Mission Possible

Avian Flu still rules in this part of Lancashire where bird ringing remains verboten until sometime never. Avian Flu also made the TV News headlines as an afterthought. Yet another panic story, as if there aren't enough to scare everyone witless and to place lives and normal freedoms on hold. 

Those temporary restrictions don’t stop a little bird watching or even topping up seed at supplementary feeding stations when suitable precautions are taken to minimise any spread of infections.

On Friday the mission was to seek, find and to count birds at both feeding stations and then to add some variety to the birds’ everyday food. A bucketful of rape seed, Niger and white millet gets them coming back for more, especially once temperatures dive and overnight frosts make natural seeds unpalatable. 

Supplementary Bird Food

The wind dropped overnight and left a touch of frost, but not enough to freeze shallow ditches and dykes. 

Pilling Lancashire

 

There’s a bonus to the avian flu because for now shooting in the 10km zone is also prohibited, which means that our coastal geese and wild fowl have a temporary reprieve from becoming a Christmas platter. 

A number of large skeins passed over, a constant flow of noise above, in all several hundreds, maybe 4/5000 thousand. 

Pink-footed Geese

Geese leaving their overnight roost are especially noisy, a constant conversation of shrill doggish yaps from each and every bird to their immediate neighbours in the line, perhaps a relative, a sibling or a parent. If only we could learn goose talk we might listen in to where they are heading, where are the best meals safe from disturbance, prying eyes and the threat of guns. 

And why do geese fly in V formation? Scientists have determined that the V-shaped formation that geese use when migrating serves two important purposes. First, it conserves their energy. Each bird flies slightly above the bird in front of them, resulting in a reduction of wind resistance. The birds take turns being in the front, falling back when they get tired. In this way, the geese can fly for a long time before they must stop for rest. Birds that fly alone beat their wings more frequently and have higher heart rates than those that fly in formation. It follows that birds that fly in formation glide more often and reduce energy expenditure. 

The second benefit to V formation is that it is easy to keep track of every bird in the group. Flying in formation may assist with the communication and coordination within the group. Pilots of fighter aircraft often use this formation for the same reason. 

Our morning goose flights can last for hours for anyone minded to watch. This is a daily winter occurrence, background noise to which Joe Bloggs becomes accustomed and immune. 

I too took my eyes off the geese and looked to the job in hand while the geese continued their morning mission inland. 

At our erstwhile ringing plot I found 130+ Linnets and a couple of Chaffinches. It was just as well I concentrated on a count because on the extremes of the Linnet flock a tail-wagging Stonechat flicked into view. And along the ditch were the ubiquitous Wren, a Blackbird and the ever present Reed Bunting, a wintering species that relies on animal food during the summer months but switches to a seed diet in the winter. 

Reed Bunting

 

Stonechat

 

A couple of hunkered down Snipe flew from beneath my sploshing feet, the grass wetter and the water deeper than first appeared; my wellies had been a wise choice. 

 

Snipe

The pool nearby held 20 or more Teal, an approximate count as a handful or more remained partly hidden. A single Grey Heron and a solitary Little Egret stayed in the trees as I looked from 50 yards away. 

Teal

Rain arrived from the west with immaculate timing - my appointment with BT. Another Bird Blog goes Fibre Broadband in 2022. There’s no stopping us now. 

Linking this weekend to Eileen's Blogspot and Anni in Texas.

 

Gulls. A Review.

Along comes another field guide for review - Gulls of Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East: An Identification Guide from Princeton Press. This new volume devoted to gulls and gulls alone was due to go on widespread sale from 23 November in the UK and April 2022 in the US but now it is finally on my desk with a new UK publish date of 14 December, the late arrival no doubt due to the pandemic. 

Gulls of Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East: An Identification Guide

 

The authors of “Gulls” are more than qualified to write the book. Peter Adriaens is an ecologist who has travelled widely to study and photograph gulls, including gull and tern colonies in Belgium and the Netherlands. Mars Muusse is a Dutch birder specializing in gulls and the founder of the gull identification website Gull Research Organization. Philippe J. Dubois is an ecologist, author, and editorial director of the journal Ornithos. Frédéric Jiguet is a conservation biologist at the National Museum of Natural History in Paris and director of the Center for Research in Biology and Bird Populations. His books include Birds of Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East here, https://anotherbirdblog.blogspot.com/2017/02/review-birds-of-europe-north-africa-and.html

In the last book review on Another Bird Blog I suggested we might be near the end days of bird field guides comprised of line drawn bird illustrations. “Europe’s Birds shows again how recent advances in camera optics and a photographer’s ability to fully exploit this progress have led to the demise of line drawn and painted guides, books that are not obsolete but now used by fewer birders.” 

