This morning we had the first female Blackcap Warbler in the garden. I caught sight of her from the the bathroom window and went to set up the camera in the adjacent room through a camo cover over the window. This allows me to see in to the nearby cotoneaster bush without the birds being “spooked” by my presence. I waited for a considerable time to see if I could photograph her but she didn’t reappear unfortunately. While I was waiting we had a Greenfinch male, the first for quite some weeks, a Collared Dove……. one of the flock. House Sparrows of both sexes and a Dunnock. All are pictured above except the Greenfinch.
Later on from a new hide construction in the garden I managed a few shots of Goldfinch on a very near feeder.

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I make no apologies for yet another Collared Dove image. They pretty much are the most regular birds in the garden at the moment and take advantage of the food on offer, waiting in the Apple Tree for an opportune moment to come and dine. Whenever I am sitting waiting for the garden celebs to show themselves, the Collareds are always in the background!I am pretty impressed with this image I have to be honest.

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The blog is in it’s 25th month now and this is getting on for the 500th post. As time goes on it becomes more and more popular and my visitors come from 107 different countries now. It receives around 75 hits a day and lots of people call it one of their favourites. This includes a lady who calls herself Cherry Blossom Girl. She kindly told fellow forum members on a Forum called  “The Alternative Potting Shed” that the blog was one of her favourites and for this kind comment I thank you!

Finally, this afternoon I travelled out to Teignmouth Harbour for no particular reason except to take my ageing mother to somewhere where she could see the sea without getting out of the car. There is a very nice carpark which overlooks the Harbour mouth and is always nice for the “elderly” to sit and look at.

I had a quick look in the inner harbour just in the hope of spotting something interesting. A Cormorant was fishing very close to the shore edge, it was high tide, and if I had been carrying the camera I would have had a good photo to show, but Murphy had invoked  his law again. When I returned to the car for the camera it had gone .. cheers Murphy! There was a bit of a scuffle going on between a young Herring Gull and a Crow which was interesting behaviour. The Gull was definitely the boss which was a surprise. 

I chatted with the Ferry man who told me that he had seen an “unusual little bird”, his words, and by his description it sounded like a female Redstart which is no surprise.