And it wasn't the coal tit. though I do love the coal tit. He is a little braver than the other tits. I watched him take a peanut, hold it with a foot as he perched on a twig and eat it. So sweet! Only on one occasion have I seen two together, that was maybe a week or two ago. The blue tits are always in pairs.
Anyway, I got some nice shots of Bobbit with the new camera. He was back at the front of the garden.
That was in the morning.
In the afternoon, I was up at the back by the green box and I saw a robin on the fence south of my garden. He saw me and flew over. He took a pellet from the box, flew up and gave me a little bit of subsong, which was lovely. This has become a rare treat.
Then he flew to the upside down chair near the green box and launched himself from there onto the back of a juvenile rat!!!
I'd never seen or even imagined anything like it.
Bobbit just touched down on the rat and flew off; the rat scurried into cover and didn't come out again.
I was astonished. Still am. I spoke to Bobbit, who was back on the fence and he sang softly to me for a while before flying off.
Turns out, this is rare but not unheard of. I found a news story here and there is a video! It's pretty brave as rats will catch and eat robins.
Bobbit seemed as much... curious to see what would happen as aggressive... at least, that's how it felt to me. Did he distinguish that this was a young rat - only about half or a third the size of the adults, still grey rather than brown?
If I'd had my camera.... I'd have missed it or had it on the wrong settings....
Super video quality for our Bobbit! And oh my -- jumping on a young rat! The rat would have quite a story to tell his family!! I read the two links. Both unusual stories - to say the least. Please tell Bobbit to be careful!!!