BIRD NEWS:328

I wandered around a bit searching for the squirrels that Liz had said she had seen when she visited. She had forewarned me to arm myself with peanuts - but I only spotted one distant squirrel all trip on the day I chose to attend. I did spot a solitary rat diving into some undergrowth, which made me happy - as its nice to know they have somewhere bait-free to live. That song thrush was now taking a bath in a waterfall enclosure near a dozing duck.

I decided to give up when I could not spot the squirrels and toss my peanuts out on the lawn. Perhaps those crow-rook birds might like them - or the thrush after its bath - or even the rat if nobody else wanted my squirrel offering.

There was what I assumed was a sleeping bird spotted when I went back to the lawns - but it turned out it might have actually been injured. Shortly after I took the photo, a pair came down and started poking at it as if to wake it up - but it objected, took a few steps and settled down again. Injured or dying, it did not want to be bothered.

Soon the birds had observed me throwing something on the grass - and came to investigate. They obviously knew what peanuts were as several disappeared from my first handful thrown down. It was not long before they clustered about waiting for the next toss of nuts. These birds enjoyed them as much as wood pigeons do!