A misty moisty morning. The mist came swirling up to the kitchen windows lightly, but thickened considerably by the time it reached the end of the garden, it was as if we lived isolated in a white void, in total seclusion from the rest of the world.
As the mist lifted, the garden filled with birds, even as I was filling the bird table the blue tits, robins and great tits were flying to the food.
The first bird to feed from the lawn was a jay, swiftly followed by No-Tail the pigeon and a magpie who arrived at the same time. Within minutes a flock of sea gulls flew in, these are wonderful birds to view, as they circle above the grass, swooping and diving headlong in order to feed. I was lucky to be watching from just a few feet away. Very quickly the lawn was cleared of food and the larger birds had all flown.
The squirrels were the next to arrive, as they did so the smaller birds vacated the bird table, for the safety of the trees. With the squirrels came a lone magpie, he sat on a low branch of the old apple tree. The squirrels -three of them each collected food from the bird table, the first one sat on the roof of the bird table eating, the second one took his biscuit and ran down the back lawn to sit on a chair near the pond, the third one climbed down from the bird table, carrying his biscuit three feet along the path and on to the edge of the lawn where he settled down to eat.
This was what the magpie had been waiting for, he dropped from the branch to the grass and slowly strutted across to the squirrel's left side, where he stood so close they were almost touching. The squirrel ignored him. Slowly the magpie moved to the right hand side of the squirrel, walking closely in front of him, the squirrel remained as he was.
The magpie stayed standing very close to the squirrel, for almost a minute, still almost touching the squirrel who still ignored him. I guess the squirrel had been harassed by the magpie for so long that he has grown used to him.
As I watched I saw something, that if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes I probably would have had a problem believing it, however seeing is believing and I saw it.
The magpie slowly walked round the squirrel to face him and so they stood face to face. A few seconds passed and then the magpie lowered his beak and pecked the biscuit, which was still being eaten by the squirrel. The squirrel continued to eat the biscuit and the magpie standing very closely continued to gently peck the opposite edge.
I watched in wonderment. Why didn't the squirrel run away or the magpie try and wrest the biscuit from him?
Raising my head I called Mike to come quickly and see this odd interplay between the squirrel and magpie, this was brilliant timing because overhead flew an eleven strong flock of white geese.
Alas, my hasty call and movement had broken the spell and as I glanced down, so the squirrel and magpie had departed.
What an amazing start to the day, firstly watching the interplay between the squirrel and magpie and secondly being lucky enough to be at the window when a flock of white geese passed over the garden.
These were both firsts for the garden.
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