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."

[WHU(Exeter)]

"Zeb, I saw a jay in my street in Bristol this week, there used to be a couple around every day for a couple of weeks, but that was months ago and haven't seen one since til this week. I love their colours but every time I try to photograph one of them they fleet away right before I press click."

[Nurse Ratched]

How lovely for you both. *smiles through gritted teeth*

[Aalborg Hammer]

"When we built the house 25 years ago, we planted some trees to attract the birds.Rowan , Holly and Cotoneaster... We have a glut of berries on two of the three this year and have been rewarded with Fieldfares and Redwings this last week...I'm told they winter on Salisbury Plain Had a week in Cornwall & Devon last week and saw Meadow & rock pipits along with a Rose coloured starling at Hartland Quay...got talking to a local bird watcher in the shop and he showed us where to look.He said they're rarely seen west of Greece - he was surprised they weren't swamped by twitchers!"

[zebthecat]

"I am jealous lab, that is great. I have never seen one. Just usual suspects here; the sparrow clan are very noisy by day and the owls are having a chat tonight. Did see the pair of Jays this weekend rather just hearing them. They are easier to spot now the leaves are falling and they are beautiful but like to hide away from us humans understandably.."

[zebthecat]

"I am jealous lab, that is great. I have never seen one. Just usual suspects here; the sparrow clan are very noisy by day and the owls are having a chat tonight. Did see the pair of Jays this weekend rather just hearing them. They are easier to spot now the leaves are falling and they are beautiful but like to hide away from us humans understandably.."

[lab]

Came across a pair of whitethroats in a hedgerow yesterday .

[Nurse Ratched]

There are grey wagtails on the Thames in the area of the new GLC building (the one that looks like a foetal woodlouse).

[azel senior]

"Anyone else see the fall of Grey Wagtails in the outdoor malls of Westfield last night? Or are they always there? So many, I could hear them over the singing Genk fans that were passing through!"

[Crassus]

"I quick word of thanks to the contributors of this wonderful thread In a world of grief and a site of antagonistic fuckwittery, this has maintained a benign calmness in it's appreciation of the natural world and inhabitants Always a smile riser this one, foxes to hedgehogs, birds of all type and now web evasion And that's a sequence of appreciative smiles from the heart, good for the soul this small place"

[plankton]

"WHU(Exeter) 8:13 Thu Oct 14 Re: For WHO's birders Garden dilemmas... Problem I have now is that the web in question cramps my movements in the garden unless I walk right through one of the threads holding the whole fucking thing together, and after watching him/her building it, I can't do that with a clear conscience. ____________________________ Don't worry too much about disturbing their webs - they can repair and rebuild them pretty quick - after all, that's what nature wants them to do and has designed them for :)"

[Nurse Ratched]

"I'll give that a go, cheers."

[azel senior]

"Nurse, Yes they do flock. Chuck some old apples out on the lawn when it gets a bit colder."

[WHU(Exeter)]

"I bet though that if I actually developed 'car nip' with a few fancy words and a sell buy date people would actually buy it. ""Car nip, well we haven't got that""..?.?."

[WHU(Exeter)]

"Gph, I reckon the car nip would probably b better short term than the cat nip. The latter gets them off their guard and there are years worth of territorial ground they lose in 5 minutes whilst on the nip."

[Tomshardware]

"Too many cats in our street for my liking, the robins never seem to hold down a territory probably because they get fed up of stressing over cats everywhere. The blackbirds do however remain and seem to plod on with sticking around here. Lack of starling activity compared to normal years is a bit worrying."

[gph]

"Sorry to pick on a typo, but car nip plants sound a bit worrying..."

[Nurse Ratched]

"Thanks for the reminder, azel. I had a single redwing visit my tree a few times earlier in the year, so I now know they cut about round here. Obviously I have no way of knowing if it was the same redwing each time. They're supposed to flock, aren't they? I just saw one each time."

[azel senior]

Should be starting to see the Redwing and Fieldfare dropping in about now.

[Crassus]

"Exe Wonderful Ours are true rural foxes, so far more naturally cautious of humans. We have also been at pains to keep them 'their side' of the fence so as to not humanise them and their activity starts around dusk, never seen during the day time"

[WHU(Exeter)]

"Crassus, I thought the same, that it might be a 'time of the year' type scenario, was a vixen and two cubs, with the male only very occassionaly seen. There's a small Anderson shelter in the unused garden next door and I wondered if they were living under or even in it. The cubs used to start playing around in the garden just before dawn and it was good to watch, all of them nonchalant as well, sitting on the wall in broad daylight even if you went within a few feet of them."

[Crassus]

"Exe I may be able to shed some light on the fox situation At this time of year they often move off to either establish territory, find a mate or both. The vixens then vanish through late winter as they give birth and lay up in their earth, only to reappear with cubs in Spring We had a group appear in the fields at the back, and began feeding them in May. The vixen comes every night and waits if we are out. The cubs have grown on and either moved or perished albeit, we still have up to three foxes plus 'Vixy' attending the nightly feast A good policy is to give them the occasional doughnut, sweet toothed is a fox, then if you see them with mange or some such, medication can be injected within a doughnut Must admit, I have become rather fond of her"

[lab]

"I was stood in a wood in Hampshire yesterday ,a buck fallow deer walked behind me about 25 yards away . Big lump . A real deep brown almost black in colour ,it got a whiff of me and broke into a canter , my lab gave it a gentle woof !"

[WHU(Exeter)]

"Had foxes in the garden but they seem to have moved on and actually miss them. The racket halfway through the night not so much. Would love hedgehogs if only to see the reaction of a neighbours OCD cat who I swear notices the falling of a single leaf. Think hedgehogs would blow its mind and maybe distract him from the turf war he's been unsuccessfully running to defend a coup!e car nip plants. Nurse, now that the sex of the hedgehog has been determined have you considered a bit more of a feminine name for it, maybe Tankette?"

[zebthecat]

I have the juvenile fox back kipping at the bottom of the garden. He/She my cat and me have come to an understanding. The fox looks very healthy and obviously well fed.

[zebthecat]

Yes it is. Good that the sun is still about. The colours haven't come out here yet - that's my favourite bit.