Helen Macdonald @HelenJMacdonald Twitter profile

Last Seen Profiles

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@TheSaraHuff

Helen Macdonald

@HelenJMacdonald

4 years

Oh my god ... they are ... *rubs eyes* they really are guarding the statue of George Eliot in Nuneaton.

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Helen Macdonald

@HelenJMacdonald

3 years

This is so unutterably depressing

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Helen Macdonald

@HelenJMacdonald

6 years

*wanders into the competition tent at village summer fete* “What’s this prize category?” “British landmarks made from fruit and vegetables”

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Helen Macdonald

@HelenJMacdonald

6 years

My brother @TabbyGentleman took this in Bushy Park and it makes me absurdly happy

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Helen Macdonald

@HelenJMacdonald

1 year

BOXING HARES THIS MORNING!!! ⚠️

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Helen Macdonald

@HelenJMacdonald

2 years

Am now very worried for this instagrammer, who may not have read any MR James. LEAVE IT BE, MIKE, FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT’S HOLY

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Helen Macdonald

@HelenJMacdonald

6 years

I know the past is another country but my heart tells me Dürer drew these because he was on a very stressful and important deadline for something else

Rabih Alameddine

@rabihalameddine

6 years

Albrecht Dürer, Six Studies of Pillows, 1493, pen and ink on paper

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Helen Macdonald

@HelenJMacdonald

8 years

Parrot has spent the last five minutes staring at these pink eyebrow tweezers in utter amazement

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Helen Macdonald

@HelenJMacdonald

4 years

Yes, when I was small I held a fluorescent tube under high-voltage transmission lines at dusk and this happened #normalchildhoodexperience

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Helen Macdonald

@HelenJMacdonald

5 years

Wait for it! Orphan swift taking its first flight, working out what wings are for. A few seconds later it was a hundred feet up and flying strongly. This one was emaciated when it was brought to my friend J (only 20g) so this is a small, end of summer miracle. Go well little one.

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Helen Macdonald

@HelenJMacdonald

6 years

Throwback Thursday: here’s a. extremely ancient photo of me gently cleaning the beak of my first ever hawk: a kestrel called Amy

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Helen Macdonald

@HelenJMacdonald

4 years

B the most beloved parrot that ever was, died last night. I held him and talked to him until the end; he wasn't alone. I know how much he was adored here, am so sorry to bring such sad news to the timeline. Am in absolute pieces, as you can imagine.

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Helen Macdonald

@HelenJMacdonald

6 years

She grabs a newspaper from her car, runs up to the hedgehog. It's not a hedgehog. It's a sugar beet, rolling around the road. She doesn't let on. Carefully wraps it in newspaper, carries it gently to the car, deposits it on the back seat. Thumbs up, she waves the traffic on. 2/2

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Helen Macdonald

@HelenJMacdonald

5 years

"But what do you MOST want from life, Helen?" "A font based on the letters of this eroded sign."

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Helen Macdonald

@HelenJMacdonald

4 years

My brother filmed a slo-mo swan landing this morning. I've watched it about 28908908 times today. So calming.

James R Macdonald

@TabbyGentleman

4 years

Swan landing in slow motion, Home Park, Kingston-upon-Thames #sunrise #morning #swan #london #slowmotion

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Helen Macdonald

@HelenJMacdonald

4 years

Coffee is not allowed, therefore B is obsessed with it. He stares into every morning cup then looks up at me, just in case this time I’ve changed my mind.

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Helen Macdonald

@HelenJMacdonald

5 years

I'm sure I've seen this episode of Supernatural?

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Helen Macdonald

@HelenJMacdonald

6 years

My friend J told me a story yesterday that tickled me pink. Her friend saw a hedgehog crossing a busy road. It was dark and raining hard. She stopped her car, stopped all the traffic. Horns blaring, her waving, shouting, "It's a hedgehog!!" 1/2

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Helen Macdonald

@HelenJMacdonald

7 years

Smoke-bathing chimneystack rook: photo by Tom Kennedy

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Helen Macdonald

@HelenJMacdonald

3 years

So I appear to be rearing a jackdaw. He’s not very good at anything yet <3

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Helen Macdonald

@HelenJMacdonald

7 years

Love swifts so much. Here’s an orphan my friend Judith reared a couple of years ago about to take its first flight from my hand

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Helen Macdonald

@HelenJMacdonald

8 months

Oh my god it happened

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Helen Macdonald

@HelenJMacdonald

7 years

Work today halted to hold the parrot under the tap after he fell in a pot of yoghurt

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Helen Macdonald

@HelenJMacdonald

2 years

It’s the kind of weekend where I randomly find a photo of my father helping Honor Blackman out of the Thames. You know, the usual

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Helen Macdonald

@HelenJMacdonald

3 years

Jackdaw update: can now fly. chaos reigns. Has chased a fly. Destroyed a bunch of flowers. Is currently trying to nick my watch.

