Tucking in to winter treats

I had a doctor's appointment on the outskirts of Gloucester today to check my damaged hand. After a long wait I have now been forwarded to a specialist hand clinic at Gloucester hospital, though who knows how long that might take.

The GP practice I belong to has an anthroposophical basis with a purpose built medical centre near the centre of Stroud. But they also have a satellite surgery in a converted semi-detached house on a housing estate in Tuffley which is where I went today. As I was waiting, I looked out of the front window and noticed a succession of male and female blackbirds flitting between a very large evergreen bush in the middle of the small front lawn and the boundary hedge.

The house is obviously only used when the surgery is open, and the garden only has low maintenance plants, mostly evergreen shrubs, but all of them seemed covered in a variety of red berries. I had my camera and decided to wait outside under the front porch, where I could shelter from the rain but also be able to not be too obvious to the birds.

There was a lot of territorial behaviour between several males and two female blackbirds. I managed to catch this female who seemed quite relaxed and aware of my presence, and who looked directly at me several times. I watched it stooping forward to reach the berries that hadn't already been eaten, which entailed much flapping of wings in order to keep balance. At one point it I saw it lean in, grab a berry in its beak, swallowing it whole before looking up at me with the berry deep in the back of its throat. Unfortunately none of the images was very sharp in the gloom as I couldn't get a fast enough shutter speed to reveal the action in the shade of the hedge.

Apologies for the image quality, but I have had to heavily crop the picture, so you can see what I am talking about!

I've put a couple of the before and after shots in my Blipfolio, including the back of the throat shot, in case anyone is interested in the feeding habits of blackbirds in suburbia.