Today’s guest picture comes from Mary Jo in Manitoba. After seeing some late flowers in our garden, she sent me this picture of a pansy. She tells me that it showed up as a volunteer at the edge of a border this summer. Amazingly enough, the brave wee thing has bloomed again (on November 5th!) long after frosts that killed the surrounding hostas.
It wasn’t actually raining when we woke up this morning and I got quite excited and left Mrs Tootlepedal to prepare a venison stew for the slow cooker while I went out for a cycle ride. I should have got up earlier because no sooner had I got a hundred yards from the house than it started to rain. I had thought that there might be some rain about so I was well togged up for weather and pedalled bravely on.
My bravery washed away after about an hour of getting progressively more pelted by rain drops and pedalling through ever deeper puddles and I packed it in and went and had a hot shower.
I peered out of the window from time to time over lunch.
I have often wondered how people count garden birds accurately and today was a good example of the difficulty as far as I am concerned. Almost every time that I looked out of the window, I saw a blue tit or two. They kept dashing to the feeder and flying off. I saw at least two at the same time but were there just two going to and fro energetically or were there more, taking it in turns?
How many different blue tits can you see?.
The weather didn’t show any signs of improvement but luckily it didn’t matter as much as it might have, as we had the whole afternoon booked for a singing day with our Carlisle Choir. You might think that every day is a singing day for a choir but in our case a ‘singing day’ means that instructors come down from Glasgow and give the members assistance in small groups in an effort to improve our vocal skills and quality. It is always good fun and we learn many useful things so we were looking forward to it.
I wasn’t disappointed at all and the four and a half hours passed in a flash.
When we came out, the rain had stopped but it had been replaced by a brisk wind and although we could see the stars in the sky as we drove home, we are promised both wind and rain at the same time tomorrow. With 50mph gusts and a severe weather warning out, it will probably not be a great day for taking photographs.
Today wasn’t very good either as you can see from the flying bird of the day in the morning rain
Tootlepedal's Blog 
Four and a half hours of singing, what stamina you must all have.
I’ve never understood how they count birds either.
They must make allowance for inaccuracies when they come to the aggregation….I hope.
The bird-counting business has always puzzled me too. Even if you knew that there are four blue tits in your garden the RSPB et al would only accept two as you only see two at a time! The singing day sounds like fun.
It was excellent. A bit of technique polishing never goes amiss.
If we could see UV light as the birds can, our bird counts would be much more accurate. That’s how they tell each other apart.
Interesting. I never knew that.
50mph winds tomorrow? It certainly sounds like a day to stay indoors. I’m glad you had the choir “singing day” to enjoy to take your mind off the rainy weather. I am hopeless at telling small birds apart so doing a bird count would not be accurate in my yard. I am better recognising individual large birds. You did well to last for an hour in the rain, Tom!
You would have to be pretty sharp to recognise blue tits becuase they don’t hang about a lot.
Sounds like tomorrow is a day for battening down the hatches. The singing day sounds like fun, cycling in the rain less so.
The cycling comes into the ‘only when I laugh’ category and is good fun when you stop.
I’m glad you enjoyed the choir practice. Pansies and blue tits make up for the rain.
Joining the choir was a really good decision.
You’re tougher than I am. The only time I cycle in the rain is when I’m caught in it after leaving the house!
I probably wouldn’t have gone out if it had been raining before I started.
My Canon is wending its way back to me, but my poor Kodak gets frustrated with me trying to focus on a specific bird target. I get a mite frustrated, too.
I hope the Canon gets there soon as nothing is more annoying than seeing a good shot going begging.
Just got a visit from Fed Ex, and my baby is back!!! Yay!
Hooray.
That still chaffinch looks like it has a mini-chaffinch on it – an illusion.
I didn’t notice that. I’ll take a second look.
Having had a look, I see exactly what you mean. You are most observant.
Counting birds seems confusing. How on earth are you supposed to recognise individuals and know which are repeat visitors and which are newcomers?
Good question.