The Bird Thread

Slightly out of focus Tawny Owl chick peeking out of a classic "hole in tree" nest site

First spotted this at the start of the week, when there were two chicks peering out right at the front, but didn't have my camera. Went back the next day and couldn't see them, then got this pic yesterday. I's a big old hole so plenty of room for them to hide. Went back at dusk this evening to see if I could spot a parent, but no luck, However I did see one of the chicks out on a branch, which is apparently classic behaviour. Bit dark for pics though. The tree is 10 mins walk from my house, next to a busy bridleway so I will keep checking in on the little dudes.

Lovely snaps

@el_presidente owl! That is really cool, look forward to updates as they get bigger.

Lapwing & what I think is a Linnet (zoom in)? Terrible phone pics. Also saw but no picture what I think is Stonechat, mostly females but make with distinctive black head. All on pennine way near Marsden.

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The little brown job is a wheatear.

I'm not a serous watcher and can't name that many birds but like to watch the birds in the garden and see the pics on here.

Like so many I feed birds in the garden but is it me or has the price of bird food jumped by 10-20 percent in the last few weeks? Any recommended online places to buy.

It's another thing affected by the war in Ukraine, the price of sunflower related products have shot up as a result

No photos but I think I saw a little egret on the river pool /waterline way/ catford.

Almost certainly. We see them regularly on the Pool, Chaffinch Brook and the Ravensbourne.

MrsDeth just messaged me, a bird flew into a window and is hiding under a bin bag in the garden.

I'll be popping home at lunch to do something.
If it hasn't fucked off of its own accord, not entirely sure what to do.
There are some trees/ bushes behind our garden, so I could pop it in there.
Or do I need to put it out of its misery?

Hoping it is just stunned and will sort itself out, but I fear it might have broken something and won't have much of a chance.

Not sure what bird, likely a starling, as we have had a few in the past do something similar.

I remember we found a young bird with a broken neck as a child. Took it to Vet but they just euthanase. I mean u could leave it to nature... <<<< Windows r man made

Went to see the owl's nest again. They grow up so fast!

Hah! Awesome!

Got some swifts nesting in the gables of my local chippy. Have a crappy video but the forum isn’t playing ball. Will go down there soon with the decent camera and see what shots I can get. Good excuse to buy some chips at least.

These aren't particularly great, but it chalks off one of my ambitions of actually photographing a Kingfisher, I am just gutted I didn't have my bigger camera with me.

bluetit fledglings investigating my feed station

Down in Devon visiting family and went up on the common last night and found half a dozen Nightjar churring and swooping around, was a pretty great couple of hours with the sunset in to night with their soundtrack

Oh, that sounds brilliant! I'm hoping to meet some nightjars in the Ashdown Forest tomorrow, taking some sound recording kit just in case.

What do you use to record? I would of liked to record it but using my phone all you hear is wind noise even in a very gentle breeze

I have an elderly Zoom H4 recorder with a miniature dead cat to cut the wind. It's got a bit of pre-amp noise and an appalling user interface, and uses too much power so I may also take a 22Ah powerbank with me.

I'll also be taking a Sennheiser Ambeo headset for binaural recording to my phone - only £40 from Amazon and not too sensitive to wind.

Well, we did hear one but we were scrambling through bramble undergrowth trying to get to a beacon, so I didn’t record it. Might try again tomorrow.

In the meantime, possibly tree pipit, redstart and stonechat?

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Yep. Stonechat top 2, 3rd is a redstart with food for nearby young, 4th is a juvenile stonechat and last one is a tree pipit.
A very evocative collection. A summer heathland setting.

Thank you for confirming!

I was on a Dartmoor hilltop yesterday and there were some birds I didn't recognize, about starling sized, brown wings and white breast & rump, any ideas?

Skylark?

Too much white I think, and not launching into the sky