Garden Rarity.

Some birds, such as the House Sparrow and Robin,  happily share our gardens with us all year round, my robin is even tame enough to eat out of my hand. Others will only come into the gardens when food supplies in the wider countryside are becoming scarce. Scandinavian visitors such as  Fieldfares and Redwings only venture into gardens in the most severe weather. Red Legged Partridges from the local shoot are only occasional visitors to Martinstown gardens, while some species virtually never venture into them willingly. I was surprised therefore to see a juvenile Moorhen, a species that doesn't normally stray far from the stream, picking up dropped seed from the bird table and then flying up onto the table to feed. It was very nervous however and disappeared when I tried to get a photo, so I was very pleased a few days later when a photo appeared on the Dorset Bird Club web site  taken by my neighbour, Nick. He tells me it has been with him about a week, it must like his birdseed better than mine.

Moorhen.          Photo:  Nick Pridle.

 The stream is silting up very badly at the moment, not at all surprising since the absence of plants, particularly the wavy green strands of  Water Crowfoot, makes the flow very smooth and not turbulent enough to keep the silt suspended. The silt is perhaps covering up food supplies that the moorhem might otherwise enjoy. Certainly the Little Egret I saw wading along a few days ago didn't seem to be finding much.