A Song Thrush perched in a treetop by the Henry Moore sculpture, hard to see clearly through the branches.
It was singing cheerfully in spite of the grey chilly day. This thrush has always been particularly vocal all the year round.
The familiar Robin was in a bush below waiting for its daily pine nuts ...
... and a Jay clung to a tree trunk.
A Robin appeared in the middle of a holly bush in the Rose Garden shrubbery.
Jenna had rescued a stranded Buff-Tailed Bumblebee. Revived with sugar water and the warmth of her kitchen, it had started flying around and seemed ready to be released. The favourite flower of the wintering bumblebees at this time is mahonia, and there is a big bush in the Rose Garden where several bumblebees were already browsing ...
... so she put it on a flower there. It was moving but a bit torpid. Maybe the nectar will revive it, maybe not. But you can't keep a bumblebee in your kitchen for ever, so it had to go back into the world to sink or swim.
While it was being deposited the local Coal Tit, which I had been feeding in the shrubbery, saw us and flew into the bush.
The Blue Tit arrived next ...
... followed by the female Chaffinch.
A flock of Long-Tailed Tits moved down the Flower Walk.
A little family group of Carrion Crows played around on the small waterfall in the Dell.
The Grey Heron sitting in the upper nest on the island got up to adjust the twigs more comfortably.
Another heron, presumably its mate, was in the larger nest below. It was in this nest that the pair successfully raised two young last winter, but evidently they felt like a change.
There was a heron in the nest at the west end of the island, the fifth time I've seen it here recently. I still doubt whether anything will come of this.
A Cormorant dried its wings on one of the weirdly shaped electric pedalos.
A Coot which had been poking at the edge of the lake beside a boathouse picked up a leaf and headed off to go into the boathouse by the gate at the far end. Coots nest here every year, but probably they aren't starting yet and it was just another episode of their non-stop building instinct.
Two Mute Swans busked at each other in the water nearby ...
... and three Canada Geese charged across the lake.
It was apposite that you started your photos with a Song Thrush. We had a local walk yesterday down the River Brent & these birds were very much the soundscape with plenty of territories & singing birds.
ReplyDeleteCertainly many more Song Thrushes than Blackbirds encountered & only a solitary Redwing.
Yes, I've been noticing more Song Thrushes than Blackbirds, but that may be simply because they sing in winter and Blackbirds hardly ever do. Also very, very few Mistle Thrushes, though we may get some on the ruins of the Wasteland along with the annual arrival of Redwings.
ReplyDeleteYour first point is very valid & also occurred to me. I suspect I'd have recorded far fewer Song Thrushes had they not been singing. There has been a big reduction in Blackbirds though. I now tend to find them only in wilder areas near home & largely absent from typical suburbia & more manicured parks where they used to be common.
DeleteOne in my garden a couple of weeks back was the first for many months having in earlier years been a near constant in the garden.
I already mentioned some time ago the catastrophic fall in Blackbird numbers in the park over recent decades, as shown by Roy Sanderson's two surveys. The first in the 1950s recorded 220 territories. The second in 2011 found just 18. I hoped that this was as low as it would go, but sadly it seems not.
DeleteIt is always a treat to be able to hear a Song Thrush sing. They're even better singers than Blackbirds.
ReplyDeleteWhat a kind action by Jenna. Even if the poor thing didn't make it, at least she gave it a fighting chance.
Tinúviel
I wouldn't like to make comparisons between Blackbirds and Song Thrushes, but the latter have a happy silliness that is all their own.
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