The Bird Thread

bleak. heard that bird flu was on the rise again.
last summer I rescued a canary that had landed on our patio, gave it to one of my daughter's school friends who has some caged birds. got a text a week later that it had died and so had their budgies.

We just had one, first time ever seen here. Annoyingly my dslr wasn't behaving so I only got one terrible pic, and some really poor quality phone footage.

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nice! they're really skittish aren't they?
I hadn't realised that they're Britain's smallest bird, smaller than a wren.
I've been keeping an eye out for the one I saw last week but haven't spotted it again yet.

There's a couple of goldcrest that hide mainly in our beech tree. I see glimpses of then flitting about the branches but never enough to take pictures. They do make a racket when the cat is about.

I love to watch the birds on the feeders but have never seen any on the feeders in over 3 years.

Going to have a Google at how to get goldcrest on feeders :)

They are ground feeders who eat insects, so won't use feeders usually. I think in really cold weather you might get them on a bird table if you are lucky.

(Knowledge from my uncle who's bird feeding set up is a thing of wonder).

Thanks, I don't have a bird table, always a bit wary of the local raptors, I wonder if one with a roof is safer.

Think I may have taken an accidentally amazing pic (well, it’s still a shit phone pic but, c’mon)

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Aren't birds brilliant
https://twitter.com/AlexJB497/status/1584815549137440768

Autumn scenes. I have not included my photos of shore larks, as they are just too fuzzy.

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Shorelarks - already !

We saw four of them in the distance, we just happened to be walking past and someone told us about them.

OK, here’s a photo of sorts.

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Skived off work this afternoon and looked at birds. And a otter.

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Nice. The Otter looks like a Nessie sighting from bitd .

Lovely, is this your usual stomping ground?

I’m usually in Aylesbury Vale, where we do have some of these animals, but every now and then I head 15 miles west to Otmoor which is where I was this afternoon.

Cool... I was near there only yesterday. Must check it out properly

You should, it’s an amazing place, despite being a bit curated

Crappy phone pics of Parakeet and Mistle Thrush, 3 of the latter were fighting over our Rowan Tree yesterday. Had a Sparrowhawk flyby out on the playing field too & more goldcrest visits to the garden. Hopefully those two won't meet.

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Long Tailed Tits just arrived, plus Thrush (or maybe a female blackbird) lurking.

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Kestrel recharging its batteries

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10 lapwings heading west

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Swan heading east

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So chufffed - male blackcap back in my tiny back garden for the 3rd Winter running - boy, is he going to get fat.

Ring Necked Parakeets have arrived on our estate

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Also occasionally visited by Collared Dove, don't think I got on camera before

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