Goldcrests and spiders

I was contemplating catching up with some chores around the house late morning when reports came in of birds arriving at coastal spots -firecrests, ring ouzels, Lapland buntings and more yellow-browed warblers... The chores could wait.

Arriving at 1145, I checked the plantation, plenty of goldcrests but little else and then wandered up through the bushes. There were small parties of goldcrests everywhere, some mixed in with a tit flock, some on their own. I checked them all for firecrests, yellow-brows or even an early Pallas's warbler but to no avail.

My highlight was a single female brambling by the Budge screen.

There are a lot of spiders this year, maybe the mild autumn has helped them? Several webs had been strung across my path by garden spiders. I came across one, setting to work on a newly caught bluebottle and documented (mostly poorly as I had the 100-400mm lens on the camera) the battle that commenced.

A second spider arrives at the battle commences

The two spiders do battle, forgetting about the fly

Losing height, they fall to the ground

Meanwhile the poor fly is left dangling

The victor climbs back up the web to deal with his prize

starting to wrap the fly

The fly puts a brave fight 

Which pays off as it manages to struggle free and fly off, leaving the garden spider with nothing

 Such is life...

Another garden spider which caught my eye

148 Brambling