Love on the Balcony.
I film the birds that visit my feeder.
Filming them is the easy part. The hard part is going through hours of footage to find something interesting enough to edit, post to YouTube, and put on the blog. There’s only so much you can do with hours of siskins squabbling amongst themselves.
Of course, what I find interesting and what the reader finds interesting may be two entirely different things. That said, it’s my blog, so… you know.
The first thing I should say is that I’m no expert. I’m just a 71-year-old bloke with a bird feeder on his balcony. A hawfinch turned up the other day for the first time and I had to look it up on iNaturalist to work out what it was. For a brief moment, I thought I’d discovered some sort of alpine parrot.
So what follows may be complete nonsense.
The “Attenborough Moment”
Yesterday I had what I can only describe as a David Attenborough moment involving two Cyanistes caeruleus, also known as Blue Tits.
One of them, who I’m assuming was the female, arrived first, picked up a sunflower heart, and started the usual routine of holding it between her feet and hammering away at it like it had personally offended her.
Then the second bird arrived.
He began rummaging around in the seeds, selected one, held it between his feet… and appeared to inspect it. Not a casual peck. A proper evaluation. As if quality control was being taken very seriously.
Instead of eating it, he picked it up, hopped over, had what can only be described as a brief conversation, and passed it to her. She accepted it without fuss, placed it between her feet, and got on with eating it.
He then did it again.
And again.
Three or four times in total.
A Working Theory
It looked very much like he was saying:
“Look at me. I can provide. Please consider me for ongoing seed-based cooperation… and related arrangements.”
Now, whether this was actually courtship behaviour or just two birds sharing lunch, I couldn’t say with any real authority.
I don’t know which was the male and which was the female. For all I know, it could have been the avian equivalent of two mates at the pub, one saying, “Go on, have this one, I’ve already eaten.”
A Scientific Conclusion
They eventually flew off together, which in my version of events means they disappeared into the sunset and lived happily ever after.
Reality may differ slightly.
Either way, it was a lovely little moment to catch on camera.
Even if I am a cynical, slightly grumpy old Welshman.