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Helen Macdonald

@HelenJMacdonald

4 years

*yells* the fieldfares have found the apples

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Helen Macdonald

@HelenJMacdonald

6 years

From 18th December, I'll be away from the internet because I'll be counting albatrosses on Midway Atoll. Back online in early February. Have fun, twitter x

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Helen Macdonald

@HelenJMacdonald

6 years

A female merlin I once reared and flew and was best buddies with greeted me with happy recognition after six years' absence. SIX YEARS.

Mental Floss

@mental_floss

6 years

Ravens Can Hold Grudges for Weeks, Study Finds —

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Helen Macdonald

@HelenJMacdonald

6 years

Is there anything quite as adorable as a fledgling house Martin? (1/2)

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Helen Macdonald

@HelenJMacdonald

6 years

Messy baby swift from the other week is all grown up and super-sleek 💗

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Helen Macdonald

@HelenJMacdonald

10 months

Walked outside to check for auroral activity. No joy. But there was this:

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Helen Macdonald

@HelenJMacdonald

3 years

photo description: TWO QUITE SMALL GREEN PARROTS HOLDING TORN IMAGE OF AYN RAND ON WOODEN TABLE

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Helen Macdonald

@HelenJMacdonald

5 years

Scenes from social isolation: B has just seen clouds moving across the sky through the skylight and is enchanted. The noise he’s making is one of gentle amazement.

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Helen Macdonald

@HelenJMacdonald

7 months

Could this bird be any more asleep? No. This is the most asleep a bird can be

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Helen Macdonald

@HelenJMacdonald

7 years

Me and Lupin! Photograph by Andrew Ellis

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Helen Macdonald

@HelenJMacdonald

5 years

I was, in retrospect, a gothic child

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Helen Macdonald

@HelenJMacdonald

5 years

How am I supposed to work when this happens?

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Helen Macdonald

@HelenJMacdonald

6 years

A tawny eagle called Frodo and me a very very long time ago at the @HawkConservancy in Hampshire, where I used to volunteer. Frodo has just died; he was in his mid-30s, and much loved. Farewell, old friend x

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Helen Macdonald

@HelenJMacdonald

4 years

Garden pheasant update: he now taps on the kitchen window for food *eyeroll*

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Helen Macdonald

@HelenJMacdonald

4 years

I hope it’s ok to repost this from Instagram: a falconry friend’s young gyrfalcon having a little sleep just after his very first flight ❤️

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Helen Macdonald

@HelenJMacdonald

4 years

Went out to photograph the moon and there was a rustling in the dried grass and sticks by the garden fence and it turned out to be A POLECAT (I did not photograph the polecat) this is very exciting and unexpected (here’s the pink moon)

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Helen Macdonald

@HelenJMacdonald

6 years

How about a fledgling house martin after a mahoosive bath? (2/2)

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Helen Macdonald

@HelenJMacdonald

8 years

Remembering with some guilt the time I confused my parrot by drawing seeds on a piece of paper

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Helen Macdonald

@HelenJMacdonald

5 years

Another example of the almost infinite number of ways that B interrupts work. This one: post-bathing upside-down sleeping, which requires my hand to be held just so, forcing me to type with my other hand. 🦜 ⌨️ 😐

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Helen Macdonald

@HelenJMacdonald

5 years

Yes, the parrot has chosen to rest his chin on my cup of coffee and is now fast asleep.

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Helen Macdonald

@HelenJMacdonald

3 years

Out in @vintagebooks paperback today! *happy dance*

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Helen Macdonald

@HelenJMacdonald

2 years

Irish Mountain Hares at Dublin Airport right now #omg

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Helen Macdonald

@HelenJMacdonald

5 years

An ornithologist once told me he was LOVING watching Braveheart until one scene ruined it for him forever. “I mean, we all know black-headed gulls only colonised inland Scotland in the mid twentieth century!!!”

Laura 🇮🇪🇵🇸

@laxkra

5 years

My parents are just back from Little Women. My mam absolutely loved it but my dad isn't happy because there was a Waterford Crystal bowl in the background of a scene and Waterford Crystal wasn't around back then and therefore, the movie is no good.

