A few weeks ago we had a Chaffinch in the garden. They used to be common. We had quite a few on the farm and if you read Tootlepedal’s blog you will see that he still does. For some reason we have not been able to tempt one into the garden until now. We were hoping for another Goldfinch story – once we got them in we often see groups of up to five. It hasn’t happened. We have yet to see another Chaffinch. The same happened with the Greenfinches, though they are quite rare after the disease outbreak. We saw a couple, then nothing.
Carden Warbler, pictured on Wikipedia. This is the British variety, the one in the header is Scandinavian and a little more distinctive.
Two days ago we saw a smallish brown bird lurking in a shrub. My first thought was Goldcrest because it was quite fluttery and furtive, but it was too big, too brown and didn’t have a gold streak. Then I thought Robin, but there was no red breast. It was just a dull brown bird with pale underparts and no distinguishing features. The Garden Warbler is famous for having no distinguishing features, and that would seem to be what we saw. Apart from being anonymous they are also mis-named, as they don’t often appear in gardens. They do, however, like woodland margins, and with the trees only being yards beyond the garden wall, that’s a good description of our habitat.
Meanwhile, in other news, I have had another acceptance. So, despite a rushed selection of poetry I have managed to get three acceptances and two rejections, and am still waiting to hear from the final one. I am approaching the end of this month in a more relaxed mood, and have most of my submissions done already. They are waiting now. I will let them wait a bit longer, because the best thing you can do is leave them to mature then edit again, and again . . .
That’s always been the part I have been bad at. I’m lazy and badly organised and should write a lot more. If I did I would be able to leave things and polish them properly. That’s where the quality come from. I really should be concentrating on quality rather than quantity.
Chaffinch in the Bird Garden
We have stopped feeding the birds in the garden for the time being at least, and we are getting no small birds in the garden at present except sparrows. Our chaffinch numbers were well down earlier this year when we were feeding, compared with flocks of up to fifty in past times.
We don’t get sparrows either. There is a house with lots of feeders about half a mile away, he was lots of sparrow. The ways of bird distribution are strange. I’m going to have a better look next time I pass and see what he is feeding.
Congratulations on the acceptances, and the Garden Warbler!
Thank you Lavinia.
I veer towards quantity over quality with my blog. I always wonder if I should spend more time per blog, but as I value interaction, quantity suits my purposes
Compared to some blogs, which I won’t mention, you produce both quality and quantity. I think it’s important to write regularly and plentifully in order to learn and improve, and to generate ideas. Of course, what I think and what I do are sometimes quite different things. 🙂
Sometimes I feel like my blogs are the equivalent of a 1926 Christie short story…illogical and I’ll conceived. However, occasionally they’re like a 1929 story- clear cut and precise
I only notice the clear cut and concise ones. 🙂
Thank you
🙂 My pleasure.
I regularly see magpies and wattlebirds. But seldom see smaller native birds in built up areas of town because they are pushed out by imported Blackbirds.
Congrats, congrats! Also, I enjoyed seeing pictures of the different birds.
Well Laurie, if you keep watching I will post some of the birds I see as often as I get out of the city – water birds in particualar.
Thanks Laurie. I must take more bird pictures, particulalrly as winter comes on and we see more.
Success with birds and poems – things are looking up
Yes, they seem to be. Sometimes it’s just about grinning and bearing it and things seem to correct themselves. 🙂