Sorry I didn't get back to this sooner, but straight after my last post we went to the Lakes.
Imagine this..... the sun is shining, it's actually warm, the glass of beer is half full, or half empty, depending on the mood, you're wearing shorts and no socks, ( yes this is somewhere in the Lake District ), you're reclining on the lounger which puts your head about three feet from the feeder, and after 5 minutes a male siskin arrives and starts to flick the seed all over the place, aren't they messy eaters, perhaps they are on a bonus from the chaffinches who clear up after them. He is joined by a female who does the same thing while making a quiet "see see" noise all the time. This kept my wife spellbound, and covered in seed, for about 10 mins. I happened to be 10 feet away and seed free. We were on the recliners because we had just walked to Aira Force, from Watermillock, this must be one of the finest 4 mile low level ( 800 ft-ish ) walks in the lakes, fantastic views of thebest lake of all, and a decent cafe at the car park or better still a pub at Dockray. the first mile or so produced buzzard, raven, peregrine, warblers ( all the warblers were against the sun, so couldn't tell willow or wood, I don't know their songs ) a female stonechat making a racket, joined by a male with a huge black grub or caterpilar, what is it about stonechats, they don't seem to mind how close you are, we saw 5 or 6 that day and they all seem to carry on as if we were'nt there.
Sorry I've gone off thread there, my wife is always accusing me of that. Aberdyfi was brilliant, yes we found the pub but I was reminded that we were self catering so......it's back to the apartment for tortelini....mmmm. Shame is, the pub is a lovely stroll from the apartment down a quiet footpath which brings you to the upper terrace of the pub. Still maybe next time, and there will be a next time.
Scampo
I'm pretty certain of chough. I've not seen crows, jackdaws or rooks fly like that. I'd like to return to bird rock some day, it's quite something.
Steve