For WHO's birders

[Nurse Ratched]

"I thought you might like this video.



It's a compilation of different birds singing. Beautiful photography. If you expand the 'title' under the video it gives a list of species and the times they pop up in the video. Most of the species are familiar to us in the UK, but there are some 'exotics' (the cranes - wow, what a noise!) It was filmed in Belarus. The guy has a channel you can subscribe to. Anyway, I hope you enjoy it and maybe it'll take your mind off you-know-what for a few blessed minutes."

[gph]

"Until I read the Wiki article on woodpigeons, I didn't know they are known in the South-East of England as culvers. Which is odd, as I spent the first 18 years of my life in Essex, and probably another decade in bits of London, on and off."

[zebthecat]

"I have loads of Collared Doves and Wood Pigeons. Wood Pigeons have to be the the most inept animals, given there name, at actually coping with trees. They are spectacularly clumsy and sort of crash land with a lot consequent wing thrashing to get their balance."

[Crassus]

"Oh and collared doves cooing on the fence, bless them"

[Crassus]

"Brilliant thread and very informative As a consequence I can now differentiate between blue, great and coal tits Of the confirmed garden views since lock down I am now up to the following, but have others I am not sure of Definite Blue, coal and great tits Robin Wren Blackbird Starling Goldfinch Lesser Spotted woodpecker Pheasant Wood Pigeon Canada Geese Swan Red Kite Magpie Sparrow Hawk Unknown Various sparrows, not sure which, house hedge or otherwise, but they are almost certainly nesting in a shrub of mine A variety of little brownish flighty buggers Long tailed individuals, that I reckon may be LT Tits And a fuck off great solid black condor impersonator, crow I reason, but cant confirm. totally black and menacing but double shrewd - I found two of the fat ball feeders upon the ground, blamed the mags, so wired them on to a branch, but caught the villain at work. hopped along the branch and having failed to have them away, flipped the lid of the suspended feeders, impaled the first ball and flew off with it, back in five, off went the second. that's fucked him I thought, even that beak won't get down to the third and it did not, he just blinked and lifted the bottom and emptied it to claim his prize - had to admire his intuition so let him return to the second formally grounded feeder to repeat the process, now with wire secured lids and longer wire suspension A couple of dramas, a ground feeding woody facing off a magpie who promptly retreated to a fence and called in support, big bugger arrived and the two of them saw off the game woody and then the brutal extraction of a starling from the eaves by a sparrow hawk, he put up a fight but it was all in vain, hawk was not giving up his quarry Loving this bird based caperage and noting the fact that most of the sightings involve paired couples, apart from the starling swarms of course"

[Nurse Ratched]

Collared doves are very pretty.

[gph]

"UK pigeon (adult) numbers: collared doves 1.98mn; woodpigeons: 1.1mn; rock doves (the ones that first invaded our cities): 1.1mn. In 1950, there were 0 (or as near as damn it) collared doves in the UK. They arrived in the mid-50s."

[Nurse Ratched]

To say I was surprised is something of an understatement.

[Nurse Ratched]

To say I was surprised is something of an understatement.

[zebthecat]

They are beautiful creatures. Have only seen one in 14 years here but hear them hammering away all the time.

[Nurse Ratched]

"And robins, of course."

[Nurse Ratched]

"It's overcast and windy in shitty london, but in the last hour of watching my bird feeders, I have seen: Coal tits, blue tits, great tits, tree sparrows, a jay, collared coves, a wood pigeon, and... To my utter astonishment and delight: 1 greenfinch (heard before, but never seen) TONS of goldfinches (first sightings ever) and...a great spotted woodpecker, which almost caused me to explode with joy."

[Nurse Ratched]

Lovely looking bird.

[alan devonshire]

"I am bordering Kent and last week had two birds in the garden I have never seen before, looked up my book of birds and it looks like they were red legged partridges, that’s all"

[gph]

"*Its niche*, FFS"

[gph]

"Azure-winged magpies https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/4/4f/Azure-winged_magpie_%28Cyanopica_cyanus%29_in_Tokyo.webm/Azure-winged_magpie_%28Cyanopica_cyanus%29_in_Tokyo.webm.480p.vp9.webm Once, there was a forest which stretched from one end of Eurasia to the other, and these birds lived in it.* Now they only live in Portugal, and China and some points eastwards. *it's niche is between the dense woods favoured by jays and more open woodland/not woodland favoured by common magpies"

[Hammer and Pickle]

We’ve just had a visit from a Camberwell Beauty (Nymphalis antiopa). Only ever seen one once before in Spain. This calls for a bottle of bubbly with today’s curry.

[Ronald_antly]

"You must live near an APIARY, Matron."

[Nurse Ratched]

"This has been the most beautiful spring that I can recall. Made even better by the fact that there is less ape activity and noise than usual (though, sadly, ape noise and presence is gradually ramping up again)."

[zebthecat]

"Coffee 9:26 Sat May 9 Thanks, been there. Every year there are a bunch of Herons that nest nest in the trees on the left edge of Weirwood. Puts you in mind of how Pteradactyls would have done it. Birds are dinosaurs after all."

[Hammer and Pickle]

Teeeeee-wit! Hoo ooo! Nice one Crassus.

[Crassus]

Found the bird whisperer - Percy Edwards Blimey his obit' brings back some very early memories

[Coffee]

"zebthecat 1:32 Sat May 9 There's a - what's it called, there's a name for it? - birders outlook setup down by the Weirwood reservoir. Worth a visit if you've nowt better to do."

[Coffee]

Crassus 9:05 Sat May 9 Brilliant!

[Crassus]

"This is a delightful thread, we are fortunate in that beyond our garden fence is nothing but rolling fields and hedgerows Always had feeders up without exploring the visitors too specifically, and retain nothing but basic knowledge of whats what ornithological but have a question Few years ago I read an amusing tale of a couple that moved into a house with a large hedge obstructing sight lines with their neighbours. Relations between the two households were at nothing more than polite nodding until one day the two women met in their village shop. discussing their husbands one revealed that her bloke was a birder, as was the others, one then revealed somewhat apologetically, that hers need be excused for his strange ways of 'talking to owls'.Much relieved the other said her fella did too. Transpired that the two silly buggers had been chatting to each other unbeknown in 'owl' from either side of their shrubbery Well this amused me and I thought this must be a thing, so one quiet evening hooted at the fence line and before long had a hoot back The other night it was a still as could be so said to the kids I would see if I could rustle up an owl, much to their amusement, bloody hell, whatever my hooting said in owl it had a response, several from all directions kicked off and one ended up coming very close My daughter joined in but laddo, the cheeky bugger, played faux interest and filmed the process, whacking it on his mates social media group, much hilarity at my expense So, curiosity getting the better of me, I am wondering if communication with bird life is part of the pursuit? I do recall as a kid a strange old bloke on telly whistling away in 'bird' but can't remember if it was imitation or conversational"

[Bouncing Ludo]

"Got up at 5 this morning to catch the dawn chorus in the local woods (Cambridgeshire) Lots of wrens, woodpeckers, chiff-chaffs and obviously pigeons. Saw the odd coal tit. Also saw a Hare which was in a field of rape so we stared at each other for a while before he got bored and sloped off. Walking back a fox lolloped out onto the path with breakfast - a particularly large pheasant. He disappeared almost instantly in case I wanted to share, Glorious."