Stuck at home

I was driving down to Worthing to attend a client meeting on Tuesday and was in bunching traffic southbound on the M40 when a 4x4 rear-ended me doing between 50-60 mph. So today I’m stuck at home, with my car away to have a new back-end fitted and with whiplash and muscle spasms in my back. Not best pleased. It has however given me a chance to watch the comings and goings in the back garden though, and I'm pleased to say there's still plenty going on.

As spring approaches most of the birds in the garden have fresh plumage and are showing mating and nesting behaviours. Sparrows are actively nesting now in both mine a neighbours roof, the Dunnocks have paired off and are now inseparable too.

The Blackbirds have gone from being very occasional visitors to the garden to showing up 3 or 4 at a time, with lots of chases and alarm calling which is setting the other birds to flight. This pair of males paused briefly on top of Shed number 1:















You can click on the pic for a more detailed version. We still have Bramblings visiting regularly, including three yesterday, they will migrate soon to breed although they can stay in the UK as late as May apparently. This is a female Brambling, note the head and wing markings:



















And this a male Brambling, which helps with identifying the birds you may see:













Finally this male Reed Bunting is showing his fresh plumage well including the black bib. You can spot him in a tree even when the light is bad, his tail flickers regularly and is a real give away!