Little Brown One

The morning dawned beautifully so I jumped out of bed and took Jazzy dog and the camera down the field, even before I had showered. We had a little chat with the turkeys on the way. The farmer had already been busy and I snapped the steam rising from a trailer full of straw-heavy manure. Quite a photogenic steaming pile. :)

We heard a thrush singing rather falteringly but I couldn't see it. Jets were sparkling in the blue. My dunnock is also known as the hedge sparrow, no relation to sparrows though. Its Ancient British name means 'little brown one'. Birders use the term 'little brown job' or LBJ for unidentified brown birds. Dunnocks are rather shy and nervous and feed mainly on insects. They never use feeders. John Clare called it, "half a robin", they sing quite sweetly this time of year, as do robins. Wonder whether my dunnock will be a foster parent to a cuckoo next year? It''ll see plenty of action in its tangled love life before then. Males take one tenth of a second to copulate but have sex up to one hundred times per day. Females have multiple partners.

I had a quick walk around after lunch and my darling blind and deaf Reynard was in the glasshouse in its usual place. <3