Was in Whalley Range today and I am fairly certain (although not 100% sure - no binoculars and I didn't get to see the bird!) that a male Blackcap was singing from a mature garden there. It wasn't the "full-on" summer version of the song but a much quieter, less exuberant and forceful version of its song but notes and structure of song were pretty much the same as the summer song.
Incidentally, heard my first Chaffinch song of the year on Sunday (8/2) at both Kingsway Business Park and at Piethorne - again a timid and tentative version of the full summer song and ending quite abruptly without that rich final flourish.
Cheers,
Bill.
-- Edited by Bill Myerscough at 08:38, 2009-02-10
I live in Whalley Range (near the private hospital) and have had a male Blackcap visiting my feeder nearly every day for the last two months so it is more than likely that you heard one. It is totally devoted to the suet ball and defends it for long periods against nearly all comers (not GSWs).
I have sent another picture to Ian McKercher - maybe he will put in the gallery. It was taken on the 7th March.
Was in Whalley Range today and I am fairly certain (although not 100% sure - no binoculars and I didn't get to see the bird!) that a male Blackcap was singing from a mature garden there. It wasn't the "full-on" summer version of the song but a much quieter, less exuberant and forceful version of its song but notes and structure of song were pretty much the same as the summer song.
Incidentally, heard my first Chaffinch song of the year on Sunday (8/2) at both Kingsway Business Park and at Piethorne - again a timid and tentative version of the full summer song and ending quite abruptly without that rich final flourish.
Male in my garden (Withington) also eating sunflower hearts - mind you the Blackbirds have stripped all the berries so there's no other food on offer at the moment.
Greenbank Rd Radcliffe- 3.45p.m male Blackcap feeding on sunflower hearts under the bird table for at least 30 mins, the first I've seen this Winter. Plus 22 House Sparrow, 8 Blackbird, 4 Chaffinch, 6 Goldfinch, 2 Robin and 2 Blue Tit. Cheers Ian
Male in my garden WA15 since the New Year defending sunflower and peanuts from tits, but generally leaving finches in peace. It has ignored the apples i put out for it - but then so did my family when I bought them. Has anyone noticed how many more males you see in gardens than females - I have had 7 males vs 2 females in the past 5 years .....
Have recovered this ancient thread from times gone by!
This morning (3/12/08) a male Blackcap was on the flowers of the Mahonia shrub in the back garden. Have been looking out for them in the last few weeks in view of past experience and was really pleased to see one turn up. Glad to be able to post this as a winter "roving record" for the BTO Atlas project for tetrad SD80X (Middleton Junction) Although looking out of your window and bird spotting in the back garden doesn't seem to actually involve that much roving!
Incidentally, the Calderdale birders blog at http://www.calderbirds.blogspot.com/ - one of the entries for Fri 28th Nov '08 - has a picture of a female Blackcap on the flowers of this shrub in that area. Worth keeping an eye on if you have one of these shrubs close by?
You'll see an article on Wintering Warblers in the latest BTO News. The author, Greg Conway would be interested in your observations. You can e-mail him at greg.conway@bto.org
No further sign of the male since the last posting. However, the female visited the garden on 24th, 26th, 27th and 30th January. On 24th and 26th in addition to probing into the flowers of the Mahonia with her bill she was also seen on both these dates once again pulling off some of the flowers and swallowing them.
At the end of January this shrub has almost finished flowering - small green berries are forming where the flowers have been - it will be interesting to see if they continue to visit the garden to take these berries.
I thought the saga of wintering Blackcaps in my suburban Chadderton garden might be of some interest.
Firstly, a female turned up in my back garden on 28th December 2006.
Amazingly, on 3rd January 2007 there were 2 Blackcaps in my back garden! Both a male and a female were present - they appeared to be behaving as a pair and they both flew off together. The male spent some time eating orange Pyracantha berries - swallowing them whole.
The female Blackcap was in my back garden again on the morning of 7th January. I have a large winter flowering Mahonia shrub at the bottom of the garden and interestingly she spent about 5 minutes foraging on the flowers. I had a good look at her and it appeared that she was carefully poking her bill into the open flowers and presumably taking pollen or nectar. I have seen small parties of Blue Tits doing the same this winter but it has not always been clear if they were looking for insects or taking pollen/nectar - it would appear from the behaviour of the Blackcap that they were also taking pollen/nectar.
On 10th January, the male Blackcap was on the flowers of the Mahonia shrub foraging in exactly the same manner.
Today (16th January) both the male and female made separate visits to feed on the Mahonia shrub - the female was even seen to tear off some flowers and swallow them.
Oddly enough, even though there is always food on the bird table and in the feeders I have yet to see them exploiting this food source!
