Unusual bird

It was the song that alerted me first. It was one I'd never heard before, a loud, piping call not unlike that of a green woodpecker, but more melodious. Then I saw it, up in a tree and grabbed the binoculars, and that's when I reeled in amazement. The bird I saw was about the size of a collared dove, but was like a mini macaw, every colour under the sun. I saw gold, green, red, blue... was it an escaped lovebird? Anyone know what sounds lovebirds make? I am now keeping my ears pricked and my camera ready on the table.

PS Have done my homework on Google and I think it might have been a Conure. Anyone lost one in the Uxbridge area?

Sparrows at dawn

When I awoke this morning, the first thing I heard was the cheerful cheeping of a sparrow. It took me right back to my childhood when the dawn chorus was a wondrous thing, a veritable symphony, beginning with a blackbird, which harmonised with thrushes, sparrows, robins, starlings, chaffinches in a surge of sound which, in springtime, seemed to originate in the depths of the countryside and radiate out all the way to the city.

Here is a better photo of the fox with the mangy tail, taken this morning.

New fox

The limping fox with the ratty tail (see top photo which for some reason won't blow up large) is limping slightly less and is scrounging even more. In fact, as we sit at the kitchen table at night, it walks right up to the patio doors and puts its nose against the glass and peers in at us, making me feel most guilty for eating. Sometimes it does it at breakfast time. I was eating toast and peanut butter and it stared so hard and hungrily at me that I chucked the rest of the toast out on the lawn and it grabbed it and ran into the bushes. I then gave it what was left of my Neil's Yard yoghurt coated nuts and raisins and it snuffled every one up out of the grass.

But this morning, once the mangy fox had gone, this fine specimen appeared and my partner was lucky enough to get a few photos. Perhaps it's the mate of the other, because foxes don't usually share territories and I haven't heard any sounds of fighting. Or anything else. No signs of pregnancy. I didn't see any cubs last year. I do hope there will be some this year. I still miss cute little Olive.