July 3 2001

Gazing from the window of the Hazler I notice that the baby jackdaws across the street have come out of the chimney pot but seem to still regard it as their home. They spend a lot of time just perched on the edge of the pots and occasionally fly away to the top of a telephone pole nearby. After a while there they come back to the chimney pots. The birds at this time do a lot of preening and if you keep a sharp eye out you will see a lot of little bits of fluffy down-like feathers floating around on the breeze. They're getting rid of the original fluffy stuff that grew on them when they were chicks. I noticed too for the first time that the Hazeler itself is host to two jackdaws. They're using the disused chimney in the centre of the roof. It belongs to the fireplace that they blocked up in the bar. I don't know how I missed that. I suppose it's because I spend more time inside looking out than outside looking up.We went to Tudenham again this weekend but only because I lost my way when I missed a turn. It was just as noisy as the last time but we parked in a better spot this time. I went to have a good look at the water and I must say it was as clean as a whistle there. They have a mooring area there for rowing boats used by fishermen and I had a look at them. There was about 150 of them there and out of that there was only 4 clinkerbuilt timber boats. All the rest were fibreglass.