Tuesday 12 May 2009

Injured cat and great tit

Yesterday, our Cat Hera received a nasty bite to her ear which has become infected. Following a trip to the vet for a check over and antibiotics, she returned home with collar to prevent her from scratching it. This will mean the slowworms and other wildlife in the garden should have a reprieve.

Hera is an unusual cat with some very strange behaviours. She brought up solely as a house cat by her previous owners so she prowled her internal territory, hunted spiders and woodlice and never came face to face with another cat. This lack of contact with other cats has been part of her downfall and confronts trouble head on rather than retreating. I think she has missed out on learning the social skill so of cat society. This is also the route of her invertebrate catching skills. She will blow a spider from its web or from beneath a window sill to eat it. She can leap and catch a fly in mid air or use her cupped paws to catch one against the window.

Today, when the wind and dropped and the weather turned to an intermittent drizzle, a great tit flew into the garden foraging for insects.


It checked out the foliage growing up the side of the shed and then search beneath the gutters before flying down to check out the cracks in a low wall. The pictures are not brilliant quality as they were taken through the window and there was a lot of light reflection.




It hung for a while from the underside of our window sill before flying back out the way it came.

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