There I was, minding my own business and labouring on the vegetable plot that doesn't contain any vegetables yet. Something made me pause and look up into the tree by the fence. There was a silhouette of a small, round bird which I thought would turn out to be a Robin.That's funny, I thought. Its tail is quivering. Better keep an eye on it.
Foolishly, I'd left my binoculars in the kitchen while I thought I'd be busy with the garden fork and spade. I watched the bird fly off a short distance, and legged it inside to get the bins. I then had to wait a couple more minutes, while the bird was out of sight, to confirm which kind of redstart it was... Black Redstart!
Well, that was an unexpected garden tick...
digiscoped photo taken with Canon Powershot A640 + Leica Apo Televid 77 with 20x eyepiece
My Robins always turn out to be Robins Katie. Nice tick.
ReplyDeleteIt was very lucky... if I hadn't been working in the garden, I probably wouldn't have noticed it.
ReplyDeleteI had something similar last spring. An unusual 'Robin' song woke me up fully at the crack of dawn when I was dozing. I pulled back the curtains to be confronted by a cracking male Redstart singing on an overhanging branch in my garden. This in suburban Swindon too!
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