Tails. You Loose.

Felt very much like it this last week. It has been very mild for the time of year - up to 14deg C! believe it or not. It's been like that for three weeks now. The wind has come and gone, making netting a bit hit and miss. The main problem has been the utter lack of birds, presumably because they are still finding food in the countryside and their calorie expenditure has been minimal (if they keep out of a draught at night). I did see a Siskin today, though, and the Dipper flies back and forth every morning at sunrise. The next four days may well present the birds with a different scenario - namely, FROSTS! and low (6deg C ??) daytime temperatures. The feeders have been cleaned and refilled ready.

The main excitement has been another Blackcap, this one an adult female. I include its portrait below and that of its diagnostic, wide and rounded tail feathers.



The most surprising, if only for their colour, were two male Bullfinches together at the end of the orchard. They were probably after plundering some of our apple buds.

The other significant event occured when two of the four or five Redwings stripping the last of the Holly berries, from the 'big un' out front, fell into the net. One was a immature bird, the other an adult, whose tail, wide and rounded like the adult Blackcap's, is also posted below.


And so to the grand total of all my efforts in the garden since the last blog post - it hasn't really been worth going over the meadows as they remain very wet under-foot.

Goldcrest (1) - an adult male
Blue Tit 1 (1)
Long-tailed Bushtit 1 - must be an 'incomer'
Blackcap 1
Wren 1 - an adult female
Blackbird 1 (2)
Redwing 2
Robin (2)
Dunnock 1 (5) - that makes it 12 different "Shufflewings" in the garden in the last month
House Sparrow 1
Goldfinch 2
Bullfinch 2
12 species, 13 new, (11 retraps), over five of the last nine mornings.