Walk Two Hundred and Forty-Eight – Horses in coats
Another overcast dismal day. However I made myself go out and get some fresh air. The best part of the walk was seeing the cloud of blackbirds clattering overhead – so I wouldn’t have seen that without my daily walk.
200mm x 145mm pen in small cartridge sketchbook
posted by Julie Oakley at Friday, December 29, 2006
6 Comments:
And horses here are wearing coats against the sun! We have a few English blackbirds, decended from an illegal importation in the 60's - they nest in well watered gardens with hedges but have never bred up enough to flock. It is nice to get out each day, isn't it.
Love LOVE this blog... however..
Blackbirds they are not
Now if they were blackbird size (probably a little bigger) and made chacking calls they are Fieldfares - winter thrushes from the north
Or possibly Jackdaws - more of a cawing call and much swooping
Ta Tom
Tom, now if only I'd inserted a space between the black and the bird. I am a complete ignoramus as far as birds are concerned (but I do know the origins of the word 'ignoramus'). Before I posted I did attempt to find out exactly what they were, but time and the inability to find an informative website were against me so I made a wild guess. Do tell me - why am I so obviously wrong?
Julie - As soon as I hit the button I also thought blackspacebirds...(!)
Now I'm going to sound like a freakish twitcher.. but blackbirds generally hang about on their own or possibly twos or threes but hardly ever as a flock as such.
Whereas Jackdaws (cawing small crow), Rooks (cawing big crow) and Fieldfares (clacking thrush) generally always are in a gang...
Pass me the beard brush and call me odd(ie)...
Tom
PS My particular faves of yours recently are 234 to 237 and 214 really really good... an inspiration...
Thanks Tom. I think possibly jackdaws or rooks then. Something about them seemed crow-like rather than thrush-like - but then what would I know! By the way, are you the Tom who e-mailed me about the blog?
Been for another walk and they're definitely jackdaws and rooks. Found a great website where you can hear the sounds http://www.garden-birds.co.uk
thanks Tom for making me look
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