CWH
LIFE MEMBER
This morning's stroll was well worth getting up for!
At the feeder: sparrow (noisy but not squabbling yet; some yellow-gaped chicks among them), goldfinch (their wonderful colours don’t stand out so much in the shadow), greenfich (comparatively heavy-bodied male feeding a female), chaffinch (male; seems the females aren't out and about yet), rock dove (of course!), starling (just one - must be the out-rider), blackbird (male and gathering food).
Across the croft: lapwing (3 pairs, protecting their scrapes; at least 2 sets have chicks; noisy, feisty, attacking any and every perceived threat, from lambs to vans to people to gulls), redshank (breeding pair: pretty birds with extraordinarily bright legs and remarkably shrill call; small but standing their ground against the lapwing), lark (constant background presence and song).
On the foreshore: oystercatcher (just waking up, beaks seeming very heavy and not yet calling), plover (scuttling about like mice), heron (ponderous flight along to the next inlet), curlew (always look unbalanced; but that call! - eerie, echoing), common gull (floating around among the rocks), tern (a bit further out and fishing), shelduck (pair, with just one chick; very disappointing as they raised 7 last year).
Back across the croft: carrion crow (uncommon around here), raven (family of 4; wing-beat is as distinctive a sound as their constant chatter), snipe (they like to sit in the reeds just next to the track; call like a creaky gate, and "drumming" of the feathers), hooded crow (big, intelligent birds that should really be called "cloaked"), and finally a cuckoo (flying across to land on a telegraph wire just a couple of metres away from the hoodie, and calling all the time - they aren’t shy birds!).
Right: time for a cuppa!