The Bird Thread

Ta, that was in our garden when I got home!

Screechy bird feeder bully.

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anyone doing rspb garden birdwatch this weekend?

Hoping too tomorrow, warmed up with Goldfinches, Dunnock & Blue/Great/Coal/Long Tailed Tits visiting at breakfast.

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Treecreeper in the back garden this morning, little creep

we got a total of 39 birds on our garden birdwatch this morning, highest we've ever managed!

11 house sparrows
9 wood pigeons
5 bluetits
2 blackbirds
2 collared doves
2 magpies
2 dunnocks
2 robins
1 great tit
1 coal tit
1 starling
1 black cap
and a couple of squirrels

a wren also paid a visit but it was outside the one hour time slot.

Popped to Sevenoaks Wildlife Reserve today. Lots about: lapwings, grebes, little egret, greylags, redwings, teal, gadwall and, a first for me, greenfinches.

Also this pale greylag.

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Nice wander around the Broads this morning for me. Had marsh harriers, a barn owl, a bullfinch, a kingfisher and best of all, a bittern that flew past me at about the distance of 20ft... Haven't seen one of those for at least 20 years! I was properly excited!

I spotted a fat green woodpecker sucking up ants (?) from my parents lawn. I will return armed with a zoom lens.

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Up in a majestic Newton Wonder apple tree yesterday, doing some pruning, and opening up the (overgrown) canopy, when a small bird flitted around. It didn't have the tail up posture of a Wren, nor the dumpy, rounded body shape.
Furiously looking for sustenance amongst the moss on the aged branches, it flashed a yellow head stripe.
First time I've ever seen a Goldcrest.
Gone too quickly to even reach for the mobile to try and take a picture.

Hah, good luck getting a picture of a goldcrest. Flighty little buggers, can’t stay still. Had never seen one till I moved back up North, have now seen a couple in the back garden and a couple in local woodland.

It was most unexpected.
Nearest plantations of Pines are several miles away, it's 8 miles to Black Park, on the way to Slough, (maybe a little less as the Goldcrest flies).
Tempted to make a few bird boxes for them, if I could find some details with what attracts a Goldcrest. Probably a small entry hole.

Good day today, singing Dippers, couple of kingfisher, Goldcrest that thought it was a humming bird, 15+ heron up in a heronry being raucous, Linnet and star of the show, single Hawfinch in a church yard yew tree

Visited this place last weekend. It’s absolutely stunning. Just driving in from the gate is like being on bird safari. Huge flocks of bar and black tailed godwits, curlew, lapwing all around the car. Marsh harriers displaying, kingfisher, oyster catcher, avocet… nice cafe too. https://www.elmleynaturereserve.co.uk/

Weirdly situated on Sheppey behind a sticking paper mill and a high security prison. It’s half an hour from home for me tho. I’ll be back a lot I think.

Ah, I remember going there with our twins when they were very little, rolling slowly along the track with lapwings covering the ground on either side. A wonderful place but I recall having a challenging time as a new parent. Must have been about 1997.

More owlage today

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Superb owl - Sunday?

This was Monday’s owl.

Pun appreciation post. Enjoyed!

Got an excited message from my wife/kids that a bird of prey had caught a pigeon that was sitting on our fence and had a proper scuffle with it right next to the kitchen window. Feathers everywhere when I got home. Everyone was insistent that it was Grey and speckled. What are the candidates here, Peregrine Falcon/Sparrowhawk?

Aw, just got that!

Most likely sparrowhawk, but could also be a peregrine. In my experience the peregrine grabs a pigeon on the wing and takes it somewhere up high to eat, and the scuffles are more sparrowhawk -like, with eating nearer to the ground.

I remember a few years ago I was sitting outside Canterbury Cathedral and noticed the occasional feather drifting down from above. I eventually traced the source back to a peregrine right at the top of the crossing tower, about 70 metres up, plucking a pigeon.

Thanks. I thought that may be more likely. Also the likelihood of seeing a peregrine falcon in our back garden seems pretty slim to me.

In other bird news I saw an excellent buzzard sitting in a tree right next to the cycle path on the ride to work. Of course by the time I’d got my phone out it had decided I was a bit suspect and flown off.