Those few words provoked comments from a number of birders who disagreed in preferring line drawings, the Collins Guide getting several mentions. That’s fair enough but Gulls of Europe is another almost entirely photographic guide, one that on first glance may appear to the reader to be comprised of line and colour drawings. Close examination reveals that many of the 1200 colour photographs/illustrations are not line drawings but photographs that have been digitally processed to remove considerable backdrop so as to then emphasise and clarify the colours, shape and structure of the gull. 

Gulls of Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East: An Identification Guide

 

Gulls of Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East: An Identification Guide

 

Gulls of Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East: An Identification Guide

 

The method must be comparatively easy with gulls in flight but less so where the original photograph contained full and/or busy backgrounds. I must say that the processing has worked extremely well whereby the images are both comprehensive and impressive e.g. White eyed Gull at Pages 88-93. And of course, because the images are taken from modern high quality photographs, they remain faithful to each individual bird and the time & date the camera clicked. 

Gulls of Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East: An Identification Guide

Gulls of Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East: An Identification Guide

Gulls of Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East: An Identification Guide

Gulls of Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East: An Identification Guide

Two full pages of photographic credits provide testament to the number of photos and photographers involved in the book. The editors also picked wisely for the book’s cover with the main picture depicting a pair of beautiful Ross’ Gulls stood on northern ice. 

In the Introduction the authors explain how the book uses ‘cycles’ to describe age classes, a term which helps to avoid problems with using calendar years or terms such as ‘first winter’, ‘second winter’ etc. It is not always realistic to divide plumages into strict and separate plumages when large gulls in particular have long and protracted moults that can last for months at a time. As the authors add, this cycle system has the added benefit of being applicable in both hemispheres where a species occurs both North and the South of the dividing line. 

Hence the individual species’ accounts at Pages 26-314 of 45 gull species employ cycle nomenclature throughout. This might prove a little worrying, even perplexing on a first encounter by an unaccustomed reader, but on later reflection makes sense by using an alternative aging method that combines with a fuller understanding of gull plumage. 

At Page 27 the authors wisely warn readers of exceptions to their cycle system in the few species accounts that differ from the norm set by the majority. The exceptions are Ivory Gull, Audouin’s Gull, White winged Gulls (Glaucous and Iceland), Pallas’s Gull, Baltic Gull and Heuglin’s Gull. 

The geographical area and the species covered in 'Gulls' encompasses Europe, the Middle East and North Africa and so include all taxa from the wider Western Palearctic list, north, south, east and west, where such species have occurred at least once. 

Gulls of Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East: An Identification Guide

As one might expect each species account contains a precise summary of range together with a matching coloured map of acceptable size and clarity. The maps shown are for those taxa that breed within the Western Palearctic; the maps’ accuracy will I’m sure be subject to scrutiny, discussion and debate by gull enthusiasts with experience of more obscure species featured, e.g. Viking Gull, Steppe Gull. Or even Relict Gull, the latter a species so poorly known that there can be no map. 

At £30 UK and $40 US the Gulls of Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East is more expensive than recent Princeton offers but a relatively small price to pay for birders ready to splash the cash on this latest must have book. And let’s face it many of those same birders would happily pay the same £30 and more for a tank full of juice to twitch a Steppe Gull that arrives on the coast of Aberdeenshire. 

‘Gulls’ deserves to find a place on any serious birders book shelf. For gull enthusiasts, gull gurus and those who simply can’t get enough of gulls this book will already be on order for this underrepresented branch of ornithological literature. I give top marks to Princeton for making the book available to us all.     

Gulls of Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East: An Identification Guide. Price: $39.95 / £30.00 at Princeton Press.

ISBN: 9780691222837 

Published (US): Apr 5, 2022 Published (UK): Dec 14, 2021 

Copyright: 2022 

Pages: 320 

Size: 6.75 x 9.25 in. 

Illus: 1,200 photos + illus. 

Postscript. For Continental readers of Another Bird Blog who might prefer, there is a French Edition - Les Laridés du Paléarctique occidental - Guide d'identification des mouettes et des goélands. 

