I’m making good progress with my Town & Country Garden Birds birdwatching logbook, and yesterday I was able to tick off a Green Woodpecker, which I’ve heard a number of times but not seen since I started this booklet. Yesterday, as I walked down the Cuckoo Trail, I noticed what I thought was a Jay on the track, but as it flew off in front of me there was no white rump with black wings flapping off, just a dark grey bird with an undulating flight, accompanied by the telltale laughing cry. A few moments later I saw it again, this time a bit closer, and I was able to make out the bright red cap, even though it was under the shade of the trees.
As you can see, I have ticked off most of the birds (Fieldfare and Brambling, bottom row, are winter visitors) but the LTTs remain elusive. I keep thinking I have heard them but we have a lot of Goldcrests on the Cuckoo Trail and they are difficult to distinguish from each other unless you can see the long tail as they have a similar habit of foraging among the twigs and leaves. With the combination of peak foliage and backlighting of summer sun, it’s quite tricky to identify birds at all, so it could be that I have seen or heard them but it’s been too fleeting for me to be certain. I have walked the stretches where I often see Long-tailed Tits in the winter months, where even high up in the empty canopy it’s easy to spot their long tails as they flit between the trees in a loose group. I did watch a family of Goldcrests feeding on the bugs and insects enjoying the new growth of the oak trees, but I don’t have a Goldcrest in this logbook sadly!
There are lots of family groups feeding their young at the moment, and I saw a beautiful juvenile Robin who remained perching on an overhanging branch as I walked by. Here’s a gouache painting I did a few weeks ago:
I also had the pleasure of watching a family of Bullfinches, well, a male and 3 youngsters which was delightful as they are one of my favourite songbirds. I also heard the adult making a melancholy cheep which I think was a communication call to his brood. It’s easy to forget that birds have songs, calls, and alarm calls so it’s nice to allocate the various chirrups and tweets to the correct species.
The Blackbirds seem to be nesting again. A pair raised a brood – or attempted to – in our neighbours’ garden under constant watch of their cats, and I’ve seen a male collecting spiders from our other neighbours’ greenhouse roof, scrabbling on the glass but managing to come away with a beakful. Luckily they seem to have located the nest in a more protected place than the hedge that was chosen before but I still hear the male sending out his panicky alarm calls so I hope they are getting on ok. I don’t know that it’s the same pair but it seems likely. There are lots of corvids and gulls around too, as well as the Sparrowhawk that visited here recently, so perhaps I am wrongly blaming the cats for the perturbation this time. A Herring Gull likes to land on the roof outside my window, much to the delight of my cat, Sausage. He only goes out under strict supervision so birdwatching is a popular activity for him, although I think he might have been pleased he couldn’t actually get embroiled with a large gull. They are magnificent birds:
In other news, I’ve almost finished one of my sketchbooks so I will be filming a tour of that one over the next few days. I have other sketchbook tours here on my YouTube channel if you want to see my work.
