Blackbird

Blackbirds are in full song at the moment it being the height of their nesting season.  I even saw a pair carrying food into a low-lying shrub this week, which would suggest they were feeding young.

The male is certainly the poseur of street corners and highways as he shows off his black dress, flicking his tail and wings for all to see.  His glossy, black plumage is complemented by a bright orange bill and yellow eye-ring

Easily overlooked, though, is the female blackbird - or should it be brownbird - as she is inconspicuous with her drab brown plumage, black bill and mottled underparts.  She always lives in the shadow of the male never exhibiting his extrovert behaviour.

The male's song is a delight to listen to, which is loud, fluted and fluent. In musical terms he would never be a tenor but more a contralto.  He often sings from roof tops, chimney pots (if you have got one), television aerials and the more traditional tree tops. The call is a loud chook-chook-chook, or chink-chink-chink, often going berserk when there is a predator close by to the nest. In particular those cruisers of gardens and pathways our feline friends - cats.

The nest site is mainly in a hedge or shrub, but they can choose the most unlikely places at times - garden sheds, garages and ivy growing outside the front door.  Old, abandoned cars have been used.  Also new ones if the owner has left it on the drive whilst they have been away on a two week holiday abroad only to come back and find a female blackbird sitting on a nest in the engine compartment!

Though common, blackbirds add colour and interest to our orderly lives.  Keep a look out for them, they are magnificent to watch.

Great Tit

The tits are in full nesting mode now and singing merrily away for all to hear  - that's those with a trained ear and know what to listen out for.

One that makes its present known loudly is the great tit. It has been said that the great tit has the widest repertoire of all British tits, if not all British song birds.  The most commonest call is a loud chaffinch-like "chink-chink" which can be heard throughout the year.  But now we are into spring the male's diagnostic song can be heard - "teacher", "teacher", "teacher".

Great tits have a black band running down their yellow belly which gives them the quaint look of wearing a waistcoat.  The glossy blue/black crown and nape contrast well with their white cheeks; indeed, it's the white cheeks that first attract their attention.  The rest of the plumage is a mixture of yellow and green, making it a pleasant little bird to look out for.

Watching the acrobatics of the great tit is a marvel as it feeds hanging upside down from branches of trees looking for spiders, insects and buds.  It will do the same on garden bird feeders trying to extract the nuts.

In the past, the great tits varied menu even extended to the front door step, where, like its close relative the blue tit, they have become adept at piercing milk bottle tops and drinking the milk.

I took this photo a couple of years ago at Worfield.

Great Tit

Willow

The willows are in full bloom with their catkins, but identifying one from another is easier said than done.  So below are just a few photos I have taken over the past few days.

Willow sp.

Willow sp.

Willow sp.

Willow sp.

Willow sp.

I will probably have to wait until the leaves come out to get an accurate identification, but my guess would be goat willow, common willow or crack willow.

South Shropshire

It was more like a summer's day today rather than the middle of March. I was on the road for 06:30 and headed to Titterstone Clee. On the ascent, it was misty and not much could be seen.  But on reaching the Dhustone's Road and the summit the mist magically disappeared to reveal a  beautiful scene of Clee Hill and the surrounding area.  There wasn't a cloud in the sky and, unusually for the summit, not a breath of wind!

I had hoped for an early wheatear but none could be located; perhaps I was just a bit too early and a couple of day's time would have been more productive.  There were, though, lots of ravens doing their charismatic, acrobatic flights and chasing off carrion crows.  Clee Hill is such an evocative place and not seeing much bird wise was made up in the atmosphere of the place.

I moved on from there with my next place in mind - Bridges and the Stiperstones.

Red Kite was, of course, the target bird and soon they were seen not just singularly, but up to six at a time in the air with buzzards.  They are such agile fliers for their size and easily out manoeuvred the buzzards who seemed clumsy in comparison.

On the East Onny River at Bridges there was grey wagtail, but no sign of dipper.  Along the Onny I photographed these alder buds with last year's female catkins together.

Alder Buds and Catkins

Some shots of the Onny

Hampton Loade Revisited. 10 March, 2014.

