A better than expected day on the local birding front, largely thanks to the back garden being alive with birds attracted to freshly re-stocked feeders. Lots of blue and great tits, chaffinches and goldfinches. A male blackcap joined in the activity, pecking away at the over-ripe plums, which were also proving irresistible to the blue tits.
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| male blackcap feeding on plum |
Then, what seemed to be a chaffinch showed a flash of peachy coloured plumage and a white rump: a male brambling - recently arrived from Scandinavia, and happily joining the locals at their food bar. But he stayed in the background, not allowing me a decent photo, so "record shot" will have to do.
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| record shot of the male brambling |
The birds also delighted in bathing in our pond just beyond the kitchen window.
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| blue tit poses above the pond |
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| bathing great tit |
Also good news was the return of a decent sized flock - about 80 - of golden plover to the field at Top Dawkins on the edge of Upper Wardington. A bight green carpet has appeared across the field with the sprouting of the winter wheat, but still a good crop for the plovers to forage amongst.
I made an evening visit to Grimsbury Reservoir to watch the gull roost - this time about 500 black-headed gulls, fifty lesser black-backs, four common gulls and a single adult yellow-legged gull. The yellow-legged gull flew in fairly late on - about 5pm - just as the light was failing so no pics.
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