I've never seen a survey of the most popularly recognised wild birds in the UK, but I would be surprised if the top three didn't consist of robins, magpies and blackbirds. While the first two are regular visitors to my blog, blackbirds are rarely seen on here. The reason is simple: I encounter them on most walks, but they are usually scurrying about under hedgerows or thick bushes, throwing leaves about with the energy and noise of a flock of gulls, or just uttering their stutteringly frantic alarm call. They seem to have a great knack for seeking out terrible light conditions for the photographer but just occasionally they're a little more helpful.



This is an adult male. The female is brown and more obviously speckled, and supposedly there have been reports of the public mistaking a male-female pair of blackbirds for hybridising thrushes But thrushes are always much paler. The song thrush below didn't want to move away from its cloak of twigs but at least you can see the trademark arrow-spots on its belly



In the winter, blackbirds congregate in smallish flocks in the garden, apparently content to feed in harmony. But winter has melted into spring. Neighbours are suddenly hostile to each other - the battlelines are drawn





This fight was over in a few seconds without a clear winner. One blackbird hesitated on the path for a few seconds, panting, before flying back into the hedgerow.



Meanwhile, the collared doves watch the world nervously from the treetops



My local green woodpeckers do not seem to be about to make friends with rabbits (to anyone who doesn't have a clue what I'm talking about, please ask Words! ) but they do levitate



Apologies for the slight blur here but this is actually the first time, I believe, that I've caught a woodpecker just prior to its landing. It seems quite remarkable to me that they are able to travel horizontally for a short distance even after their wings have all but stopped beating.
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On a different topic, I saw a fox this morning for the time in several walks. Unfortunately, it was looking distinctly under the weather



When it turned about I saw that it was suffering from fairly severe mange.



Mange is not fatal in itself; deaths result from secondary skin infections and hypothermia. This fox is well away from my house and there is little option for treating it. Some foxes do seem to just live with mange, and I hope it manages to do so

I've photographed wildlife by accident on a few occasions. It's always a bit of a surprise to look back at, say, some photos of Swiss mountains and find that a buzzard has flown into the frame This morning's unintentional catch was, however, down on terra firma. I thought that I was pointing the camera at a solitary fox in the meadows and only later realised that I had caught two!



Even once I had established that there were two foxes in the meadow, keeping track of both wasn't easy. The pair seemed relaxed in the overcast morning. One rolled about a few times in the grass; the other strolled by the fence.



Eventually one curled up amid the tussocks, and almost vanished from sight again.
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Yesterday, I took an 18mm shot of the meadow while watching the vole-hunting fox. I didn't include it in the post because it didn't really seem to fit, but, again, it does go to show that foxes can be remarkably well concealed at times Trust me, there is a fox in that circle! (In fairness, it was slightly easier to see with the naked eye, but only slightly )


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Just a couple of other things for today: I've added the SV to my drawings album...



...and I've also put together a WPN album mostly from the snow of the past couple of weeks. Please click below if you'd like a look