restricted to the garden

 Not getting around much of late with a new knee so a few dove / pigeon shots from the back bedroom plus my friendly spadgers and an Elephant Hawkmoth caterpillar Julia found in the garden 

Garden Wildlife

my very friendly House Sparrows, Blackbird, Woodpig, Collared Dove and some Bees and Taddies from the pond -- all taken with the Canon 5D4 and canon 70-200 f4 mark 2

some garden friends

eating so much seed at the moment; I have counted 18 at one time but there must be more than that or they would all be very heavy

Boxing day in the garden

not had many Blackcaps in the garden in winter ever, possibly just 3-4 so a bonus bird

House Sparrows at Skara Brae

jokingly said that these House Sparrows enjoying the walls of Skara Brae were maybe descendants of the original birds to be informed that there is no archaeological evidence of House Sparrows in northern Europe until the Bronze age see below;

Remains of the house sparrow (Passer domesticus) recovered from a late Bronze Age (1200–800bc) settlement in central Sweden are described. The house sparrow is conspicuously rare in prehistoric Europe, and this record constitutes the earliest from the northern part. The find predates the introduction of domestic fowl (Gallus gallus) to Sweden, a species with which the house sparrow has been assumed to be spread simultaneously. Instead, it is here suggested that house sparrows most likely spread over Europe along with the horseEquus caballus.