Blue Spotted Tail.

 

There was an item on Springwatch last night with lots of unusual nesting sites. The one above is the pole of a sign on the way into Heaton Park where blue tits were nesting. We passed it a couple of weeks back and could hear the chicks twittering inside.  On passing earlier this week, The Youngest was hoyed up for a look see and reported back that it smelled disgusting but there was nothing in there. I hope they survived the relentless torrential rain we've been lucky enough to endure here since Easter.

Chartered Trips.

I've been having conversations with a lot of new colleagues lately. At times talk has turned to my interest in birds. And I've been asked if I am a 'twitcher'. The answer is always no. I don't define myself in that way. In particular I don't buy into the knee-deep in reeds, chartered trips, collector mindset. I prefer to either stumble across birds by accident or visit familiar inner city sites as part of my daily business. So it was that two sights yesterday made me equally happy. The first, a drake Goldeneye in the city centre. The second, the sight of hundreds of gulls coming in to roost at Heaton Park reservoir.

Nine to Five.

Papa Blackbird, originally uploaded by LuLu Witch.

If I opened up the BBC News website one day, and discovered a link to a story which said that scientists had conclusively proved that birds operate a shift system I wouldn’t be in the slightest bit surprised. It was something that I first started noticing when I was pushing my eldest son around Heaton Park on a daily basis, back in the Summer of 2001 when he was brand new and all that.

On different days and at different times there would be a noticeable surfeit of one species of bird in particular. One day it might be blue tits, other days, robins, twittering across the paths, breaking the daytime silence. Half an hour later, another species would be in the ascendancy. I’m sure that there’s a logical and no doubt scientific explanation for it, but it always felt like they were taking turns, clocking on and off duty, as the day went by.

I was put in mind of this early today when walking to work between Salford University and Manchester House I was confronted by a small army of blackbirds. Male, female, on paths, in bushes, up trees, static and scattering to the four winds as I passed by. Normally, I may see one or two, but today was definitely their day at the coalface.

I also had happy encounters with a pair of Little Grebes - a male by the abandoned footbridge, and a tiny female bobbing up and down into the water by The Old Pint Pot, and a Kingfisher skirting the Manchester bank of the river as I peered over the metal and wood-barrier round the back of Café Rouge in Spinningfields.

Thanks to LuLu Witch on Flickr for this great photograph of 'Papa Blackbird' in Sheffield.

Up Against The Wall III

The Singing Raving Tree., originally uploaded by mithering.

Which way is the ACID? That a way... When in Rome, I suppose. Or in this case, when in Heaton Park, Prestwich, simulate LSD usage graffiti style by painting the word ACID sideways on a tree. Works for me.