St Helens Birds and Wildlife: Blackcaps my garden, Eccleston

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Blackcaps my garden, Eccleston

I set up my camera today on a remote shutter in the hope of photographing the blackcaps feeding. Only the male visited today, although I didn't have as much time to keep a look out for them as yesterday. He seemed to be feeding on virtually everything apart from the apple that I'd stuck in the tree for them and focussed my camera on! Luckily, he fed from it just before the light went and I got some shots. Unfortunately I think the noise of the shutter scared him off. The photo of the female is from yesterday through the kitchen window when it was feeding on the berries of the wisteria/honeysuckle (whichever one it is!).

Blackcaps are really interesting birds. Wintering blackcaps have been recorded in small numbers in Britain for well over a century but since the 1940's and 50's, the numbers of birds overwintering has steadily gone up - 22 birds on average per winter in the 40's and 50's, 380 on average in the 70's, 3000 in the 80's, and in the 00's nearly 3000 from Garden Birdwatch gardens alone.

The birds that overwinter here aren't from the same population that visit in the summer but rather are from Central Europe. The UK overwintering population have been found to have more fledglings than those that migrate further south and are therefore producing more offspring that are genetically programmed to come here.