Leighton Moss Robins April 15th 2015

I visited Leighton Moss last Wednesday and with Robins being my main interest, they took up most of my time. There was no nest to film this time, but the Courtship Feeding pairs and one pair that took mealies away to an unseen nest more than made up for it. An amazing experience in a wonderful location. Super friendly and helpful staff in the RSPB shop and upstairs in the café. Thank you for adding to the day.

Wednesday was the day that I was waiting for. RSPB Leighton Moss. For some people Leighton Moss equals Marsh Harriers. For me, it's all about Robins. We arrived before 9am and went to Lillians Hide. It was rather dull and rain was threatening. We went to the Visitor Centre at 9-30 and grabbed a cuppa and a bite to eat before the main walk to the Causeway and the hides. We set off at about 10am and although the others continued at a reasonable pace towards the Causeway, it took me two hours to get to the entrance on the main road. That was entirely down to the number of Robins that I encountered. Almost all of them were Courtship Feeding, but one pair bashed their mealies and took them away. I couldn't see where the nest was, but I spent about twenty minutes giving them mealies. I did eventually catch up with the others, meeting them just after their encounter with the Otters and the Great Crested Grebes. By then I had seen even more Robins! So here is the Wednesday report part one: Robins.

One of the pair that was feeding nestlings

Note the head end of the mealie. In my experience, the bashed mealie is for nestlings or (sometimes) Courtship Feeding.

Sometimes they took several mealies to a nearby branch and bashed them there

One of the many Female Robins that I encountered along the path to the Causeway. They were perched on the fence posts that lined the path, or perched in adjacent bushes. They rarely moved, even when I was standing next to them. Curiously enough only one of them showed any interest in the live mealies. The others simply ignored them.

This particular Female coughed up two large food pellets!

Maybe the wind blew them out!

The dark lump on the post is one of the pellets!

This little lady was the most docile of the lot and I almost felt I could have reached out and picked her up (I didn't)

Some Courtship Feeding

Back to patiently waiting

She remained on the branch, just perched there waiting for the male to reappear

She's spotted something

Her mate

Dainty Robin on a barbed wire fence

Grappling with a large earthworm

At the far end of the Causeway...

The Leighton Moss Robins are all gainfully employed!

I also encountered many other Robins that I fed rather than photographed. I believe I saw eleven pairs and interacted with eight of them. There were many more, but I was unable to specifically identify them as pairs for a variety of reasons. There was one particular pair at the end of the wooden steps that lead away from the rear left of the Visitor Centre. Both Robins were perched on the wooden rail and one immediately flew across and took mealies from my hand while the other watched. Based on my previous experiences with paired Robins, I believed that the waiting Robin would be the Female and that the feeding Robin would therefore be the Male, collecting mealies for her. The second Robin flew across twice, but after briefly hovering near my hand, it returned to the rail. On the third attempt it finally landed on my hand and took a mealie. Instead of eating it, as I had expected, it took the mealie to the other Robin and fed it. In this case, it had been the Female that had been collecting the mealworms. This made me wonder if she had become so accustomed to the Male being reluctant to take food from humans that she would collect her own food when it was offered? I need to live near Leighton Moss so that I can study these Robins full time!