BIRD NEWS:143

Let us start today with Ditty resting upon the bird feeder pole before leaping off into more pigeons taken in the last half of March 2016. I was waiting for the clock to tell me it was time to go to walk a friend, when I spotted some camera-fodder. There were two wood pigeons sitting in the tree outside my bedroom window just waiting for me to pick up my camera.

One perched on the upper branch and looked down at the lower branch. The one perched on the lower branch looked up at the higher bird. They eyes one another for some time allowing this pair of shots before one flew away and the other strolled about the tree a little.

My next shots are from my next 700-run excursion, taken in late March. It was a late start, as I had to walk a friend in the morning so did not leave home til around 10-30am instead of my usual 7-7.30am departure.

What the shots are of is a mass of starlings resting on telephone or electricity wires between Lancing and Shoreham. You can see Lancing's famed college in the background.

The bus was stuck in heavy traffic for a few minutes as it trundled along the road, continually stopping in the backlog from the upcoming roundabout. I managed to observe and photograph the starlings for around 3-4 minutes, therefore. Basically they stayed put - but twice they flew up in formation and resettled - somewhat akin to a mini murmuration.