The Bird Thread

Big bird seed corp obvs wants you to keep feeding them. #tinfoilhattime

The hedges are full of food for them

There is a strong argument for not feeding as it helps spread disease unless you clean your feeder very frequently. Also increases population of specific species in suburbs allowing them to spread in to the countryside at the expense of other species. Greenfinch, willow tit and marsh tit are all good examples of species that have suffered greatly while blue tits and great tips have benefited.

Feeding is also a very uk thing, something like over a third or a half of all seed sold in Europe is in the UK

Feeding is also a very uk thing, something like over a third or a half of all seed sold in Europe is in the UK

The rest is sold in France as bait.

"These damn lazy birds need to stop living off handouts and go and find a proper job"

I get the pros and cons of feeding generally, but I think if you've made the decision to feed then I'm not sure why you would remove a predictable food source at a time when birds generally need more energy.

I think there’s just a lot more food naturally available at this time of year* and the parents are better off showing their fledglings where that is.
Both the jackdaws and crows have discovered our fat balls now and have figured out how to unhook the feeder and plonk it on the ground so I think that’s game over anyway!

*My blueberries, strawberries, figs etc etc

Someone put suet out in our garden the other day. Jackdaws and starlings are very noisy and have, with the help of a squirrel, demolished it in short order. You can see our house reflected in the squirrel’s eye.

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We're still feeding - the sparrows are picking off aphids all over the garden as well as munching through all the seeds we put out.

Bird drama this morning - a young jackdaw had flown/fallen into our front garden and couldn't seem to figure out how to fly back up.

Distressed parents on the roof squawking at it. Hungry cats patrol the neighbourhood so we needed to act.

When I walked towards it it flew along the ground to the other end of the garden but didn't get much height.

My wife suggested releasing it from a first floor window so we trapped it in a fat ball bucket and opened the bedroom window, and it swooped across to a tree in the garden of a neighbour across the way, with its parents in pursuit.

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Good save!

We had less drama just Sparrows Shagging by the kitchen window

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[Paul Daniels voice] They love a bit of it

I think the curlews may have had babies in a field near us . I'd just set off on a bike ride and watched four of them flying round and calling, and I suspect that they'd only still be here if they've got young. Apologies for wind noise, i was recording on my phone. Lesser whitethroat and skylark also being noisy.

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• curlews near Shabbington 9 June 2024.mp3

They're certainly doing well down here at the edge of Romney Marsh, I see them almost every day, sometimes in flocks of 50+.

Had a walk today right along the edge of the Romney marsh* and nearly stood on some pheasant chicks, used the app to identify reed warblers and had visuals on a couple of buzzards and a marsh harrier.
Sadly no kingfisher though.
*on the path next to royal military canal from Appledore to Stone cliff so literally right on the edge of the webbed footed backwater.

About 3 miles from me, I'm waving! Good chance of a hen harrier where you were, more chance around the wind farm.

• I waved all 6 fingers.
  

Do you live there or just visiting those dozen cousins who all live in the same village?
(Sorry can’t help myself)

Never seen a curlew here but have at Dymchurch

When your sister is your mother.... Limited surnames on the marsh.

Yep, in the vast urban sprawl of Cock Marling, just west of Rye, population about 75, some of them alive.

Rye Harbour Nature Reserve is well worth a visit next time you're down, excellent for waders. I see most of the curlews on the landward marshy fields behind the sea wall at Winchelsea Beach. I'm lucky, I have a couple of thousand acres (none of it mine) that I can walk around.

Grew up in Stone-in-Oxney the other side of the border, always went to the Rye harbour side of the Rother to avoid the grockles at Camber, first place I ever saw an avocet.

Just saw this and fuck yes about the mood lift of seeing swifts.

How's the one big eye in the middle of your forehead?

Actually, I know Oxney well, there's a 500 acre farm at Ebony I walk around regularly. You'll know the big lakes at Rye Harbour, I fish them, a great place to see birds when you're sitting doing sod all for long periods, the bitterns are a highlight.

@Mr_Smyth are they kites at the palace tower? Heard and saw a pair of somethings this am

No idea as I’m out of town, have seen them there now and again though along with a buzzard.

@Colin_the_Bald the eye thing miraculously cleared up when I moved away in my teens.

kingfisher

If you want to see these, can recommend RSPB Rye Meads up towards Hertford.

Was canoeing on the upper Thames at the weekend and possibly saw a hobby. Small, greyish, definitely a falcon, in quite a wooded area. Have seen them much further down on the Thames - you usually get them in cookham reach when the mayflies are out. Beautiful birds!

Funny seagull.

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