Small Pleasures and Big Numbers.

OK, so here’s another fine mess… (Sorry, I’m currently watching a collection of Laurel and Hardy films) little mystery to ponder:

I went out to replenish the front bird table yesterday morning and found a large pebble on it – about an inch and a half long, an inch wide, and correspondingly thick. It goes without saying that such articles are not much given to rising from the path of their own volition and depositing themselves on a piece of wood 4½ft above the ground. So somebody or something must have put it there. It certainly wasn’t me, and the only other visitor to this house is the postman who is not the practical joking type. So who – or what – was it?

I suppose it could have been a mischievous fairy, but the more likely explanation is that it was a jackdaw. The jackdaw is a member of the crow family, and the crow family is well known for having a high level of intelligence. It’s widely thought that they are capable of understanding the concept of exchange, and there are many instances of crows leaving items on bird tables where they’ve been able to get food. That’s my best guess, and it’s rather endearing don’t you think? I wonder whether I might have done something to attract the approbation of the god of small things. It’s usually the small things which give me the most pleasure.

 

 

And talking of small things, today I saw a jackdaw bring one of its fledglings to the bird table at the side of the house. I’ve never seen a fledgling jackdaw before because they’ve never been in the habit of visiting the garden before. They’ve always stayed out in the fields where they’re too far away to pick out the young ones. And it was noticeably smaller than the parent, which is common in mammals but not so much in birds. So that’s something else I’ve learned his week, something small as usual.

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On a different tack entirely, Blogger stats tells me that the number of page views to this blog passed the ½ million mark this week. When I started fourteen and a half years ago I would never have countenanced such a large number, but that’s if it is to be believed. Frankly, I don’t believe it. A lot of the recorded visits over the past six months have been decidedly suspicious, and big numbers are generally of little consequence to me anyway.