Show Off!

 

I had a lovely day out with my Mum and Daughter, we had a nice Roast Dinner lunch at the recently reopened, Scarisbrick Arms, we were lucky to get a table as it was Fathers Day so it was really busy. The Pub has been refurbished to a high standard and is well worth a visit. The staff are lovely, pleasant and nothing is too much trouble. The Scarisbrick Arms is canal side and is situated at Downholland Bridge on the Leeds Liverpool (Bridge 20A). If you are travelling through to the Liverpool link its a nice place to moor for the night and have a nice meal.

After the meal we stopped off at the local farm shop, this too is a nice place to visit, its a lovely fruit and veg shop, with a cafe and gift shop. There is a Duck pond and many species of birds wandering about the place. I quite often buy my fruit and veg here, but have never been lucky enough to see these show offs at their best……

They are gorgeous arn’t they?

       click on images to enlarge.

After shaking their booties for all they were worth, they gave up as the hens didn’t look in the least bit interested!

We moved on to have a look at the old Lydiate Hall ruins, I have visited the ruin on many occasions but still find it facinating, I got a lovely photo of Mum and Kirsty too….

 

We then moved on to another ruin near by, of  St Catherines Chapel, I can always imagine seeing all the people sitting at their pews on  Sunday morning in years gone by, here too I got some nice photos

It was a lovely day, to think next time we visit we will have a baby with us!

Who eats all the bird food?

As I have mentioned before, I work in Discount store. One of the most popular lines we sell is Bird food. In fact we sell that much of the stuff I am wondering how the birds around here manage to leave the ground! Would it be worth my while starting up a weight watchers for birds?

I can't help but smile to my self when I hear people in the checkout que talking about how quickly the bird food they put out disappears, if only they knew......

Many of the customers are heard to say, " I put food out every day, I don't know what they do with it all?". Well granted the birdies do indeed get through quite a bit of it, but I think all the customers who buy Bird seed, nuts, fat balls, sunflower seeds, don't realise its not just our cute little feathered friends who are feasting on the goodies!

Squirrels, rats and mice are the culprits!! I have a bird table on my mooring that I used to fill with bird food, its one of those ones you can hang from railings. When I first put it up, it was quite close to my shed, I actually saw a rat climb on to the shed and then on to the bird table and devour copious amounts of the birds dinner! To out smart them I moved the bird table right away from the shed to deter them using it as a ladder, only to watch in amazement as a rat climbed up the railing, without the use of a rope too!

Now I know all creatures have to eat but this was taking the biscuit, or should I say Bird food!

Once when the canal was frozen, I had thrown bread out for the ducks, only to look out later that night and see the rats dining alfresco on the ice eating the ducks bread.

The best ever site I saw, was a rat swimming across the canal dragging with it a whole fat ball, no mean feat as they are quite heavy!

I love all creatures great and small, but when washing the dishes on the boat one night, I looked up to see a rat peering at me through the window! waiting for dinner no doubt, needless to say I don't put food out now, they can go scale someone else's railings!

So to all you people out there who think all the birds have mammoth appetites, its not them who eat all the bird food you buy, because when our little feathered friends are all tucked up in a tree for the night some where, that's when the other creatures dine and polish off the lot, and here was all you lot thinking it is the birds dawn chorus in the morning, they arn't singing, they are screaming and shouting that some bugger has eaten all their Breakfast!