Blackbird singing in the dead of night...

[Douglas Wilcox]

Tonight, when I left the hospital, there was a blackbird singing in the bleak darkness of winter.

Taking a cue from this melodious bird and from Andrea's recent post on small pleasures, here is a photo to help anticipate summer. It was taken on the 1st of June this year on Siolaigh in the Monach Islands. On the full size original I can just see the mountains of St Kilda on the horizon. The entire island was covered with a carpet of sea pink (thrift) in full bloom. It was a great privilege to walk across this beautiful place.

Douglas

[Mark R]

Oddly, the Monach Islands got a mention in the Sunday Times travel supplement this week.

[noops 160]

I saw a wasp today........???????, and we still have the remnants of Mondays snow.

[Robert Craig]

Where I live, in central Paisley, there's a regular dawn chorus at around 3 am, in early January. I've noticed it for several years.

My take on it is that it's the effect of street lights: the birds have been sitting in the cold for 10 hours, can see a bit of light, know that it's past midwinter, and so sing.

Anyone know whether this happens away from street lights?

[soundoftheseagull]

I had an unexpected visitor the other day, looked interested in my fish!

[runswick2000]

'take these broken wings and learn to fly
All your life, you were only waiting for this moment to arise'

One of my favourite Beatles songs

Roll on summer

[naefearjustbeer]

I had an unexpected visitor the other day, looked interested in my fish!

I had one of those visiting and it ate all the fish in the pond!!

[Skerry Packer]

A regular visitor.