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Helen Macdonald

@HelenJMacdonald

4 years

A very old photo of B amazed by pink tweezers. He stood stock still staring like that for many minutes.

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Helen Macdonald

@HelenJMacdonald

6 years

OK here's the goat story in full. It's all true. Also, I have scrawled Remember To Thread Your Tweets upon my forehead in sharpie for next time.

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Helen Macdonald

@HelenJMacdonald

3 years

Much excitement on way home from Tescos wth a Jacob ram cantering towards me along the lane, followed by a hacked off English rose in a landrover with stock trailer. I stopped & opened my door to block him off and she leaned out of the window and yelled DON'T DO IT HE'S A BASTARD

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Helen Macdonald

@HelenJMacdonald

4 years

Goldfinches singing on the wire outside my window like someone upending a sack of tiny gold coins and quindar tones over the surface of an astronomical mirror

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Helen Macdonald

@HelenJMacdonald

4 years

I’m reading an article by a guy explaining how lockdown taught him nothing and how he didn’t achieve anything this year and it is the most lovely encouraging thing. Also, "I made a sourdough loaf two times, then watched my starter die" is the Johnny Cash song I truly wish existed

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Helen Macdonald

@HelenJMacdonald

3 years

In mild Sir Arthur Streeb-Greebling mode, I’m attempting to teach a jackdaw how to make me morning coffee. No luck so far but great oaks, etc

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Helen Macdonald

@HelenJMacdonald

6 years

Mabel back in the day, being grumpy during the moult. Perhaps my favourite photo of her, taken by accomplished falconer, herpetologist, and photographer Lee Brindley.

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Helen Macdonald

@HelenJMacdonald

3 years

Hey everyone do you want to see a terrible iPhone photo of a tawny owl and full moon, because

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Helen Macdonald

@HelenJMacdonald

4 years

It’s arrived! Thank you @jonathancape , Suzanne Dean, Chris Wormell and hot May sunshine for making it look so beautiful

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Helen Macdonald

@HelenJMacdonald

4 years

Finally managed to take a photo of the Drama-lama pheasant that roosts in my garden and he is a GLORY

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Helen Macdonald

@HelenJMacdonald

4 years

AND THEN I discovered where it had been living. Guys, this mouse. It had found the mouse cage I had bought. It had set up home IN THE MOUSE CAGE. IT is the single GREATEST MAMMALIAN TROLL OF ALL TIME. I am awed. /ends

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Helen Macdonald

@HelenJMacdonald

3 years

Good morning Twitter *continues to sip coffee, watching these idiots turning themselves into Full Urban Creative light fixtures*

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Helen Macdonald

@HelenJMacdonald

5 years

STOLEN: My friend Tony’s peregrine falcon was stolen today from his house near Ipswich In Suffolk. Her name is Dancer and she and Tony have been a team for 11 years. Tony is understandably devastated and worried for her safety and welfare. Hope we can get her back. Please RT xxx

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Helen Macdonald

@HelenJMacdonald

3 years

Jackdaw update: flapping practice is GO. Like a small child in a Halloween outfit. Only louder.

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Helen Macdonald

@HelenJMacdonald

6 years

unfinished sketch of a goshawk from back in the day! This is what happens when you procrastinate by going through folders looking for things to throw out

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Helen Macdonald

@HelenJMacdonald

4 years

You know in the movie Inception, when characters compulsively check tiny unique objects they call totems to make sure they’re not dreaming? Am checking mine, right now. @amazonbooks

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Helen Macdonald

@HelenJMacdonald

7 years

Judith is a master of swift-rearing. Here’re some of her 2015 orphans nearly ready to go. LOOK at those wings!

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Helen Macdonald

@HelenJMacdonald

5 years

Parrot smugness levels at 100% HE LITERALLY HAS BREAD ALL OVER HIS FACE

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Helen Macdonald

@HelenJMacdonald

6 years

Hanging out with baby swifts this morning has made my day (my friend Judith is a master swift rehabilitator)

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Helen Macdonald

@HelenJMacdonald

4 years

Chiffchaff singing brightly in my garden right now; hoping it’s made itself fat as a barrel on good berries for its long journey to sub-Saharan Africa. Hope you get there and have a good winter, small thing.

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Helen Macdonald

@HelenJMacdonald

5 years

Young starling that fell down the chimney thanking me forcibly for rescuing it

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Helen Macdonald

@HelenJMacdonald

6 years

This is a frigate bird telling me in no uncertain terms to get lost as I passed quickly by (exquisitely foreboding in the air, they're muppets on the ground)

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Helen Macdonald

@HelenJMacdonald

4 years

A lot of 🦜content today. But: elderflower season ❤️

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Helen Macdonald

@HelenJMacdonald

3 years

Woken by wood mice in the attic above my bedroom. The noise is … well. You know, I don’t think this is the regular hoarding of hazelnuts in shredded winter nests. I think they’re building something up there. Something /big/.

