Dancing Dunnocks - it's always the quiet ones

When you give nature a home in your garden, you will always see things that you never see anywhere else.

It's not that these things don't happen elsewhere - it's just that in the garden you spend quality time and see all the detail.

And this week I was fortunate enough to see something new for me - dancing Dunnocks.

Now some of you may know the Dunnock by one of its old names - the Hedge Sparrow or Hedge Accentor. It is a rather unobtrusive little bird, and I'm lucky enough to have several confiding individuals in my garden, such as this one photographed last week...

Up close, they are such subtle beauties - look at those chestnut streaks on its flanks.

And they do have this unconventional love life - there can be one male and one female, or one male and two females, or vice versa, or even two males and two females (what is known as polgynandry!).

With so much sexual intrigue, it is fairly easy to see games of kiss chase going on around the garden, with wild wing waving and soft singing.

But this week I looked out and saw a Dunnock crouched absolutely motionless on the ground. Immediately behind her tail (and I can say 'her' because that is the receptive position of a female ready to receive a mate) was her suitor (or one of them) and he was literally bouncing manically from side to side, as if on a pogo stick.

This went on for maybe 15 seconds, before he finally did one big 'boing' and leapfrogged over her head. Amazingly, that last leap is the moment of mating, a split-second affair after all that build up.

The secret to giving Dunnocks a home is to have dense shrubberies, flowerbeds and soft fruit areas (as much for the tangled structure and insects that visit as the fruit itself). And of course hedges are their favourite.

And, given that this is another species whose populations nationally are well down on their levels 40 years ago, anything you can do to help is welcome.