Macabre

Into Stratford this morning for a meeting with the rheumatologist, after which I had coffee and cake with R and then went in search of birds.

Yesterday morning when we arrived with B at the children's playground on the rec', there were several winter thrushes searching for food around the edge of the enclosure, but today there were none to be seen. I did get some shots of pied wagtails, and managed to catch a juvenile mute swan in flight, but I didn't take a photo that really pleased me until I'd crossed back over the river at Lucy's Mill and was walking towards the car, when a small detour around Holy Trinity churchyard presented me with this scene.

I saw the male blackbird fly across the grave yard and land on this monument, but I didn't realise that he'd brought a worm and placed it there, like a macabre funerary offering, until a couple of seconds later when he bent to eat it. A split second after that, the female in my second photo came swooping in aggressively (as they do) and chased him away, depriving him of half the worm, which you can see is still lying on top of the stone. He may regret having decided to eat his prize in plain sight, but the worm looks to me to have been anything but fresh, so maybe the theft wasn't too upsetting. And with the breeding season now starting, she might even look upon him favourably as a potential suitor after stealing his lunch.

I like the female's stance, but I'm particularly taken by the play of light across the black feathers of the male, and that's why he's my subject of the day.