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."

[Crassus]

"lab I've mentioned this before, it can be done relatively easy at the right time of the year Cutting to the chase, I read a story where a couple moved into a house, the husband a keen ornithologist, with a large hedge between them and the neighbours. Relations were cordial but not intrusive. One day the wife met the woman next door and they started chatting, got onto their husbands and discovered that they were both birders, furthermore, one said to the other the somewhat sheepishly, that her old man chatted to owls every night, hooting away. Much amusement followed when the other said hers did too and clearly the silly sods were hooting at each other. Then one balmy spring night, drink had been taken and actual owls were having a hoot off in the fields behind, I recounted the story to the kids. My daughter asked me to 'speak' with the owls, so I did Over the following few weeks when ever they had their mates round I had to march out and have a chat with my new mates, not quite so easy when drink had not been taken....."

[lab]

You call to owls ? I’ve called carrion crows and magpies but never owls.

[Crassus]

"Twilight yesterday morning and a squawk interrupted my first fag Then a barn owl chased by a crow(? black silhouette) flew over the left fence then skimmed the ground before swerving around a big eucalyptus on the right to make his escape A big, beautiful bird and the agility ..... I enjoyed that, first formal sighting of an owl albeit over the years heard plenty in the fields behind, even 'spoke' with a few but that's another story"

[BN2]

Pair of black redstarts in the garden yesterday. Very pretty

[Mex Martillo]

"Cricky, an owl smaller than a blackbird! I try my best, but that does not sound easy to spot, would love too though."

[Hammer and Pickle]

"They're tiny Mex, smaller than a blackbird, so you'll have maybe heard rather than seen them. The call is a single sort of submarine sonar-type ""ping"" repeated at intervals after sundown - used to be a common feature of the Med, now sadly rare. Last one I heard was years ago in the Mora de Ebre region."

[Mex Martillo]

"Hammer and Pickle, I hate to say I have never seen an owl in the wild. Would love to. I looked up scops owls apparently their range covers where I live so perhaps one day?"

[zebthecat]

Tomshardware 10:43 Tue Feb 14 Oh yes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1s1YNwlM8g

[Tomshardware]

I'd bloody love a pet starling.

[Mr Anon]

"This may annoy the twitchers so sorry nurse but I had no idea what great mimics starlings are, friend has raised one they found laying injured on lawn and it's mental the noises it makes. Phone, TV tunes etc. Apparently they can talk so they're trying to teach it"

[Mr Anon]

"This may annoy the twitchers so sorry nurse but I had no idea what great mimics starlings are, friend has raised one they found laying injured on lawn and it's mental the noises it makes. Phone, TV tunes etc. Apparently they can talk so they're trying to teach it"

[Hammer and Pickle]

Do you have Scops owls Mex? They once used to be a lot more common in their range.

[Mex Martillo]

"Mrs. Jones, I absolutely love the Hoopoe, they come to my garden and eat the poisonous processionary caterpillars that come down from the pine trees. Boy do I hate those caterpillars and boy do I love to see the hoopoe eating them, need a lot more hoopoes in this world. I haven't seen one yet, but I've heard them, they kind of go puput and thats what they call them in these parts."

[lab]

"Wow , would love to see one of those"

[Hello Mrs. Jones]

I'm in Mallorca and saw my first Hoopoe yesterday. Stunning bird.

[Nurse Ratched]

Great stuff!

[Hammer and Pickle]

Delighted to report the sighting of a pair of black woodpeckers obviously househunting on the edge of the forest. The local raven pair was also out and about. Signs of some big packs of boar as well. Spring is definitely in the air.

[zebthecat]

Starlings are wonderful. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-england-cornwall-64599052

[Crassus]

"Good for you Nurse, at least you gave one a fair start, don't know much about hedgehogs but I wonder if they return to successful breeding sites/food sources? We had similar with our rural foxes, Vixen delivered 6x cubs with us feeding them daily For 18 months since she left her brethren, she patiently waited at our fence for supper. Then her fella, and ultimately all eight Then one night, nothing, not to be seen since - most strange. She and the dog used to come to the call, then suddenly gone Not unusual behavior but they routinely return to previous earths and feeding sites but nothing seen since October - absolutely stunning creatures in the picture of health too, mind you, the amount and quality of food we were dispensing it's no shock"

[Nurse Ratched]

"Crass First Tank left us, then her baby Biscuit left us, and neither has returned. We haven't had any hedgehogs since. There are still routes in and out of our garden, so fingers crossed for the future."

[the exile]

"jack flash - interesting how the finches vary by region. Down here in Herefordshire goldfinches are dead common. A fair number of greenfinches too. Yellowhammers have become noticeably more scarce in recent years. Ref. other comments, plenty of magpies, and numbers of swallows and swifts remain unchanged. Sand martins doing ok too though possibly fewer house martins."

[Crassus]

"Nurse Out of interest, how did you get on with the hogs?"

[Nurse Ratched]

?üëç?üèª

[Mr Anon]

*most

[Mr Anon]

"Of all the people on this site, it's Nurse that's the passionate about birds"