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| Wet spadger |
A morning's rainfall freshened the air considerably. It also brought in a crowd of spadgers. I was looking at some of the youngsters sheltering in the rowan tree while they waited for their turn at the feeders when I noticed a paler body amongst them. I assumed it was one of the goldfinches but it seemed odd for them to be so close together (there's no active antipathy between the spadgers and the goldfinches, it's just that the goldfinches get a bit wearing with all that twittering about). I got the bins for a closer look and the bird turned round to give me a full profile. It was a young spadger, but a bright creamy yellow one, the usual dark makings being a sandy brown. I'm not sure if this is properly flavistic colouration or some type of dilution. Any rate, it'll be nice to be sure of identifying one of the youngsters; they do vary in their shades of brown, with some being paler, some darker, some greyer and some warm brown but the differences are subtle and I can only be sure they're there when the spadgers are lined up on the garden fence in full light. The next challenge is getting a photo.
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| This hooligan can taste the strawberry it cached there yesterday (which was stolen by spadgers when its back was turned.) |
- Blackbird 1
- Carrion Crow 1
- Collared Dove 2
- Dunnock 1
- Goldfinch 3
- Great Tit 1
- House Sparrow 25
- Jackdaw 1
- Magpie 1
- Starling 13
- Woodpigeon 5
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| Juvenile magpie, Barton Clough |
I had an hour's wander round my local patch. There was plenty about though most of the birds were hard work to find. The adult robins are in post-breeding hiding and the tits and warblers were occupied in quietly collecting food for hungry mouths. Even the song thrush only did the occasional two minute burst. At the other extreme a juvenile jay made sure everyone within a hundred yards' radius knew it was bouncing round two thirds of the way up one of the Lombardy poplars.
The greenfinches and woodpigeons have evidently had a very successful breeding season. Family parties of greenfinches skittled about between the hawthorn bushes while the males sang from the high branches. Fewer goldfinches than last time, though judging by the twitterings I suspect I was missing a lot in the brambles at the base of the hawthorns on the other side of the fence. Half a dozen goldfinches sat in the dead trees in the copse by the school, together with twenty woodpigeons, three blackbirds and a couple of song thrushes. I've no idea what particular attraction there is in the dead trees but it's rarely I don't see a bunch of stuff in them.
Similarly the apple tree, though it's harder to see through the foliage. Today's highlights were a couple of blackcaps and a blue tit rummaging through the lower canopy.
I was surprised to see that the bramble patch near the flyover was busy. The usual whitethroat was preening in the company of a song thrush in the top branches. When the song thrush stiffened and the whitethroat moved down into the brambles I looked out for a sparrowhawk. Instead a juvenile robin flew in, landed where the whitethroat had been, fussed around a bit then flew down to the floor, whereupon a dunnock flew in to the space vacated by the robin. I can only assume this is a prime preening spot but I have no idea why.
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| Song thrush and dunnock, Barton Clough |
- Blackbird 12
- Blackcap 3
- Blue Tit 3
- Chiffchaff 1
- Dunnock 2
- Feral Pigeon 23
- Goldfinch 9
- Greenfinch 12
- House Sparrow 6
- Jay 2
- Lesser Black-backed Gull 6 overhead
- Magpie 7
- Ring-necked Parakeet 1 overhead
- Robin 1
- Song Thrush 3
- Swift 3 overhead
- Whitethroat 3
- Woodpigeon 32
- Wren 4
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