Good Fortune

I am lucky here. I often think that as I see the mixture of birds, butterflies, moths and insects coming to live, feed or just pass by. There is no road outside, just a path and then the river and the park the other side of that. We have grassland, bog, ponds, mature oaks, alders and willows within a stone's throw. Its all on a relatively small scale but it has produced more than its fair share of unlikely-in-a-way visitors of which I expect I will mention at a later date. However today, although it is not exactly in my world, I am reminded that anything can turn up anywhere. My sister sent me a couple of photos of a bird for identification taken from her neighbours garden in Birmingham. Why is it whenever I get something interesting outside I don't even get the chance to turn the camera on let alone go back nextdoor, get a camera and take this sort of shot through a window?

I suppose on occasions I have had that sort of luck, I just haven't appreciated it at the time. In my comparitive youth, just the other side of this fence I hand tamed a grey squirrel in a couple of days and had fox cubs running around my feet. I shouldn't be greedy, but.... I've never seen a Woodcock this close except overhead...