 

Good Morning

I set off in the dark and drove towards Lancaster. The temperature hovered around zero under a clear starry sky that hinted at a sunny day. As it does so often, the morning began with a Barn Owl, but not in the usual spots. 

The owl was at Conder Green where it hunted over the areas of rough grass areas that surround the pools. I watched the owl for a while as it played hide & seek with the camera until it flew off towards Glasson Dock’s roadside barns. 

Barn Owl

The light wasn’t perfect yet but good enough to clock the wildfowl and waders where scans and counts revealed 28 Wigeon, 4 Little Grebe, 1 Goldeneye, 1 Grey Heron, 1 Little Egret and 48 Teal. There was no sign of the recent Green-winged Teal but my overall count of teal species was below recent averages whereby Teal are good at hiding in the reedy margins with the result that some remained unseen. 

Goldeneye

Waders were the expected handful of species that rarely changes in winter composition but fluctuates in numbers. Today all of them proved to be in a flighty mood - 65 Lapwing, 22 Redshank, 6 Curlew and a single Oystercatcher. 

Curlew

 

A Kingfisher obliged by sitting at the water spillway but briefly. Within a few seconds it was gone, skimming across the flat water to an unknown spot at the other end of the pool. 

Kingfisher

 

The few passerines around numbered 11 Long-tailed Tit, 2 Blackbird, 1 Dunnock, 1 Wren along the hedgerow, hawthorns that hold few birds, probably because there is constant disturbance from vehicles large, small and inevitably noisy in using the parking spot. 

Perhaps local birders can answer this question – where are all the unglamorous Dunnocks this autumn and winter? I have seen, heard and ringed very few all year. The species is even absent from the garden, most unusual. Theories please.

Dunnock

 

I took a drive up to Cockersands and picked up a few extra species that included a small flock of mixed Redwings and Fieldfares, about 30 birds in all that flew between tall trees and a single hedgerow. Near here and Gardner’s farm a Kestrel sat atop a roadside pole and approximately 130 Whooper Swans stayed noisy and distant. There are very few berries left now following a quite average berry crop this autumn. 

Redwing

Fieldfare

On the way back home a stop at Braides Farm found a rather decent if somewhat approximate number of Lapwings (500), Golden Plover (750) and 40 or more Redshank. I wondered why all were so difficult to count, very flighty and taking to the air for “nothing”, flying around and then dropping back into the fields. It was a Sparrowhawk, a large female sat on a broken down post in the centre of the mayhem where it watched for the opportune moment and a meal. 

I let the birds be then drove to Gulf Lane and the feeding spots we cannot work for ringing purposes because they are close to a case of Avian Flu in Preesall/Pilling. 

I dropped more seed on the ground for the count of 125 Linnet, 12 Chaffinch, 4 Blackbird, 1 Fieldfare, 1 Great Tit, 1 Robin and 1 Moorhen. It's very frustrating that we are barred from catching and ringing these small passerines. Let’s hope we can return to our ringing quite soon.  

Linnets

Back soon with more news, views and photos on Another Bird Blog. 

Linking this weekend to Eileen's Blogspot and Anni in Texas. 

 

Double Whammy

There’s a double blow to our ringing plans this weekend. Number One is the weather with a Red weather warning of severe winds up to 70mph over northern Britain as Storm Arwen passes over in a north to south direction. Sat here in my office there’s a hoolie blowing and I’m not for going anywhere until Monday when the winds should ease. 

Wednesday saw another visit to Project Linnet where Catch of the Day was that extreme rarity - a Song Thrush. After a little levelling off in recent years the graph seems to be heading in a downward direction again via “a rapid decline in England” - BTO Bird Trends. 

For what it’s worth the decline in this part of Lancashire seems especially marked where the Song Thrush is no longer a garden bird and is one that receives barely a mention on local bird news Internet sites. Our own catches of Song Thrushes number so few that catching a Song Thrush becomes a Red Letter Day. 

Bird Trends - British Trust for Ornithology

 

Song Thrush 

In addition to the single Song Thrush we caught 1 Redwing, 2 “continental” Blackbirds, 2 Blue Tit, 1 Greenfinch, 1 Robin and added another seven Linnets to our totals. 

Redwing

Greenfinch

Linnet

Just as were looked forward to better weather next week, Friday morning brought unwelcome Blow Number Two. 

