Out with the old...

Blackcaps nest...

Walking down the Howick lane this morning I passed this little nest only inches from the roadside. I wondered how I have missed this all winter. In the summer it will have been hidden in nettles and hawthorn about 2 feet from the ground. To put a name to the builder isnt straight forward but mainly a process of elimination. The nest site is suitable for a few skulking birds but Dunnock builds a more substantial affair with a lot of moss built in. Whitethroat is nigh on identical, but this nest is on woodland edge overhung by trees, not the open aspect favoured by the Whitethroat. That leaves Blackcap or Garden Warbler. Now I didnt see a Garden Warbler here at all in 2012, but at least 3 pairs of Blackcaps were along this very lane, hence my conclusion...Unless you know different? Please let me know what you think.

And to bring in the new, were these Herons starting their nesting season off with some unholy row at dusk in the tall pines behind the pond...the screeching and bill clapping and squawking was enough to wake the dead! Click on the image for a bigger view.

Heronry