Life

I went for a walk along a forestry style track, yesterday. Ahead of me was a ewe, with two lambs. The ewe felt nervous about my approach, and started to trot away from me. The lambs were, of course, following her closely. However, the sheep didn't trot away uphill or downhill. Instead, they continued along the track. I also continued along the track. All of us walked in this procession for some time. As the sheep were moving faster, they increased the distance between us. In a short space of time, I could see the sheep about 1000m ahead of me.

The long period of sunny weather we have experienced in the Highlands this year, starting in April, seems to have increased the number of birds striking the house windows. The angle of the light hitting the windows, the light intensity and how bright it is in the room, all have an effect on how transparent the windows look. The birds, presumably, don't see the glass and believe they can fly-through the gap. I was dismayed when a juvenile song thrush (Turdus philomelos) struck the sitting room window, and died. I had to do something to combat the problem.

For more than a year we have had a sika deer hind coming, on a regular basis, to our garden to graze. Last May, the hind had her fawn right next to the house and we were lucky enough to see it within a couple of hours of its birth. In the last fortnight we have seen the deer in the house vicinity every day, and it is likely she has chosen the garden as a nice safe location to bring another fawn into the world.

I am about half-way through reading David Attenborough's book on his Zoo Quest Expeditions during the 1950s, and I am thoroughly enjoying it. Unlike his Life series books this one concentrates on the human adventures, and David's in particular, though the animals are still the focus of everyone's activities. Those activities included filming the wildlife and capturing animals to bring back to London Zoo. This latter activity is completely frowned upon today, which Mr. Attenborough admits in the opening section of the book, but sixty years ago attitudes were quite different.

I started noticing that there was a screeching noise from the engine bay in our VW T25 campervan when starting the engine. I decided it must be the auxiliary belt needing tightened or replaced. However, I delayed doing anything about it as I had recently looked at the belt when replacing a section of the cooling pipe and it looked fine then. Anyway, even if it needed replacing it wasn't a problem as I had a spare.