Friday, January 30, 2015

Brambling.

First winter male Brambling.
 

The ground was covered with an inch or so of snow when we got up and everything was frozen. However, by lunchtime the sun was glorious and it had mostly melted leaving only the shadows white.

A wander around the village turned up a nice surprise when I heard a call overhead 'pruk pruk' and looked to find a Raven in full display tumbling mode, wings closed and upside down. It came low over the field scattering a large flock of Woodpigeons as it went.

Later as I left to go to Alnwick, the Brambling from the other day had returned to the feeders, favouring the niger. As the light was so nice it would be rude not to try a photo, so I popped back inside to get the camera and rattled a few off. The orange looks lovely and warm in the sunshine, dont you think?

Also around about, a pair of Stonechats looked great too on the coast path, 7 Redwings were in the Rectory paddock and 3 Kestrels were together in the village wood.

79. Raven

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Fantastic capture, and perfect timing as the BTO migration blog mentioned yesterday that Bramblings would be turning up in gardens round about now. Lovely bird.

Yellowbelly in Exile said...

Notice that you have a multi-holed Niger feeder. Our Niger feeder has only two holes and the finches have to queue. What's your verdict on your feeder. As always, the header picture is great!

Stewart said...

CT - Cheers
Andrew - Its fine, the birds can feed from anywhere with up to 5 or 6 at a time. The bad thing is during a strong wind all the niger blows away! When windy I tend not to top it up until it is calmer again...Maybe an argument for using two types of niger feeder?

Warren Baker said...

Liking those Images Stewart :-)

oldcrow61 said...

What a beautiful bird. Great shots.

Stewart said...

Warren - Great praise indeed. Any tips so I can get nearer to your quality though :)

OC - Yes thank you, Bramblings are lovely birds and just scarce enough to be a little bit exciting in the garden.