Smile for the birdie?

OK - I took some serious abuse about yesterday's blog -so this is the second, and last, post in the 'hidden' series.

We are very fortunate to have at La Rochelle a colony of swallows. They arrive at the start of summer every year, and depart just before the onset of winter 8 months later - though with all the snow in Europe this year, I guess they will be here for a while longer!

These are the European Swallow, and the curious thing is that they have a bird in Europe which looks pretty much identical - but it is a different bird called the African Swallow. Really strange.

They return to their nests of previous years - and we have a huge one under the eaves of the lounge roof. Folk who have stayed here may have heard the soft twittering that goes on well into the night. And mostly they stay in their nest, but every once in a while, due to fluctuations in the earth's magnetic field or something, they get lost.

When Charlie Moore and his group stayed here, we had one flying about in the dining room - and it is hard to describe the state of terror that two of the group were reduced to as the poor little thing fluttered about the ceiling. Absolute gibbering wrecks! Because of a SWALLOW? Yeah right - Americans really are weird about the stuff that gets them trembling - like snakes, beetles and ummmmm...... deadly swallows! No wonder the goings-on in North Korea have got them all buying bottled water and dug-out shelters!

And this was the case with one little fellow who was fluttering against the window of my office one night a few days ago. So........I took a few pics.

Below are 4 photos of the foliage outside of the window, and the question is this...... in how many of the photos is the bird visible? It may be all of them, some of them, or none of them. I will give you the correct numerical answer once you have looked at all four pics. Ready? Ok - here we go - just keep a tally as you page down....

Photo 1

Photo 2

Photo 3

Photo 4

So? How many pics did you see the bird in? OK - here' s the thing. It is in EVERY SINGLE photo! If you failed to spot it in the last 3 - look at the very green leaves - it managed to worm its way to snuggle into one of them - and just the white on his throat gives him away. Once again, hiding in plain view!

How cool is that?