The first singing chaffinch

The first chaffinch sung in the park today. They often start tentatively, but this one sung three or four times before starting foraging on the tree. Spring must be in the air!

Birds and sycamore aphids

Sycamore aphids, Drepanosiphum platanoidis, are Sycamore specialists - and cover your car with honeydew if you happen to park underneath. All adults are winged and sit evenly spaced under leaves. In the spring, sycamores come alive with the calls of hungry Blue Tit fledglings demanding food. It is an easy job for the adults to pick the aphids from under the leaves to feed the chicks (above). Although many leaves have fallen now, there are still some in the sycamores, peppered with the black spots of, Rhytisma acerinum, the tar spot fungus, and some aphids are still in them. In the last few weeks I have seen Great Tits and Chaffinches feeding on them. Today, I watched a chaffinch hovering under the leaves picking the aphids, a most beautiful sight, which unfortunately couldn't catch on my camera.

January Chorus

There are a surprisingly high number of bird species that start singing in January. A handful of species can pretty much sing all through the winter: Robins, Collared Doves, Woodpigeons and, surprisingly, Great Tits and Blue Tits. Some mild winters the Song Thrush will join them. Although the days are still cold and short, light levels are increasing by the day and this set birds into 'get ready for breeding' mood. One after the other birds join the chorus.
 In the last two weeks, Coal Tits, Song Thrushes, Stock Doves, Starlings (above), Dunnocks, Goldfinches and Chaffinches have, ones boldly, others more tentatively, taken positions and started to practice their singing. Even Sparrows sitting under the eaves have been doing their chirping.

Robin singing

Song Thrush