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Once upon a time this was a common sight to delight the eye. This view gladdened our hearts in June 2018 - surely a mistake? Normally seed is so thoroughly cleaned and so many herbicides sprayed on the fields that this traditional vista is sadly rarely seen. I understand that poppy seed is so small it passes through the harvested seed without spoiling the yield so why can't we see more fields like this? Please! 
This little fella keeps tap, tap, tapping at my window....
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 Ellie, our beautiful retriever, retrieved this in the garden last night. She appeared at the living room patio doors with him in her mouth. He was huge....tightly curled up in a ball, of course. We put him back into the hedgerow at the top of the garden and he trundled off about his nightly business. He was fine - Ellie has a very gentle mouth. Chapel Walk, Cliddesden
It's a beautifully warm and sunny spring afternoon and I've just seen this sparkling little butterfly in Cleresden Meadow. And not just one, not two but three! The meadow is ideal habitat for the Green Hairstreak - chalk downland with warm open areas with some scrub sheltered by trees and plenty of its larval foodplants. A first for me!  One bright sunny Friday morning towards the end of January I was sitting crossed legged in my yoga studio planning my lessons for the forthcoming week...when something hit the French Windows...I crawled across to see what had hit the window and fallen to the patio outside...finding myself in an appropriate yoga pose...Eka Pada Raja Kapotasana (one legged king pigeon).
I was to remain in this position for quite some time as an amazing scene unfolded before me.... It was indeed a little bluetit who had hit the window and lay on one side, beak open, breathing heavily.as I hoped he might make a recovery, another bluetit landed on the patio nearby and hopped over to the injured bird...what happened next was so surprising, even though I was already thinking these two probably belong to the family of bluetits we observed from eggs to hatching in our webcam bird box last summer and who seem to have stayed in our garden ever since... Bird number two then seemed to peck and nudge the injured bird until it was back on its feet but still stunned... The second bird stayed with the injured bird for about 10 minutes (meanwhile my king pigeon yoga pose was getting more and more challenging!) four other birds flew in to see what was going on and then all 6 birds flew off together..... Was this, I wonder, a sibling group taking care of one another - not anything I had seen on TV wildlife programmes. 3CG member from Ellisfield Whilst walking my dog the other morning, I saw a dead rook by the path bordering a field and thought I'd move it before a dog or child found it. I put it in the middle of the field and as I was walking back to the path I heard a raucous cawing. Looking up, a flock of rooks was wheeling round in the air above the unfortunate corpse. Never having seen this behaviour before, it reminded me of elephants who come to investigate the death of one of their own kind. I know corvids are highly intelligent as are elephants. Has anyone else witnessed this type of behaviour in birds?
This beautiful bird is a frequent visitor to the meadow but we haven't managed to get a video of the female yet
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