The Bird Thread

You spot ravens fairly frequently out in the Peaks near Sheffield. I struggle to ID them except when they are in flight. You'll be thinking 'massive crow or Raven?' and then it will pull some cool aerobatic stunt and immediately give itself away. The only other time I've been able to give a hard ID is when one was being mobbed by some crows, at which point the difference in size was pretty starkly obvious.

I sometimes like to think I can tell the difference by their beaks, but I think i've been mistaken a couple of times.

A bit fuzzy

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If they were genetically able to hybridise, would the offspring be a Craven?

If you're wondering how to tell if it's a rook, they have a whitish bit at the start of their breaks

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Ravens are much bigger than crows as well, right?

I recall seeing them at a falconry in southern Germany and two things struck me: they’re remarkably intelligent; and huge (relative to what I thought).

Yes much bigger but when you have nothing for reference is often hard to tell if it's a black corvid just closer or further away

Good point.

Annoyingly, the bastards aren't always guaranteed to appear together.

Ravens are fucking massive.

closer or further away

Crows aren't cows

The goldfinch are back!

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Do love a Goldfinch

Lovely!

Rats have postponed my winter of bird feeding.

Spent a lovely lunch in the garden watching a blue tit check out the bird box. Usually get great tits in it, so weird to see a bluey going in. Also spotted a female blackcap and a greenfinch (I think).

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Blue tits are such New Romantics.

Only got round to looking properly at my photos from a trip to Mull last summer. It was a great trip.

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^
Brilliant shots. We’re thinking about a Hebridean holiday this year!

Brilliant shots

+1

That greedy puffin is really good.

Not as sharp as ELbowloh’s shots but I was pleased to see a owl this afternoon for the first time in ages

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Thanks. I desperately tried to get one in flight with the sand eels, but just couldn't get the timing.

I had to do a bit of sharpening for sure!

You middle one is really good! So hard to catch birds in flight, especially it looks like it's already getting dark there. You need super fast lenses for that and the price tage that goes with them.

I've only ever seen a barn owl once in the wild, so quite jealous of you.

Brilliant!!

Joining the 'nice photos' brigade