SPRINGWATCH IS HERE!

Saw a wren do this a few years ago , apologies for the quality

WendyBartter said:

MC reported that his Robins knock the heads off mealies before feeding to their females - can't find footage now but hopefully he will see this thread!

  Hi Wendy, just flagged this up to MC,   meanwhile I did a bit of surfing to see if I could find any reason for the mealworm bashing !!     This is what I read on one birding blog .......... click     HERE   and scroll down to reply  No: #8

Here's the original thread from last year with BR feeding Mrs BR. He always bashed the mealies when he was taking them to Mrs BR for Courtship Feeding or when taking them to the nest or even to Little BR once he had fledged. However... when eating them for himself, he gobbled them straight down. I have seen Railway Robin doing exactly the same thing. The mealie bashing is always an indicator that they are going to be taken away for a mate or offspring. I also noticed the BT's 'stripping' the mealies before taking them to the nest. For that reason I chopped up the mealies with a scalpel before I fed the abandoned nestlings last year. It was incredibly messy and I managed to give myself a serious eye infection as a result of getting 'mealie juice' in my eye. Worth it though to see them survive and fledge!

I would have liked the BBC Springwatch to show on TV a general view of the open water in the reedbeds with live pictures, just as the BBC are doing with the scrape. It dos'nt look as though that's going to happen at least for this year.

Great start to the show this evening with the newly born Reed Warbler chicks!

Wow! Slow worm gobbled down!

Thanks aitch for the mealie info & MC, I had forgotten how wonderful that courtship feeding is ... thanks for finding it!

Hi everyone, looking forward to this evenings Springwatch. Hopefully, we’ll get an update on the fox cubs and the birds on the scrape and what Grub’s been eating!

The thermal camera defiantly gives a different perspective on Minsmere and its occupants.