Monday 16 June 2008

House prices and birding

Just over a year ago, (with the support of my accountant and much to the disapproval of my family), I decided to sell my house and rent instead. Well, luckily the market has moved in the way I was hoping and hopefully in a year or two I can snap up a bargain. Anyway, to the point, the apartment I rented was very affordable, which is a nice way of saying- located in a pretty rough area. The gentleman upstairs, who has a serious anger management problem, has just settled down after a moderate episode of call centre rage which is very audible to everyone in the block (I should get Darryl here with his sound approach equipment to record these particularly interesting vocalisations).

Anyway, back to the point. There is next to nothing round here in the way of habitat for birds. Just a strip of lawn, a 2 ft hawthorn hedge border and a cherry tree. Not to be dissuaded by this small fact I went ahead and set up my bird feeding equipment which came from my old house and garden (in a rural area). It was slow at first but now I have managed to attract quite a few garden birds. In fact, the other neighbours have decided to join in and even 'anger management man' on the top floor is throwing out bread on the lawn. He stopped me a while ago and at first I thought I was going to get a confrontation. However much to my relief he wanted to know why we only got Woodpiegeons on the lawn, so I put up some peanut feeders and now we have got Blue and Great Tits, Greenfinches and House Sparrows too. Well I was quite surprised that the feeders are being used (considering they are located next to a main footpath and road), which came as a relief as it not only means birds can be attracted to the most unlikely areas, but also helps to keep the nieghbours happy.

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