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Blackcap (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter Ruby
- Start date
Ruby
Well-known member
Well done Helen.... Do you reckon you might end up with quite a few??
Mine have definitely got the taste for apples now - it was just a question of getting them in the right place really, where the birds felt secure (I guess) and they had somewhere handy to perch.
Definitely not the most agile of birds, the Blackcap.... watched one the other day going through all sorts of contortions trying to get at a section of apple that was just out of reach - hadn't realised they could stretch their necks out that long...
Just been down the garden to check the apples - 1 has been eaten completely down to the neatest of cores and the others are well on the way - just putting out some more....
Mine have definitely got the taste for apples now - it was just a question of getting them in the right place really, where the birds felt secure (I guess) and they had somewhere handy to perch.
Definitely not the most agile of birds, the Blackcap.... watched one the other day going through all sorts of contortions trying to get at a section of apple that was just out of reach - hadn't realised they could stretch their necks out that long...
Just been down the garden to check the apples - 1 has been eaten completely down to the neatest of cores and the others are well on the way - just putting out some more....
Ruby
Well-known member
Just seen the first 2005 Blackcap (male) in my garden and thought I'd dig out this old thread to see how the dates compared with when they've turned up in previous years...
I normally keep an eye on the snow situation in the Alps, and see that it has been snowing heavily in many areas over the last week or so.... I guess this has helped to pursuade them that the UK is a good spot to head for.
Last year, the first one arrived on Nov 28th too....
After last year's bumper crop, this year looks like being a poor year for berries around here - most have been cleared some time ago, and the berry crop on the Cordyline (which always seems to attract the Blackcaps first) is pathetic, with only small numbers of very scrawny berries.
They'll have to get used to feeders/apples etc pretty quick.
Ruby
I normally keep an eye on the snow situation in the Alps, and see that it has been snowing heavily in many areas over the last week or so.... I guess this has helped to pursuade them that the UK is a good spot to head for.
Last year, the first one arrived on Nov 28th too....
After last year's bumper crop, this year looks like being a poor year for berries around here - most have been cleared some time ago, and the berry crop on the Cordyline (which always seems to attract the Blackcaps first) is pathetic, with only small numbers of very scrawny berries.
They'll have to get used to feeders/apples etc pretty quick.
Ruby
Andy Wilson
Active member
Last week, during the cold snap, I saw the first ever Blackcap in my garden. I've lived in my present home here in Essex for nearly 9 years. The same day the first Redwings appeared.
I was very surprised at it was November but a bit of research showed that over wintering Blackcaps are becoming more common.
It was a male but I haven't seen it since. Perhaps it was a late migrant leaving after our relatively warm autumn.
I'll try some apples!
I was very surprised at it was November but a bit of research showed that over wintering Blackcaps are becoming more common.
It was a male but I haven't seen it since. Perhaps it was a late migrant leaving after our relatively warm autumn.
I'll try some apples!
I had four different birds last month: an adult male, a 1st-winter male and two females. I only saw the 1st-w male a couple of times, but the other three birds are still visiting. One of the females is practically resident, having become very possessive of the fallen sunflower seed under my feeders; the other two don't get much of a look-in. 
news about blackcap
I have read a newspaper story about this bird; there is the probability that ornithologists are going to split the identification of this species based upon its migration patterns in Europe. An established population has been migrating to Britain, where I suppose this was not done before. The reasons behind this are pointed to climactic change, which strongly supports the arguments of a global warming pattern (not assumptive as to the actual cause).
I have read a newspaper story about this bird; there is the probability that ornithologists are going to split the identification of this species based upon its migration patterns in Europe. An established population has been migrating to Britain, where I suppose this was not done before. The reasons behind this are pointed to climactic change, which strongly supports the arguments of a global warming pattern (not assumptive as to the actual cause).
Bluetail said:One of the females is practically resident, having become very possessive of the fallen sunflower seed under my feeders; the other two don't get much of a look-in.
Does this mean that, contrary to what others have said in this thread, that the blackcap is feeding on the ground?
I've had two males in my garden for the last two weeks in and out of my honeysuckle bushes, which were planted specifically for blackcaps - the first time I had one in the garden abut 15 years ago it was feeding on honeysuckle berries one cold, late winter day. I didn't then see any more until earlier this year. Now that the berries are all gone, I might try the apple in bushes trick - I bought some cheap ones in Lidl the other day for the birds.
London Birder
Well-known member
MMSLouis said:
doubt very much there's any split on the cards on ID terms, there is no difference in ID of our breeding and wintering birds ... I think the article was in reference to assortive mating on the breeding grounds by populations that have wintered together, so the British winterers mated with the British winterers as opposed to those that had wintered further south (to a point) ... or at least that's the gist of it
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Indeed. All three of them do when they can get the chance, though the territorial one doesn't let them very often, so the other two can usually only make quick raids from the nearby bushes. The bird feeders are hung from a metal pole in a flower bed so the seeds drop on the earth there where the birds are not too exposed. The territorial female also seems content to grub around on the ground among a clump of evening primroses next to the feeders, just like the Robin and Dunnocks do. It does also spend a lot of time loafing around up in a hawthorn or inside a berberis stenophylla; it spends more time up there than on the ground.florall said:
