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wildpawed · 3 years

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LAYER ONE : THE OUTSIDE

NAME: Sebastian Andrew Matthews EYE COLOUR: Dark brown ( can have a super lowkey golden aspect in certain lights ) HAIR STYLE / COLOUR: Dark brown, kinda curly and often left a mess to do its own thing because he really doesn’t care about being aesthetically pleasing HEIGHT: 6′2″ CLOTHING STYLE: He’s not the type to really care about clothes aesthetically, but he’s big on practicality. He has so few clothes I could probably give it is own headcanon but his standard outfit is a white tank top, a buttoned flannel and jeans ( often covered in grease and oil from mechanic work ) with steel capped boots. If its not that, he’s wearing super loose trackpants, a hoodie with whatever large band shirt and a pair of converse lace ups. BEST PHYSICAL FEATURE: His eyes. Bird or not, he’s trained them to be able to pick up the most minor details when given the chance to really observe an object or person.

LAYER TWO : THE INSIDE

FEARS: Being killed / eaten by the competition in the wilds ( which is super valid considering how he lives ), being forgotten about and not making an impact on the world around him in relation to his studies, which have basically become his life’s work. GUILTY PLEASURE: He doesn’t believe in guilty pleasures, but he gets really into hunting. He never kills for sport because he understands that all creatures, whether they be predator or pray, play their parts in the ecosystem and with human interference already posing many threats, he doesn’t want to mess around with anything else. BIGGEST PET PEEVE: Being ignored, being interrupted and spoken on top of and people speaking on behalf of him. His whole life pre-curse was basically all of the above and he really can’t handle that and will get a little yelly if it means that people will actually listen to what he has to say. AMBITIONS FOR THE FUTURE: To expand his knowledges on working on making that bridge between science and magic more clear, to be a good dad to his little ones despite the curse making all of the above increasingly difficult.

LAYER THREE : THOUGHTS

FIRST THOUGHTS UPON WAKING UP: To hunt. His day starts an hour or so before sunrise and his brain is mostly animal fronted, but after pushing past that thought his brain goes to his wife and kids and he helps out with them before going off to do the Bird Things. WHAT HE THINKS ABOUT THE MOST: If it’s not his wife and kids and he’s not a bird, brain completely defaults to the sciences. He likes to be super stimulated and his thoughts often inspire experiments and hypothesis that he’ll eventually test out and I love that for him. WHAT YOU THINK ABOUT BEFORE BED: Bed thoughts are family time. He thinks about how lucky he is to have B and that she loves him despite how weird and awkward his life can be and he thinks about how he loves the little ones and while he’s just laying in bed with his wife is the most pure thing and its that real happiness for him. BEST QUALITY: His mind! Birdness aside, he has a perspective super different to everyone else and more often than not can help in situations by thinking of things that others probably wouldn’t.

LAYER FOUR : WHAT’S BETTER ?

SINGLE OR GROUP DATES: Single. Having time with B is honestly one of the most important things to him in the entire world and he Does Not Handle people infringing on that at all. TO BE LOVED OR RESPECTED: Both, he’d like to be loved as an individual by those he cares about and he would love to be respected as a scientist for the discoveries he’s made. DOGS OR CATS: Cats are a bigger threat to him ( can climb trees and generally be in high places like he can ) and dogs are noisy and require too much attention. When he was a teenager his family used two have three pets ( two dogs, one cat ) and he loved them, but now he’d rather much neither.

LAYER FIVE : DO YOU…

LIE: He’s often way too blunt to bother lying and beating around the bush and really would rather not, as he knows exactly how it feels to be lied to... but literally if its anything but keeping the supernatural as under wraps as possible, he really doesn’t lie and it would take one hell of a situation for him to even consider it. BELIEVE IN YOURSELF: Absolutely. He’s survived this long in the wilds without anything but himself and he knows for a fact that not many people could. BELIEVE IN LOVE: As someone who got very little love from his father as a child, its a weird question... but after a lot of WANT SOMEONE: He has someone and she is his everything!

LAYER SIX : EVER BEEN …

BEEN ON STAGE: Not in the context of performing, but he used to have to be in front of people a lot when doing church things for his father. DONE DRUGS: Yep, but nothing too hardcore and alcohol ended up being his default for grieving when all that ish went down. CHANGED WHO YOU WERE TO FIT IN: Nope. Even if he wanted to, Vincent wouldn’t have let him, as that man is obsessed with image and he had expectations of his only son.

