My Christmas present to myself was to finally subscribe to an unlimited and Ad-free version of Spotify. It always takes me ages to conform and join most of the rest of the population in embracing new fangled technology, I can remember resisting the advent of CD's for years before succumbing. Music has always played a big part in my life since my early days and I forever consider myself extremely lucky to be a teenager in 1976 when, for me, music really took off. Since having Spotify I have listened to music almost every night and have found myself exploring music genres and artists that I'd never bothered with before. Whatever the principles of subscribing to such a monster in regard to it's treatment and paltry rewarding of the musicians that make it, there is no doubt that streaming services like Spotify make appreciating all music so much easier. For somebody like myself, who want to explore music that I've never previously experienced, I am now able to do that without having to buy albums on trust. An example; I had heard a song by Mark Lanegan (one of my own favourite musicians) and Isobel Campbell called Ramblin' Man. Spotify allows you to discover basic information about songs and artists so I found out that the track was actually written by The Allman Brothers, a band I'd never heard of before, back in the 60's. I listened to that original song and further realised after an internet search that they had based their version on an older song, also called Ramblin' Man, by Hank Williams which was written in 1951. I did know about Hank Williams, an inspirational but troubled (aren't they all) and pioneering Country music singer through my love of Americana. By extension I have now listened to a lot of Hank Williams' back catalogue (although not so much Allman Brothers). Anyway, I'm rambling on….
Mrs Caley and I love year listing, the name given to building a count of all birds seen in a calendar year. This year is going to be tricky to get a decent list going because of the national lockdown that was instigated on day 1. It's always tricky for us anyway because we live in Oxfordshire where in a good year there might be 200 species recorded (with luck we might see 150 of those). Compare that to the 300+ that will be seen in Norfolk or Yorkshire. In our best year, 2019, we saw 289 different species of bird in the UK but our average year total is around 240-250. Last year, badly affected by travel limitations and lack of holidays, we managed 243. My last blog post detailed how we had made a good start to this years tally by seeing 72 different types of birds over the first weekend.
Roll on to Saturday the 9th January. The weather was forecast to be awful on the following day so it seemed as if we'd only have the one chance over the weekend to add birds to the list. I had to run some materials that were needed for Monday on one of my jobs out near Chipping Norton so I had already hatched a plan to seek out some birds that we'd seen at the end of 2020. Normally we wouldn't go specifically to see the same bird two weeks running but for year listing purposes, and, particularly with the Yellow-browed warbler seen last weekend, it sometimes has to be done if the sightings are either side of the end of one year and the start of the next. The target bird this time would be, and I guess that you've already sussed it, the Brambling. We had fantastic views of a good sized flock of the winter visitors from further north on the penultimate day of last year but it would be good to get them onto the new year list quickly this time since then we wouldn't have to go purposely looking for them later.
Having completed my work drop off we, Mrs Caley was with me of course, drove the extra couple of miles and parked next to the small copse. There was nobody else around at all, probably owing to the thick fog that enveloped everything that morning. You didn't need to see the birds though to know that they were still present, the chattering noise of the Brambling could be heard as soon as we exited the car. We walked through the gap in the hedge full of expectation but that early enthusiasm was soon dashed because we could hardly see each other at a few paces apart, let alone the birds that were definitely in the copse and hedge somewhere. There was hope though, the sun was trying its hardest to blast through the gloom and we could see a brighter patch of sky above the larger trees to our right. The advantage to being cocooned in the fog came in our ability to creep up on the birds largely unnoticed, meaning that I could get within range of the birds to actually be able to take some photos. The Brambling were everywhere along the hedge and most were not interested in doing anything other than to sit out the fog. I imagine that with danger lurking away from the hedge that they were safer staying close to cover. I took some photos, knowing that Photoshop would eliminate a lot of murkiness in them.
In addition to the fog it was also a frosty and cold morning and the tree branches were coated with ice on their northern sides.
In all I reckoned there were about 60 Brambling present although there were possibly even more. Some of those birds were especially confiding and allowed me to take some very nice images, which after editing even showed a sky blue background! I think that blue sky lasted for only around 20 minutes just before midday. With the clearer air it was now much more difficult to approach the birds closely so I partially hid in amongst the bushes and waited for birds to perch in the nearest trees which they very obligingly did. The orange, black and white plumage, particularly of the male Brambling was illuminated beautifully in the temporary brightness.
My attention was diverted by a Bullfinch calling softly in the tree above my head which was also a new species for the year list. The Bullfinch, a male, was difficult to see though as it kept itself surrounded by the twigs of the tree. A male Chaffinch was much easier to view in the same tree but our first Greenfinch of the year flew off just a soon as we noticed it. A small party of twittering Long-tailed Tits moved the year total on to 76.
The fog was settling in again so we decided that we may as well leave, it was clear (not) that conditions wouldn't improve. A lone male Brambling sat forlornly low down in the hedge quite near to the road. Despite its outward beauty it was evident that this bird was sickening for something since it made no attempt to move at our approach. It was rather fluffed up and would barely move its head. I guess that, in any gathering of birds in harsh winter conditions, there'll be casualties and I feared for this one. I apologise to it for invading its dignity by taking a few pictures before leaving it alone, wishing that it'd make it through the days ahead. A Sparrowhawk arrived without herald, scattering the flock of Linnets in the field every which way. The Brambling all dived for cover, except for the poorly one. By being there we had probably saved its life, for now anyway.
The first chapter was excellent the you spoilt it by talking about birds lol :-).....Loved the last bit
ReplyDeletenever heard of The Allman Brothers!!
ReplyDeleteI'm expressing shock that you'd not heard of em Nick. check out whipping post
ReplyDeleteAt the time I was too busy listening to Slade.
Delete