I have been away from home, on a course at a meeting in the Cotswolds, but on Tuesday morning i was standing outside my home when I heard a strange song. Well, it started strangely, sounding almost like a Sedge Warbler’s stacatto song but it then resolved itself into a melodious Blackcap.
I didn’t see the bird in question but the latter part of the song, and all the snatches I heard over the next few minutes were classic Blackcap. Added to which there has been a male Blackcap feeding in the garden recently. It was a Blackcap.
A singing Blackcap is a great rarity in my garden and this one is a very early date.
Our wintering Blackcaps are generally birds from central Europe including Germany which are, again generally, thought to head back east around now. Maybe this one is tuning up for performing in Berlin or Warsaw soon.
Then yesterday morning, at a friend’s place near Oxford, another Blackcap was singing.
Added to Tuesday’s sighting of a Brimstone from the car west of Banbury, it feels like spring is coming. Good, I like spring.
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I suppose as a biologist you must have been wondering during the event of the likelihood of a virus being able to spread among those attending.
De – indeed. I’ve been standing next to people with Irish accents – do you think that will work?
I believe that one feature of this year’s event is the absence of high profile footballers. There’s a reason for that.
Worrying times.
You don’t need to be any kind of Ologist to know when people congregate that common cold, influenza, norovirus et al proliferate. It is part of the joy of being a student or parent
The meeting in the Cotswolds wouldn’t be at Cheltenham Race course by any chance??
Alan – might well be…