The garden birds have started to moult in earnest now – the adults, who’ve been looking quite tatty after weeks of exhausting work looking after their chicks, growing a smart new set of feathers in preparation for Winter and the fledglings donning their adult attire.
I must confess that the first odd feathers found round the garden made me panic a bit as we’ve recently been host to a particularly murderous cat. But then I saw the strange ‘half and half’ outfits that the birds had started sporting and put two and two together.
Nowhere is the process more clear than with the young Robin. His Red Breast has started to come through in earnest now, in contrast to how he looked just a few short weeks ago on July 10th –
And now –
It’s only going to be a few weeks until the birds start to disappear to complete the moult – without the protection of their feathers while moulting they are pretty vulnerable, so often retreat to the safety of the hedgerows in late Summer, returning as if anew in Autumn. So I’ve been eager to spend as much time as possible taking pictures now while I can.
I’ve had the trailcam set on the birdtable today – I’ve been putting food up there daily recently to try and reduce the amount of birds feeding on the ground because of the aforementioned cat – and I noticed the young Robin has been feeding there regularly through the day. I put out a fresh supply of mealworms and settled down to wait. What bird can resist a mealworm?
I didn’t have long to wait before the Robin arrived to take advantage of the feast on offer, and gave me the opportunity to get some close up shots.
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