Baby Pheasant

What is it with the pheasants this year? Normally, they are shy retiring creatures that dart into the undergrowth the moment you approach. This year, the area in the immediate vicinity of the castle is alive with the birds. In short they have taken up blatant residence for the season, with all the shameless boldness of nudists on their designated patch of nudist beach.

I have been subject to two unpleasant attacks from the same vicious male terminator pheasant. Thankfully, he is now more concerned about his rivals than me, and I have seen him in a number of "fights" which can more accurately be described as face-offs with the occasional squawk.

The terminator pheasant has also been chasing Maria the housekeeper's red car. We suspect it's a colour thing.

Today, Craig the roofer, spotted a clutch of 5 eggs at the very front of the castle, together with around 10 chicks and a mother. How many babies does a pheasant have?

We suspect daddy is the bird in the bottom photo, as he was parading around protectively today. He sports a very unusual and beautiful blue bloom on his chest feathers, and is quite the dandy! Terminator pheasant is the standard orangey-brown.

Anyhow, my understanding is that pheasants are too stupid even to breed and baby birds have to be brought in from hatcheries in France every year. Balintore is delighted to buck the trend, and host this prodigious native progeny.

As traumatised as I was by the terminator pheasant, the clutch of pheasant babies made Craig's and my day!

clutch of pheasant eggs at the front of the castle

mummy pheasant and two babies

daddy pheasant

Old Pigeons, New Home

One of my recent favorite phrases is "say what you see", because in my humble opinion many of the world's problems can be solved simply by being bold enough to report on what is happening in front of your eyes.

To solve the problem of how to fill today's blog entry, I will say what I see in the three photographs I have taken today. :-)

In the first photo you can see Joe at the top of the scaffolding, plastering the top of the north wall. He is nothing if not ambitious, as he is trying to complete this mammoth wall in a single day.

Ambitions were partially thwarted as Joe reported he had had a cup of coffee first thing this morning to get him going. I was worried as Joe had told me previously, that he was a coffee addict and had given it up a couple of years ago. Needless-to-say, Joe reacted badly to the coffee and looked wretched after an hour or so. Fingers crossed, he is now better and back on track.

Just above the top of the ladder you can see some square openings amongst new wooden supports for the ceiling that Gregor has inserted. Gregor was mortified that the two pigeons who are still living in the castle (Mr. and Mrs. Flappy) are using one of these openings as their new nesting box. Mr. and Mrs. Flappy are nothing if not audacious as they fly through a door into and out of the Great Hall, just a foot or so from our heads. You can feel the draft of their flapping wings on your face.

There was a swift in the Great Hall earlier today, and Joe was escorting out some brightly coloured butterflies. Spring has definitely arrived at Balintore.

In the second photo you can see the fireplace in the Great Hall. The builders were burning some rubbish here today and the smoke came straight back into the room. In just a few days of the fire being off, due to the good weather, birds have built a nest in the chimney! The metal mesh had been ripped off the top of the chimney can by our avian property developers and squatters rights have been claimed. Gregor is on the warpath.

The third photograph was taken at the end of the afternoon. You can see that Joe has almost plastered to ground level. Rest assured that Joe did succeed in his "one wall, one man, one trowel" plastering challenge by the evening shift. I went to take a final photo of the completed work, but it had gone dark, and I could not find the light switch in my own castle! :-)