Female Blackbird

I’ve always considered female blackbirds rather dull, a dowdy understudy to the jet-black male. At home, they hop along beneath our hedge, mousy in colour as well as temperament, occasionally exploring round our patio, pecking for tasty morsels dwelling in the moss between our paving. 

It’s the black males perching in the trees that always grab my attention, but I’m still searching for a good shot of that golden beak producing the ‘rich music’ of R S Thomas’s poem - a poem I’m saving for the day I actually succeed. 

So today in the reserve I am surprised to find the beauty of this female. Initially, I’m ashamed to say, I almost overlook it as too dull and boring - and after all, its beak isn’t even clean but caked with the remnants of its foraging. But when I look again, I see its beauty as it perches on bare branches amidst the spiky green of gorse - best viewed large! 

Later, as we walk along the winterery estuary greys, a flock of curlew rises from the river. Of course, my camera settings are all wrong, so rather than it featuring as my main, it’s now an extra. Still wonderful to see so many of these endangered birds soaring along the water.