Blackbird breakfasting on rowan berries

I've been observing the rowan berries on the tree just outside my office window wondering when they would be ripe enough to attract the birds. I saw a couple of blackbirds yesterday but the rain kept my cameras inside.

When I got up this morning it was still damp and rain was spitting down lightly. My first attempt at this was quickly spotted and two blackbirds flew away into the background. I hovered for some time and eventually noticed the leaves being moved by more than the breeze. A bird had sneaked into the back of the tree from me.

It wasn't long before this female couldn't resist the danger of my presence. Once it had swallowed a couple of berries it stood with this one in its beak before flying away, eyeing me up all the time.

The background is the far side of the Golden Valley and the houses form a perched hillside hamlet called Butterow. Behind our house is a brook flowing down into the Golden Valley to Bowbridge. The main London Road is close to the bottom of the valley where it shares a 70 yard wide stretch of land with the Thames and Severn canal, Bowbridge lock, the River Frome and the main railway line to Swindon and Paddington. The road called Butterow Hill crosses all of these and ascends through the hamlet and up onto Rodborough Common. It was probably a similar route that existed from pre-Roman times when it lead up to the Iron Age hillfort on the top of the common.