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."

[ironsofcanada]

Hi, IoC.

My son recently returned from Canada (work stuff). He absolutely loved the place; raved about it. Helicopter ride over Niagara falls and all that caper. I have a video of him scampering after a porcupine, trying to get it to look at the camera for me.

Porcupines are fun until you have to try and get their quills out of your dog's nose. 

Glad he enjoyed himself.

[Nurse Ratched]

Hi, IoC.

My son recently returned from Canada (work stuff). He absolutely loved the place; raved about it. Helicopter ride over Niagara falls and all that caper. I have a video of him scampering after a porcupine, trying to get it to look at the camera for me.

[ironsofcanada]

Not sure I have peeked in here since we moved to our new-ish place.  


As far a birds go, pretty regular variety of crows, robins, starlings but I did see a bluejay for the first time just before our first frosts middle of last month.


Our biggest visitors to the front are deer - muleys mostly.  No surprising I guess since the coulees are only a few blocks away but still not something I saw in other urban areas I have lived.  Even more than when I grew up on an acreage.  And hunting season is upon us.

The visitor I am little worried about is a racoon (family?).  They have the habit of making a real mess of stuff.


 

[Hammer and Pickle]

Hedgehogs are GOOD

[Nurse Ratched]

My hedgehogs buggered off a couple of years ago. Haven't had any since  

[Hammer and Pickle]

Nothing about pigeons but I think the bratchet found a hedgehog trying to hibernate in the leaves set aside in a corner of the garden. She made a fuss (the dog, not the hedgehog) and was told off so is now having a sulk on the sofa.

Animals, both cats and dogs, are very good at emotional blackmail - you’d have thought they’d be pure and natural in their relations.

[Nurse Ratched]

Oh no! For some reason I don't get feral pigeons, only woodies and collared doves.

Regarding cats, a neighbour's cat chased one of my squirrels today. I love cats, but don't want them bothering my garden wildlife. I was thinking of buying a high pressure water pistol type thing. Don't want to hurt them, just don't want them in my garden. I have three squirrels that come into my house to be fed. One is called Ducky (she sits on my fence and 'quacks') and she's very friendly, taking monkey nuts from my hand and hanging around, being curious. There is another squirrel who is a little more timid, but still hand-feeds (no name yet). Then there's a boy called Bog Brush who will not hand feed, but comes in for food. He is in a war for dominance with the other two. He's called Bog Brush because the fur at the base on his tail is flattened, giving the impression of a handle before the fluffy fur splays out. 

[One Sunny Day]

Don't mind the wood pigeons, it's the feral pigeons which are the problem. Used to just get two or three of them in my garden, including one pure white one. Unfortunately they told all their mates and I had a flock of about 100 of them stripping the feeders every day and crapping all over the place. Bought a load of caged feeders which seemed to sort the problem out and back to two or three of them. Actually get 4 species of pigeon in the garden, wood, feral, collared doves and a pair of stock doves. Unfortunately the neighbours bastard cat killed one of the stock doves instead of thinning out the feral pigeons for me.

[Trilby55]

Pigeon breast fried for two mins a side , rest for two minutes , still pink in the middle has a slight game offal flavour . Lovely .

[Nurse Ratched]

[Gank]

You fuckers need to revisit Pigeon Street. They were alright, that lot.

[Mex Martillo]

I couldn't say exactly what sort of pigeons we have here, but certainly not gentlemanly. They dominate all food soucres and do not let other, especially smaller birds in. My most disliked bird species. I really think they are out of control due to lack of predators and that something should be done about them to give other birds a better chance. If I wasn't concerned that their meat is probably diseased I would be hunting and eating them.  Cannot bring myself to cull them though.

[Nurse Ratched]

Wood pigeons. Dopey-looking, pootling buggers, but not to be underestimated. I've always admired their gentlemanly behaviour towards smaller birds. They only become aggressive towards territory interlopers of their own species and collared doves (not much smaller). Plus they will stand their ground against magpies, which is brave of them. However, they're also shrewd. 

They like to hoover up the stray sunflower hearts that drop to the ground under the bird feeders. As soon as they see the tits, finches, sparrows and parakeets descend on the feeders, the woodies also swoop down to the ground to enjoy the dropped seed. 

However after a while it's not enough. They have a strategy. They wait until (usually) the big, heavy parakeets are on the feeders. The woody waits directly underneath. Then suddenly, ostensibly for 'no reason', the woody will burst into noisy, flappy flight, making a huge commotion, but only landing a couple of feet away. This is enough to make the parakeets scatter in panic. As the parakeets take off/accelerate away from the feeders, lots of seed comes tumbling out of the ports onto the ground. Woody waddles casually over to feast.

