Birds

We had a lovely but exhausting weekend at Dreamland again. The kids adore going and it really is fun, but by the time we get home on Saturday evening, we are all shattered.

There were only 3 families this time - making a total of 16 people! All the kids were in the same age groups and of the same sexes, so it was very well planned. The 9 year old boys were allowed to go off by themselves (as long as they stayed together), the 7 year old boys stayed with the dads, and the 5 year old girls and the baby stayed with the moms. Fun but don't plan to do it again for a while.

Yesterday, as we leaving the house to take Pearl for her evening run, we were called over by some of our neighbours. Their cat had caught a bird, and it was looking nearly dead, what should they do with it? I told them if it was a pigeon, just to wring its neck - fortunately for the bunch of feathers in question, it wasn't. I wasn't sure what it was exactly, apart from a small bird of prey - but Alex spent some time in the library today identifying it and and he informs me that it is a nightjar. I attach a picture so you can see what it looks like - rather like a kestrel in appearance.

The neighbours were scared to handle it, so I checked it over, no wings broken, tail feathers all gone, it seemed to be suffering mainly from shock. So we put it in a shoe box for the night, and put the shoe box in a bigger box and left it on the porch. The bigger box was to protect it from marauding felines; leaving it on the porch was to protect us from the mites/lice which were crawling off the little thing!

We checked on it during the night and it seemed to be regaining its sense of balance. The next morning, at 6am, Alex checked on it and said it was looking perky. At 6.30 when Alex went to walk Pearl, he came running back in to report that the bird was gone! I suspect the box was not well closed after his previous inspection, but no matter. The bird was located in a nearby tree (so clearly not eaten by a cat) and has not been seen since - hopefully it is still free and flying!