Birding in February 2012

Over the past few weeks we have delighted in watching two robins using our window bird feeder separately and gradually begin sharing. The courtship has now flourished. Legend has it that St Valentine's Day is when most birds choose their mates. There must be degree of truth in this, insofar as many of our local birds are now singing, and singing often leads to the formation of pairs not forgetting the adoring ritual of 'billing and cooing'.

Because of the mild weather (nature is about a week earlier than usual) we have noticed a number of young male chaffinches and blackbirds setting up territory around our garden for the first time, singing both to attract a mate and to warn off rivals. Unmated females are drawn by the song, and one of them usually joins in with the singer. However, older pairs of songbirds often stay loosely together in winter and just resume life as a pair later on. The blackbirds cast their fluting notes languidly from our roof at dusk, while the chaffinches have started singing half way up our smaller trees. The males, which are the singers, have pink underparts, from their face down to the bottom of their tail, and a powder-blue cap. Their song, with its accelerating string of bright notes ends with a rollicking finale. Soon some females, which have a buffish-brown breast, will venture into a male's territory, attracted by the song. He will accept one as his mate. Come April she will build a mossy nest in the fork of a tree or low hedge.

A single Dunnock which has been skulking around our hydrangas all winter is suddenly out in the tops of the bare trees, challenging the winds with its resolute tinkly courtship song. At first glance this is just a brown and dowdy bird and is often misleadingly called a hedge sparrow (although it is related to the wren). At close range it can be appreciated for its thin bill for insect eating, its subtle colour of delicate grey, rich browns and fine dark streaking and wiry orange brown legs. Sexes and ages are alike at all seasons. Despite being demure, it has rather exotic and complex breeding arrangements. Dunnocks are polyandrous which involves overlapping relationships.

D.H.