Trading places

Last week I had more time to daydream than I expected or wanted. Even if things had gone to plan, my train journey to Edinburgh and back would have been tedious. In the event, each leg was delayed – by more than three hours on the way up and an hour on the way back. What a pain. Fortunately, I had no worries about urgent appointments, so my main problem was boredom. On the first occasion it was dark and there was nothing to see outside. When you’ve done the crossword, there are only so many times you can re-read a magazine.

People watcher

The second unscheduled halt was in daylight, deep in the Scottish countryside. With limited options, I found myself gazing out of the window. But the observation wasn’t all one way. I and my fellow passengers were being watched by the local wildlife, including a magnificent pheasant. What did it make of us, I wondered? For once, a big, long machine was still and quiet. Through the windows the pheasant could, no doubt, see other animals not doing very much. They weren’t obviously carrying shotguns, so it probably felt safe to hang around. After a while, curiosity satisfied and getting hungry perhaps, the beautiful bird used its freedom and flew off. At that moment I would gladly have traded places and taken my chances.

Titbit of knowledge

It was easy to identify yesterday’s visitor to our back garden: a green woodpecker. One comes occasionally and sometimes does what I expect of woodpeckers: hammering at the stump of a dead tree, gradually removing the bark. Yesterday ‘Woody’ was exploring the lawn, inserting his/her long beak in the ground and fairly obviously feeding on something.

Soon after Woody had flown away, a friend arrived. I know she’s interested in birds, so I told her about the green woodpecker and said I didn’t know what it was looking for in the lawn. Straight away she asked, “Do you have sandy soil?” Yes. “Do you have ants?” Yes. “The woodpecker is hunting for ants.”

This was a titbit of knowledge that had previously escaped me. I enjoy seeing woodpeckers, so maybe knowing more about what they eat will make me tolerate better the bugs that keep biting me out there.

Identify these bird calls?

Help wanted! I’m not bad at identifying British birds when I can see them, but I’m much less competent when I can only hear them. This evening, after dark, I heard unfamiliar bird calls from the silver birch tree just outside our house. Putting my head out of the door, it was clear that there were actually two birds calling, one closer than the other. Fortunately, they hadn’t moved on by the time I got my audio recorder going. There’s an extract of the recording here. Can you satisfy my curiosity and identify the birds? Bonus points if you can identify the aircraft as well.