What a fine sight, a Shire Horse at work pulling logs out of the woods at Chiswick Park!
The team of two men were soft-spoken Irish and efficient, unflappable even when one dog after another came excitedly up to investigate the unusual scent. The actual moving of each batch of logs took a few seconds and was amazingly hard to photograph as most of the action was on narrow temporary paths among the trees. Of course that is exactly why a horse is better than a tractor, as there is no need to cut new roads through the woods to extract the lumber, and no danger of getting stuck in the mud either.
Birding on a Bike without Binos, how is that possible? My mind fogged by editing, I took an hour off and cycled down to the river to get some air, space, sunshine and nature. It was a lovely bright spring day. A holly blue butterfly flew about the garden, and a buff-tailed queen bumblebee crawled about the grass looking for a hole to nest in – she was certainly a queen as she was very large, and she’s the only form of her species that is actually buff tailed, the rest are white tailed.
Coots, 3 cootlings and an egg in Chiswick Park
In Chiswick Park, a pair of mallard had at least six ducklings: the adults sat on the bank, with probably one more duckling (no binoculars today) while the six adventurous ones paddled nimbly about in circles not too far away. In the midst of William Kent’s carefully landscaped ‘river’ (a long narrow pond) was a coot’s floating nest; the sitting parent got up while I was watching, revealing three cootlings and one unhatched egg in the nest. A blackcap sang sweetly from the trees.
Down by the river, a solitary great crested grebe swam against the tide, glinting white in the sun. Goldcrests squeaked from the cypresses by the boathouse; allotment owners worked their patches of ground. A small tortoiseshell butterfly flew swiftly past the barbecues which were grilling kebabs. It did feel like spring.
The English seem unemotional … except for their passion for nature
