Wasn’t that Yellow-rumped Warbler, during Big Garden Birdwatch, in Durham amazing? It takes me back to Rock Creek Park in Washington where I saw lots of these and other US warblers in spring 2011. But it also reminds me that I haven’t seen a Blackcap in my garden all winter.
Gamekeepers don’t want to cull birds of prey? This one seemed to be trying quite hard!
Fea’s Petrel – where they come from.
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RE. blackcaps in gardens in winter: a few years ago I hung up a big bunch of mistletoe opposite the kitchen window in the hope a BC might visit. A female appeared in early January and stayed until late March. It was fascinating to see how she dealt with the sticky berries…and she ate so many I had to bring in fresh bunches several times (from a tree festooned with mistletoe in a garden some miles away)! She also ate halved apples which I pinned to the top of a bird table to stop the blackbirds knocking them off. She commuted between the berries and the apples several times each day….but never once visited the fat, seed or peanut feeders hanging not far away.
Nick