Linnet / Ninnet

There’s a pair of birds twittering overhead. I can hear one say “Ninnet”. It must be a Linnet.

Their song has far less of the sparkle of the Goldfinches at the other end of the wood. It has more of a music-box quality to it.

Here’s the female of the pair, which happily perched briefly in the open so I could see just how beautifully camouflaged she is. She’ll need all the cryptic plumage she can muster for a few weeks as she incubates the eggs. The male is with her all the time on his desperately-paranoid guard duty. He’s got to make sure she doesn’t mate with any other males as he’ll be spending weeks of exhausting work bringing her and her chicks food.

He needs to make sure he’s the Eggfather.