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."

[Nurse Ratched]

Wonderful. I can't wait to see robin fledglings. They're dopey looking little buggers. I've had baby/fledgy greenfinches for the last few days.

[Nurse Ratched]

Wonderful. I can't wait to see robin fledglings. They're dopey looking little buggers. I've had baby/fledgy greenfinches for the last few days.

[Fo the Communist]

I have a robin in the garage current sitting on a nest with a couple of chicks already hatched . Me and the family are in and out of there several times each day and the mother (the robin not the missus) is completely unflustered. The nest is on a shelf at about beer belly height right by the door.

[zico]

"I just found a reasonably local wildlife and ambulance service online and spoke to someone. She advised to leave the hole in the wall till,,,,September, and to give them a call if I find anymore fledglings and they can advise. Apparently it's not the scent from you handling them that scares off the parents but if the parents see a human handling one so I may just put the next one in a shoe box temporarily inside and call that centre. Will look for a more local one on Facebook thanks. The hole has been there for years but I have never ever seen a fledgling in the house so to have two in two days is bizarre, just can't understand where they have appeared from."

[Aalborg Hammer]

"zico,they'll be a wildlife rescue centre near you somewhere- our local one is on facebook and awash with fledglings!!"

[zico]

"Nurse Ratched 2:01 Mon May 31 Just rang RSPB and it's just a message saying they aren't taking calls due to Covid and to ring the RSPCA, which I have already done. The advice on the message was just to leave the bird where you found it or if required leave it in a safe spot! Otherwise contact a local wildlife centre or local vet! Not much help really."

[zico]

"I rang the RSPCA, the only one open on a Sunday, and they just said to leave them alone as it's nature and to wait until any chirping stops and fill the hole. Hardly helpful considering I am as deaf as a post! Will try the RSPB when it's open. No idea where they are coming from, had one flying in the kitchen about a month ago who thought a sponge scourer was food! Saw what I assumed was a parent fly down to the little fella yesterday but it then flew off. Apparently caring for them doesn't help as any captivity lessens their chance of survival. It's a quandary because as they can't yet fly they are at risk to predators and the RSPCA said up to 85% of fledglings don't survive"

[Aalborg Hammer]

I have a feeder containing live mealworms inside a cage that only small birds like blue tits and nuthatches can enter - we have a family of thrushes and blackbirds who can't benefit from the feeder but a great tit has taken to getting a beakful of worms and dropping them on to the ground for the larger birds - how kind

[Nurse Ratched]

Oh no. Maybe it would be best to contact a local branch of RSPB or another wildlife group and ask their advice. I think maybe the chicks weren't yet at an independent seed-eating stage and still relying on their parents to feed them.

[zico]

"Glad I found this thread as I could do with some advice about Blue Tits. On Saturday morning I heard tweeting and found, what I now know was a fledgling Blue Tit in my lounge. Not knowing what to do I managed to guide it to my sliding doors and out into the garden where it wasn't to happy on the uneven pea beach! Cue the neighbours cat appearing which I shoed off several times but when I next saw it unfortunately it had a look of content on it's face! Sunday I found another fledgling in my kitchen! I had looked up bits since Saturday and used gloves to stop my scent putting off its parents and carried it carefully to a hidden area and placed it next to some bird seed. Kept checking on it but eventually it was on it's side with laboured breathing and sadly it passed. I was gutted tbh and buried the little fella. Not sure what else I could do. I think they have nested in an old over flow pipe hole in my brick work and the poor blighters probably fell down the waste pipe covering down under my kitchen sink area where they somehow crept under the small crack where my dishwasher cupboard doesn't quite reach the floor. That's all I can think of how they appeared. I have purchased a birds nesting box and was going to fill the hole and place the box on the wall (although after reading this I am not sure if that's a good idea!) However how long do I leave it until I fill the hole as I know it's illegal to interfere with nests and of course you can't see it so how on earth will I know when the are all gone?"

[Nurse Ratched]

Unintended consequences: I have spent a significant portion of my bank holiday weekend acting as a live 'scarecrow' against hordes of starlings who have worked out why the robins and great tits are flying in and out of my house.

