The Bird Thread

Defo give sunflower hearts a go. Finches and tits are pretty messy eaters so will drops loads for the blackbirds. That might encourage pigeons too though.

Well over a year.

Our neighbours on both sides both get lots of birds on their feeders, they just seem to bypass ours :(

Only one sparrow seems to go for our feeder, they all know where it is. It gets emptied by squirrels regularly though.

I had no joy getting pictures but saw an Egret this morning. Found some interesting feathers on my walk too.

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More Egrets... Official bird of the forum recently!

'Egrets, I've had a few ...'

Went back to the horse yard this morning which has more swallows than horses

good effort on an in flight swallow!

Bike ride today, saw a lapwing which was nice, and some greenshanks (Excuse poor photo), and of course an Egret....

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Jackdaw with a curlew beak in Oxford today

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greenshanks

pretty cool

Thanks, that's the best one of about 30 attempts ;)

exquisite colours on the back of the lapwing

Back again at the horseyard, this entire family of swallow fledgelings have fallen to the floor of this stable from their nest in the rafters above. Their parents are still feeding them, the stable is empty at the moment and they've been there happy enough for nearly 24 hours now so we left well alone. they are nearly fledged anyway by the look of them

we have a peregrine outside our flat in camberwell

We’ve just had a wood pigeon nest just outside the window of the flat. Very noticeable that the pigeons spend very little time on the nest generally. Which is understandable given the state of their nest. A bit more nest time when the chicks (2) hatched, but only for a few days. Pigeons feed their chicks energy-rich liquid food that they make in their crops, rather than bringing frequent small feeds back. The parents hang around nearby to fend off anything that approaches the nest. The chicks grow ridiculously fast and next thing you know they are fledged out on branches looking almost as big as the parents.

Awesome, I've seen that peregrine from afar in Burgess Park

haha! it makes a racket, i don’t have a good phone camera but i have a great view. it’s mostly perched on the west facing upper alcove in the spire of the big camberwell church

Think I’ve just seen a pair of peregrines in courtship flight (or juvenile high jinks?) over Horniman / Sydenham hill. I’m not 100% because although they were nippier and hawk-like in flight, they appeared browner, lighter and less grey. Either way, a nice distraction this afternoon!

Quite likely they were Hobbies.

Been windy today, so quite possible to have some out-of-place visitors. Never seen one before, but having looked into the description of flying ‘like a large swift’ and the colouring, it does sound more likely. Need to practice being quicker on the draw with the binoculars

And I was considering getting a scope, just to use at home/balcony, not in the field. Not after anything fancy, but any recommendations or advice, basic do’s & dont’s?

Anybody have an idea what this is? Was at about 2500m in Austrian Alps. Terrible photos I know.

About five minutes earlier we saw a golden eagle. This thing was considerably smaller.

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I think it’s a Cinereous Vulture

Good call. Possibly. The local tourist office will likely be the best place to ask. Will post if we get confirmation.

The Dance.

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The Clean.

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