“Dear Philip” 

“Avian influenza H5N1 (pathogenicity to be confirmed) has been found in a premises near Poulton le Fylde, Wyre, Lancashire. A 3km and 10km Control Zone has been put in place around the premises. Please see the map here for more information (search on SD3748). 

You are being notified as we can see you, or your ringing group, have either submitted ringing records from close to the outbreak in recent years or your postal address is within the area. 

Effective immediately, as a precaution, the following measures apply: All ringing is suspended within the 10 km Control Zone as outlined on the map until further notice. 

We will inform you by email when ringing can recommence and we will be monitoring the situation during the BTO Christmas period.” 

Avian Flu Hotspot

 

A couple of our local ringing sites fall into the exclusion zone, another unwanted blow to our commitment to local bird ringing, activities that monitor bird populations for the benefit of society as a whole. Project Linnet (and farmland birds) is now on hold until sometime in 2022. 

This latest episode is the third recorded outbreak of bird flu at the same Preesall/Pilling premises https://anotherbirdblog.blogspot.com/2017/01/a-touch-of-flu.html 

Once again in 2021 the avian virus has been found where Pheasants, Red-legged Partridge and Mallards are reared in captivity so as to be released into the countryside for shooting. This is a subject covered many times here on Another Bird Blog, in the birding press on a regular basis and in National newspapers on a number of occasions. As ever there is no interest from the UK Government or other parties to put a stop to an archaic practice that has such a devastating impact upon native species. 

The BTO Atlas of 2013 tells me that the numbers of captive-bred Pheasants released into the wild has increased fivefold since the early 1960s to around 35 million birds annually. Some 15 million Pheasant are shot annually. 

Captive Pheasant rearing

“High densities of Pheasants potentially have negative effects on native species, but these have been poorly studied. Indirect effects possibly include modification of the structure of the field layer, the spread of disease and parasites and competition for food. Recent research indicates that infection with caecal nematodes from farm-reared Pheasants may be contributing to the decline of Grey Partridge.” 

Grey Partridge

When I watch hordes of young Pheasants thundering through late summer fields and woodland edge there is no doubt in my mind that their effect on the environment is wholly negative. 

The BTO Atlas also states that there has been a 91% population decline of Grey Partridge in the UK between 1967-2010, during the Breeding Atlas of 1968-72 and the Breeding Atlas of 1988-91. 

“Local extinctions may be masked in some areas by the release of captive-bred birds onto shooting estates: about 100,000 captive-reared Grey Partridges are released in Britain each year”. The Atlas gives no figures on the number of captive-bred birds subsequently shot for sport; neither does it give any indication of how any surviving birds impact upon any truly wild Grey Partridge population. 

Given that the Grey Partridge is in any case a secretive and difficult species to study, any such investigation would by now be almost impossible to conduct. 

The problem is further complicated by the release into the same environment of Red-legged Partridge, a picture I know only too well from local farms. 

Red=legged Partridge

 

"As more farms diversify into shooting, the number of Red-legged Partridges released has increased and this is illustrated by the National Gamebag Census, where numbers shot quadrupled between 1990 and 2005 (Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust 2013). It is estimated that 6.5 million partridges (Grey and Red-legged) were released across the UK in 2004, and 2.6 million were shot. There has been little research on the impacts of released birds on native species, but there is some evidence that shooting operations based on large-scale releases of Red-legged Partridges could be implicated in local extinctions of Grey Partridges.” 

Red-legged Partridge

To my unscientific but daily birding eyes that last sentence would seem to be a gross understatement. 

At the end of the day there is one conclusion to be drawn from this now familiar, sorry story. 

Nothing will change - just Follow The Money. 

Linking this post to https://viewingnaturewitheileen.blogspot.com.

 

Sunday Monday

Sunday morning and the wildfowlers were out long before me. I heard the sound of their gunfire as I put the first net up in the semi darkness. Ropes left out for a speedy job were frozen solid after Saturday night’s frost. 

Soon after 10 am four guys and four dogs, young and old, came walking towards me with their spoils, two geese to share between them - not much to show for around five hours laid out on the frozen marsh. We exchanged pleasantries as they trudged off to their cars and me back to the job in hand. 

Wildfowling

I had slightly more luck than the shooters with ten birds caught, not as good as I’d hoped but more grist to the mill of Project Linnet with 8 new Linnets and a by-catch of 1 Chaffinch and 1 Great Tit. 

