There are moments when I feel that I have lived too long. Or, to put it another way, that I was born too early. In the heyday of my birding activities, there was an abundance of species which are now at least uncommon, and in some cases almost rarities. One such is the Lesser Redpoll, a species that even a decade ago was still breeding in the local orchards. Now, it's sufficiently uncommon, at least in these parts, that I advised my friends that there was one (in fact, two, it turned out) on one of my garden feeders for a couple of days.What I mean is, if I was only, say, 30, I wouldn't know what I had missed. Or is that too convoluted a thought for a dark fenland night in January?
3 comments:
I had a male blackcap in my garden about ten days ago. I always thought these were fairly rare summer visitors. But, in Suffolk, in early January ??? Or are they getting bolder, weatherwise ?
Cheers, Mike.
P.s. Glad you've come out of hibernation, and thanks for the bird photoes.
Cheers, Mike.
Blackcaps are fairly common summer visitors, and in recent years there have been regular records of wintering Blackcaps, both male and female. My first thought was that these wintering Blackcaps were our birds staying on because of the milder winters. But ringing returns indicate that they are South East European birds that have come northwest instead of going southwest. Make of that what you will!
Post a Comment