LAYER SEVEN : FAVOURITES

FAVOURITE COLOUR: He is big on earthy colours for his own clothing, but ( not to get all tumblr 2012 on you ) he loves the colour of the sky, especially on a nice warm day when flying is easiest. FAVOURITE ANIMAL: That’s kind of a weird question because what context are we talking? Like, honestly his brain leans towards what his favourite animal is to eat and if he were to answer that, he really likes squirrels ( eating them and also the challenge of the hunt ). FAVOURITE BOOK: He loves all science books honestly and is pretty much always found with one open with heaps of notes and little dogtails on important pages and stuff like that. FAVOURITE GAME: He’s not really a game person, but he loves sudoku, word finds, crosswords... and because he can’t enjoy things casually, he often times himself while doing them.

LAYER EIGHT : AGE

BIRTHDAY: 2 February AGE: 29 AGE YOU LOST YOUR VIRGINITY: 24 DOES AGE MATTER: Yes. He doesn’t have a reason for this one. Its just a preference for there not to be a big age gap.

LAYER NINE : PREFERENCES IN ANOTHER PERSON

BEST PERSONALITY: Kind, compassionate, open minded, honest BEST EYE COLOUR: He really doesn’t care for aesthetic things, but he loves Blaez’s brown eyes and the way the sunlight hits them and how wide and bright they are when she’s smiling BEST HAIR COLOUR: Again, not an aesthetically based person at all but he loves B’s black hair and the red streaks that are so iconically hers and how they frame her face, bringing attention to her beautifulness. BEST THING TO DO WITH A PARTNER: Nature walks ( both with he and B in human form or with him flying above and her running beneath him as a wolf ), learning about things B likes ( as she tries so hard to understand what makes him happy even though her brain struggles to dance with a lot of that stuff ), simple intimacies of little touches while watching watching something on TV or just being in each other’s presence. did he use this just to stan his wife endlessly? absolutely.

LAYER TEN : SENTIMENTS

HE LOVES: Nature, flying, his wife, his kids, sciences. HE FEELS: Apathetic to a lot of things, but cares really deeply about a lot of things, one needs needs to have the patiences of all the saints to try and get through his many, many Great Wall of Chinas to get through to him. HE HIDES: How much he cares about a lot of people around him, but his whole thing is self-sabotaging at this point, if we’re being really honest here. HE MISSES: His mother! Like, in general he misses her, but he misses her so much more because of the circumstances behind her death and all the trauma that’s related to losing her and... that’s a lot that he really hasn’t even completely processed and dealt with yet. HE WISHES: He kind of wishes he wasn’t cursed ( because it completely prevents him from having a mundane life ), but at the same time he absolutely refuses to go back to who he used to be because he sees his old self as something weak and completely unequipped to survive in the cruel ass world.

tagged by: stolen from @vorcotec tagging: @brothersgrim ( literally either bc this is A Lot and took me literally a few days bc i have the attention span of a toddler who’s had too much sugar ily ), @teardownheaven, @ofgrief, @asteriixa, @strxngernow, @crackedmxgic and literally anyone else who wants to !

#🌙 ; dash games

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sussex-nature-lover · 3 years

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Tuesday 22nd December 2020

Our Garden Birds. Part 1

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Before I start today, did anyone manage to see the Great Conjunction last night?

It was thick cloud cover here and the only bright light in the sky was a reflection of the house Landing lights in the bathroom window. I’ll keep looking out and you never know our luck although I have to say considering yesterday was the shortest day, today is putting up some stiff competition and the sky is a sheet of grey.

Back to birds...

Long Tailed Tit on one of our feeding towers

I’ve been chatting with Ms NW tE and she’s disappointed that her venture into bird feeding hasn’t taken off like she’d hoped and she wanted to have a conversation about that and about why and when do the birds come and go, so I thought that’s what I’d write about today. It’s turning out to be long, so I’ll have to carry over to tomorrow.

Why and How to Feed Garden Birds

First off think about your budget and the amount of time you’re prepared to put into feeding your birds. Second, think about the birds and wildlife you attract into your garden and what their needs are. For example we have a large and active squirrel population and for that reason we tend to avoid feeding peanuts - the cost is just prohibitive, we wouldn’t be able to keep up with them.

We offer hanging feeders with high quality fat balls NB please do not buy the coarse,cheap ones which are less nutritious and avoid the dangerous netting at all costs, Birds can get trapped in the net, it’s a very bad idea.

