It was another lovely sunny day yesterday after another cold start. Poor Tom, leaving at 5am everyday at the moment has to wear a warm coat and then spends the rest of the day having to lug it about. I decided I would try and fix the Roberts Radio. In the end I used a plastic wire connector to connect the new battery terminal wires and it worked, the radio has power and it switches on! However very disappointingly I still can't get any sound. The must be something else wrong with it. I'm not giving up yet though, I'm going to do a google search to see if I can find out what else the problem may be and another search on trusty YouTube.
In the afternoon I gardened and weeded and cut back. The garden waste bin is collected tomorrow and am I the only person who feels that because I have paid for it to be collected, it must be full! While I was "slaving away" as youngest daughter called it, she lay on the sun lounger working on her tan and giving me a running commentary of what the wildlife was doing. Our vixen has kept a very low profile in the last few days but the male fox has been up and down all the time. While we were out there she suddenly appeared. "Is that our vixen?" said youngest daughter. "She looks different" When I looked at her she stared back in the usual trusting way but she looked thinner and strangely dirty. She must have had her cubs. I wonder where they are they must be very close, probably just behind the fence I think. I set up my wildlife camera as really want to catch them on film as soon as they emerge out. Last year after the cubs were born the male fox disappeared completely for a few months so I'll be very interested to see if that happens again. Here is the male fox keeping an eye on us.
The other interesting observation youngest daughter noticed while she was lying there was the magpies are busy in and out of the nest now in the cherry tree so their eggs must have hatched. What I feared has happened and we appear to have no other small birds nesting in our garden this year because of them being there but I suppose they have a right to nest too. They have such a bossy way about them I do have to laugh.
It seems both sets of parents have had young over the weekend. It remains to be seen how well the next few months goes for them. I'm going to look into what food I can put out for the magpies to give to their young as if I can minimise the chance of them stealing young from other birds nests it must be for the good.
It's quite overcast and chilly this morning and apparently we have more cold weather on the way. As my Mum used to say "Never cast a clout till May is out!" I'm going to be working this morning, then trying to fill the garden waste bin to capacity this afternoon. I hope everyone has a lovely day today what ever your plans. xx
