MORE TALES FROM THE BUNKER

Beware Low Flying Robins!

Here at the bunker life goes on each day seeming the same as another but of course it isn't as the unfurling stories that take place in the garden here make sure of that.  It's as good as going to the cinema here at times.

We are always being advised to encourage wildlife to our gardens but here at the bunker we don't need to encourage them they just come as of right as they don't recognise the boundary of a fence between us and the wood adjoining us in which there is plenty of wildlife including badgers, foxes, squirrels and all sorts of different birds too not to mention all the small creatures that live in the trees and the earth surrounding them.

Since lockdown we have noticed that the birds which come to the bird table and the water dish seem to be much bolder than before and I sometimes wonder if they might be planning a take over of the world and us - would that be such a bad thing?  Might they make a better job of it all than we humans seem to?

As we sit either in the conservatory or in the garden with our cups of tea or coffee we have noticed a robin (or maybe there are more) flying at breakneck speed - literally if they don't notice the back door of the garage is open and hit the glass as has happened - across the garden and over time we realised he was going to a nest in the evergreen hedge which runs along behind our house.  Now every time we step outside the back door or go to and from the compost bins we are on his flight path as he hurtles from the wood the otherside of our fence to the nest taking in a short stop at the apple tree before going on to the trellis and the bush against that (name escapes me) and thus into his nest.  A couple of seconds later he does the same route in reverse and this is kept up all day long - he must be exhausted by evening!

This morning I was sitting on the bench with my coffee and noticed a robin sitting on top of the washing line post - he must have seen something as he then dropped onto the edge of the path beside the veggie patch and then onto the earth and reappeared with a big worm in his beak - it must have been 5 or 6 inches long and quite plump and he couldn't manage a vertical take off with it but did a rapid low level flight skimming the ground into the hydrangea where he disappeared.  I don't know if he butchered the worm into smaller portions or what happened.

Then whilst I was still sitting there a robin flew from the wood onto the apple tree but Mr M was just coming out for his coffee and he would pass too near so robin flew straight towards me but that wasn't wise either so he dipped and disappeared under the bench I was sitting on!!  

When I go to the compost bin with the kitchen vegetable scraps I am in danger of being knocked over by a low flying robin going to or from the nest - the space between the house wall and the hedge is quite narrow so no room to swerve either.    It happened yesterday but luckily the robin noticed me just in time and was able to do a U-turn and back onto the apple tree whilst I went by.  I could just imagine telling them in A&E that I had been knocked over by a robiin but it really did make me jump!!

Honestly we really need some kind of air traffic control here if we are not to be knocked over by flying robins!!

You will note that we are not striped lawns with clipped edges sort of gardeners and apart from vegetables most of the things in our garden are left to themselves.  I met a lady I sometimes speak to in the woods when walking yesterday and she asked me what the pink flowers in our front garden were (the entrance to the wood is right next to our driveway so front garden is on view to all the dog walkers) she is a gardner who opens her garden to the public in the NGS scheme and I had to say I had no idea nor did I know where they came from but as they are pretty the y can stay!

Thank you for your comments on my previous post and I am glad to find that I am not the only one who is ambivalent about the VE Day celebrations.  Thank you too for all your birthday wishes too.