I always regarded blackcaps as a bit of a rarity, largely as they are fast moving and tend to stay deep in bushes and difficult to spot. Until a couple of years ago, I had never actually seen one!
So, you can imagine my surprise when a male bird (photo) turned up in our garden in Darfield just before Christmas and is still about. It seems to have quite a varied diet of seeds and fat balls (both RSPB of course!) and we have also seen it pecking at the flowers on the mahonia - I gather they also like pollen.
From the net, it seems that this is probably an Austrian or German bird come to overwinter in the UK; our birds having gone on their winter holidays to Spain. It seems that quite a bit of research has been done on the blackcap's strange migratory habits and that the AustroGerman ones have developed to become genetically different to the AngloSpanish ones. Just another example of nature's adaptability and the absolutely fantastic phenomenon of bird migration.
Anyway, I thought I would share the photo. Has anyone else spotted these about this winter?
What a lovely visitor to have in your garden, Bridgeman, and I like the picture of him sitting there hiding and ready to pop out for a bite.
Annie
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
Einstein
Hi Bridgeman,
Lovely Photo. The British Trust for Ornithology are carrying out a survey about Blackcaps in peoples' gardens in Jamuary 2013. Follow this link for more info www.bto.org/.../garden_blackcap_survey
Unfortunately I haven't got any Blackcaps, so I can't take part!
Thanks - I'll have a look.