A new friend in the garden

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I mentioned a little while ago that I had seen a Goldcrest in my garden.

I dont much trust my judgement when it comes to bird spotting – probably because I am chronically short-sighted and tend not to keep my glasses as clean as perhaps I ought. However, a Goldcrest is one of the tiniest birds in Europe, with a gold stripe between the eyes that makes it look a little cross-eyed. So even I could recognise it in the book with something approaching certainty.

Nevertheless, having put a name to it, I’m afraid my approach was less than scientific. I simply wished I had one of those “I spy” books so that I could tick it off, and felt happy that I could see it without even moving from the hammock. It never occurred to me to wonder what it was doing there.

Things changed the next day when Mr SussexSarah rang me at work (big event this – normally reserved for misdemeanours and shopping lists) to inform me that the Goldcrest had been sighted again by the washing line, and appeared quite friendly.

Since then we have seen it (him? her?) every day. Not quite as interested in our antics as the Robins and Blackbirds. Still when I look at it, it looks back and the interest appears to be more than one way.

The official version of a Goldcrest is this. It lives in conifers eating insects. It makes a nest high up in the branches and breeds in Britain.

The insect-eating part of this fits and there are large conifers in the garden and next door. However, most of the time birdie sits in one spot on a thin honeysuckle twig near to the ground and always the same one. Once in position, it then appears to bounce quite happily, up and down, for quarter of an hour at a time.

I have had a surreptitious look to see if I can spot a nest, but there is nothing there except quantities of tiny bird poo. What is it doing?

I have pondered and pondered this one, but I am afraid that really there is only one conclusion.

It has been watching me lazing around in the hammock and decided to copy!

ps – will post a vid on Youtube when I next catch it.