Sun Lane & Beyond #3: Spot the LBJ?
The cache, a small camo-taped sample tube, is the 3rd of a 10-cache series circuiting through some fine countryside to the west of Burley-in-Wharfedale.
For background info on the trail including a Map (also available in this cache's Gallery) showing caches and parking spots, and waypoints for parking | trail access, see GC7E48T SLB#1: What a Tip!.
On the way along the shady lane to the cache location, this common, also often overlooked - and underrated - LBJ was heard singing strongly from a nearby bush.
The Dunnock (Prunella Modularis) is part of the Prunellidae family also known as the Accentors of which it is the most widespread. Aka the hedge accentor / sparrow / warbler, there are some 2.5M breeding pairs in the UK.
Its name comes from the English dun (dingy brown, dark-coloured) and the diminutive ock. Accentor is from post-classical Latin and means a person who sings with another. The genus name Prunella is from the German Braunelle, a diminutive of braun (brown). The species name is from the Latin modularis 'modulating' or 'singing'. There are some 8 subspecies of which the one found here is P. m. occidentalis.
Quiet and unobtrusive, it is often seen on its own, creeping along the edge of a flower bed or near to a hedge or bush, moving with a rather nervous, shuffling gait, often flicking its wings and tail as it goes. When two rival males come together they become animated with lots of wing-flicking and loud calling.
It lives in brambles, hedges and anywhere with lots of vegetation - also in forests and gardens staying close to the ground for protection.
Its song is a repeated strong melodious short warble (listen here) and the call a persistent 'tseep' (listen here). Its eats insects, spiders, worms, seeds and berries, but will also take peanuts and suet from ground tables.
It uses multiple strategies to breed. With polyandry, females mate with more than one male so that all the 
males help feed the chicks (rare among birds). This leads to sperm competition amongst male suitors. DNA fingerprinting shows that chicks within a brood often have different fathers, depending on how successfully males monopolise the female. Males try to ensure their paternity by pecking at the cloaca of the female to stimulate ejection of rival's sperm (see video here). Dunnocks take just 1/10 of a second to copulate and can mate more than 100 times a day! Males provide parental care in proportion to their mating success, so two males and a female can commonly be seen provisioning nestlings at one nest.
They also practice polygyny - where a single male mates with more than one female - monogamy, when one female mates with male - and polygynandry, which could mean, females mating with 2-3 males, and males mating with 2-3 females.
Breeding starts in April and they have 2-3 clutches with 4-6 eggs. Both adults feed the chicks which fledge around 12 days after hatching. During the breeding season males defend their territory from others by singing.
Females build the nest in hedges and covered areas from twigs and moss, lined with hair in a cup shape. The 14-19 mm long eggs are glossy and blue. Territory size depends on the availability of food, less food = larger territory. Nest are often taken over by cuckoos.
It is of medium conservation concern after serious decline in numbers during the 1980s. Numbers are recovering slowly due to loss of natural habitat.
So, although initially appearing to be another rather plain, uninteresting LBJ, 'this mountain-shunning, mating mad, fluidly singing, territorial, Cuckoo-cursed, mousy, lone-ranger of a hedge-rustler is perhaps more interesting than people give it the credit for'.
See videos here and here (+ singing)