Robin song

A lot of bird activity at the moment - must be the sunny weather, as many seem to be starting courtship and securing territories. I noticed a lot of blackbird activity down the track. The robin is continuing to sing. Being a relatively nice day I started some gardening, clearing the greenhouse and planting a few tomatoes, beans and sunflowers. While I was in the garden, the robin came very close and I snapped the pics below.

There was also a very vocal blue tit in a neighbours garden also seemed to be courtship. Not the usual blue tit foraging/calls behaviours.

First frog spawn

First clump of frog spawn this year in the pond.

Only one frog visible.

A robin has taken up singing today from the apple tree that overlooks our back garden and from other trees nearby.

First butterfly of the year

I was making lunch when I spotted this beautiful red admiral butterfly on the purple crocuses on our rockery.  It appeared to be feeding, but I did not want to get too close to check incase I disturbed it.

Interestingly it appeared to take no notice of the yellow crocuses. Once only a summer migrant, it has been believed for some time now that a small population now manage to overwinter. It is early sightings like this one that has led to this conclusion.

Another walk down the track

I went for another walk down the track as there is a lot of bird activity going on still. These are some of the birds I saw.

Pied wagtail, conspicuos by its calls in flight and tail bobbing action while walking.

There were still lots of red wing, solitary or in small flocks, the next two pictures are red wing. More info about these birds in my previous entry.

There were also great tit, blue tit, green finch, chaffinch, sparrows and starlings.

There was also a robin in a bush, fluffed up into a round ball, this shape is the best for energy saving to reduce core body heat loss.

Walk down the track

Today the wind was bitterly cold. I decided to have a look down the track next to our house to see what birds might be around.

I had noticed red wings flying over the garden, singularly and in small groups (above)

The redwing is the UK's smallest true thrush and is a winter migrant. Most arrive October/November and leave March/April. It can be identifed from the song thrush by the creamy strip above the eye and orange-red flank patches. Redwing roam across the countryside, feeding in fields and hedgerows. They rarely visit gardens unless the weather is very cold and snowy - as it is at the moment. However, they may be seen in larger urban parks and I usually see a few each year in our local park (snow or no snow).

As I watched from the backgarden a small flock of startling flew across the corner of the garden followed by a kestrel. They disappeared around the front of the house and I could not follow quick enough to see where they went.

I also saw this lapwing fly over the garden.

The track was quite quite heavily covered in snow and the cold wind brought flurries of snow. These are some of the birds I saw.

Stalings and a redwing, bottom left.

House sparrow. This group were at the top of the bush, but from the commotion there were a lot more sparrows deep in the bush. I also spotted a solitary greenfinch.

One of many redwings fly overhead.

Many redwings were also in the trees. They seemed to prefer trees with bare limbs (no leaves) rather than the semi-evergreens and bushes.

There were many gulls on the roof tops. The usual herring gulls have been joined by black-headed gulls, which seemed to keep setting off a raucous gathering of gulls shouting at each other. The black-headed gulls were in their winter feathers, they have a small black mark above the eye rather than the chocolate brown head colour they have in the summer.

When I returned home I melted the water in the bird bath. Birds need to drink and bathe, even in the winter. Water is in short supply when there is a prolonged cold spell.

Another fox

While locking the door for the night I saw a shape appear at the gateway at the end of the path. It was distorted through our front door and at first I thought it was a cat. I looked closer and saw it was a small fox. I think the fox was about to come up our path but saw my silhouette and changed its mind.

Instead it trotted over to the small patch of green across the track before heading off up the road.

Another Fox

I went across the road to check for fox foot prints in the snow.

This evening my wife said she could hear a fox in the back garden yelping. As I was in the front of the house I looked out the findow just in time to see a large fox shape cross the garden. It jumped the wall and trotted off down the road. I only managed a rerally grainy out of focus picture.  This was probably the same fox that I saw earlier last night.