Blackbird

Yesterday after lunch I went for a little wander. For a change I thought I would just go and look what was about in terms of wildlife, rather than going looking for something or anything specific. Often of late I have been out watching badgers or looking at other specific aspects of the local habitats. For example over recent days I have been asked by someone local to look at what he thought was signs of a wild bore. This followed my previous talk on here, of a possibility of a wild bore on the loose locally. On the two occasions I went to look at what he was saying were marks left by a bore, they turned out to be marks left by badgers.

I don’t see any signs of wild bore at all in the local area. I suspect that it is now an “Urban Myth” that is just not true. What signs are misinterpreted as being wild bore, but are really other animals like badgers grubbing up worms. Further, there are no prints and what prints that are seen are in fact the hoof prints of the deer. Further there is a distinct lack of tusk marks or mud smears on the trees that are so distinctive of Wild bore. So while I do keep an open mind, I think at best people are mistaken or are misidentifying what they are seeing.

Yesterday, I was in danger of misidentifying a bird that I saw. I saw a Blackbird that I was not sure was a blackbird. There is a similar sized bird called a Ring Ouzel that looks similar to a blackbird except that the Ring Ouzel has this white patch on the breast. When I first saw the bird it had its back to me, I was approaching and trying to take pictures of it. Then I noticed what looked as though was a patch of white on this bird. What I knew of the Ring Ouzel was that it is a summer migrant thus if it was a Ring Ouzel it shouldn’t be here. Therefore I needed to get a clear picture to ensure I could make a positive identification. Well as you can see from the picture it was a blackbird but is has some spots of white on it.