The Bird Thread

Has anyone tried the binoculars and smartphone idea ?
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000qqr2/countryfile-wildlife-compilation

@ 31:48

Woodpecker

Ooh you just reminded me I saw a lesser spotted on my run yesterday!

Amazing. I’ve been on the lookout for Lesser spotted for a while now. They’ve almost vanished from the countryside round here. I found a pair breeding two years ago, the last ones reported in Berkshire! Where did you see yours?

Nice. They're technically all Lesser spotted to me as I hardly ever see one!

Heron flyby during snowman build earlier

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Thank you! Interesting about the colour. I've managed to spot one every day now for the last week. Something to keep me busy on the baby walks.

Had a fantastic kestrel experience today. We were walking down a relatively busy path towards Teddington Lock from Ham. A kestrel cruised over and perched on top of a bare tree.

A few of us stopped and watched a while, thinking it was just chilling. Then suddenly it swooped down, just over my partner's head and divided into the long grass off the side of the path. I heard a tiny squeak, and off it climbed. Couldn't see if it had got its mouse but the yelp suggested it had something for dinner.

We'd already been treated to some good cormorant action down by the river - diving, skimming along flying and wing drying, plus a cold looking heron, but this was the icing on the cake.

we've had one in our back garden a bit over the past few weeks. even took a dig at the feeder. NAWTY!

^ i just googled and it would have probably been a greater, to be fair

True. You hardly ever see lesser spotted. They’re tiny ( sparrow sized ) and very elusive. And rare. Great spotted are bigger, common bold and frequent gardens and parks. If you get to know their call ( a single chirp sometimes repeated a lot ) you’ll realise how common they are.

Have a listen here https://www.xeno-canto.org/species/Dendrocopos-major

Poor kingfishers. Now that you're on their case, their famous elusiveness is just for the birds. :)

We visited the crow roost in Burnaby last night. It's amazing - and intimidating - to see and hear thousands of them gathering from all across the city as the daylight fades.

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Do you mean you went to the warehouse mentioned in your link, or are they just all over the area? I couldn't get a clear sense of that from the link, other than that they move around and adapt.

I did love this:

Subsequently those businesses started employing methods to keep the crows away, which the crows soon adapted to.

“What they’ve realized is the disturbance maybe works for a bit…until the crows get habituated to it and then they totally ignore it.” -George Clulow, former BCFO president

Oh possibly it wasn't a lesser spotted then seeing as it was on the Berks/Wilts border but looked smaller than the other non-green ones I've seen about here. It was in a tree though so could just be a case of "far away".

Saw a green woody today flapping across a field. They have such an odd up and down flight pattern.

Watched a buzzard casually circling Dawsons hill (SE22) through binoculars this afternoon, lovely to see its colourings so clearly.

Terrible photos of Parakeets and a Long Tailed Tit on a snowy walk this morning.

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Wish we had snow down here! Love a long tailed tit, favourite of the tits (Fnar fnar!)

Today for me was a Cormorant, some swans and some mallards. Not much else happening.

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Great pics as always

Love a long tailed tit

They visit the garden en-masse occasionally, always brightens the mood. Hyperactive little creatures makes them hard to photograph.

blue tits & robins

The sparrowhawk that has been, err, hawking over my garden all year finally decided to perch in the tree at the end of the garden and allow me a good 5 mins of viewing today.
I also had a red kite fly over on the 23rd and disturbed a roosting buzzard on my run yesterday. Ending 2020 on a raptor tip.

They're all over, covering an area about 300 metres across, as far as I can tell. When they first arrive they're quite active and very very noisy - it's easy to get the sense that they're greeting each other and talking about their day. Then as it gets properly dark they settle down, and it's much quieter, but really eerie when you look up and realise that every tree is completely full of crows.

Last couple of days have had a group of visitors in the top of the tree in the neighbours garden. Bigger than sparrows, not the right shape for starlings (more tail), not dark enough for blackbirds, too brown for finches. What are they? Backlit so I can't get a good look at them let alone a good photo, but I think they're browny grey with some kind of chest/throat marking. No bright colours that I can see. Very pointy little beaks.

Redwing (more likely) or Fieldfare?