Not a huge fan of grey squirrels in the UK. There’s great work being done to expand the native red squirrel population. If you had to choose between a grey OR a red squirrel in your garden? Well then… But in the right place they are kinda cute. Look at those little hairy feet. Awwwww!
Author: Rolling Harbour
Indispensible blog for Abaco Bahamas: Birds, Marine mammals, Reef fish, Bonefishing & a miscellany of hurricanes, shark attacks, shipwrecks, books, recipes & cocktails
THE HOUSE MARTINS… BUILD (A NEST)
Spring is making up for lost time in Dorset, as everywhere else. The blackbirds are nesting again, the partridges have been joined by a cock pheasant in full, shiny breeding plumage. We heard our first cuckoo on March 5th, a couple of fields away. Sparrows are nesting in cavities in the old walls of the house. Strictly we ought to plug them with something, but it seems a shame, and the walls are thick enough. And so, on to…
…the decade that music forgot. I watched a pair of house martins building a nest under the eaves, taking it in turns to collect small balls of mud to add to the structure, and carefully fitting the nest together. I decided to video them. Suddenly I had a vague recollection of The Housemartins and a song called ‘Build’ (it reached #41 in NZ in 1987… rather higher in the UK). So I put video and song together, only to realise that the song is actually quite irritating – especially the papapapapa bits. Too late. Here it is, with advice to mute the sound if you don’t want to be transported back to a bad place musically…
[vimeo https://vimeo.com/65641512]GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKERS FINALLY SET UP HOME
Most years recently a pair of Great Spotted Woodpeckers have nested in a silver poplar tree at the end of our garden. They usually start prospecting in March, drilling several new exploratory holes (or sharpening their beaks) before going back to the original hole. Then they clean it out, chucking out the previous year’s debris, and carry out some minor home improvements. There is soft tapping from deep inside the trunk as they put the finishing touches to a new bookcase, or whatever they keep in there. Then the female lays the eggs, they share sitting and feeding duties, and in due course the nestlings fledge and fly.
This year, like everything else in the garden, they were late. However, much better late than never, they have returned. There is a carpet of mess and small wood chippings below the tree, the female has laid the eggs, and the male attentively lets her take a break to stretch her wings while he takes over the eggs. He still hasn’t got the front door quite to his liking yet. These photos were taken during the last couple of days. It’s lovely to have them back, and very tolerant of them to live so close to the centre of a big city.
The male has a nest-watching perch in a nearby tree
He keeps the entrance looking smart…
…and checks all is well inside
The female comes to the doorway from time to time for a look around
I’ve noticed she often looks down for a while before fully emerging
The male usually stays close at hand, foraging on the same tree
THE HIGH LINE, NEW YORK: (1) ART + ADS
The High Line in New York City is a 1-mile ‘linear park’ built on a disused section of the former elevated New York Central Railroad spur called the West Side Line. This line runs along the lower west side of Manhattan currently runs from Gansevoort Street, three blocks below West 14th Street in the Meatpacking District, up to 30th Street, through the neighborhood of Chelsea to the West Side Yard, near the Javits Convention Center.
The line has been imaginatively redesigned and extensively planted as an ‘aerial greenway’. Many reminders of its former life have been incorporated, including sections of track; and the line cuts through a number of large office blocks. Along the way, there are a number of access points. There are plenty of neat ‘mini-platform’ wooden seats from which to contemplate the scenery or the urban art; and areas with larger wooden seats long enough to lie on, as with a sun lounger. Some of these are doubles…
You’ll find plenty of information on the excellent Friends of the High Line website HERE. When we were in NYC a couple of months back, it was in winter mode, with snow on the ground and a freezing wind. However I enjoyed the experience so much that I walked the length of it… twice! It was gratifying to see the large number of people doing likewise, even in very cold weather, and making the most of New York’s most recent city innovation.
I am planning a series of photographic posts to highlight various aspects of the High Line, starting slightly perversely with some of the astonishing and/or entertaining art (in a broad sense) along the route. I really look forward to coming here in summertime one day. This is a wonderful railway restoration project that you definitely do not need to be a rail-geek (trackie?) to enjoy.
SPRING IN THE CITY = BLOSSOM ON THE TREES
At last we have Spring in London. The birds are ‘twitterpated’ (©Walt Disney, Bambi – classic child-friendly euphemism). Suddenly there are things to be done in the garden, largely neglected during a long winter. The sun is out and I can tell the time on the sundial (last time I looked it said ‘November’).
DWARF WHITE CHERRY BLOSSOM
SPIR[A]EA 
A RANDOM COWSLIP IN THE LAWN
CAMELIA 
TULIP 
DAFFODIL SPECIES BORROWED (ahem) FROM THE WEST COAST OF IRELAND
FORGET-ME-NOTS (‘ground cover’ – i.e.saves weeding) 
PINK CHERRY 
SNAKESHEAD FRITILLARIES (my favourite)
AMELANCHIER 
MAGNOLIA STELLATA 
FORSYTHIA 
SOME MORE CHERRY FOR LUCK 
SPRING IN DORSET: BETTER LATE THEN NEVER…
Spring arrived in mid-Dorset last week. On Tuesday evening, swallows appeared for for the first time. On Wednesday, they were joined by housemartins. That evening, the unmistakable sound of an attempted break-in at the back of the house turned out to be a male partridge landing on, and strutting round, a corrugated roof. His mate then set off a security light, to her great surprise. Last year they raised 13 chicks. On Saturday morning, I was fishing for wild and wily brown trout, when a sandpiper flew up from the water’s edge. Plenty of people have been posting lovely Spring pictures. I certainly can’t beat them, but I’ll join them with a few photos from the last few days.
Buds are bursting
The partridges are back, and other birds are out in force
The spring flowers are at their best 
Baby blackbirds are already fledging
The rooks are pairing up, and nesting in the oaks
The alpacas are enjoying fresh grass and the warmth of the sun (attractive they may be, and useful mowers, but they were looking the wrong way when brains were being handed out to the animal kingdom)
Other seasonal woolly creatures are out and about in the nearby fields
The river is full and running clear 
A sure sign of spring – the first hotair balloon passes overhead
A blazing sunset to end the day… 
…and an early spring moon bright in the sky the following afternoon
HELSINKI HARBOUR
HELSINKI FOOD MARKETS
WALL INSCRIPTIONS, CALENZANO ALTO, ITALY
CUBAN EMERALD HUMMINGBIRD, ABACO, BAHAMAS
I photographed this tiny bird from a distance last month. Normally these Abaco images would appear on my main website HERE but I am planning a more detailed hummingbird post with close-ups for there, so I’m putting these ones here instead for the very small readership I have for this somewhat untended site. These images are exactly as taken – no colour tweaking, no sharpening, no photoshop – and may not stand enlargement and close scrutiny, because I was several yards away. On the other hand they give a very good idea of how this bird feeds – and besides, the plants are pretty… The red plant is known as a ‘firecracker’
ROLLING HARBOUR GALLERY 