I do hope that you are all safe and well in these very icy times, and that you are taking all the precautions necessary to prevent a personal falls in our, at present, very icy gardens and driveways. Having been caught out myself at the end of last winter, I tend to think twice now before venturing out to my garden bird feeders, hence my rhetorical question to myself: “to feed or not to feed?” Yesterday I managed it, barely, by clinging to some low‑slung pine‑tree branches. Today, a bit more wisely, I did it with some “crampons” (spikes) attached to my shoes with a lot more re‑assurance, but still very cautiously! Please be careful too!
Since my last article submission, I was privileged to spend a very interesting time chatting about our garden birds via a telephone link‑up provided by the Seniors Community Services, here in Kemptville, with several bird-loving ladies. Personal pictures taken by the SCS organizer Jill Woodley, of many of our more common garden birds were made available to all the participants on the phone‑in, as well as their recorded songs, so that everyone could relate to them, which included one lady who is blind.
What a thoughtful inclusive gesture by Jill. Thank you! They also paved the way for questions to be asked and answered by, not necessarily me, but by the other ladies in the group, so was very satisfying for all. This relatively amateur bird observer was quite impressed by how knowledgeable they were at recognizing their birds by sight and also their songs, so didn’t have to expose his ignorance at all! I just kept my mouth shut most of the time and only had to answer the more personal questions about how I got to be a contributor to the NGTimes.
I expect that the Editor is still asking himself how he let that happen, so I’m not going to say anything to “rattle his cage”, just in case he can think of a negative answer!!
Stay safe and well,
Cheers,
John Baldwin
