The Bird Thread

Red kite has just flown past here in CP SE19, haven’t seen one for a while but the buzzard was here last week.
Mature tree felling in the park has seen off the pair of little owls though :-/ hopefully they will return, not seen them myself but local twitcher on twitter regularly posts pics of them and then they were gone.

Some gull land disputes down here...

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Saw what looks to be a kestrel hanging about the Surrey Canal path in Peckham yesterday. Zoom on my phone is terrible.

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Your 'gulls' are Terns.

Black headed Gull surely?

https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/black-headed-gull

Yeh summer plumage black headed gull

On that note, if anyone in London wants a reliable Tern spot then the Greenwich Peninsula Ecology Park normally has a bunch of nesting pairs. They are really incredible birds to watch, especially in flight.

Used to work just round the corner from there and would often spend my lunch breaks in one of the hides.

Yesterday I saw a bright green (parakeet green) bird with a flash of Blue under its wings on its back by its tail. It had a short tail so I didn’t think it was a parakeet and it flew off before I saw it's beautiful beaky face. What in the wide wide world of birds was it?

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I don't know, but it has appeared to have made off with your ability to write coherent sentences.

Think this is a great spotted woodpecker, knocking about Leyton Flats. You could hear loads of them by the carpark on Snaresbrook road.

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Forgot to say, saw my first swallow of the year last weekend. 5th April. Mark it!

Had my first whitethroat and lesser whitethroats yesterday and housemartins on Saturday. Hopefully reed and sedge warbler next but would love a gropper

Reed and sedge are here in Aylesbury Vale

I saw this out in Chester last week. I didn't recognise it so had to look it up and it turns out it's a merganser, which I'd not even heard of before.

Same thing happened with a goosander a few months back. Both definitely sound like made up birds.

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Also I was out in the canoe here in Oxford on Saturday and saw what I'm sure were ringed plovers hanging about by the water's edge. They flew further down every time we got nearer so I got a good chance to look at them (but not take a photo, sadly, only the ducklings kept still enough for that). Seems like a weird spot so far inland but I can't see what else they could have been.

Gratuitous first ducklings of the year shot:

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Nothing more Spring/Summery that a grasshopper warbler reeling - fantastic sound.

Saw a mistle thrush fall off a fence at the weekend

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haha. it even looks a bit surprised!

Mandarin Duck season

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Also usual Geese

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No pics, so doesn't really count, but had a lovely walk at Normandy Lagoon outside Lymington last week. Avocets for dayz, little terns doing their thing, loads of the other standard waders, but the star of the show was a Marsh Sandpiper. I'd have had no clue, but the gaggle of birders suggested something interesting, and they confirmed it and let the whole family have a peer down the scope. Looks like it's still there if anyone is near.

https://twitter.com/tomhines10/status/1783589648356298881?t=HW9qdRE6hZNgz-DGi4LkKQ&s=19

Not my photo, but this is the one.

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^Great bird that

In other news
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/environment/2024/04/27/birdwatchers-happier-mental-health/

I find this to be true, I consider birding a form of mindfulness, focusing on the present, listening for birds and looking for birds really helps me be in the moment and not lost in my head

I’m not a birder. I just like looking at birds.
have a pair of 8x30’s on my desk and regularly pick them up throughout the day if something catches my eye or I hear a kerfuffle which usually involves a peregrine/Kite/Buzzard. Can’t think of a better way to switch off for a few mins during the day.

Same. I was obsessed with birds as as a kid and spend my childhood poring over reference books, learning to identify bird calls, drawing endless peregrine falcons. That all fell away when girls and guitars hove into view in my early teens and I never really got back into it.

The collecting aspect of formally recording and competing with other spotters never appealed so i've never considered myself a "birder" or a "spotter" - but i've always got an eye on the sky whenever I'm outside or near a window. I would like to get some decent bins or teach myself to use a camera properly at some point, but i've probably got enough hobbies to spend time and money on so mainly i'm content just watching.

Moving to a ricketty medieaval town in East Kent a few years back means we get a lot of nesting birds which is great, plus i'm able to get out on the marshes and to the coast very easily. I've been steadily rekindling my love of just observing the fantastic birdlife we get here.

Today is a special one as the swifts just reappeared. I really can't explain how much of a mood lift it was to look out and see the screaming devil birds stealth fightering about overhead this morning. Magical.

Did a seal watching boat trip from Titchmarsh matina , Walton on the Naze as the weekend. Saw a few common and grey seals, but also saw about a dozen little terns which was nice. Sorry no photos of them.