Little wren

My long lense (Canon 100-400mm) always attracts attention wherever it goes. Today I was walking Zebedee (and the lense) in Stanmer Park when yet another person commented: "Wow, that's a big camera!" I said that I had it with me in case I saw some birds during my walk. And complained that I rarely see ANY in Stanmer Park, apart from magpies and the odd robin. To my surprise they replied that they often see green woodpeckers and many other birds there. The bastards. So I decided to make a special effort today to spot any other birds than magpies.

Pretty futile effort. First was this:



Yeah, there's a great tit there. Honest. For about 1.2 seconds, and then it flew into the top branches of the tallest trees. I only got this one, extremely crap photo.



I've seen tits before in Stanmer Park, but always so high up in the trees that there has been no way to get a photo of them.

Then, a little later, I saw a bird that I haven't seen in Stanmer Park before.



Let's zoom in.



Hey, it's a cute little wren. I think I've spotted wren only once or twice before in England, although apparently they are quite common here. They are very rare in Finland, and I never saw one there, so I get pretty excited when I see one. I remember just HOW excited I was to see the first one ever. Let me tell you first that I remember wrens from the big bird book we used to have in our home when I was a kid; the little wren with its funny little upturned tail. I always thought it was a strange but cute little bird that I would probably never see in the wild. Who would have thought that the first time I see one in "nature" was going to be 30 years later in the middle of the City of London, hopping along in a flower bed that I was staring at absent-mindedly while taking a ciggie break from work (looking after the London branch servers of the largest Japanese bank).



It was the first time I HEARD a wren today. Its song is quite loud given the size of the bird!



Well, that was it for birds on today's hour long walk. We had to hurry home in order to drive to London, but on the way back to the car Zebedee found some (probably) fox poo to roll in. Nice. The stinky so-and-so.