First pic of New Garden Robin (top right) and Mrs HTR. I saw her today for the first time. She didn't waste any time flying down for some mealies. NGR wasn't sure how to react to her and continued singing from various trees and fences. He eventually flew across to see who she was and took a higher branch in order to posture. Mrs HTR was not impressed.
Unicum arbustum haud alit duos erithacos
(One bush does not shelter two Robins)
Zenodotus (3rd Century B.C.)
Initially I thought it might have been a Robin conflict. However, I noticed that there were only two tail feathers remaining. I eventually found them a few feet away and more breast feathers near the water dish. I'd say it was a cat. Certainly not a Sprawk.
Shame about the dead one … at least a Sprawk would have eaten it, given half a chance, anyway. Apart from that, nice to see lots of activity going on. I wonder if there is actually a Robin that won't come for mealies???
__________
Nige Flickr
They all like mealies but it's how they react that helps with ID. Their route around the garden and whether they eat in situ or fly back to a branch are also good indicators. New HTR will only come for mealies if I step away and he does little smash and grab raids, never loitering for long.
Very sad to see the demise of any bird but on the brighter side of things it is nice you have plenty of robin activity in the lead up to breeding season. I love the way the robins are ramping up their volume - still dark here and I can hear one of the garden robins singing loudly ! By the way, where did you get that blue sky ...... IWOOT lol
_________________________________________________________________________
Regards, Hazel
lol, Hazel! I don't think the company IWOOT stock blue sky!
Kind regards, Ann
Try Amazon, they seem to have cornered the market in most things! Lol
2013 photos & vids here
eff37 on Flickr
Great to catch up with your garden Robins MC, save for the poor dead one!
Hi MC, a lovely update regarding all you garden robins. Sad about the poor robin, but you given it a nice spot to rest.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
Now that I have access to my laptop...
The HTR's have been very active over the past few weeks. I have now seen two pieces of Courtship Feeding. Hopefully the current weather will hold out and if Mrs HTR has started a nest, then it won't fail. She has been coming very close for mealies and has flown across to my hand and hovered briefly without taking any (so far). HTR has been doing plenty of twarbling in the flowering currant as well as loud singing in the holly tree. An intruding male made a brief appearance on Sunday, but was despatched by HTR. Mrs HTR has given me the best photo opportunities so far, but once the morning light improves, I hope to get better captures of HTR. In the meantime, here are a few pics from the past week or so.
More to follow over the coming weeks and months (I hope)