We have two metal garden obelisk type towers. They’re meant as features or to support climbing plants, but we have nicknamed them Italy and France (the Leaning Tower of Pisa and the Eiffel Tower don’tcha know, No prizes for why they got those names) and we suspend ‘Squirrel Proof’ (excuse me while I convulse with bitter laughter) Fat Ball Cages from each of them.

So called Squirrel Proof feeders No offence to designers and manufacturers but this is a battle you will never entirely win.

Squirrels are skilled acrobats and endlessly determined. We’ve used an old football rattle, a saucepan and wooden spoon, a kid’s Super Soaker water gun and any manner of things to frighten them off. They work, sort of, for a while...a short while.

We’ve had squirrels chew through plastic feeders and the ones made of very sturdy wire; learn to open the top lid so we had to secure it with twine and it was a devil then to top up or refill: one little squirrel actually got INSIDE the cage and when all else has defeated them they’ve stolen feeders and taken them away never to be found.

Squirrels really do manage the most outrageous assaults on the food sources

We also offer seed in ground trays of various sizes. The large wooden one has bitten the dust though after being trampled by Deer and the small ones have proven just the right size for tiny twins.

In the end we just accept that they’re hungry and pander to them as much as we look after our birds.

This brings me to another topic, not very savoury, but to be borne in mind - bird food may attract much less desirables. You can’t choose to put out food and always see it taken by what you intend it for and worst case scenario you may find it attracts rodents. Take in food at dusk if you can, sweep up any spilled seed and if you do have an issue then you may have to stop feeding for a time.

Also top priority for bird and garden health is to keep your feeders and the feeding areas clean. Good advice can be found Here and I do recommend to diary note regularly as we all know time runs away with us on the routine tasks.

Where to Place your Feeders

Bear all these points in mind:

Sheltered

The bird table needs to be positioned where there is not too much direct sunlight or in a windy location. Birds will feel safer it is in a sheltered position.

Quiet

If possible locate in a quiet place in your garden, preferably not by a path or any other area with human traffic passing. Remember not to place the bird table too far away from your house then you can still enjoy watching the birds!

One last thing to consider, make sure the bird table is placed away from cat ambush sites including fences which cats can leap from.

Safe Location

The bird table needs to be positioned next to a bush or tree; birds will perch before landing on the bird table to ensure that is it safe for them to land on it.

Raised

A raised bird table is easier to view from your house and safer being away from predators. Most bird tables are complete with a wooden pole but you can hang bird tables from a tree.

Nuthatch particularly like Sunflower seeds and you don’t have to spend a lot of money on suitable containers

Our feeders are directly in front of the kitchen patio doors so we have great viewing from our seats at the table - this is why so many of my photos are hurriedly snatched shots taken through the glass. We’ve left the dead trunk of the palm as a kind of Totem (our name for it) as the birds do like to fly to the various trunks and perch there or queue before going on to the feeder. The palm also offers some shelter and protection from both the weather conditions and the predatory Sparrow Hawk. We have Bamboo growing in our garden and in the hot weather I’ve been known to cut branches down and use those as a natural parasol too.

A lot of our birds are so used to us now that they don’t mind our presence and are happy to come and feed while we’re around outside. Some, like the Pheasants will more or less come and ask for more supplies, indeed when we had some resident Mallards, they’d peck at the door in the mornings. The Blue Tits will flock around my Crow as he fills up the feeders. We imagine the cry going out ‘The Man’s heeeeeeeere’

Female Common Pheasant above and Male below. The record number we’ve had in the garden at one time was the Season we got up to 22 - cost a fortune in corn

Anything for Me Please?

We’ve also been very lucky that when we had Dennis and now M Flambeau visiting, they are so well fed that they didn’t bother the birds at all. Actually Dennis used to watch the wildlife like he had his own TV channel for viewing pleasure. Here he is with his own personal Christmas tree. The little birds used to come and perch in it while he sat underneath.

When he first came to live with us he would occasionally give chase to a Butler (Squirrells) or two, but he soon tired of that and saved his energies.

Attracting Birds to your Garden

Just think when the breeding season is highly active, during Springtime, your garden feeders offer a handy and easy source of food for busy parents and their hungry nestlings.

Hungry young Great Tit

In bad weather and harsh winters when natural food is scarce, feeders can be a life saver and please don’t forget to keep fresh water available at all times too.

The important things to remember are good hygiene for your birds’ safety and well being and that if you are going to feed, do it regularly as you don’t want birds wasting their energy seeking out a food source that isn’t available that day.

