R.I.P. Kevin
I have some very sad news from Willinghurst, we’ve had a bereavement and everybody is upset about it.
You’ll remember our Blue Tits that were nesting in the ashtray outside the cabin, well yesterday was the big day, their first glimpse of the big world outside of their little home. Terry and Mick were around doing odd jobs and noticed a little head poking out of the ashtray. Soon there were 3 little heads and as the chicks became more confident they hopped out onto the rail and sat there for a few minutes looking around and doing a bit of wing flapping. Ken, Katy and Kevin, three beautiful little Blue Tit chicks.
It was soon clear that Kevin was a leader, an adventurer, there was nothing that Kevin feared. In just a few short minutes he flapped his wings and made his first flight…all of about 10 feet before crash landing on the grass. Within 2 seconds of him hitting the ground a magpie had swooped down, killed him and flown off with his body. The lads were stunned, how could that happen in a split second ?.
Ken and Katy had seen what had happened and they had no intention of following in Kevin’s footsteps….they sat firmly fixed to the rail. Mick and Terry found a thin stick and offered it to the chicks as a perch. Lo and behold the chicks stepped straight on to it and then spent an age, sitting on their new perch as they were paraded around the cabin. The Cod has a great picture on his phone of them sitting on their perch besides the box of biscuits on the counter of the cabin. Once we conquer the technology I’ll post it here, it looks great on his phone.
As dusk was approaching the lads decided that the best chance for Ken & Katy was for them to be placed in the hedge at the side of Horseshoe Lake. Hopefully they’ll be safe there until they have the strength to fly properly and evade the predators that are waiting to kill them.
As fishermen we frequently see the great sights (on Sunday there were House Martens flying around the lake and they were making frequent stops to sit and rest on peoples poles), but thankfully we rarely see the cruel side of nature. It’s sad to see that in nature, as in human life, the bullies seem to triumph over the good guys….a sad day !.