Thursday 20 November 2008

Rice take away

When I got back to the car park at the monument I encountered this Stonechat.

Nothing strange in that, except that it was perched on a car aerial, and a car came and parked next to it, without it moving.

It even sat there while a lady got out of the next car and went to the tea rooms. While she was away it suddenly dropped onto the roof and seemed to be pecking. Unfortunately I could see if it was pecking at the rubber round the window, a insect on the roof or possibly its own reflection in the roof window. Before I could get in a position to photo it the lady returned and the bird, this time, flew off.

It didn't go far, it sat on the tea room roof, rather like a Black Redstart did last week. I suppose if I'd waited long enough it might have returned to the car roof but I was in need of a cup of coffee and my breakfast. I think it's the first time I've seen a Stonechat playing on a car, but previously I've seen Grey Wagtail, Chaffinch and Palm Warbler (in Cuba) using wing mirrors to display to. I'd be interested if anyone else has seen this behaviour and in what species.


We put some excess cooked rice out on the lawn. There have been loads of finches about, but before they got there this Carrion Crow crammed its beak full of grains of rice. The window was closed while its beak was full, hence the extra fuzzy picture, and but the time I'd gently opened it the rice had disappeared.

1 comment:

Susan said...

Mudlarks Grallina cyanoleuca aka magpie-larks aka peewees are energetic and persistant attackers of their own reflection in car mirrors and shiny bumpers in Australia. This is very commonly witnessed behaviour for this species.