Star of the show

For various reasons Smithers and I haven’t been out for a walk for some time, so we rectified that omission by going for a gentle stroll on the Green this afternoon. After a cloudy start at the beginning of the day, the sun started to break through occasionally while we were out and I was thrilled to see a fair number of butterflies and insects, including a solitary dragonfly, and hear some spectacular bird song.

For the past week or two our back garden has been strangely quiet, and the bird activity has been much less than usual. I have been so upset at the lack of recent sightings of our two regular blackbirds, a male and a female, that I signed up to the British Trust for Ornithology’s Blackbirds in Gardens survey using the link mentioned by fellow blipper Rainette (who incidentally is a superlative blackbird whisperer). I have been inputting my sightings, which so far have only been of one female.

So imagine my delight when I heard some amazing blackbird songs this afternoon, seemingly all around me! I managed to get a shot of this chap, high in one of the trees, but I’m sure there were at least one or two other blackbirds in the vicinity. Merlin also recorded a blackcap too, as well as other more commonplace birds.

It just had to be a collage to sum up our walk, with the blackbird providing the centrepiece.