Today is not so much a question of bird-watching as bird-glancing, I have been busy over a lot of the day and have snatched moments at the kettle or the sink to look for the birds. Doubtless I have imagined it, but it has seemed that a single female chaffinch has been keeping me company.
In the morning, she catches my attention as an unfamiliar flash of colour glimpsed on the far side of the wire cone peanut feeder. There are no other birds around and eventually she moves around, so that I can see her fully. The chaffinches don’t often seem to go onto the wire feeders, they never try to squeeze behind the grill of the large feeder and rarely hang on the fat ball wire sphere.
Later, she is on the lawn, searching for any of the seed that the sparrows, ring doves and wood pigeons have left. The ring doves and one pair in particular have been very active. The male has been puffing out his chest, pursuing the female, strutting across the grass and occasionally dipping his head. If he’s displaying, then she isn’t seeing much of what is going on behind her and didn’t seem overly impressed – mind you, I don’t know how much peripheral vision, ring doves have.
As the sun moves around and begins to sink into the west, the hedge motel creates a long shadow across the grass. The chaffinch is on the shaded part of the lawn, barely visible but something startles her and she lifts off the grass and flies into the cherry tree; the white flashes in her plumage finally sinking into the white blossom.
thekitchensinkbirdwatcher 