The Bird Thread

We have GWEs around here (apologies for birder-speak, I am training as a twitcher) but not as common as the littles.
This one was in September 2021.

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No problem. A friend recently added me to a what's app birding group for my local area, so currently hunting SEO's and hoping for a WTE. 😁

👍I have heard people talking about mipits and blackwits recently. All a bit weird.

Five is the most I've seen at once locally and that's on Derbyshire at the edge of thier range, a decade ago they were far less common but now frequent visitors to the south and east and only going to get more common with changing climate, same with cattle egret and glossy ibis

Wait until they start talking about jizz

Oh Lord, maybe it’s time to go back to cycling!

Oh, there's all sorts 'cripplers','stringy' and 'lifers' for example - all with a totally different meaning . Thankfully, really bad swear words retain the same meaning. For example, if someone were to say 'did you see that cunt in the bushes' it probably means some idiot trying to get a close up picture of an American Robin(and flushed it) you'd just travelled 300 miles to see.

'I dipped on that mega although I think it was a bit stringy. Did it have the right jizz?'

Good day today, stopped off for a couple of hours at Slimbridge and birds of note were Bewick Swan, Crane, Barnacle Goose, Russian White Fronted Goose, Ross's Goose (assumed escape) and White-Rumped Sandpiper

Good numbers of Avocet, Blackwit's, Dunlin and Lapwing but highlight was watching 1000 Golden Plover going up and swirling as harassed by a Peregrine

These were about the only things in phone photo range which don't have their wings clipped

Sounds like a great visit! My dad gets over to Slimbridge when he can (opportunities are limited by my mum’s Alzheimer’s) and he mentioned the WRS. Or Wiper. Or whatever they are calling it.

Those Bewick Swans are so smart. And you caught a Pintail in that shot.

3 days in a row of seeing Pintail has made me blasé, back to the office tomorrow, I'll be day dreaming of them again by 5pm

First time at Slimbridge and I can understand why your dad would enjoy going there, got some great hides and species

Patch gold today with a couple of yellowhammer, stonechat and a great pale morph buzzard

Merlin has been telling me it heard Yellowhammer for a couple of weeks but despite searching I hadn't been able to locate them until today, Stonechat was a sweet cherry on top

3 new birds for me today, Pallas's Warbler, Smew and Ring-necked duck, pretty pleased with those, all within 15 miles of home although dipped a cattle egret

Seeing the Pallas's really confirmed I don't like "twitches", was probably 40 people crowded around a small piece of hedge while I was there and just feels so unnatural where as seeing the Ring-necked duck, while I was watching it a few others came and went, had some chit chat but only ever a couple of us, much nicer experience. The pro of the twitch is experienced people able to find and see things that I would otherwise miss like a siberian chiff chaff amongst the regular chiff chaff and yesterday they had a firecrest in amongst the goldcrest

Some stock photos for reference

Great birds, great shots!

Trying a different camera position:

https://twitter.com/5into15/status/1629882518412328960

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https://www.newscientist.com/article/2361108-lockdown-forced-londons-peregrine-falcons-to-eat-more-parakeets/

First time in six years of nightly dog walks that I heard a owl in our playing fields!

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Busy morning in the back garden, wren, goldfinches, long tailed tits, blackcap, and now two greater spotted woodpeckers beating the crap out of each other.

Managed to get some snaps of one of the woodies, but I think they may all be a bit shit with branches in the way.

This geezer has had a nightmare, just lost 20 Gyr Falcons like you do

Someone on facebook locally posting a strange bird on their neighbours roof today...

Bit of birding in West Norwood Cemetery
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/mar/10/country-diary-in-a-bitterly-cold-cemetery-the-sound-of-early-spring

Used to enjoy the nature in Brighton cemetery when I lived there, was like stepping in to a an island of serenity, used to have a flat that backed on to it and would get badgers in the garden as a result

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/mar/03/plasticosis-new-disease-caused-by-plastics-discovered-in-seabirds
A new disease caused solely by plastics has been discovered in seabirds.

The birds identified as having the disease, named plasticosis, have scarred digestive tracts from ingesting waste, scientists at the Natural History Museum in London say.

It is the first recorded instance of specifically plastic-induced fibrosis in wild animals, researchers say.

Long tailed tit from this morning, one of our regular garden visitors

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Great shots - beautiful things.

Some nice birds in the neighbourhood this afternoon, Stonechat, Skylark, Meadow Pipits, Cetti's and a Cormorant, 3 little grebe and 15 Pied Wagtail at the local pond with Pinkfoot in flight over

Sand Martins back up !