22 January, 2010

Quickie Update

I ought to inflict another rant of a Birding Nature upon your helpless eyes, but time's a' pressing so it'll just be a quick update on goings-on and a Mystery.

Bird Wars; there have continued to be no Fieldfare sightings since the frontal system went through a week ago. Mr. Blackcap is holding on to the fat block, and trying for the whole garden when the Sparrows and Greenfinches let him. Interestingly, there have been no thrushes of any kind seen in the garden! There is at least one Song Thrush in the area - I hear him singing first thing - but no sign of any Blackbirds, which is weird to say the least... They're normally even more reliable than the Sparrows, and they nest here! Apple left out is pretty much untouched, a few sultanas go - but that could be Woodpigs. Answers on a postcard, ladies and gents... Generally things have quietened down a lot - fewer birds on the seed feeders, the sunflowers seeds are at less than 1/4 a day, when the week before it was 2 refills a day! - and Blackcap is at number one for sightings [how many gardens can say that?]. I suppose the shift in weather's opened up a lot of food sources - things frozen in the cold and brought out by the rain, maybe?

In other news, I am not doing a Yearlist. I am not doing a Yearlist. I am not doing a Yearlist. I am not doing a Yearlist.....

I'm just making a note for comparative purposes. I'm not chasing yearticks, now am I? Devon Ticks are fine. Lifers and Brit Ticks very fine. Yearticks [not that they are, except technically] are just a side effect of enjoyable relaxing birding. Seeing birds because I like to see them, because they light up the world, not because I haven't seen them since the calender changed. Remember the stress? Remember the Jack Snipe Affair? Make that Affairs?
Exactly.


And there's always next year!

Oh dear.

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