In my last post, I noted that I was already set to break the record for the annual tally of species in our garden. I was not expecting to pass the record quite so soon, and in quite such style!
What I was not expecting was to break it with a 'Garden Lifer', and what a bird it was!! A stunning male Redstart!!!
We don't see too many Redstarts in Leicestershire. Typically speaking there are around 4 reports for the county each spring. So to have one (briefly) land in my suburban garden was, as you will not be surprised to hear, somewhat exciting! Fortunately my camera was to hand and the light was not too bad, so I did get a few shots from a range of about 15 metres. These are heavily cropped images, the first taken from my study window and the second from our kitchen, where the light was from a better direction.
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| Redstart (male) - our garden !!! |
There's a downside to this. My wife is saying that really there's no need for me to go out birding - I could just sit at home and watch the garden all day, and the birds would come to me. My response was 'bring on the Ptarmigan'!
I know that, in my previous post, I said that it would be back to owls for this post, but I'm sure you'll understand my digression! However, I suspect that it will only be a couple of days or so before my next post, which will feature Barn Owls - unless that Ptarmigan shows up meantime!!
