The Bird Thread

I do like meeting buzzards - I was out on my bike on Tuesday and there was a lovely chocolate buzzard on an overhead wire and it just watched as I rode about 10 feet below it. Here’s one of our local ones - there are a couple of spots locally where they hang out.

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Cryptic.

Guessing you live in the sticks then. 😎

Yup, I upped sticks from SE23 nearly 3 years ago, sold my sweet fixie 2 years ago and put a triple groupset on my single speed bike 1 year ago. Now near Aylesbury.

I remember there used to be kites down by the side of the B269 near the top of Titsey Hill, quite a regular sight on the Beddlestead loop.

Near to me, moved from S Ealing out to near Stokenchurch 8 years ago

We started at Shirburn, renting a place where the cats would bring in shrews and voles and mice every day, so we were able to do a sky burial for the kites.

Kitchen window raptor news: a peregrine, a female marsh harrier and the resident 2 pairs of buzzards so far today.

Close sighting of a buzzard on my daily exercise today. Sat on a drystone wall, I was about 20ft away, we exchanged glances and both carried on about our business. Buzzards are very common up here (Cheshire).

earlier on in the week i was looking out of the kitchen to the garden and for some reason noticed a blue tit on the chimney of the shed, not sure why i noticed it but it was an unusual place for a bird to be sitting, it was looking down the chimney like it might be thinking of nesting there
didn't think anymore of it

next day was looking out of the kitchen again and once again i spotted a blue tit right there on the chimney, it kept looking down and into the chimney space, must be nesting i thought

my mind was suddenly turned to stories of birds being trapped in chimneys, the bird wasn't bringing twigs or anything to the chimney , went down to the shed and opened the door to the woodburner i've got in there and left it

next day, first thing, saw a cat sitting on the window to the shed pawing the glass went down towards the shed and saw out of the corner of my eye a movement in the shed, shooed cat away and opened the shed door and out flew a blue tit, don't know how long it had been there but there was something about the original birds actions that led me to think there was something going on, like lassie in the movies barking when little johhny was stuck down the well

the little group of blue tits have been feeding at the bird table for many years a sociable little group always together and looking out for each other when feeding, it was nice to see the concern of one bird for another, wouldn't surprise me if they were dropping food down the chimney for the one that was stuck

hope the shock and time spent trapped didn't have any long term effects

A green woodpecker looking over its shoulder at me the other day. I see it’s been reading the CoVidal Sassoon thread.

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Love these guys. Used to see them on Wanstead Flats all the time, but haven’t seen one for a long time now.

Good work getting that pic. I always hear them, never see them.

Saw a wren, a robin and a jay this morning. Nothing remotely exciting, but brightened my day.

I am sitting in the garden with a glass of pastis (Mrs Ludd found some in the village post office!) and listening to birds. Robin, blackbird, wren, goldfinch, jackdaws, wood pigeon, collared dove, song thrush, red kites, great tits and a greater spotted woodpecker that came and hopped around in the apple tree about 5 metres away. Cat went mental.

Saw my first Yellow Wagtails of the year today. 3, on Walthamstow marshes.

Gentrification in Peckham has reached new levels as normal scruffy London pigeons have been replaced with collared doves

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They've been present here in north-east London for some time. It's very interesting how they've colonised Europe from the East over the last couple of decades.

Pair of Great Tits in our tree today. Distinctive song

https://www.british-birdsongs.uk/eurasian-great-tit/

Ooh, I never see yellow ones. I see the "grey" wagtail which is partly yellow and I assume was named before they came across the pied, which is actually grey.

Not the best photo in the world, taken using my phone camera throughly binoculars, but I found three Water pipits a couple of days ago, and yesterday a Great White Egret joined the handful of Little Egrets, which is a big surprise on my little local wetland.

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Goldfinches let me get about eight feet from them. Purty.
Best I could do with my phone.

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That’s a new one on me - had to look them up. Are you in Poole?

They sound like a squeaky bike pump!

We had a Goldcrest in our garden recently. It was utterly tiny.

love a Goldfinch -used to get hundreds of them at the back of my old place - a charm isn't it?