(another pic taken through double glazing, sorry, but that's
the only way to approach them). The description of its habits
in a Collins Field Guide to the Birds of Britain and Europe
would have one believe it was feeding on insects
(thereby freeing the plants from unwelcome pests)
and seeds (thereby preparing to disseminate them far and wide).
To me, it looked suspiciously like it was gorging on succulent leaves,
rather, all the better to face the cold and the fifty-knot winds
of last Saturday on the Hill …
… which other denizens of the wilderness, apparently caught unawares on an expanse of glass, seemed to be confronting in a peculiar way all their own: communally, as is their wont, for all the world like settlers circling the wagons to repeal the indians (oops, Native Americans).
The following day, with the wind gone, they were gone too, back to the cozy protection of their colony no doubt, there to tell stories of high adventure and hardy endurance to a million admiring compatriots.
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