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."

[cholo]

"There is an ongoing stork reintroduction programme in West Sussex, I suspect these storks are part of that programme. There are also storks nesting in Norfolk but it seems less likely they are from there."

[Hammer and Pickle]

"Could be, could be. We're talking about the Black Stork here. There are two separate European populations, one that usually breeds around the Rhine in Alsace and Baden-Wurttemberg and winters in Spain and Portugal, and the other in Poland/Belarus/Ukraine that winters in Egypt (2000 pairs in Poland alone. We're having an unusually cold May this year so this pair could be Polish migrants. Have you noticed the ""clacking"" and the red bill?"

[cholo]

"Definitely Storks pickle, not sure if they are actually nesting in the area but they've been around for more than a week or so."

[Hammer and Pickle]

You sure they weren't cranes? Storks nest on chimney stacks and other man-made structures.

[Nurse Ratched]

Ah! Yes I thought you would have seen plenty in Spain.

[cholo]

I'm down here on the east sussex coast. I've seen tons of the ungainly bastards in their nests in Spain

[Nurse Ratched]

"Coffee - so it was a bit blowy, then? ?üòÅ (good, that) Cholo - I thought you were in Spain."

[cholo]

Saw two storks on Sunday that are resident in my local red beds. They are extremely rare in this country apparently.

[Coffee]

"Not entirely off-topic, a description of the cyclone that struck Calcutta last week. A pigeon clings to the neighbours’ overhang. It’s drenched and gives every suggestion of self pity, its head tucked into its breast, its wings drooping, heavy with water. The wind is now working itself into a frenzy. It roars like a hysterical jet engine, screaming and howling in turns of rising volume. There are the sounds of doors slamming, of things banging, booming and crashing. The rain alternates between vertical and horizontal, a concentrated shower of watery nails against the walls and windows. The walls tremble. My wife and I turn to each other and quietly acknowledge the shuddering floor. There is nothing we can do but sit and watch, listen, feel. We are equally spectators and potential participants in an immersive demonstration of pure energy. The windows become a screen for the silhouettes of trees, their dark branches flaying manically, reaching and stretching in desperate agony like madmen begging release from torment. Will the trees last the night? The lights flicker and the air is cool, almost but not quite cold, a delicious contrast to the heat of this normally most stupefying of months. In other circumstances, it would be thrilling, but this is nature expressing raw, unbridled anger and there is no telling what lies ahead. You shouldn’t really find it thrilling; it lacks respect. Awful is better, in its proper sense, because it’s impossible not to feel utterly disempowered in its presence. The pigeon has gone. There can be few places of safety for that bird tonight. There are more booms of crashing wood, of falling masonry and shattering glass. In the rabid caterwauling, the skins of mangoes and lychees, discarded wrappers, and more from the greatly varied detritus of Kolkata’s streets are dispatched onto roofs, into walls, through part-open doors and windows. Anything that is not securely fastened joins that soaring, delinquent dance. Then a brief pause, leaving only the rain drilling onto the balcony. But it’s a temporary respite, for within seconds the engine powers up once more. In the flat opposite an older lady, a widow, sits alone. Her back is straight and she has placed one hand purposefully on each leg just above the knee. She stares at the floor as she did twenty minutes earlier. Through waves of opaque rain, her lips move silently. And still the storm gathers pace, with each minute stronger, louder, faster. Yes, it is thrilling, but terrifying too. Not the terror of vulnerability, nor that of fear for self, but the kind of reflective terror that comes of being witness to hostility and wanton brutality."

[Alfie]

"The tiniest chaffinch has just flapped its little wing upon my window. It knows I am wankered beyond all reasonable boundaries and it's small concern is for me and me only: chaffinches are known to hold concern for human piss artistes. Its little chesty concern is enough to bring me back from the brink. chippy tap upon the window pane. Like a tiny chisel. My children will no doubt be grateful, for this little chaps concern."

[gph]

"Reminiscent of the Crakers' blue organs? (FFS, don't tell Golden Oldie about the sterilisation plot)"

[Far Cough]

Typical women :-)

[Nurse Ratched]

That was lovely

[zebthecat]

"Blue Footed Boobies have a fab dance - Look at my feet, just look at them! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z922by9_6Fw"

[zebthecat]

"Blue Footed Boobies have a fab dance - Look at my feet, just look at them! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z922by9_6Fw"

[Nurse Ratched]

"I saw that (dunnocks mating) in my garden years ago. I agree, it's heady stuff."

[lowermarshhammer]

"Yesterday for the first time ever I saw a pair of dunnocks doing it. If you don't know female dunnocks are sluts, however male dunnocks know this and don't like to bat on a sticky wicket. The female does a bit of flirty dirty dancing with her wings to tell a male she's horny. He wants to jump on but won't do so until he's removed her previous lover's muck so he has a few pecks to clear her for entry and then climbs on board. Filth."

[Tomshardware]

Got a honeysuckle covered in aphids but the blue tits and sparrows are enjoying feasting on them.

[Hammer and Pickle]

The sparrow couple have successfully raised four and you could really get in touch with how happy they are to see them all flying today.

[Gaffer58]

"When the golf club first opened last Wednesday there was both a fox and a deer wandering about, not both on the same part obviously"

[Nurse Ratched]

Ha! I think my lot are between broods.

[zebthecat]

"It is bedlam here. There is big crowd of Starlings and their fledgelings flying about and shouting at each from the oak trees. Had 35-40 on my lawn today rooting for worms. Ditto the house Sparrows, they went quiet for a bit but their fledglings have arrived and the lot of them barely stop moving. There are obvious some nice juicy insects living in my apple trees. Second brood of Jackdaw chick still here (squeek, squeek, squeek). Also saw a Heron flying over this afternoon pursued by mobbing Crows and Magpies. The Heron was not happy with that situation one bit. So glad I am not the office."

[Nurse Ratched]

Anyone else found it's gone a lot quieter over the last few days?

[eswing hammer]

"Watched at least 3 blue tit chicks fledge today , first time I’ve even watched it , they flew onto the roof then over the woods , l think there’s still at least one more in the box , l don’t know if they come back for the night or what but l will miss them , they have been so entertaining!"

[Hammer and Pickle]

Two nightingales going at it now. No cuckoos yet though once the nightingales start that’s just a matter of days.