Today’s guest picture comes from our son Tony and shows the start of yet another sunny day in East Wemyss. How we could do with some of his weather.
If you like colourful garden pictures with shots of delightful countryside and cheerful birds then this is not the post for you.
It rained all day, and as a day there is nothing more to be said about it. Mrs Tootlepedal ventured out to do a bit of shopping and failed to obtain the chief purpose of her trip. I stayed in.
Well to be fair, I did go out far enough to take two pictures in the garden just to get a tiny bit of colour into today’s post but that was as far as I got.
The camera makes the day look much brighter than it actually was and the light was appalling for a summer day….
…but our morning was brightened by a visit from Scott. His coffee radar was working perfectly and the cafetiere had just been filled as he arrived.
The best that I could do in the way of pictures was to go upstairs and look at the birds from an upper window There was no shortage of birds to look at.
They weren’t very cheerful though. A chaffinch set the tone for the day, kicking a siskin off its perch
…and a greenfinch was pretty brusque too in disposing of the chaffinch.
There were quieter moments…
…and possibly some of the birds were just too wet to quarrel.
A siskin wisely had a careful look to see if the coast was clear….
…and a sparrow thought that he had found a peaceful moment….
…only to get a nasty shock a minute later.
When I looked at this picture on the computer, I saw that this passing siskin had been ringed…
…and was reminded of the time when Cat Barlow put nets up and ringed about fifty siskins in our garden in two days.
Greenfinches kept arriving to the annoyance of siskins…
…and I could have kept watching all morning….
…if hadn’t wanted to go downstairs to make potato soup for lunch.
All the bird pictures from the upstairs window were taken in the space of eight minutes, so it was just as well that I stopped when I did or this post would never have ended.
After lunch, I did some singing exercises as my voice is in very poor condition after no choirs for four months. Then I entertained myself with some tutorial videos on how to get the most out of my photo editor. This will be very useful if I can remember any of the things that I have learned.
It is still raining as I write this and the forecast is offering me plenty of excuses to rest indoors again tomorrow. With a bit of luck things are going to get better after that.
The flying bird of the day is a siskin at full stretch.
Excellent bird pictures today, the flying bird was a masterpiece.
The flying bird of the day attempting to be Albatross like …
Really stretching out, I agree.
You made the best of a bad day..whats happened to summer ?
Thursday onwards is looking a lot better though.
If the sun doesn’t shine tomorrow, I am going to be very sad indeed.
We had a similar day today with a tropical storm blowing through. Now we have a tornado watch.
I hope you’ll see some sunshine tomorrow.
I was never able to get nasturtiums to climb like yours do.
Our nasturtiums will climb up anything given half a chance. I hope that your weather settled down quickly.
Yes, we never had a Tornado here but there were plenty of warnings. In the end we got only a paltry half inch of rain.
Green finches are kind of aggressive, don’t you think? 🙂
All the birds at the feeder seem to be aggressive if they get the chance. The greenfinches are just the biggest and strongest. I saw a blue tit having a go at another bird today.
Are they always like that? Or only lately.
There has always been competition at the feeder on busy days..
The nasturtiums look great. Your bird commentary is so much fun.
I did my best to cheer up a miserable day.
A brilliant success!
Tony’s photograph is beautiful in both colour and composition. I enjoy the close up of the sparrow ‘at peace’ and agree that photographs often show more than our eyes could note at the time. I was surprised the other day to see in a photograph that one of the Cape Weavers (of which there are many) visiting our garden had been ringed.
The ringers seem to keep quite busy.
Love the shenanigans at the bird feeder! You made a dull day worth reading about. Loved the quest picture too.
Thank you Jackie.
Well done for what you can make of a potentially miserable day and for spotting the ring. Singing in the rain might be step too far….
Much too far. 🙂
Sorry about all that rain. We could certainly do with some of it here. Enjoyed your excellent bird pictures.
Tony and the birds saved the day
I agree.
We could well do with the rain you get as it is dry here and no hint of rain while in southern Germany water is running down the streets after torrents of rainfall. At least the antics of your feathered friends tend to amuse.
They are just the thing to keep me entertained on a wet day. This year continues to have very odd weather.
Thank goodness for the naughtiness of the birds and your witty remarks to keep our spirits up on such a wet day for us too! I think we’ll all have to move to East Wemyss! Great photo.
Tony said it was raining there too by the end of the day.
The feeders always provide entertainment, no matter what the weather. We have the possibility of rain in our forecast for tonight and tomorrow. I am hoping for rain!
I hope that you get it.
We did, sort of. Just a light misting rain for a short time.
That is just annoying without being useful. 🙂
I am happy to report we had our first rain last night! A measurable 0.1 inches (2.54 mm)!!! Yesterday we went blueberry picking at a farm north of us. They had had a decent shower of rain making for some rather wet bushes, but we enjoyed the cooler temperatures.
Hooray for the fractional rain. I hope that you get more but not enough to start off the landslides.
Great bird action shots, enjoyed!
Thank you Donna.
I remember the ringing of the Siskins! Your birds were certainly cantankerous today.