bathing birds

All the action was around the water fountain and fishpond at 9am this morning. Birds must be pretty desperate for a bath and a drink after this long dry spell and there were no less than a dozen species competing for the pleasure. They seemed to waste most of their energy driving each other away rather than sharing, with the blue tits seemingly the most aggressive. Few birds were able to settle for long.

There were two male common redstarts, still showing some of their bright summer plumage, a pair of black redstarts, a willow warbler which is the first that I have seen for some time, at least two pied flycatchers, chiffchaffs, two robins, a blackcap, blackbirds, blue and great tits, two goldfinches and a chaffinch.

The mallard which is nesting by the front door finally hatched her chicks today--all 12 of them it seems. They have yet to leave this nest but are already eating the moist bread which we placed next to it.