I don't normally expect any bird activity in the Garden until well into November but today a nuthatch turned up and investigated the empty feeder.I have put a bulk order in with Haiths, hopefully he will return and I won't get food rotting in the feeders as has happened when I have tried feeding early in the season before.
I haven't done much birding during the summer but a recent visit to the Forest of Dean did result in a close encounter with a wild boar. I was in the sculpture park on an old raiway embankment when I heard a boar grunting just below me a few yards away. I couldn't see him as the undergrowth was very thick but from the volume it was about the same distance as you would be from a pig at a city farm. I moved a little down the path before leaning over the fence to see if I could spot him but without luck. I did see a small heard of fallow deer later on though. Earlier in the day I had stopped at Brierley to have a look at the beaver release. I did manage to see a beaver dam but no animals.
Taking my usual walk today it was striking how the autumn colours had come on in the last few days. When the sun came out I really regretted not having the camera with me. There wasn't much to see in the way of variety or numbers of birds. A couple of probable skylarks put up on a cultivated field but the gem was naturally a red kite. Circling over the fields behind my house at tree top height it finally came over my head as I reached the edge of the field. Living where I do I suppose that I should be blasé about them by now but when one comes overhead there is no choice. I still just stop and say "wow!"
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