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Message: <blockquote data-quote="halftwo" data-source="post: 1349959" data-attributes="member: 45720">Brambling & A Wierd EncounterA partial thaw meant that the flooded field now is half ice and half water. The gulls either sitting on the ice or swimming.One Lesser black-back and one Common gull amongst the Black headeds.Checking berry bushes all the way for any Waxwing repeat - and fields for gulls. More Common gulls - four in all today. A field full of Starlings - noisily pecking like a spangled carpet moving head on and head down into the howling wind.But around the corner a Collared dove beneath a hedge seems strange: and another is sitting in the middle of the lane. Normally shy this one allows me to walk right up to it - and then to pick it up!I hold the dove in my hands - its carmine iris shifting nervously as it eyes me. It struggles so I open my hands, having found no wounds on the bird. It sits on my gloved fingers for a few seconds then takes off.What was that about? Had it been fighting and worn itself out? Had it been avoiding a predator and was in shock? Whatever it was it was a strange meeting.Further on and suddenly I'm surrounded by Chaffinches - in the hedges and feeding in a field. So many (maybe 100+) unusual. I scanned the flock: House sparrows were among them, a corvid flock beyond, with Stock doves. Rooks shining oily green and purple in the sun.Then a male Brambling is right in front of me. This patch continues to turn up the goodies. Suddenly everything's up - spooked by something. Brambling flashes his white rump amongst the Chaffinch flock. Superb.Pied wagtails, Meadow pipits and Skylarks are flying too. In the backdrop a flock of Fieldfare are swirling over a crowd of Lapwing strutting in winter wheat. Black clouds scud in from the west. A Buzzard mews.</blockquote>

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