I was having a walk into town to buy the sort of necessities you never want to be seen with - toilet paper, bleach, a copy of the Daily Mail hidden inside an adult magazine - when my happily attuned eyes noticed a rustling in one of the holly trees in the front of what I still call Lilley and Stone School.
It has some ghastly new "academy" type name now.
Closer inspection revealed a very tatty looking little goldcrest at work on the twigs, never stopping in one place for long, and emitting a little "Eeeeep" whenever it took off again. Occasionally it missed its landing and would hover like a humming bird for a moment, before finding its landing site.
The remarkable thing about the encounter was the bird's complete lack of fear of me. I was astonished when the bird came up to a metre away, my feeling when it settled on a twig 30 centimetres from my face could not be repeated in a public place.
I was certainly all the "Es" myself; entranced, enchanted, and enthralled.
At close range I could see that its beak was stuffed full of spiders and insects, and I'm presuming this worn out looking bird was still looking after nestlings somewhere.
Eventually the goldcrest, striped crown blazing among the shaded leaves left the tree, landed directly between my feet, and then made off to another tree out of my sight. But once again I had had an encounter with nature 5 metres off Newark's busiest road, that few people would have even noticed, but most would have loved.
If only they kept their eyes open more.
Si
All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 28.07.15
Gorgeous little birds Simon - I've had a few close encounters with them too (they seem at times oblivious to your presence). Great to get a photo :)
ReplyDeleteYes Si, they really are a sweet little bird aren't they? I rather think only the Firecrest is smaller among our British Birds. It reminded me that on Saturday, at the height of our 1940's week end here in our little town, there was a perky Pied Wagtail weaving in among all the pedestrians in the square. Don't know what he made of all those uniforms, but he certainly wasn#t afraid of them.
ReplyDeletePied wagtails are indeed pretty tame as well, the Sconce cafe attracts them and they strut among the tables as you have a cup of tea!
ReplyDeleteThat is something special - I've only knowingly seen one once, in a holly tree at hime, and it vanished before I got hold of a camera!
ReplyDeleteSeem to be relatively numerous around here, I always see a few every year, more usually in winter
ReplyDeleteI've often had close encounters with goldcrests, I read somewhere that because they're so small, we're too big for them to comprehend and sometimes they don't even notice we're there. Lovely birds.
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