For the Birds

So Mrs G's summer placement is over and she's back home.  I'm sure she will tell you all about it pretty soon.  But what about the important story of the summer.  What about the birds?

Well there was this one...

A red kite.  A long way north of where anyone expects them to be.  And there was a pair of them.  

But no, you are more interested in the three gulls, Augustine, Luther and Foxy-Knoxy.  Well of the first two,  as I've mentioned before, they didn't survive abandonment by the parents and the heatwave.  Foxy-Knoxy seemed to keep alive by rooting for bugs in the manse garden (and probably the odd maggot from his fallen brethren - yeuch!) and was drinking from an overflowing drain.  Occasionally he would fly off in the direction of the beach, returning to the garden at night.

As we packed the car on the last day, he was nowhere to be seen.  However as I made a final sweep of the house, from the bedroom I saw him...

That's Foxy-Knoxy.  He has managed to land in such a position as to interfere with play on the 18th green.  Had I been quicker with the camera you would have seen a golfer chip her shot over him as he was in between her ball and the flag.  So having been a hazard in our garden all summer, he has gone over the road to be a hazard on the golf course.  Not the biggest hazard on that course, as there are cows grazing and electric fences surround the greens.

And he owes his continuing existence to the fact that there are no cats in the village.  Next year he, or his family may be the problem of a new minister.  Until I see him again, I wish him well.