Stonechat
I was out late yesterday evening failing to photograph Barn Owls but I did manage some decent shots of Stonechat and Linnet as a consolation prize. Stonechats are resident birds in Britain in that they don't migrate south for the winter. This is quite unusual for an insect eater and the population is hit hard when we have prolonged snow cover. They can usually tough it out on lowland heaths where the snow does not normally last for long, but in the high moors they probably succumb. After a bad winter our hill Stonechats disappear completely, sometimes for a few years, but they gradually recolonise. At the moment they are on a population high with 65,000 pairs. Over the last 25 years the population has increased by 147% and the breeding range has increased by 48%. I was amazed at the narrowness of the old willowherb stem it was perched on. They weigh about 16g so I'm surprised it didn't snap.
Stonechat
I was out late yesterday evening failing to photograph Barn Owls but I did manage some decent shots of Stonechat and Linnet as a consolation prize. Stonechats are resident birds in Britain in that they don't migrate south for the winter. This is quite unusual for an insect eater and the population is hit hard when we have prolonged snow cover. They can usually tough it out on lowland heaths where the snow does not normally last for long, but in the high moors they probably succumb. After a bad winter our hill Stonechats disappear completely, sometimes for a few years, but they gradually recolonise. At the moment they are on a population high with 65,000 pairs. Over the last 25 years the population has increased by 147% and the breeding range has increased by 48%. I was amazed at the narrowness of the old willowherb stem it was perched on. They weigh about 16g so I'm surprised it didn't snap.