My first shot of a Water Rail - Not good, but I was pleased to have the opportunity. It wasn't shy like the other Water Rails I've seen!

Busy with membership work this evening, but I had to have a look at my pictures from Slimbridge. It will take a while to sort through them. One of my life ticks below...
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Slimbridge - That's where we've been for the weekend and it was FANTASTIC! We just got back, having spent the weekend there with Sam, Derek & Ben. Great company, great bird watching! I had the best time EVER. It will take me a week to sort out my photos so I've put up the last photo I took (through a window) before we left, of Starlings coming in to roost. Watching them in such vast numbers is incredible...

A heart warming story

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This made me think about the Robin at Par the other day.
When I got to work this morning my friend Fran came to me and told me that she went outside her house (in Lockengate) at about 10 o'clock last night and as she was watching the ground for ice under foot she noticed a bird face down with its wings spread out. She picked it up and thought it must be dead. She held it for a moment and sensed a little life. She took it indoors to Clive (hubby!) and as she held it she noticed it started to warm up and show signs of life. It was a Great Tit. One of those she feeds every day in the garden most probably. Clive was busy looking for a box to put some warm bedding and food in for the night. Soon it was opening it's mouth and eyes and as she opened her hands to check for life in the wings the Great Tit flew behind the TV! That is where it spent the night. This morning she got up to a lively bird and released it back into the garden. It flew out and Fran followed quickly behind it to stock up the feeders in the garden with more food than usual! Next time I see a bird on the ground like that Robin I shall have pick it up and try :-)

I decided it was time to put up an update from work as that seems to be the only place I get to watch birds lately apart from the odd stolen hour at the weekend, locally and as I got the New Year list at work to 25 today. In the last post that I mentioned work, I said that I was working on getting feeders up and thanks to my friend FRAN we now have several feeders around the gardens and a selection of our feathered friends visiting daily. The list of birds seen so far this year in the garden or from my window at work comprises of: Mallard, Buzzard, Black Headed Gull, Herring Gull, Woodpigeon, Collared Dove, Pied Wagtail, Grey Wagtail, Wren, Dunnock, Robin, Songthrush, Redwing, Blackbird, Great Tit, Blue Tit, Long Tailed Tit, Coal Tit, Magpie, Jackdaw, Carrion Crow, Starling, House Sparrow, Chaffinch, Goldfinch.

In the garden at home the Goldcrest has been seen, but the Firecrest has not. I am still hopeful though. We had two Blue Tits in the garden this morning. They have dwindled since summer so it was nice to see two together. I also saw three Great Tits together in the garden at lunchtime, which is a good sign they are doing okay.

One bird that is having no problem around here is below - they cost a fortune to feed in their numbers, but it really is worth it!

An addition - it looks as though we had two life ticks today (not one). I've been hoping for a Mistle Thrush and my wish came true. I got a shot of two Thrushes at Menabilly that were different so I put one on Birdforum this evening and thanks to the guys on there I am happy to tick it!!!

I managed to get out for a couple of hours with Trevor today. I was feeling a little sad at not having seen the Goldcrest or Firecrest in the garden for 2 days, and wondering if the cold weather had taken them from us and my mood wasn’t helped by the sight of a dead Robin below a tree just after we arrived at Par Beach Pool. It had not been dead long and there were no signs of injuries. In fact it looked in good health really and as I checked it over part of me wondered, if I picked it up and kept it warm maybe it would come back to life, but it was obviously gone. The worst part of it was that there was another Robin perched low in the tree on a branch just above the dead Robin. I had heard it’s alarm call as we had approached (maybe, trying to tell the dead bird there was danger heading their way), but now it was, sort of singing. It wasn’t singing that territorial confident way though; it was that quiet mournful twitter that they sometimes do and it just made me feel so sad. Trevor went to get some food from the car and placed it in front of the Robin in the tree. I would have moved the dead bird normally, but as this other Robin was there I felt it best not to interfere. I just hope he/she realized time was ticking on and it would be better for it to be feeding up all day so that it didn’t end up going the same way.

We also went to Menabilly, which was busy with hundreds of finches, Lapwing, Redwing, Fieldfare and birds of prey. I saw a Buzzard on a telegraph pole and got a shot on the camera, but it was doing a poo in the shot, so I decided not to use it! Maybe I shall put it up later on. Also saw a Kestrel, which caused a commotion in the trees, and then as I was standing on the car park/field watching all the flocks of finches (mainly Chaffinch) I heard a commotion of birds and turned around to see a Sparrowhawk crash into the top of a bush and swipe a small bird, as all the other birds fled in every direction. It all happened so quickly and it was gone with it’s prey in a flash. This part of nature I can deal with (although it’s not nice).

After we returned home quite early I couldn’t settle so I begged Trevor to take me to Porthpean. By the time we got there it was getting late and starting to snow quite heavily, but I managed to end the day on a higher note. We saw more Lapwing feeding among the Redwing on the grass and also had a life tick (Black-Throated Diver) – I just hope I ID’d it correctly!

The day list was 44.


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