[Mike Oxsaw]

When I was living in Muscat, there were a few Mynah (not minor, sorry, joyo) birds living around the apartment complex I was living in.

I started putting out bits of fruit for them on my balcony wall and they were quite happy to come and feed, even when i was sat just a few feet away.

Had to stop after a few days though as they are messy feeders and my neighbours in the apartment below complained about fruit "raining down" on their balcony.

Cheeky fuckers - the birds, not the neighbours - then started pecking at my windows - I assume they could see me through the double glazing, even though I was sat in a different room.

Got a tree full of Mynah Birds (again, sorry joyo, not the type to interest you) outside my drum in Thailand, too. Noisy fuckers whom I've yet got to work out how best to feed.

Thought the only 'birds' you was interested in Thailand had cocks and sucked your gout ridden purple toes in your mud hut in the poverty stricken village near the Cambodian border!

The clear and obvious problem there is that you thought you could think.

Ladyboys don't scare me like they obviously do you.

[XKhammer]

When I was living in Muscat, there were a few Mynah (not minor, sorry, joyo) birds living around the apartment complex I was living in.

I started putting out bits of fruit for them on my balcony wall and they were quite happy to come and feed, even when i was sat just a few feet away.

Had to stop after a few days though as they are messy feeders and my neighbours in the apartment below complained about fruit "raining down" on their balcony.

Cheeky fuckers - the birds, not the neighbours - then started pecking at my windows - I assume they could see me through the double glazing, even though I was sat in a different room.

Got a tree full of Mynah Birds (again, sorry joyo, not the type to interest you) outside my drum in Thailand, too. Noisy fuckers whom I've yet got to work out how best to feed.

Thought the only 'birds' you was interested in Thailand had cocks and sucked your gout ridden purple toes in your mud hut in the poverty stricken village near the Cambodian border!

[Mike Oxsaw]

When I was living in Muscat, there were a few Mynah (not minor, sorry, joyo) birds living around the apartment complex I was living in.

I started putting out bits of fruit for them on my balcony wall and they were quite happy to come and feed, even when i was sat just a few feet away.

Had to stop after a few days though as they are messy feeders and my neighbours in the apartment below complained about fruit "raining down" on their balcony.

Cheeky fuckers - the birds, not the neighbours - then started pecking at my windows - I assume they could see me through the double glazing, even though I was sat in a different room.

Got a tree full of Mynah Birds (again, sorry joyo, not the type to interest you) outside my drum in Thailand, too. Noisy fuckers whom I've yet got to work out how best to feed.

[Nurse Ratched]

Arf!

[One Sunny Day]

Had the back door open in the summer and had a squirrel ran in, escaping from a cat, up the stairs and found it climbing around on the curtains in the kids bedroom. Fortunately managed to shoo it out, back down the stairs and out the door before it did too much damage.

[Nurse Ratched]

A word to the wise: do NOT add monkey nuts to your bird/wildlife feeding regime if you do not wish to be beseiged by quarrelsome corvids and have a squirrel brazenly and regularly walk into your house to alert you that they want more. Ask me how I know 

[Hammer and Pickle]

Apart from it being really sad, it really is a call for action and maybe we can agree this is a real news story?

https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... abirds-aoe

[WHU(Exeter)]

Little pond I've put in has seen birds come back to the garden, as the pond attracts a whole new wave of inscects and bugs. No frogs or newts so far though, just mosquito larvae, which is always a fantastic addition to any garden

worth having it though for the increased bird visits and dragonflys that are also turning up more.

Plus watching water snails do their thing, whilst following updates on the COO on a Saturday afternoon. Bliss.

[dealcanvey]

Think we will hear a lot more about bird flu in the years to come. Not because it is more prevalent, but because it gets tested for so much more than ever before.  

[Nurse Ratched]

Bird flu. Quite a few dead pigeons around where I live. Seems no explanation to why they die. Could it be bird flu? Anything strange in your area?

Thankfully nothing like this in my area. In fact it's been a brilliant year for the birds here. Hardly any insects, though. These things tend to happen in cycles, don't they? 

[Mex Martillo]

Bird flu. Quite a few dead pigeons around where I live. Seems no explanation to why they die. Could it be bird flu? Anything strange in your area?

[zebthecat]

It'll take a bit of getting used to but it is nothing like as bad the makeover that the web site I work on has just had. It is an eye-searing, back to the 90s combination of electric blue and canary yellow and the main typeface looks suspiciously like a grown up version of Comic Sans especially the capital letters. It makes my head hurt.


 

I'm still doing a staggered start. 

Same here to build up tolerence.