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.

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 - 'P' - Passion Flower

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.

Please note that I have been/still am ill. Also I have had a computer failure that has not yet been resolved completely causing me to post late. I have been unable to reply to comments and to visit other A- Z participants for the past week. Will do my best to catch up as soon as I can; please accept my apologies in the meantime.

P – Passion Flower, Pheasant, Petunia, Peacock, Peony

Lay down on your pillow

And turn the lights down low

Let me take you to the garden

Where the passion flower grows.

 

Passion Flower

Roman Catholic priests (late 1500's) named it for the Passion (suffering and death) of Jesus Christ. The parts of the plant symbolised features of the Passion. The flower's petals and sepals represented the apostles who remained faithful to Jesus throughout the Passion. The circle of hair-like rays above the petals suggested the crown of thorns that Jesus wore the day he died.

Each day since late February, when it’s just light enough to see, we have heard, not the crowing of a cockerel, but the call of one of these magnificent birds:-

 

Cock Pheasant (on Tresco)

Gilded with leaf-thick paint; a steady

Eye fixed like a ruby rock;

Across the cidrous banks of autumn

Swaggers the stamping pheasant-cock.

At different times during the day it takes a stroll around two or three gardens before it returns to shelter under the bushes next door.

 

Cock Pheasant crossing drive next door

When it comes to flowers there are so many beginning with a ‘P,’ so I have to be careful which ones I choose to show.

These have been successful in the border and in tubs.

 

Petunias

There is no chance for any one of them to claim, "I'm a lonely little petunia in an onion patch,"  (see video link)

 Butterflies take a fancy to them too, but the Buddleia bush is a particular favourite for some.

 

Peacock Butterflies

Issa, a Japanese poet, is said to have written  up to 20,000 haiku, with around 84 about the peony, a flower which has a reputation for bringing prosperity:

Peonies

The god of fortune

and luck dwells here

a peony

 Poems:

• Where the Passion Flower Grows – Charles M Moore
• Cock-Pheasant – Laurie Lee
• Peony – Issa; Japanese peony haiku

Photos/Video

• I’m a lonely little Petunia in an Onion Patch – Youtube video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7nO9n6Ez64