View from the bay (window)

Although a beautiful spring morning I was obliged to engage in a modicum of domesticity. A bit of window cleaning, a brake light bulb change and a shop visit meant I was in and out a fair bit. Nonetheless this didn't stop me from touching base with the natural world. See I'm not one of those people who think nature is only for special places, where a convenient car park, a cafeteria, some swings for the little uns and a 'wildlife this way' finger post are pre-requisites. No sirree, when going about the mundane I'm always on the look out for an opportunity to weave living world well-being into my life.

Now most of you will have a good understanding of the remarkable population expansion of the Canada goose over the last few decades. However, whilst this bird is a banker for any small to medium sized waterbody, its regular local movements that can be witnessed at the top and tail of the county on a winters afternoon has to date escaped my humble abode here in the socialist heartlands of Gwent. That is until last weekend when changing a fiddly bulb on the motor I detected the distant 'honking' of two geese from the south east quarter, only to eventually witness a couple of loudly calling birds past directly over head destination north west. As soon as the reverberating calls had  faded away were they replaced by the less forceful tinkling song of my first chiffchaff of the year coming from within the liberal comfort of the mature landscaped gardens attached to the detached properties on the hill. With more house stuff filling the morning frequent glances out the bay window were rewarded with playful house sparrows, a male bullfinch and a high flying small tortoiseshell butterfly. All in all a very rewarding session of citizen science at home.