12 Sunday Jan 2020
Today’s was just a quick showery stomp to Cosmeston and back, for the refreshing air and to keep my mileage up (I’m aiming to walk 1500 miles this year). It wasn’t the weather for photography, too damp and dim, but I couldn’t resist this cheery Robin redbreast singing its merry tune.
31 Tuesday Dec 2019
Posted in 365DaysWildin2019, birds, nature, winter
Tags
birding, birdwatching, blackbird, British birds, dunnock, robin
From me and today’s small feathered friends, here’s wishing you a very Happy New Year. Blwyddyn Newydd Dda!
10 Tuesday Dec 2019
This photo was taken yesterday, when it wasn’t windy and raining and cold, and I had seeds for the birds, sun on my face, and this Robin smiled upon me. Joy!
28 Thursday Nov 2019
A Robin a day keeps the black dog at bay!
I feel extremely fortunate not to suffer from depression but if I do feel a bit gloomy, Nature is my healer. And just as an apple a day is supposed to keep the doctor away, so the joyful trilling or the determined tick-tick-ticking of a Robin always lifts my spirits and makes me smile.
15 Sunday Sep 2019
I’ve been reading a book by a man who has gradually been losing his hearing and, as the book progresses through a year of his life, so he has lost the sounds of certain birds whose songs are no longer within the range of his hearing. I find this incredibly sad but it’s also made me value even more the birds I can hear, like this little Robin. Having finished its breeding and parenting duties and its moult, it’s now singing to stake its claim on a nice bit of territory to see it through the lean months of winter.
26 Monday Aug 2019
Posted in 365DaysWildin2019, birds, nature
In recent days I’ve been spending some time searching for migrating birds, and I’ve had some success, with several Spotted flycatchers, a couple of Tree pipits, and good numbers of Willow warblers, Chiffchaffs, Blackcaps and both species of whitethroat. Although Redstarts have been seen locally, I haven’t yet managed to find one so, when I caught a reddish flash through the bushes at Cosmeston, I thought I’d got lucky. Unfortunately, it turned out that the flash of red was at the wrong end of the bird – redstart comes from the Anglo-Saxon for ‘red tail’. My little bird had a red breast.
02 Wednesday Jan 2019
Posted in 365DaysWildin2019, birds, nature, winter
Winter seems finally to have arrived and it was frosty when I arrived at Cosmeston Lakes Country Park early this morning, hoping for a nice long walk before the school holiday crowds arrived. Unfortunately, in my haste to leave home, I forgot to fill my seed container so had nothing to offer the hungry birds. This fluffed-up little Robin was not at all impressed.
25 Tuesday Dec 2018
Season’s Greetings to all my followers!
May your Yuletide be filled with much good cheer.
13 Thursday Dec 2018
‘Art thou the bird whom Man loves best,
The pious bird with the scarlet breast,
Our little English Robin …’
~ from William Wordsworth, ‘The Redbreast Chasing the Butterfly’, 1806
Blogger’s note: This particular little cutie, with whom I shared some quality moments – me chatting and it peeping – at Penarth Heads beach on Monday, is actually a Welsh (not English) Robin. And its breast is really more orange than red but I’ve just this week found out why it was formerly known as Redbreast and described as having a red or scarlet rather than orange breast – it’s because orange as a colour (which originated from the fruit of the same name) was unknown in Britain prior to the mid 16th century.
13 Tuesday Feb 2018
Tags
bird behaviour, birding, birdwatching, British birds, feathers, feathers as insulation, fluffing up feathers, how birds keep warm, robin
The biting wind seems to find the smallest crack in your several layers of clothing to nip at exposed flesh, your hands feel frost-bitten even though you’ve got your thickest gloves on, and the tip of your nose is so cold that you can no longer feel it. Yet there on a fence post directly in front of you, equally exposed to the wintery weather, is a chirpy wee Robin, singing its heart out, seemingly oblivious to the chill. How does it do it?
Well, the answer is in the fluffing up of its feathers. If you’ve ever slept under a down- or feather-filled duvet, you’ll know how incredibly warm feathers can be, and that’s especially true for our wee Robin. You see, feathers are a brilliant form of insulation material – feathers trap air close to the bird’s body so, in winter, they trap the warmth of the bird’s body heat. The more fluffed up the feathers are, the more warm air they trap, the more cosy is our little Robin.