Linnet

 

Not a lot else to report except for a female Sparrowhawk looking for breakfast, half a dozen Skylarks, and the 80 or more Linnets that produced my catch. 

Sparrowhawk - female

 

Monday started with the 0830 school run to Hambleton followed by a sprint to Pilling to meet up with Andy who’d been on site since 0645. I’d taken the precaution of five layers on top and two below to ward off the frost. I was glad I did because it was pretty cold out of the sunshine. 

I missed early Redwings but caught up with a new Greenfinch, a Chaffinch, more Linnets and a fine adult male Reed Bunting. 

In all we had 16 new birds - 5 Redwing, 4 Linnet, 3 Chaffinch, 2 Blue Tit, 1 Reed Bunting, 1 Greenfinch. 

Reed Bunting

Chaffinch

 

The forecast for Tuesday looks good. The morning is already pencilled in for five layers and more ringing. 

 

Snail Pace

There’s no ringing again. It’s too windy until maybe Tuesday next. 

Here’s something that may interest readers into all things wild and wonderful, especially those who eat the occasional meze, escargot or snail egg caviar on their holidays to the Continent.  

On my way to drop seed at the ringing plot I stopped by the roadside to photograph an unusual sight - thousands of land snails. They were massed on several upright fence posts with lesser numbers spread out sideways onto supporting branch posts.  

 

Snails

In all I counted at least ten fence posts that each held between a few dozen or several hundred snails. Most appeared to be small, perhaps young snails? There were lesser numbers of larger snails that I took to be the adults but as a snail greenhorn this was my nearest guess. 

Snails

  

Snails

 

A look on Wiki and Snail Internet revealed some remarkable facts about the British gardener’s nemesis. 

“The great majority of land snails are hermaphrodites with a full set of reproductive organs of both sexes, able to produce both spermatozoa and ova. A few groups of land snails such as the Pomatiidae, which are distantly related to periwinkles, have separate sexes: male and female." 

"The age of sexual maturity varies depending on species of snail, ranging from as little as 6 weeks to 5 years. Most pulmonate air-breathing land snails perform courtship behaviours before mating. The courtship may last anywhere between two and twelve hours. In a number of different families of land snails and slugs, prior to mating one or more love darts are fired into the body of the partner. "

"Pulmonate land snails are prolific breeders (yes, we can see that) and inseminate each other in pairs to internally fertilize their ova via a reproductive opening on one side of the body, near the front, through which the outer reproductive organs are extruded so that sperm can be exchanged. Fertilization then occurs and the eggs develop. Each brood may consist of up to 100 eggs." 

"Garden snails bury their eggs in shallow topsoil primarily while the weather is warm and damp, usually 5 to 10 cm down, digging with their foot. Egg sizes differ between species, from a 3 mm diameter in the grove snail to a 6 mm diameter in the Giant African Land Snail. After 2 to 4 weeks of favourable weather, these eggs hatch and the young emerge. Snails may lay eggs as often as once a month." 

"Most species of land snail are annual, others are known to live 2 or 3 years, but some of the larger species may live over 10 years in the wild. In captivity, the lifespan of snails can be much longer than in the wild, for instance up to 25 years in H. pomatia." 

"In the wild, snails eat a variety of different foods. Terrestrial snails are usually herbivorous; however some species are predatory carnivores or omnivores. The diet of most land snails can include leaves, stems, soft bark, fruit, vegetables, fungi and algae. Some species can cause damage to agricultural crops and garden plants, and are therefore often regarded as pests." 

"In an attempt to protect themselves against predators, land snails retract their soft parts into their shell when they are resting; some bury themselves. Land snails have many natural predators, including members of all the land vertebrate groups, examples being thrushes and hedgehogs.” 

A word of caution for anyone thinking of taking a drive over Cockerham way to reap this unexpected  harvest; wild-caught land snails prepared for the table but not thoroughly cooked can harbour a parasite (Angiostrongylus cantonensis) that can cause a rare kind of meningitis. 

Wiki again - “Although there is not usually considered to be a tradition of snail eating in Great Britain, common garden snails Cornu aspersum were eaten in the Southwick area of Sunderland in North East England. They were collected from quarries and along the stone walls of railway embankments during the winter when the snails were hibernating and had voided the contents of their guts. Gibson writes that this tradition was introduced in the 19th century by French immigrant glass workers. "Snail suppers" were a feature of local pubs and Southwick working men were collecting and eating snails as late as the 1970s.” 

