Chiff-Chaff-Finch

Birds beginning with the letter C?   Well that’s Lisa’s challenge this week.  https://oureyesopen.blog/2021/01/08/bird-weekly-photo-challenge-birds-starting-with-a-c/

Letter C?  Certainly ‘c’een a few (groan).  A memorable occasion being in 2004.  Leaving the family at home I fulfilled a dream, something off my ‘bucket list’ to give it a modern phrase, and spent a week on the Isles of Scilly in October.  These Islands lay some 20 miles off the tip of Land’s End in the Atlantic.  During the autumn they are a mecca for  rare birds lost on migration and for birders keen to add to life lists.  A huge storm almost stopped me.  Luckily I got the last helicopter there (an experience on it’s own).  The two stand out birds of that week a Cream-coloured Courser, a ‘wader’ of deserts and arid areas and the first for twenty years.  The other a Corncrake, a highly secretive (but vocal) rail that was once common but now only breeds on remote Scottish Islands.  Sadly in those days I didn’t have a decent camera so no images, just memories.  For the challenge things a bit more common.

Chiffchaff (Phyllloscopus collybita)

Chiffchaff.  The archetypal ‘lbj’ little brown job.  This hyper-active little warbler is sure to put a smile on my face!   To hear it singing it’s name from the tree tops is a sign spring is hear.  The first of the warblers to arrive from Africa, however larger numbers are now able to over-winter as the climate is milder and insects are available.

Male Chaffinch (Fringilla coelebs)

Chaffinch.  Perhaps the commonest bird in Britain but always a welcome sight.  Again a song that tells the winter’s gone.  A lot of Chaffinches migrate to the UK from Scandinavia in cold weather.  They are quite timid around garden feeders.

Coot (Fulica atra)

Eurasian Coot.  A common sight on lakes and slow flowing rivers.  In my County of Norfolk they were once shot in their thousands by Royal shooting parties and given to the ‘locals’ for xmas dinner!  Luckily for the Coot this practice has ceased.