[Far Cough]

"Cony, never mind lasers, the amazing Lyre Bird mimics chain saws, camera shutters, car alarms and more... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSB71jNq-yQ"

[Nurse Ratched]

"It's fledgling great tit day! Enormous commotion and racket in the tree and on the feeders. Babies shimmying and squeaking, begging their parents for morsels. I've been sending videos of the ABSOLUTE SCENES to my kids. No fledglings in my sitting room yet, but the parents, probably sensibly, don't seem to be encouraging them to come into my house."

[Cony Tottee]

When I say laser I mean the sort of sound you'd expect a laser to make when fired on a tv show!!!

[Cony Tottee]

Crassus There is a bird called the Eastern Whipbird which makes a sound a bit like a laser every 30 seconds or so. We had them near us when we stayed near Cairns but not sure where else they live.

[Crassus]

"Not so sure about quails, the sound was coming from half way up my eucalyptus, about 25ft Buggered if I know, but have reinstated Chirpomatic,so if I get a repeat I will check that out"

[gph]

It is rare. Those kind of brothels are usually sound-proofed. So I've been told.

[lowermarshhammer]

"Whip whip whip (wet my lips) Nurse has it right probably. Maybe maximum 400 to 500 calling males per annum in UK so definitely a decent heard not seen spot. I've only seen once in about 30 years now, that was about 5 years ago"

[lab]

Nurse ....arf !

[Nurse Ratched]

Quail?

[Crassus]

"Can anyone identify a bird call I heard today Heard this very infrequently and it is noticeably different to the normal chorus Changed phones so Chirpomatic is disabled Also live on the edge of village backing on to open farmland/hedgerows, so that type of habitat So, quite loud and shrill, no tonal variation It sounds in short and sharp bursts, each cheep followed by a pause of broadly equal time , repeated again after about 30 seconds WHIP WHIP WHIP Pause WHIP WHIP WHIP and so on Not the easiest task trying to describe a sound, but any ideas?"

[lab]

"Surface agent ,gph, I just think it’s unfair as corvids around town don’t have a predator and nature gets un balanced , I’m so sad there are not the garden birds around there used to be . I’m lucky enough to drive to the countryside where corvids are controlled. So much more bird song . Such an abundance of birds . It seems so much like what I used to remember . For this I thank game kept estates ."

[lab]

"Surface agent ,gph, I just think it’s unfair as corvids around town don’t have a predator and nature gets un balanced , I’m so sad there are not the garden birds around there used to be . I’m lucky enough to drive to the countryside where corvids are controlled. So much more bird song . Such an abundance of birds . It seems so much like what I used to remember . For this I thank game kept estates ."

[WHU(Exeter)]

"Nurse, just seen your post about the smaller birds and now eating from inside. That is absolutely brilliant, really envious. Had exactly the same problem years ago, lots of little birds of all varieties used to use it, loads of different tits, robins and blackcaps now and again as well. Then some magpies nested near and thought ""well that's that"", but the magpies were surprisingly 'decent' with the smaller ones, didn't bully etc and they'd just have their fill and eat it. They used to let grapes stay there as well after they'd learnt that it was better to eat the grapes when they'd been in the sun for a few days. (I think they used to get off their heads on them). A blackbird used to sit at the bottom of it and occasionally pick up some of the food that had fallen from the feeding table. Once saw it do it and the female blackbird appeared from nowhere and had a right pop at it, it was like ""Iwe're not eating that shit...go get me proper worms""!!! All of that ended when 3 or 4 wood pigeons comeletely took over and the galore of different visitors and sights each day was replaced by them 3 sitting on the bird table for 10 hour stretches and shitting all over it once they'd stuffed their faces. It wasn't really the same again and certainly no contender for a quick slot on spring watch. The wind snapped the feeder in half and we all had to move on. Yours has a much better ending!"

[gph]

"lab -WE'RE absolutely ruthless about our food, too. Even if most of us* keep the gorier bits of the process at arm's length. *Me included"