Spinkyblurb

I've counted lots of fledglings this summer, it feels like it has been a good year and the parent birds have done an amazing job, so here are some figures and photos (click on them to enlarge) to celebrate it. Blue Tit fledglings exploring the trees or chasing parents! Let's start in the garden:  I always do regular bird counts in the garden and this year I decided to keep a tally of fledglings, as best I could! See the table below for peak counts of each species & estimates of total fledglings.  As you can see Blackbirds were the real stars, working so hard with a peak count of eight. It wasn't all plain sailing, as a few had feather issues which hampered their progression, and they seemed particularly dependent on my garden for mealworms. One I named Rumpy as he lost so many feathers in that area, and there was another with a weird thing going on on its throat (see photo)! It was nice to see the early broods still visiting the garden as they tu...

Let's Play Fetch (or as Herring Gulls call it, 'Drop-Retrieve') Little did I know I was going to Herring Gull playschool when I popped down to Walcott a couple of weeks ago. I was intending to watch the migration flypast , but got a little distracted by the antics of a group of this year's young Herring Gulls, and most entertaining it was too! The bell for start of playschool seemed to be an adult with a crab who was willing to give it up to the youngsters, it was like getting your mini bottle of milk to start off the session. Once the crab had been 'seen to' a group of a dozen or so young birds decided it was time for a game of drop-retrieve. Some picked up a favourite stone, others a bunch of seaweed, then proceeded to drop it from about a metre above the water and dive in after it. There was no attempt to catch it before it hit the water, that would be drop-catch, not drop-retrieve. A crab is a gull's mini bottle milk to start playschool...

Last month I popped up to Titchwell when migration was in full swing pretending to be a serious birder! The main reason for heading that way was the Steppe Grey Shrike at Burnham Norton. Having been rather impressed by the Red-Back at Winterton I thought I would check this bird out too. It was all bit grey that morning, including the bird, but fortunately these shrikes don't mind having an audience while they go about their business of trying to work out why the sat-nav brought them to Norfolk. Two very average pictures for you to decide which shrike is best! Red-Backed Shrike, Winterton late Aug 2014 Steppe Grey Shrike, Burnham Norton Oct 2014 Don't let me influence you but my vote goes to the red back, and not just because it has caught a wasp, its simply a really smart looking bird. Well, once the fret really rolled in, and along with it another load of lenses and tripods, I thought I'd nip up the road to RSPB Titchwell to see what treasures I could f...