daily delight (1 Viewer)

and now my first ever blackcap! i have been watching them in ones, twos and threes in nearby sycamore treetops for a while fussing after some insect life or other as they do not touch the few seeds left. difficulty was the lack of colour perception when silhouetted but recently since i raised a bird table into the higher level at 3m they have come down into garden and today i got close enough view to identify a male. grey rather than brown plumage on back and wings, dark legs and a definite black cap. on first impression slimmer and perhaps a touch smaller than sparrows. are they likely to be anything else? they seem to dart across the park from nearby copses to my bordering lines of mature trees rather than hedges.the tits that are also capped play around singly near the trunks not in the tops or tips. these birds have caps but no stripe.

if behaviour helps, they certainly tend to visit after a couple of hours of sunup in ones and twos totalling never more than four or five in treetops and branch tips for an hour or so back and forth whereas the sparrows flock in the hedges or sometimes the lower branches as do the tits all day, then they dart off alone or in a pair back to the woodier areas.

Definitely sounds like Blackcap. Amazing to have 4-5 at the same time. Ringing results suggest wintering Blackcaps may come from Germany while our native ones head south. Very nice that you saw Long-tails gathering nesting material. Our Robins and Blackbirds are singing now and Troubadoris heard a Song Thrush recently. All good signs but I think they will be suppressed by the return of winter next week.
BTW Blackcaps have come down to our feeder to munch on fat blocks and these are very popular with all the tits and Robins too.

Lee

hi. on the opposite side of the park to me is where posh people country starts with mixed species mature trees including some dense evergreens, ivy choked trees and understory of hawthorn and other hedging. this leads down to a canal with some border foliage and then off into proper countryside. the blackcaps seem to 'live' over on that far side and come in pairs, although i have not yet identified a female by colouring, or singly and always from that other side. they fly in rapid bursts, with a kind of hesitation every few beats across that 50 metres and usually spend time together only in the tops and tips. they then flurry back and forth amongst the trees here then go back across once or twice before retiring. i cannot tell what they forage for. i assume insects or sap at the more sunlit tips where the sycamore seed bunches were. over 4 months you get to see patterns in behaviour that differentiate birds even if you cannot see directly what species they are.

i shall have to research 'seagulls' and corvids now. haven't bothered before as they dont come into my close observation zone. however i have heard some deep 'cronks' that elsewhere i would have certainly assumed as raven, and today the gulls are going completely nuts for no reason i can tell. i find myself interested in behaviour and patterns of movement at least as much as identification. i shake a bit when i try to walk but no sign of twitching yet.

jape said:

i shall have to research 'seagulls' and corvids now. haven't bothered before as they dont come into my close observation zone. however i have heard some deep 'cronks' that elsewhere i would have certainly assumed as raven, and today the gulls are going completely nuts for no reason i can tell. i find myself interested in behaviour and patterns of movement at least as much as identification. i shake a bit when i try to walk but no sign of twitching yet.

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Believe it or not, a very few times in Scotland we have heard what we thought might have been a Raven's voice changed a little by the wind whistling around rocks and vegetation and it turned out to be a Grey Heron (or Haigrie as they say in Shetland). They make a hoarse deep noise when spooked, often written as fraaaank in old books but sounding nothing like this in real life. So a Haigrie could be possible.

Lee

thanks lee, definitely not the heron from googling them. im going with raven and next time will try and fall out the backdoor facing upwards instead of downwards as i managed last time i rushed to see what it might be.

Sounds like a good plan, those Warrington back-door steps are notorious for their evil intentions towards skywards-gazing birders.

And speaking of good plans, since this section is for meeting and greeting perhaps we should meet elsewhere. Please feel free to send me a personal message any time, and in any case I will keep an eye open for you as I roam around the binos and scopes sections.

Lee

Troubador said:

Sounds like a good plan, those Warrington back-door steps are notorious for their evil intentions towards skywards-gazing birders.

And speaking of good plans, since this section is for meeting and greeting perhaps we should meet elsewhere. Please feel free to send me a personal message any time, and in any case I will keep an eye open for you as I roam around the binos and scopes sections.

Lee

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i shall be wary. far too many deletions of threads and posts in that section. i shall stop using this section as an occasional diary if that is what you suggest and look for a 'rambling, rants and general mumbling and grumbling section'.

i shall be wary. far too many deletions of threads and posts in that section.

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I'm not quite understanding that comment Jape.

Anyway... Your Birding Day, Birds and Birding or the relevant area in Your Local Patch if you've been travelling about.

One of those should fit the bill for you, I think.