urban_greenwatch: (heron)
urban_greenwatch ([personal profile] urban_greenwatch) wrote2009-12-30 02:41 pm
Entry tags:

the song thrush too sudden to photograph

This morning the ice had melted and rain was seeping from a flat grey sky. My heart leapt at the sight of such congenial weather. After a week of teetering to the busstop over glass-slick pavements fearing each slush-slippy step, finally I could return to the tow-path.

With cheerful (albeit slightly damp) humour I decided to record my morning bird list, which reads:

House Sparrow (1)
Crow (4)
Pigeon (8)
Magpie (11)
Black Headed gull (20+)
Mallard (10)
Coal Tit (1)
Coot (8)
Robin (3)
Blackbird (1)
Collared Dove (3)
Song Thrush (1)
Canada Goose (30+)

This is the clear identifications only. I've left out all the half-glimpsed or heard-not-seen birds. It's quite disappointing, especially the tits. Where are the Wagtails? The Redstarts? The Long Tailed Tits? Where are the Swans?

However, one thing on that list was a surprise! I wouldn't normally expect to the see a Thrush on the tow path, and there he (or she - they're not sexually dimporphic at all) was, hopping into the ivy with a beak full of something.

I peered round the bush and found myself face-to-beak with a thrush with a banded snail ready for smashing. I'd probably just startled him off an anvil stone.

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