Today brings a welcome addition to the garden bird list, one that is long overdue.
The house was empty on arriving home for lunch but there was a tell-tale sign of some detective work regarding a bird sighting. On the side in the kitchen was a small pair of binoculars and the Collins Bird Guide. I suspected Debbie had seen something so I was on alert! The suspicion was soon to become a fact!
Sitting down to read an important document whilst eating lunch I happened to look up as a movement caught my eye. I needed to make sure what it was. So I got up from the table keeping my eye on the bird and carefully walking backwards picked up a different pair of binoculars to the aforementioned as they were nearer. I knew what the bird was but I wanted to be really sure especially as this one is not on my garden list and is rarely seen around these days.
I was correct. Hopping over the ground to pull a worm from the ground was a song thrush (Turdus philomelos). Like the ring ouzel (Turdus torquatus) I write about it did not stay visible for long and flew into the hedge.
It is good to know that this once common bird is still around. When I was much younger I saw them all over the place in towns and parks. They were observed snail bashing! A habit they have for breaking open snails by holding them in their beak and smashing the shell on a stone. Quite unique behaviour.
These days around where I live you are more likely to hear a mistle thrush (Turdus viscivorus) singing especially in the winter months. They are not unlike blackbirds in song (Turdus merula). They tend to have a shorter more repeated pattern.
A great website for listening to bird song can be found here – Xeno-canto where I obtained the downloads you can listen to below.
The garden bird list is now up to 35.
- Blackbird (Turdus merula) 5
- Starling (Sturnus vulgaris) 40
- Blue tit (Cyanistes caeruleus) 3
- Great tit (Parus major) 2
- Dunnock (Prunella modularis) 2
- Goldfinch (Carduelis carduelis) 7
- Blackcap (Sylvia atricapilla) calling from the neighbours hedge close to our house) 1
- Magpie (Pica pica) 7
- Wood pigeon (Columba palumbus) 7
- Collared dove (Streptopelia decaocta) 10
- Carrion crow (Corvus corone) 5 (2 of which have a number of white wing feathers)
- House sparrow (Passer domesticus) 3 (The neighbours hedge had many more which I couldn’t count
- Wren (Troglodytes troglodytes) 1
- Redwing (Turdus illiacus) 10 (Jan/Feb 2018)
- Grey wagtail (Motacilla cinerea) 1
- Robin (Erithacus rubecula) 2
- Jay (Garrulus glandarius) 2
- Red kite (Milvus milvus) 2 (flying over)
- Pied wagtail (Picus viridus)1
- Bullfinch (Pyrhulla pyrhulla) 1 (18/1/2015)
- Chaffinch (Fringilla coelebs) 1 (female)
- Buzzard (Buteo buteo) 4 (19/09/15)
- Goldcrest (Regulus regulus) 1 (flying low over garden into neighbours Leylandii)
- Long tailed tit (Aegithalos caudatus) 3 (Jan 2019)
- Jackdaw (Corvus monedula) 1 (09/02/16 – recently have realised that we are in the flight to roost path as we get around 200 going over sunrise and sunset)
- Pheasant (Phasianus colchicus) (07/03/17)
- Ring necked parakeet (Psitaculla krameri) 1 (19/11/16)
- Fieldfare (Turdus pilarus) 1 (Jan 2018)
- Grey heron (Ardea cinerea) (1 flying low over garden)
- Sparrowhawk (Accipiter nisus) 1
- House martin (Delichon urbichum) (16/09/18 – 100s flying south over our house in lose groups for about 10 minutes – check out my twitter feed from time to time).
- Siskin (Carduelis spinus) 4 females and 3 females (21/01/19)
- Ring ouzel (Turdus torquata) 1 female (13/10/19
- Great spotted woodpecker (Dendrocopus major) 1 (12/10/19)
- Song thrush (Turdus philomelos) 1 (16/12/19)
Later in conversation with Debbie it turns out she saw two song thrushes!