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It was a gift to take care of Chirpy for a few hours, I'd never seen a baby bird that close before (face-to-face). I was in my early teens, so it really impacted me (both positively in seeing him but negatively in his passing). Mixed bag, lovely bird! I love listening to chaffinches.
Speaking of birds, I heard some seriously enthusiastic singing this morning that I didn't recognize; living somewhere for 16 or so years you learn to recognize the local birds - this guy was something I'd
not heard before. He was on the large trees a couple of doors away from our house, but I was able to get a dark shot by zooming in fully. I think he is a great tit, sure looks like it. Definitely not a blue tit. Anyway, his song was stunning and a real treat - there was such a stillness in the air this morning!
Sometimes you can really
feel God's peace in the air, it was a wonderful morning...
Loads of
starlings about today, it was fanastic listening to them chatter amongst themselves. Played with the zoom on mum's camera and took some photos. I saw an albino starling a few weeks ago, I was hoping he'd return but I haven't seen him since. I sure hope it comes back so I can get a photo!
There seemed to be a starling having a merry conversation with an uninterested collared dove, too. Eventually the dove took off and the starling proceeded to mimic a blackbird "pop" call.
The
corncockle flowers are continuing to go over - lots and lots of seed pods!
Last time I updated I said I thought it would be another day or two before the
D. dielsiana flower stalk blooms. Boy was I off... still waiting!
I'm getting some dead leaf tips on the
D. capensis, this mass of plants needs repotting as soon as possible, there's a bunch of fungus on the dying leaves and not enough air can get in to remove it. That'll be fun.
Repotted two of my Mexican Pinguicula in a new growing mix: perlite, silica sand (fine grade) and crushed egg shells. This mix was recommended to me by a friend. I'm excited to see how the plants do! The first is
P. 'weser', the second is
P. 'tina'.
And, finally, all the
Mexican Pinguicula left in the perlite tray. As old leaves die off it discolours the perlite, so not the easiest way to keep pretty plants. If the two divisions do well I'll be repotting everything in the new mix.