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The nesting season has started, at least for the robins.
I ran this morning, along the road parallel and above where I live and, gardens and fields are lined with bushes used by a variety of passerine birds to nest in. I saw a few robins busy carrying twigs and other materials involved in nest building and one in particular, sitting on a garden wall, was possibly pregnant with eggs, as its body looked fuller and rounder than usual. But I cannot be sure as male and female robins look virtually identical.
House sparrows and blue tits were also out and about, a lone male sparrow sitting prominently on top of a budding but still naked shrub and, singing at the top of his voice. The blue tits were keeping to the higher trees and indulging in their usual acrobatics, hanging almost upside down from branches and suddenly diving through space, only beating their wings at intervals to keep themselves in the air. I even saw two wrens at a few minutes of interval, tiny little birds with a round body and a cocked up tail, hopping about on branches and looking busy.
The sparrows were the most vocal and conspicuous of all the birds, fluttering and chasing each other, all the while churping loudly but never going far from the sanctuary of the dense bushes. Immobile, they're almost invisible against the brownish grey of the trunk and branches and more often than not, I can hear them but won't be able to see them as I run past their hiding place ... but today, their lightning quick movements, in addition to their racket, would make them very noticeable to the eye. It was as if this tiny part of the world was suddenly full of sparrows... Their agitation didn't seem to disturb the wood pidgeons and the magpies going about their business in the nearby trees.
I saw a pidgeon flying low and crossing the road in front of me. It landed on top of a wall and, as I ran closer, it suddenly and powerfully defecated a long and light-coloured stream of excrements, before flying off and alighting on a roof. I couldn't help laughing at the stunt and at how strangely relieved the bird looked.
Aloof and unconcerned by the carry-ons below, seagulls were gliding high above in the grey sky, cawing and hardly beating their wings.
Diet Calendar Entries for 23 March 2016:
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1338 kcal
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Fat: 35.18g | Prot: 77.36g | Carb: 180.63g.
Breakfast: Harvest Morn (Aldi) Luxury Fruit Muesli, Kellogg's Corn Flakes, Whole Milk, Weetabix Whole Grain Cereal, Coffee with Milk and Sugar. Lunch: Alkalising green soup, Basmati Rice, Baked or Broiled Cod. Dinner: Oat Cereal, Whole Milk. Snacks/Other: Bananas, Tea with Milk. more...
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2996 kcal
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Activities & Exercise:
Walking (brisk) - 4/mph - 15 minutes, Running (jogging) - 5/mph - 30 minutes, Resting - 15 hours and 15 minutes, Sleeping - 8 hours. more...
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