Casualties and customers
Casualties and customers
A sad sight: on the path outside the back door a young thrush lay stunned after a collision with my study window. It was just alive, I could feel its heart fluttering, but, despite no broken bones, when I returned a couple of hours later I found it stiff and cold in the shelter I had made for it under some bushes. These window strikes seem to happen far too often in spite of our best efforts to signal to passing birds that this is not sky but hard reflecting glass. It’s sad but does give a chance to examine birds at close quarters, to marvel at the thrush’s vivid plumage – warm browns, dark browns even a delicate flush of pinky-orange, and to feel how light its bones are under the feathers. There was another casualty two weeks previously. This time a blackbird, a male to judge by its glossy black feathers, but with a dark beak rather than the bright yellow we are used to. It may well have been one of the four broods raised by my resident pair – the beak does not change colour till later – or it might be one of the large number of Scandinavian blackbirds that join our resident population for the winter, a migration that often goes unnoticed. In fact, many of our garden birds that we consider all-year-round residents may, in fact, be incomers as the populations are swelled by arrivals from harsher environments.
At a time of great change for birds, the only absolute fixture in my garden at present seems to be a couple of dunnocks that spend the day deep in the thicket of bushes in the corner, only flitting out to snatch a few beakfuls of seed from the nearby feeder. Meanwhile flocks of finches and tits sweep through, snack – and are gone – very easy to miss. Yet, if I do get my timing right I may be lucky. The other day the mixed flock contained several long-tailed tits, probably a family party – tiny pink, black and white bodies attached to long straight tails. They gathered for a few seconds on the fat-ball – their tails sticking straight out in all directions making a living decoration worthy of Christmas! And – better still – there were two even tinier birds – olive green with brilliant yellow stripes across their heads and bright eyes – goldcrests! What a treat!
