It was good to see a male Blackcap in the garden at Dempsey Towers this week, but more interesting to watch how it was feeding...
The bird was the first I've seen around my feeders this winter (but that could be down to the fact that I don't get to see them much in the shortened days), so I watched it for a while.
Instead of picking at apples, or discarded seeds, the BLackcap waited under a seed feeder where a Goldfinch was stuffing its face on sunflower hearts.
Everytime a seed was dropped by the finch, the Blackcap was waiting below it to grab the morsel.
It did this three or four times, it was not a one off _ very interesting, anyone else seen 'em do this?
Blackcaps can be quite bold in summer (they'll drive off Garden Warblers in the search for a good nesting territory), but I've not come across 'em using their brains like this before.....
Hordes of geese still out on Plex Moss BTW... they fly over the house at dusk to roost out on the Ainsdale shore.
Apart from that, there's a Smew down in Cheshire, and that Rough Legged Buzzard up the M6 in Cumbria sounds tempting (especially with Ring Necked Duck and Grey Phalarope on nearby-ish lakes to bolster the year list _ hmm, but would a raid on the North Wales coast be more productive......decisions decisions......)
Mike Price had a Tawny Owl screee-eeeching away by Maghull train statioon this morning.
Eyes to the skies everyone, eyes to the skies.
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Ian Hatton wrote...
While I was taking part in the weekend's RSPB Garden Bird Watch, I was delighted to see my first blackcap, ever, visiting my suburban Bebington garden. The bird was feeding directly from a feeder, protected by an anti-squirrel cage, taking kibbled sunflower seeds. The bird visited the feeder a number of types during the course of the hour, in between times sitting in a neighbour's apple tree, presumably eating the seed.
Other than that, the survey showed the usual assortment, although I'm glad to see that the larger flocks of goldfinches seem to be returning to my garden after the winter.
Posted by: Ian Hatton | January 30, 2006 9:17 AM