all, can also have a devastating effect.

Owl - a road kill victim

Other birds play hide and seek behind - 

The chimney pots

Jackdaw viewing spot

Discussing last night's soap

While sparrows watch the children cross

Some just watch the world go by.

Young blackbird on kitchen window sill

A much better place to be than behind glass at - 

Detroit Zoo - King Penguins

Some birds just have to pretend while - 

Waiting for the mail.

Meanwhile there is a work in progress for me - I'm trying to get a decent shot of this bird.

Nuthatch (image scanned from a bird book)

This is the best I have done so far from 50ft away and through a double glazed window.

Nuthatch clearing ivy from a nesting box

We saw this bird for the first time in our garden only last month; now it is a regular visitor.

Fortunately it's a little smaller than the bird we saw at nearby Preston Park.

However my favourite so far this year is one some of you have seen before.

Male Bullfinch

It was making itself comfortable in a hand towel while it recovered from the argument it lost with our lounge window.

Now is the time for you to recover to and fly over to see other 'Birds of a feather' at Carmi's Thematic-photographic-307.

Favourite Photos - Thematic Photography

Congratulations and grateful thanks to Carmi for his Thematic Photographic themes. This week is the 300th time he has set a theme for us to follow and in which he has given us free rein to show our favourite photos.

Here are just five of mine, most of which will have appeared on my blog before, at one time or another.

This is the most recent,

Bullfinch 2014

recovering in comfort from a head on clash with a doubled-glazed window.

I wasn't very good with a camera before digital came along. Good photos were a bit 'hit' of 'miss.' This is a successful miss!

Miss - Hutton-le-Hole, North Yorkshire, 1981

The blur just under her hand is a bridge across a stream.

The Infinity Bridge at Stockton-on-Tees provides a lot of opportunities for camera buffs. One of my favourite shots is this one taken looking up from the footbridge - 

Infinity Bridge

Dogs have featured in many of my posts and it's almost impossible to choose a favourite from amongst them. So I'm going to include two - of the same dog.

Cody 'fishing'

and relaxing after a game of tennis, or is he waiting for the game to start?

Cody - Michigan 2012

Celebrate Carmi's third century with other people's favourites at Thematic-Photographic-300.

Favourite Photos of the Year - Thematic Photography

In picking my favourite photos of 2013 I have tried to avoid shots that have appeared on Thematic Photography before. But in working through the year I just had to start with one you have seen already.

White Frost - January 2013

We get a variety of birds in our garden throughout the year. In April this cock bird was taking a stroll over a flowerbed.

Cock Pheasant - April 2013

One of the most colourful birds we see is the bullfinch not that you can view it in all its glory in the next shot I've chosen.

Bullfinch in Conifer - May 2013

Next I have chosen a shot of a single flower - the only one of this type we have,

Alium - June 2013

At the end of August we set out to visit our daughter in Michigan. I have shown many pictures of her dogs over the year but my next picture reminds me that three weeks before we travelled, she lost Cody the oldest of her four dogs.

Cody before he crossed the Rainbow Bridge

While in Michigan in September we visited Detroit Zoo. A series of my favourite photos of the animals appeared in Treasured-thematic-photography.

Away from the zoo I came across this chap, one of the biggest I've seen - the metal frame he is hanging on to is 3-4 inches deep.

Grasshopper - September 2013

Back home when we visited York I could not resist taking the next shot.

'Dog' doing what comes naturally - York, November 2013

When it came to Christmas Day a jewel took pride of place.

Ready to Ring in the New

All that remains is for me to wish Carmi and all Thematic Photographic contributors a Prosperous and Happy New Year.

For more favourites don't forget to visit Carmi at Thematic-photographic-275,

A-Z Challenge 2013 - 'B'

My A-Z posts this year are based on  my garden – flowers, animals, the birds and the bees, butterflies - with a bit of poetry thrown in. For some letters I am expecting to cheat somewhat – wishing they were here.

B - Bluebell, Begonia, Blackbird, Blue Tit, Bullfinch, Bumble Bee

One day, one day, I’ll climb that distant hill

And pick the bluebells there!

Bluebells

 We inherited lots of bluebells when we moved into our house over twenty years ago so we do not have to climb those distant hills. The flowers have spread so much that we have had to thin them out when they begin to swamp the borders. 

There are some plants that thrive in pots or  tubs..

Begonia

However they all welcome the humble:

Bumble Bee

The pedigree of honey

Does not concern the bee

A clover, any time, to him

Is aristocracy

It’s always a pleasure to hear them buzzing around as it is to listen to the birds.

O blackbird! sing me something well:

Blackbird (tuning in!)

Of  course you just have to stop and watch:

Blue Tit

 Lithest, gaudiest harlequin!

Prettiest tumbler ever seen,

Light of heart and light of limb

What has now become of him.

But by far the most colourful bird that visits us occasionally is:

Bullfinch

We may have to wait till May before we can say

See the bright bullfinch now,

High on the apple bough.

Poems

• Bluebells – George Barlow
• The Bee – Emily Dickinson
• Blackbird – Alfred Lord Tennyson
• Blue Tit – Wordsworth
• Bullfinch – Anthony Rye

Photo Attribution

• Blue Tit – Jan 2011 By Tony Hissett – CC BY-SA 2.0
• Bullfinch – Mark S Jobling – Public domain