Lights, camera, action...

The other day I spotted a robin that looked a bit odd, but it took me a while to work out that it had no tail feathers. I thought I was imagining it, though a snatched shot certainly looked as if this was the case. C said he saw it yesterday or this morning and was sure it had no tail; this afternoon I was able to grab a couple of shots. I feel it's not one of our resident pair, because it's quite timid in comparison and flies off when I go out, rather than coming up to the back door for worms.

This one, I think, probably is one of the resident pair as I was able to get up much closer. He looks as if he'd been fighting too. Certainly I found a little robin feather in the back porch the other day!

 We had a young magpie visit us this evening. During the afternoon I heard a bit of rustling in the chimney and some bits of dirt coming down, but I checked the grate twice and there was nothing there. No cawing or vocal noises, either. I was on the phone to my dad after dinner and C came up looking for help because he'd just looked in the grate and seen a magpie. (There's an old portrait of my grandmother waiting for repairs to the frame, and an embroidered firescreen in front of the grate so it's pretty well screened off. He took one look and just put the picture back across.) I was able to grab him with a sheet and put him out the window, after which he flew off to a tree across the road. I'm just glad it was a lot easier and less messy than the last magpie we had a few years back before we moved; maybe the fact that this one was much younger helped. Strange coincidence, though, because we were only talking about birds in work today and I was telling about the last magpie.