The Bird Thread

I really enjoy this thread!

A small question for which I would be very grateful: have any of you noticed birds staying longer that would ordinarily be found in the Southern Hemisphere in places like Africa, etc.?

^ I don't pay enough attention to note, sorry.

Fledgling in garden today, hard to photo 10x zoom then enlarged & cropped to get this.

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Had a Purple Heron earlier, buzzin

Two road killed buzzards on my ride last night, within the space of about a mile of each other. Depressing.

Just spent a very relaxing half hour watching two marsh harriers hunting over Blakeney.

https://amp.theguardian.com/world/2022/aug/10/calls-to-ban-gamebird-release-to-avoid-catastrophic-avian-flu-outbreak

Possibly ugly situation, but this fact struck me as particularly insane:

it is estimated that in August each year, the volume of gamebirds being reared for shooting in the UK is equal to half the biomass of all Britain’s wild birds.

How many bluetits to a grouse?

Rather a lot, but all grouse are wild birds, not reared and released. Pheasants and red legged partridge are are very different matter.

The one problem with banning game bird release is that without it a lot more countryside would become plains of monoculture separated by barbed wire. Woodlands, hedges, headlands and game crops don't just benefit gamebirds.

We don’t need game birds to justify woodlands, hedges, headlands and crops set aside for wild birds.

Absolutely true, but farmers would need some form of positive incentive to persuade them not to grow crops or grub hedges and trees out to make more efficient use of their land. They operate on a £/acre basis and if any scheme awards them less than they could gain by 'improvements' they will improve away. The logical extension of this is that only the poorest land will ever be set aside.

Enjoyed watching a buzzard catch a thermal, circling up until it was a tiny dot a little earlier. Nice change from the seemingly hundreds of red kites around here.

A shy & slightly scruffy looking woodpecker on the peanuts this morning

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• Woodpecker lores.mp4

2nd meeting with this local bird this month, is it a Goshawk? Bit larger than a kestrel, seems stripey-ish on the chest...
Tried to sneak up on it with my phone cam but its very flighty. I'm going to pack my 170mm for a few days and bet I never see it again...

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I'm also stalking a huge beast of a possible buzzard (X large red kite size, fan tail not forked, different call to any red kite I've heard) around the local woods, it drops rabbits when you disturb it and looks way too large to make it through trees. No pics yet though. One day!

Difficult to be sure but the black edge to the tail in the first photo and the hint of brown and the posture in the second indicate Kestrel.
Goshawk is a big bird, buzzard sized!

Sparrow hawk? Agree it looks most like a kestrel, though.

The kestrel that lives near me sits on the wires just like that, watching the fields. Saves a lot of energy compared to hovering. It too will also wait until you are right on the edge of taking a great picture, then flap off and perch 200m further down the path.

Goshawk is a big bird, buzzard sized!

Ooh is it...yeah, not that big!

Not the photo I wanted but this bird seems awesome at flying between me and sun currently, juvenile Purple Heron heading in to roost

Also Green Sandpiper

Also had Snipe, Great White Egret, Oystercatcher, a dozen Little Egret and Hobby yesterday

Tree Sparrow from earlier in the summer, got loads of photo's I haven't bothered getting off the camera for months, will start downloading some

Osprey

Went to pick up my wife from a thing about 10.30 this evening, driving down a. Country lane and a dark shape wafts over the hedge in front of me. I stop the car and there's a tawny owl two metres away in the tree, clear as you like in the moonlight. We look at each other for 20 seconds or so, before the owl dropped out of the tree and silently flew away.

What a great experience.

Got a good kestrel show the other day

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Had a Hobby mobbing a buzzard last night which was fun

Went to see the bee eaters on Thursday. Stunning birds!
No pictures I'm afraid as there too far away for my phone but well worth a trip if you are in the area.