It’s probably best to leave those snails for our UK Song Thrushes to eat – if only there were Song Thrushes left in the countryside. 

Song Thrush

  

Escargots

In the meantime, enjoy your evening meal everyone. 

Linking this weekend to Eileen's Saturday Blogspot and Anni in Texas.

 

Linnet Tales

Start time 0645. I was on my own on Sunday and planned to ring Linnets again, Linnets caught in the seed plot only. I knew there would be good numbers because on Saturday when Sue was busy on the phone to her sister in Torquay, I snuck out for an hour (or three) to check the Linnet numbers and drop fresh seed in the plot. 

After a good few looks I reckoned from both sight and sound of the numbers there could have been as many as 300 Linnets; when they all join together in the tree tops they make quite a racket. 

At last, Sunday dawned with a 4mph negligible wind and no rain. I went on to catch total of 17 new Linnets with zero recaptures from previous occasions, this year or from the almost 1000 Linnets ringed in this location during recent years. The 17 ringed comprised 14 males and 3 females, an overabundance of males on this occasion. 

These proportions of males and females are similar to the autumn as a whole where the total catch of 227 Linnets this autumn equates to 136 males (117 first year, 19 adults) and 91 females (77 first year, 14 adults). 

Linnet

 

Linnet

Linnet ringing 

Here are a couple of tales about our UK Red Listed Linnet a once familiar bird of the countryside, an environment as rapidly vanishing as the birds it once supported in huge numbers. 

Readers of a certain age will certainly remember a ditty featuring the Linnet and made famous by Cockney (London) music-hall in the early part of the 20th Century. 

“My old man said "Foller the van, and don't dilly dally on the way", the story of a couple doing a “moonlight flit” from their house in the dark of the night to avoid paying rent owed to the landlord.  Anyone who knows the song will remember how the wife continues the story in the Cockney dialect. “Orf went the van wiv me 'ome packed in it, I followed on wiv me old cock linnet." 

The “old cock linnet” was the family pet – a Linnet, a finch highly prized for its rich musical song a century and more ago. Around that period it has been estimated that 50% of households in Britain kept a cage bird. Linnets were the most popular of all because they were very numerous and huge numbers were taken from the wild to satisfy the whims of the time. 

 

Cock Linnet - Spring

 

Cock Linnet - August  

And from “Every Woman's Encyclopaedia” circa 1910 -1912. 

Every Woman's Encyclopaedia 1910-1912 

“There are five other members of the family of the Fringillinae which well deserve notice, as they are very suitable for pets. They are the linnet, siskin, redpoll, twite, and crossbill.” 

“The linnet claims the first place in popularity, and is one of the best of our British songsters. Its notes are very sweet and soft, although on this point individual birds vary, some being far better songsters than others. Old birds have a much fuller and better song than young birds, and are thus sought after by those who know of this characteristic." 

“The cock linnet varies considerably at different periods of his life in the colours of his plumage, a fact which has led to the belief that there are several varieties of linnets, whilst, in reality, this variation in the colour of the plumage depends on the age of the bird.” 

“For instance, birds of a year old are called grey linnets, the feathers on the head and breast being edged with grey. Adult birds in the spring assume what is termed the breeding plumage, when the feathers on the head and breast become bright red, and the whole plumage brighter and more intense in colour. These birds are known as rose linnets. This red colouring quite disappears from birds in captivity.” 

“During the autumn and winter months the plumage of the adult birds becomes a rich brown, and they are then known as brown linnets. The plumage of the female bird does not vary, and is very similar to that of a young male bird. It is of a sombre colour, with less white on the wings and tail, and never possesses any crimson plumage on head and breast.” 

“The linnet is naturally a shy bird, but in confinement becomes quite tame and makes a very pleasing and interesting pet. In their wild state Linnets become gregarious in winter, and may often be seen in the open country feeding on the seeds of wild mustard, sharlock, and other plants.” 

The Linnet overcame such muggings upon its place in Victorian England only to face ever more determined and sustained assaults in recent years by those looking for ways to concrete over what’s left of England's countryside. 

Stand by soon for more Linnet tales, old and new from Another Bird Blog.