Shades of Autumn and fat badgers

Down on the canal all is quiet - the excited laughter and shouting of summer visitors a distant memory.

But some old friends return - drifts of long-tailed tits pass by. 

Out in the back garden badgers numbers are down. Most nights just one big fat female visits, although sometimes she is joined by a younger one. The others (the gang of eight) seem to have dispersed back to the fields and woodlands to the south. (We have cut the snacks back a little!)

Badgers don't fully hibernate but they do become much quieter in the winter and, in this part of the world, spend far less time above ground.

Here she is enjoying a little left over pizza off the lawn. She looks in good shape for winter.

And here is what happens when she finds a very tasty morsel:

Evidently, something as tasty as this choice little item is too good to eat in public and needs to be carried away to the safety of the hedgerow. (She did not come back until thirty minutes later - it was that tasty and, no, I don't know what it was.)

The starling flock that visits the same little patch of lawn seems to have done OK this summer. It is difficult to know if the flock has grown or not but now all the juveniles have full adult plumage and,  whilst they remain very nervous (a lasting effect of attacks from the local sparrowhawk and cats), they seem in good shape.

And here's an unexpected visitor - a lovely lady pheasant: