The blackcock is in rude health. Five months after meeting him, I have seen him in a variety of different poses and lights and I now think that he is on the verge of looking at his absolute finest.
In April, he was dusty brown on his back as a first year cock bird. By June, he was losing feathers from his head and neck, and he when he vanished at the end of that month, he looked a real state. Re-emerging in August with a red head and no tail, he was hardly the same bird, but over the past few weeks, his feathers have started to make sense again.
When I saw him this afternoon, shortly before a major downpour, he was so irridescently blue that I started to wonder if he wasn’t actually a peacock. He still has some scruffy feathers on the back of his head and one or two brown feathers on his neck, but if he keeps this up, he’ll be the smartest bird in the county in no time at all…
Bog Myrtle & Peat 
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