Wildlife in a Suburban Garden

A nice interesting bird day.

I had another session out on Haldon this a.m.  This is a coniferous woodland which is high on a ridge to the south of Exeter and is bisected by the main Exeter to Plymouth A38 and close to the Exeter Racecourse. It is home to a good selection of birds and other wildlife, even though it also hosts outdoor activities, both cycling and climbing activities for adults and children - it even has segue rides, it still remains largely peaceful. Out in the lovely bright sunshine, it was always going to be quite successful. If you have been reading this page for the last few months you will know that I have been following the woodpeckers there since July. I am quite confident that this bird is the same individual that I have seen on almost every visit since then. It had to fend for itself while I was absent for 6 weeks but it soon learnt that there is a regular supply of peanuts again. Today it came down and perched right where I predicted it would and this gave me the chance to not only take a few photographs but also to see that it was the same young female and all was well. When I arrived I disturbed 2 Roe Deer quite close to my drinking pool and I suspect that they were the reason that all the apples disappear constantly. After just a short while and with a nice photograph or two in the camera I decided to go back out to Dartmoor - as I was halfway there -  to try to get more Fieldfare photographs. It was intensely cold with a biting wind but there were some Fieldfare about so I decided to make the effort to walk down to the spot where I had snapped them before. After a longish wait in the cold, hidden under some cam netting, one of them perched high on a hawthorn bush in front of me. They are very pretty, but I just wish that I could get closer to them. The old medieval name "Fieldfare" apparently refers to their habit of travelling through fields. That didn't make much sense to me until I made the connection with the word "travel" and the word "fare". When you buy your bus or train ticket you pay the "fare" so here is a connection that I had never made before. If you think about it, it does make quite a lot of sense.  I think the photo above and the one below is a good lesson for successful photography. There is no substitute for getting close to your subject.  The image above is hardly cropped I.e. zoomed in on whereas the one below is massively cropped hence the difference in the quality of the final image.

 

Fieldfare - (Turdus pilaris)

 

I have been absent from the Blog for the last 2 months due to an operation which I am glad to say I have mostly recovered from now and I am able to get out and about again.

I have spent the last few days trying to get close enough to Fieldfare to get a good photograph.  For some reason, they seem to be very, very wary. Even when I thought I was really well concealed under a hastily built hide made from scrim, they still seemed to be aware that something wasn't quite right.  Compared with kingfishers for example who will perch just inches from you when you are in a hide, the fieldfare's skittish behaviour is difficult to explain. However with some real patience and perseverance, eventually you may get some success.  Today just one bird was in front of me, in itself quite unusual as they tend to move around and feed in small flocks. 

From Wikipedia."TheFieldfare (Turdus pilaris) is a member of the thrush family Turdida.  It is strongly migratory, with many northern birds moving south during the winter. It is a very rare breeder in the British Isles but winters in large numbers in the United Kingdom, Southern Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. It is omnivorous, eating a wide range of molluscs, insects and earthworms in the summer, and berries, grain and seeds in the winter.

Fieldfares often nest in small colonies, possibly for protection from predators. The nest is built in a tree where five or six eggs are laid. The chicks are fed by both parents and leave the nest after a fortnight. There may be two broods in southern parts of the range but only one further north. Migrating birds and wintering birds often form large flocks, often in the company of Redwings.The sexes are similar in appearance but the females are slightly more brown. The male has a simple chattering song and the birds have various guttural flight and alarm calls.