Robin with a deformed beak

I saw this robin with a distorted beak yesterday. If you look closely you can see that the upper and lower parts are out of alignment and cross at the tip, like a crossbill. The upper part is hooked. The bird has survived since last summer with this deformity, so it must have adapted its feeding technique, but I imagine that preening might be difficult - especially removing small parasites from feathers.

I have seen similar beak deformities in starlings, but the most spectacular example was the herring gull in this post. 

Backstone Bank wood

Thursday's Guardian Country Diary is about this fledgling tawny owl that we found comfortably ensconced in the crevice formed by the roots of an oak tree in Backstone Bank woods in Weardale. 

Here it is on the day that we found it .....

.... and here it is a few days later, although this might not be the same bird; it most likely had siblings, which the parents had distributed around the wood and would come back to feed at dusk.

Backstone bank is an ancient woodland SSSI and part of the forest that once clothed Weardale. It's a lovely sessile oak wood on acid soil, covering the hillside on the eastern edge of Tunstall reservoir.It's a popular spot for birders, not least because ....

...pied flycatchers nest there. Above, a male, below, .....

..... his consort, who is nesting ....

... in this nest box.

While we sat and watched this long-tailed tit caught caterpillars ...

... and this robin paid us a visit.

The woodland has lots of fallen wood that is left to decay, gradually sinking under a blanket of moss and woodland wild flowers.

There are some nice stands of wood horsetail and lots of ...

... bilberry.

Yellow pimpernel, an indicator species of ancient woodland, is plentiful here.

The trees are mainly sessile oak, with ash, hazel holly and birch and some scattered bird cherry and rowan.

All in all, a lovely place for a tawny owl to raise a family.

A study in scarlet ...

We found these delightful specimens of scarlet elf cap (Sarcoscypha austriaca) along the Tees Railway Path between Romaldkirk and Middleton-in-Teesdale today. This small goblet-shaped specimen was only a couple of centimetres tall and growing on a dead twig.

The larger specimens - about four centimetres in diameter - were a deeper shade of scarlet with a very smooth inner surface. It's typically a fungus of early spring and was growing under old hawthorns, where another scarlet apparition .....

... was enjoying the spring sunshine and singing with the volume turned all the way up to 11.

The Stalker ....

This robin, sitting on the door of the byre, was one of two contesting ownership of the farmyard at Beamish Museum when we visited on Friday. 

We've also got a resident robin in our garden now, that's already getting bolder every day, swooping down to pick up tit-bits when we're digging the vegetable plot. Over the years I've hand-tamed quite a few robins and I'm toying with the idea of doing it again, although my recollections of the last one are making me hesitate.

It was a push-over to tame. All it needed was the lure of a mealworm and within a day it was taking them from under my feet, within two days it was taking them from my fingers and on the third day it was perching on my hand.

Throughout the whole winter it followed me everywhere in the garden. As soon as I went out of the back door I had a stalker .....

..... that let loose a burst of song if I was too slow in delivering mealworms.

It was still there in spring, getting in the way of seed sowing and potting activities inside the greenhouse ....

.... and whenever I looked up, there it was, waiting and expectant....

...... and then it found a mate, nested (in a neighbour's garden, not ours, which was a bit ungrateful, we thought) and soon we found we were feeding a family. For several months I was the best customer in our local fishing bait shop. I must have spent a small fortune on mealworms and I have more robin photographs than I know what to do with. 

Will I tame the latest arrival? Well, with robins you have to ask who is taming whom? In truth, the last robin tamed us, inveigling us into performing tricks like foraging for it, providing food on demand and supporting its family...... and the latest arrival will probably do the same. Resistance is futile.

Next Year's Christmas Card, an Early Spring and a Job Well Done .... ..........

While we were out walking in Teesdale this morning we encountered this very obliging Robin ...... 

.... that struck a variety of poses that might be suitable for next year's Christmas cards. 

 Incredibly, hazel catkins are coming into bloom along the River Tees near the Meeting of the Waters. With a mild weekend forecast they look like they'll be shedding pollen in the New Year. Strange days indeed.....yesterday we saw lesser celandines in bloom in Sunderland (but I forgot to take a photo). 

Meanwhile, lambing will begin in a few weeks. We spotted this magnificent ram in a field of sheep, with a contented look on his face that suggests a job well done....