Something bad and something good.

Today was the first day this year that I have noticed any House Sparrow breeding behaviour - it was a pair of sparrows inspecting a nest box - and each other by the looks of it!

Sparrows by nest boxes in the morning sun on a house in The Village, Endon (20/02/15). 

Then this afternoon I was busy in my garden, spreading a small pile of compost that I had temporarily heaped around an Echinops plant last autumn. Is I was working away I noticed I had inadvertently speared a big Common Frog with my fork. It must have been hibernating in a cavity in between the plant stems. I felt bad!

This feeling was compensated for by spotting a Peregrine Falcon from my back garden. I saw it fly southish and over my garden and swing around by 90 degrees then plummet downwards at a smaller bird, which it missed. It flew off towards the north, pursued by a Corvid. 

Amongst the regular birds such as House Sparrows, Blue and Great Tits that use the garden it was good to see 2 Goldcrests and 2 Reed Buntings in a mature hedge bordering my plot. 

My garden today.