Sunday 12 December 2010

Jay and Rockie

More birds are coming to the feeders now, which is irritating the aggressive Blackcap that likes to have them all to himself. He was hard-pressed to fend off a flock of Long-tailed, Blue and Great Tits, and a Coal Tit hid behind one of the feeders and filled its boots while the Blackcap was occupied with the others.
The Blackcap and two Blackbirds seemed to agree a truce (which is a moral victory for the Blackcap) but this Jay had no opposition when it arrived to feast on the peanuts.

A walk along the rifle range produced little more than Fulmars ....
.... but the Rock Pipit flock had increased to five, with the arrival of two littoralis-type individuals (that's a know-it-all way of saying that they had eye-stripes).

Using Latin words in italics conveys authority, and (while I read somewhere that Carl Sagan urges us to be be cautious with arguments based solely on authority) if you've got little knowledge but a bit of authority - why not use it?

Anyway, the Rock Pipit of whichever sub-species is a bit of a dull brown job, so here's another picture of the Jay.....
While on the subject of sub-species, does the greyish mantle indicate that this might be a continental G.g.glandarius or am I seeing too much?

1 comment:

Greenie said...

Steve ,
Getting very technical on your latest post .
Haven't seen our Blackcap for a week now .
Like the Jay shots , regardless of what sub species it might be .