Dreich

Chiffchaff

The weather's pretty awful today and for once common sense prevailed and I postponed today's plans. 

The male blackbirds started singing just before five in the morning and have been at it all day, in between chasing each other around next door's garage. The spadgers have been an invisible presence chirping from the roses or next door's ivy, a couple of them emerging to superintend operations when I went out to fill the sunflower seed feeders. The blue tits, great tits and goldfinches have been in and out on a roughly hourly basis, too. 

All the while there's been at least half a dozen woodpigeons lurking morosely in the sycamores on the railway embankment; not always the same birds, they're working in relays between the playing field on the other side of the railway, the trees and the school playing field. The collared doves are being very inconspicuous: they'll do a joint display flight early in the morning then I'll just see one of them quietly come in for a feed. 

A pair of chiffchaffs was a nice surprise today, they spent ten minutes checking the roses for greenfly before moving on to the willow tree in next door's garden.