Again it was a glorious, sunny day for March, but with a hint of a cold wind. So I thought I would revisit Hampton Loade to see what the water levels were like. To my surprise, everything (or it seemed) was back to normal, as the two photos below show.  A comparison with the same shots taken taken on the 8th February illustrates that well!

Hampton Loade Ferry

Looking towards the water works

I walked up-river towards the water works bridge and took this photo of the water gushing out into the river.

Walking on to the entrance to Dudmaston, I noticed the hawthorn was starting to come out in leaf, a sure sign spring (excuse the cliché) has sprung.

Dunnock

Spring was certainly in the air today with temperatures rising to 18c in some parts of the country. It is in stark contrast to this time last year where we had snow piled high and freezing conditions!  To have heard any birds singing in that weather would have been a miracle, but this year is different.

Yesterday I saw my first summer migrant, a chiffchaff.  It was happily catching insects, which were in abundance, amongst willow, hazel and conifer trees adjacent to a sewage works.  On the sewage beds were at least thirty pied wagtails, some of the males looked great in their black and white breeding plumage. There were also ten grey wagtails feeding on the myriad of insects that the warm sewage beds had attracted.

But that's not the purpose for this post as the title suggests.  There was another bird singing with a subdued warble like sound.

Hedge sparrow, dunnock, shuffle-wing and hedge accenter are just a few names this unobtrusive garden bird has gone by over the years.  Hedge accenter is now the official name for the bird, but dunnock is the most used by birdwatchers.  The biggest misnomer (and there are a lot in the birding world) is hedge sparrow as the bird isn't even remotely related to the sparrow family.  It got that name by early ornithologists because of its preference to nesting in hedges and finding its main diet, insects, there.

It's a skulking and inconspicuous bird and can be present in gardens, parks, towns and even city centres and mostly go unnoticed. They feed out of sight under hedges, bushes, vegetable plots and flower beds searching out spiders and other small invertebrates.

The tell-tale sign they are present, though, is the high pitched "tseep" call uttered from dense cover but can be delivered on occasion on an open perch.  But the song is the thing to listen out for this time of the year which is a sweet warble like sound.

Their features are also inconspicuous being sparrow sized, slate-grey head and breast, streaked flanks, dark, slender bill and rich brown upper parts.

Dunnock's, like most other birds, are displaying this time of year and it's now to try and get a glimpse of them as they shuffle (hence, shuffle-wing) their wings in flicking movements.

Mistle Thrush

Not getting out much this weekend, I decided to look back on some of my nature notes I made twenty or so years ago and came across this one on the mistle thrush.

"Chatter - Chatter - Chatter" is the distinct call of the mistle thrush as it flies away when disturbed.  That may be all you hear or see of this shy, mysterious thrush in your neighbourhood. It's been described as mysterious by ornithologists because of its similarity to the song thrush; indeed, when most people see a thrush they assume it is a song thrush not realising mistle thrush exists - hence its mystique.  So how do we distinguish mistle thrush from song thrush?

Mistle differ from song by being greyish above (song is brown), having a more spotted breast, an upright stance, larger size (27cm), white underwing (song is yellow) and white tips to the outer tail feathers.

As mentioned above the flight call is a chattering call.  The song too is distinctive being similar to the blackbird but lacking the fluty notes of that species.  The sheer power of the song is its most striking feature being heard over a great distance.  This powerful song is often given from the top of a tall tree as early as January even in the most atrocious of weather; its alternative name of stormcock reflects this characteristic of defying the elements.

Food consists of insects and spiders - hence most birds you see are feeding on the ground. They also have a diet of berries, mistletoe berry is the main one from where the bird gets its name.  Other berries are also to their liking and they will defend berry bushes in winter aggressively chasing off other thrushes from taking them.

Birds can be found in parks, gardens and open spaces with scattered trees and bushes.  So if you are out and about, getting to know the habits, plumage, habitat and voice of the mistle thrush helps the mystery to fade away revealing a large handsome thrush one to look out for and worth watching.