Day 3 - Leighton Moss RSPB (MC Pics)

For the third and fourth days of my visit, we went to RSPB Leighton Moss, with an overnight stay at the Pine Lake resort, to allow for an early start on the Tuesday and cut down on the driving. The weather forecast had not been promising and we feared the worst. However, although some parts of  the reserve were 'wellies only' access, my main point of interest was the Robin community, so I was easy to please! I was midway through hand feeding one of the woodland Robins near Lillians Hide when I met someone who turned out to be fellow forumite Jim. I was explaining to him that I had mainly come to see the Robins and he asked 'Are you MC?' to which I replied, 'Yes, are you Jim?'. Not exactly Stanley and Livingstone, but close, lol. I spent much of my time with the various Robins around the reserve and hand fed nine of them. As many as a dozen more came down for mealies, but were reluctant to hand feed and several more came for mealies once I was a foot or two away. I did notice that there was a lot of territorial posturing going on and along the path between the causeway and the lower hide, there were so many Robins that I could see one every twenty yards or so. Indeed, I inadvertently started several territorial disputes by simply holding out mealies for them. On several occasions a Robin would come down to my hand, only to be flown at by another bird. I found that rather interesting.

This is one of the 'Propane Tank Robins', so named because they were always in that spot and the area leading away to the left and the gated enclosure. I also encountered the same pair back in April. Their behaviour was the same, with the female (above) coming to hand and perching to feed, but with the male coming close, landing on the railings, but not hand feeding. I worked out the sexes of the birds by the Courtship Feeding that I witnessed back in April. There was another Robin across the path to the right and that bird would come to take mealies from the ground next to my feet, but did not come to hand. Each time I put a mealie on the ground for it, the Robin would scuttle out to grab the mealie and would then be chased back into the bush by Mrs PTR. Some territorial posturing and squeaking would ensue and on a couple of occasions the male PTR would join in and chase the other Robin even further away. The female was very keen on mealies and on a couple of occasions she flew from maybe thirty yards away to come directly to hand for them. On our first day there, she landed on the pot before I could fully remove the lid and perched there until it was off.

I think this was the Robin that I was trying to feed when I met Jim

There had been a group of four female pheasants and three of them started to get into a minor dispute. After a minute or so, one of them moved off but these two continued to posture and make odd little squeaking noises at one another for about another five minutes. Occasionally they would jump up and flap at one another, but apart from that, I didn't see any actual fighting.

Another of the hand feeding Robins, this one was across the pathway from the feeding log where Hazel took her wonderful photos of the Marsh Tit and friends. The Robin on the log side was not prepared to hand feed and spent much of its time trying to chase off the other birds, including this Robin. A third Robin, which was also quite friendly, was on the log side of the path, but slightly off to the left. At one point, all three of them were chasing eachother around!

Dunnock at the feeding log

BT

Marsh Tit

Nuthatch

Male Chaffie

I had to some work on the original to even get this far, but at least you can see it's a Goldcrest!

Same bird...

A very accomodating Treecreeper, just a few yards up from the second feeding log, opposite side of the path

Pulling a small bug from the bark