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Helen Macdonald

@HelenJMacdonald

4 years

I wrote about OWLS OF THE EASTERN ICE by @JonathanSlaght and here it is, the best author photo of all time:

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Helen Macdonald

@HelenJMacdonald

6 years

I asked someone in the know why so many of the street pigeons in Waikiki are white doves. "Oh, they're beach wedding doves gone AWOL" she said.

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Helen Macdonald

@HelenJMacdonald

5 years

The presumed moral virtuousness of travelling light really bugs me. "I've brought half a t-shirt and a quarter of a pair of trousers for six weeks" WELL. I am going away for 5 days and happy to say my suitcase is about the size of a basking shark.

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Helen Macdonald

@HelenJMacdonald

6 years

Taking a break watching Jonathan Creek the keyboard is warm and the parrot's asleep

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Helen Macdonald

@HelenJMacdonald

1 year

Snapshot of living with two small parrots

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Helen Macdonald

@HelenJMacdonald

6 months

The despair of where we are, and how unstoppable it feels. It's only a small thing, but this morning, freshly arrived whitethroats were singing their scribbled-puzzle-game song from newly-leafed lanes all the way to town. Very thankful for that.

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Helen Macdonald

@HelenJMacdonald

3 years

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Helen Macdonald

@HelenJMacdonald

3 years

My brother has been photographing the small new housemartins under the eaves of my house <3

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Helen Macdonald

@HelenJMacdonald

4 years

Tempted to run outside and shout at random people: "Those ants? They are having sex in the sky! Female ants only mate once in their whole lives and can live another 30 years! After they've mated they land and break off their wings on purpose. Ants, man. Ants."

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Helen Macdonald

@HelenJMacdonald

6 years

UK peeps! If you missed the H is for Hawk documentary the first time, or even want to see it again: turn on 5.50, BBC2, tonight (and on iPlayer afterwards) Here's Lupin!

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Helen Macdonald

@HelenJMacdonald

7 years

Swift!

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Helen Macdonald

@HelenJMacdonald

5 years

I saw my first ever quetzal in the cloud forests of Costa Rica and am still hyperventilating

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Helen Macdonald

@HelenJMacdonald

6 years

Parrots sleep anywhere, mate

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Helen Macdonald

@HelenJMacdonald

2 years

Going through family albums. Giggling at this one: young me on a cold day in Avebury as a full-on folk-horror child of the stones 😭

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Helen Macdonald

@HelenJMacdonald

5 months

They’re back! 😍😍😍

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Helen Macdonald

@HelenJMacdonald

10 years

Reposting dad's photo of a street-cleaner feeding sparrows outside Buckingham Palace. Love it so much. http://t.co/UHBtWW7GiE

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Helen Macdonald

@HelenJMacdonald

6 years

B found the bowl of whipped cream while I was upstairs and flew back to his chair perch when he heard me return. He was ASTOUNDED that I knew what he’d been doing.

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Helen Macdonald

@HelenJMacdonald

5 years

Made the mistake of leaving my cheese and celery sandwich on the table when I was upstairs

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Helen Macdonald

@HelenJMacdonald

7 years

Sharing your drink of water with a smol parrot is very cheering thing to do

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Helen Macdonald

@HelenJMacdonald

3 years

Here are The Bugs. They’re a lot, and I love them.

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Helen Macdonald

@HelenJMacdonald

5 years

I watched a white fallow stag ankle through the trees and a minute later this ghostly tomcat appeared. No-one is going to dissuade me from my conviction that they were the same animal.

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Helen Macdonald

@HelenJMacdonald

4 years

This is what happens when I want to work and B wants to go to bed.

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Helen Macdonald

@HelenJMacdonald

1 year

London heron at dawn by my brother @TabbyGentleman <3

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Helen Macdonald

@HelenJMacdonald

5 years

B is enjoying village life, and has become one of those villagers who spend a lot of time making sure they see and have opinions on everything that’s going on from their window

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Helen Macdonald

@HelenJMacdonald

4 years

It's absurdly hot. But: I've just discovered that if I fan my parrot with a handheld fan he leans forward into the wind and opens his beak. I'll be doing little else this evening.

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Helen Macdonald

@HelenJMacdonald

7 years

Well, that’s my to-do list destroyed *shrugs*