Sunday 15 March 2009

Visitors

When the snows were here, we saw what looked vaguely like a fine female blackbird feeding from the fat block that we had put out for the birds. It was a very 'nervy' bird that took off at the least sign of movement on our part. However, Andy also spotted a flash of red on its flanks as it flew off which discounted it being a blackbird. The birds were spotted again on my potager fence late this afternoon and I have also heard a very distinctive bird song this afternoon. Some research this evening tells us that the bird is a nightingale. Let's hope they stay around for a while and are not on a migratory route to more northern lands.

1 comment:

Lee Sharp said...

Much smaller than a blackbird, more like a redstart in size. A rufus tail is the give away - one of it's songs sound like someone scraping a sheet of steel with a rusty nail not at all how one imagines a Nightingales song!

Black redstarts have arrived here in the last few days.