On Fri, 10 Dec 2004 22:59:29 +0000, Chris Townsend
<
[email protected]> wrote:
[...]
>http://www.rspb.org.uk/birds/guide/m/mistlethrush/index.asp
>http://www.bto.org/birdtrends/wcrmisth.htm
>http://www.bto.org/gbw/Species/BIRDS_MISTH.htm
Many thanks for those links - v. helpful, and particularly the last
one which explains how to distinguish the mistle thrush from the song
thrush.
I've just been watching 4 birds in my garden. I think they were a
male blackbird, two female blackbirds and a speckled thrush, but I
can't always tell the difference between the female blackbird and the
thrush.
In the Lakes just over a month ago I was walking towards a fast
flowing stream quite early one morning, on my way home, when all of a
sudden a small, brown bird fluttered very quickly into my field of
vision, flew towards the ground and appeared almost to get stuck in a
little recess at ground level on the far side of the stream. I hadn't
been paying attention, and for half a moment I actually wondered
whether it had been a bat. It wasn't, though, and just as I stopped in
my tracks it flew up again and along the stream to my right, where it
seemed to dive down again into another little recess at ground level
beside the stream, only about 20 feet away.
I wanted to take a closer look, and although, I felt the bird would
almost certainly fly away before I got to it, I nonetheless carefully
crossed the stream whilst easing my camera out of its pouch and
keeping my eyes on the place where the little bird had landed. I got
there, with arms raised to take a picture, and peered in, and there
was the little bird sitting on the ground staring straight back out at
me, probably about 6 feet away! I got one quick picture, but quite
suddenly the bird flew up again and this time flew away down the
stream in the other direction, very quickly, and swooping up and down
along the water.
I had the impression that the bird was a wren. It was wren sized, and
wren coloured, and in the couple of brief chances I had to take a look
it seemed to have the wren's stubby little tail as well. Unfortunately
my picture was absolutely useless (I'm no photographer), and I can
only see the bird because I know it was there. To anyone else it would
just be a little mid brown blob. Does anyone know whether this was
likely to be a wren, or could it have been something else?
It was really quite a magical experience, even though not a great deal
happened. The memory of the little bird looking me straight back in
the eye is very clear, though
Best wishes,
--
,,
(**)PeeWiglet~~
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