Much the same as humans have different tastes and diets which are based both on natural preferences and on learned or informed decisions, our animal and bird life is subject to the same. I’ve noticed how some birds learn new tastes and routines to go against type and some stick rigidly to their type. Insect eaters such as Swallows for example haven’t ventured into our feeding areas despite once nesting in our front porch in the Robin box. Robins and the bigger birds like Magpie, Jackdaw and Rooks have found it very tricky to use the hanging feeders, but have persevered and triumphed, adapting their skills and mastering them to reach a food they enjoy. Others will happily scavenge for the bits that fall below.

‘Joe’ Rook and his balancing act. Source of the Joe nickname is Here

Starlings taking advantage of the berries on the palm

Top Ten plants birds will appreciate in your garden.

Birds of all sizes can be found sharing and feeding with impeccable manners, while others like Starlings descend like a veritable plague and are noisy and ill tempered with it. It all forms part of the experience of bird watching.

(mostly) Young Starlings and Great Spotted Woodpeckers make short work of three fat balls

Our gardens are an endless source of food for Green Woodpeckers, who unlike the Great Spotted ones, feed off Ants. We just need thousands more Woodies to keep up the sterling work.

Also insect eaters, Wagtails will come only to drink, although we did have one particularly comical Pied Wagtail who we nicknamed The Inspector because he liked to patrol the ground trays and see off other birds even though he didn’t partake for himself. I believe the expression for that is Dog in the Manger

Generic internet illustration

What's the origin of the phrase 'Dog in the manger'?

The infamous 'dog in a manger', who occupied the manger not because he wanted to eat the hay there but to prevent the other animals from doing so, is generally said to have been the invention of the Greek storyteller Aesop (circa 600 BC).

We happily ascribe this expression to Aesop, disregarding the lack of evidence that he even existed.

Many of the fables that have been credited to Aesop do in fact date from well before the 5th century BC and modern scholarship doesn't give much credence to the idea that Aesop's Fables, as we now know them, were written by him at all. Accounts of Aesop's life are vague and date from long after his death and some scholars doubt that there ever was a real Aesop. If he existed at all, it was as an editor of earlier Greek and Sumerian stories rather than as the writer of them.

Nothing written by Aesop now exists in any form. Nevertheless, you can go into any bookshop and buy a copy of 'Aesop's Fables'

I never actually thought of the expression as one of the Fables. The one that always springs to my mind is that of The Tortoise and the Hare, or the Hare and the Tortoise as it appears on the link above.

The carved staircase at Thornton Hall Hotel, Wirral - with scenes from Aesop’s Fables (est c1892) We used to go often for Sunday lunch when the girls were small

Once young broods are successfully raised you might notice feeders fall out of favour for a while. The wild foods like seeds and fruits in hedgerows and spilled grains from the harvest, mean birds can assert their independence and do their natural thing. They tend to return when they need to. Long Tailed Tits are a classic example of this behaviour taking long breaks in the woods and being missed very much by us. It’s great when they return.

Birds often disappear and go ‘into hiding’ after breeding when they moult and need time to recuperate, get their strength back and replace their flight feathers, Poor worn-out things.

Feeding birds can also have a side benefit - since the G S Woodpeckers became so very fond of the fat balls, we’ve noticed attacks on the bird boxes have ceased (fingers crossed) and everyone’s happily well fed.

To be continued.

Male Woodpecker using a crack in the palm to hold steady a piece broken from a fat ball

And do remember, as I said, in both hot weather and cold, please leave fresh, clean water for the birds to drink and to bathe. You don’t need a dedicated bird bath, they’re not fussy and really do appreciate a water source.

Little and Large, or should I say very large and little. Sparrowhawk above on the bird bath and Goldfinch below.

Decorations from the Standen Courtyard Christmas Trees

Two handmade heart decorations today. I thought we could do with seeing something nice and bright and different. These two are particularly beautiful and well crafted.

December 22nd Advent Door. The ever popular Blue Tit

The Nature Watch Nativity

The Shepherds were frightened at the sight of a brilliant light in the sky, but an Angel appeared and told them they should not be afraid as there was wonderful news to share. The lowly Shepherds were the first to be told of the birth of the baby Jesus.

Christmas Hymn of Choice today from King’s College Choir, Cambridge

‘Angels from the Realms of Glory’

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#caring for garden birds feeding birds Advent decorations Christmas #Nativity Goldfinch Sparrowhawk Woodpeckers #Squirrels nature photography

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