Right bird, right camera(s)

Today’s guest picture is another from the seaside outside our son Tony’s new house on the north shore of the Forth.  As well as seal spotting, he has been curlew catching.

We had very little encouragement to do anything outside here today as it rained on and off the the whole time in a very dispiriting sort of way.

Although a little rain doesn’t seem to deter the bees which I find rather surprising.

And the mint is enjoying the weather.

(I meant to put it in yesterday’s post but I forgot so I will mention that the rain for last week, as measured by Mary Jo’s scientific rain gauge, was 4 cm or just over an inch and half.)

Luckily I had plenty to do, including some local shopping in the car, preparing a beef stew for the slow cooker and grappling with a very tricky crossword so time passed quite cheerfully.

What made a gloomy day feel better was the second visit in two days of a nuthatch.  I didn’t have my camera set up and it flew off but I set the camera up at the kitchen window more in hope that expectation of a return visit and was rewarded when the nuthatch not only came back but hung about on the elder…

…and gave me a hard stare when it caught me taking its picture.

It is a beautiful bird and a very rare visitor to our garden indeed so this was a special treat.

While I was finishing off my cooking, I was looking at the feeder again through the window as I worked.  The nuthatch was long gone and there was nothing out of the ordinary, just a couple of chaffinches…

…who soon gave way to greenfinches flying in from this side…

…and that side.

After lunch, with the rain still coming down, I sanded down the new garden bench which is sheltering in the garage for the moment and gave it a coat of decking oil.  Then I adjourned for some flute practice and watched a bit of the F1 race on the telly.

In this way, I passed a quiet day very comfortably.  Mrs Tootlepedal went to sing in the church choir in the morning and then devoted herself to curtains.

In the evening, while I was preparing some potatoes to go with the stew, I cast a hopeful eye  on the feeder.  There was a sole soggy goldfinch to look at…

…until, very satisfactorily, either the same nuthatch returned…

…or one remarkably like it.

It descended onto the seed feeder and waited until I had got the best picture that poor light and the handheld Lumix would allow.

…and then it flew off again.

I hope it becomes a regular visitor, at least for a while.

The stew turned out well and we had a few raspberries from the garden with a drop of cream to follow.  All in all, what could have been a very dismal day turned out well.

The flying bird of the day is probably jumping more than flying!