Some of the simplest questions are the toughest to answer..... These last couple of days we've hardly got out of the house ... ice everywhere, slippery as hell, though I suppose in hell they won't actually get much ice. And what with The Significant Otter and me both being old and decrepit ( a terrible and inexplicable development) , it was right dodgy. We've seen lots of people falling over, and cars sliding backwards ( and forwards, but that's not very interesting) down the slope at the top of the road, what a larf ! So ... I've been garden-watching quite a bit. There's plenty going on ... The Rev is still battling with about six other male Blackbirds, there's at least two Blackcaps knocking about, a jaunty Jay, resplendent m & f Bullfinches, Starlings, a miniflock of LTT's and much much more. But then there's the Dowdy Dunnocks. How high do they EVER get ? In the "altitudinal"sense, that is. It's a thing I've never thought about till now. What's happened to my critical faculties ? The highest ascent I saw was about 75cm. That is the height of the "in-hedge" fat-feeder which explains their possible reason for reaching such a hair-raising altitude. My next thing , in the interests of Science, should be to keep budging that fat feeder up a bit every day...... and see if the Daring Dunnock keeps going up with it. But what if, on day 7, with the fat feeder at, say, 128cm, the Desperate Dunnock can no longer cope with the harsh conditions at that Dunnock-Dizzying altitude, and dies a dreadful, long-drawn-out death due to fat-ball-inaccessibility ? It's not on. I considered it for a few "scientific "seconds, but then ditched the idea to avoid 847 sleepless nights thinking about it rotting away in a shallow grave, all because of ME. But I'm sure that my 5 loyal readers will be logging all sighting of Dunnocks and their heights and sending them in to me at [email protected] or even as a comment. And then I can draw a graph and find out ... er... something or other. And while we're waiting, here's a remarkably relevant and uplifting song & dance.... [ Update : Shortly after writing all that, a Dizzyingly Daring-Do Dunnock landed on our 2-metre high trellis ... so that is the current record, until any of you lot can do better.]
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AuthorThat's the author up there ... I was young and sprightly then. Archives
October 2022
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