The Beautiful English Countryside

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I’ve just had a week away in the beautiful English countryside and saw some delightful heart-warming moments. There was a sweet pheasant chick trying to bury itself head first in its mother’s back feathers. It was obviously frightened by the onlookers–including me– who were intent on a closer look. All I could see were its legs kicking out as it went even deeper inside. Eventually the mother shook the chick out showing us three more little chicks it had sat on, then scuttled away with all four babies into the undergrowth.

My second lucky peek at nature in the raw, was a robin feeding it’s young from a fat-filled half coconut. The adult was teaching her young how to fly up and take the food by itself. Of course, the fledgling–who was almost as big as herself–couldn’t or wouldn’t attempt this, so the poor fatigued mother continued all that day to feed the chick herself.

A family of rabbits  were also playing hide and seek among the flower-laden, garden shrubs. The young ones watching while the bigger rabbits pulled down young shrubs to get the tastiest, top-most leaves.  On top of all that my husband spotted a couple of tiny shrews halfway up a tree trunk going after the bird seed.

Spring has definitely sprung.