Friday 5 March 2010

Four Pigeons and a Stock Dove

There have been anything up to six Wood Pigeons in the garden each morning picking up the spilt seed. Especially since the local farmers activated their gas 'cannons' to scare them off the crops. This morning it was a plasant surprise to see the Stock Dove timidly joining them.

Pigeons and Stock Dove

There are still a good number of Blackbirds visiting each day. It was amusing to watch a confrontation between a pigeon and a Blackbird. Neither was going to give way. The Blackbird crouched down, beak open and the Wood Pigeon was gently flapping its wings together in front of it as if to try to box the Blackbird's ears. In the end it was the pigeon which had to retreat.

When I first looked out of the window there were six Jackdaws on the lawn which scattered as soon as they spotted me. At the same time a lone Rook sat in a tree checking whether it was safe to join the others for breakfast.

Rook Watching

But as soon as it spotted me watching it took off.

Rook Flying

This has been our third sunny morning in a row and a certain hairy monster misses no opportunity to soak up the warmth. Bobby grabs a suitable morsel and rushes outdoors to find the right place to enjoy breakfast.

Breakfast in the Sun

Yesterday we went for an amble through the only wild area left in the centre of the village. There were lots of birds about, Wood Pigeons, Magpies, Great Tits and several I couldn't identify so it looks a good place to go by myself and spend an hour or two with camera in hand. The only things which would stay still long enough to be photographed were a few Rabbits in a meadow.

Rabbits

As usual there were a few House Sparrows sat in my thorn hedge soaking up the warmth from the sunlight.

Sparrows in Hedge

The Blue Tits continue to make occasional brief visits to the nestbox so there is still hope they may eventually make up their minds and choose my box this year.

Regarding the mystery bird song my thanks to those who suggested Mistle or Song Thrush as being a possible contender. I  found a couple of reports, from 2008 on the Manchester Birding Forum, of Mistle Thrushes singing in flight so I may be getting nearer to a solution.

http://www.activeboard.com/forum.spark?aBID=96752&p=3&topicID=15192795

One refers to it being mentioned in BWP which I take to be Birds of the Western Palearctic. (outside my price range) One description I saw likened the Mistle Thrush flight song to the sound made by the sort of rattle people used to (still do?) take to football matches. That seems to be a fairly reasonable interpretation of the sound I hear quite frequently round the village.

2 comments:

  1. Hello John, I have really enjoyed this interesting and varied post and of course I always love seeing Bobby! So glad you are still being visited by the Stock Dove, the colouring on the neck shows up very well on that photo. I haven't seen one in my garden since the one I posted but I live in hope. It was nice to see the Rabbits enjoying the sunshine.

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  2. Hello Jan. It is quite difficult this time of year to find different things to write about. Some days there is nothing and others there is plenty. It made a change to be able to 'stop and stare' without getting frozen. That was the first time I had seen the Stock dove since its earlier visit.

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Thank you for visiting. Hope you enjoyed the pictures. Any comment, or correction to any information or identification I get wrong, is most welcome. John

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