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."

[zebthecat]

Yes I know they are not birds but I am having a bat-fest at dusk every evening.
Have also heard Jays but not seen them yet; they are beautiful.

[WHU(Exeter)]

Nurse and Aalborg

Thanks very much for the chilli tips. I used oil as suggested and every plant and flower has remained in tact since. 

Was a bit of an unexpected twist with the Himalayan blue poppies. Two years for the fuckers to finally flower and when they do, they are a beautiful sight. Not reading the small print though, turns out they flower for just over a week. Cheers Mother Nature.

[F 129 Row66]

I had a Norwegian Blue Parrot in my pear tree yesterday, but it was chased away by the cassowaries that had made a nest there.

[zebthecat]

One thing I have noticed over the past few days is that the swifts are back. I have not seem them hear for years and it not just the odd or two it is LOTS of them. I love watching them do their their thing; they are stunt birds. Only the bats are more manouverable - they can change direction so violently they are difficult to follow. 

[Mike Oxsaw]

Where you live Mike? How could you turn your back on European birds?

I'm currently in NE Thailand (Issan), which borders Cambodia.

I was away, working in the Middle East, from 2014 until 2021, and things have seemingly changed since before Covid.

Sparrows & pigeons mainly, which I don't recall noticing before.

That being said, the village I live in is being developed at a remarkable pace and maybe these 2, apparently new, species can better adapt to the buildings replacing the trees, grassland and farmland.

Couple of crows seem to have taken up permanent residency with noisy offspring chasing them from tree to tree, demanding food.

The main thoroughfare offers them ample road-kill when the street-hounds come into season: the dogs inevitably attempt to cross the highway over the newly installed 3-feet high concrete crash barrier in order to reach the bitches, almost always straight into the path of a large truck steaming through the village at 80km/h.

[Tomshardware]

Downloaded the Merlin bird app, the other day. It identifies birds in the immediate area by their song. Great for finding out what birds are hidden around if you're not some sort of expert at identifying their songs and they rarely show themselves/ are tiny little green or brown birds that all look the same from a distance. Get plenty of different types at the feeders but never knew what ones just hang around in the wood at the end of my garden and don't use feeders. Apparently I have a load of wrens, chiffchaffs and blackcaps down there.

That's a nice few varieties of birds you have.  Wrens are incredible little birds,  can belt out a song considering their size.

[One Sunny Day]

Downloaded the Merlin bird app, the other day. It identifies birds in the immediate area by their song. Great for finding out what birds are hidden around if you're not some sort of expert at identifying their songs and they rarely show themselves/ are tiny little green or brown birds that all look the same from a distance. Get plenty of different types at the feeders but never knew what ones just hang around in the wood at the end of my garden and don't use feeders. Apparently I have a load of wrens, chiffchaffs and blackcaps down there.

[WHU(Exeter)]

Have had a Himalayan blue poppy flower yesterday. Taken it two years!....well chuffed

[Tomshardware]

Where you live Mike? How could you turn your back on European birds?

[Mike Oxsaw]

A pair of mynah birds have rammed a nest in behind one of my a/c units and fuck are they messy builders.

Got my washing machine outside below the a/c and every morning it is covered in grass and twigs that have fallen from the nest.

Do they swoop down and gather all their shit up and put it back? Do they fuck! They simply bring more shit in from the mynah's version of a local builder's merchants.

Bastards!

[Tomshardware]

Found 2 birds nests this week.

First one was a wrens nest in a climbing rose, she shot out of the nest as I was nearby, she did return as she's  got eggs to sit on. 

Second nest was a blackbirds, the male had been gathering food and I chucked it a couple of leatherback grubs.  Saw it fly off to a yew hedge, managed to find the nest and see a brood of hungry chick's.

[Trilby55]

I’ve probably mentioned this before on this thread but I’m sad at the lack of swallows martins and swifts . Less each year . As a youngster I remember having twenty or thirty above me at any time . I’ve heard a cuckoo each day for the last few days and ravens are getting about . I think the noise they make is called gronking ! 

[zebthecat]

That is wonderful.

[Nurse Ratched]

SWIFTS!

[WHU(Exeter)]

I've surrounded the remaining geums with chilli powder now and hoping that'll work, as they've already ripped up and destroyed enough for one year. Get foxes rooting around too.

[Nurse Ratched]

Anyone got any tips on stopping squirrels ripping out buds and small plants? Read that a few spices could work, but anyone had the same and been able to put a stop to it?

I found the most effective deployment of chilli/capsaicin as a squirrel deterrent was when I bought really strong chilli oil off Amazon and put it in an oil-spray bottle to squirt over the feeders. The effect on the squirrel was immediate and dramatic. It didn't return that year. But the downside was it made it more annoying to clean the feeders. So overall I wouldn't do that again. 

Anybody wondering about the safety of the birds: birds do not have capsaicin receptors (unlike mammals) so any format of chilli doesn't affect them. 

[Nurse Ratched]

Nurse- I don't know if it's the same your end but there seems to be a lack of birds coming to our live meal worm feeder- this time last year ,I'd be getting through a kilo bag a week ..maybe it's a bit early for nesters.
I'm happy to report that our resident pair of Firecrests nesting in our Cypress tree -the Chiffchaff, blackcap and garden sparrow are singing their little hearts out and a full set of woodpeckers are present lesser ,greater and green - sad that there's no sign of our nuthatch yet. Song thrush ,wren ,dunnock and tawny owls all here too.
We're in farming country and 20 years ago ,our feeders would be full of linnets,yellowhammers,siskins and redpolls - not so much now -  maybe due to the housing estates that have gone up - the greenfinches,goldfinches and bullfinches
seem to be made of sterner stuff and empty our big seed feeders in a week !

Now you mention it, yes.

They were coming into my sitting room to take the worms more frequently a few weeks ago but I wonder if that was to do with courtship feeding. Less interest currently. That's a bit odd though because you would assume the mild Spring would have encouraged early breeding. Possibly there are abundant natural sources of food about because of the mild spring. There has certainly been significantly more airborne insect activity this spring compared to recent years. 

[WHU(Exeter)]

Cheers, tried the ground black pepper and that put off the cat (the little git), but not the squirrels - I'll give the chilli pepper a go though. They seem to have a real 'thing' for geums. 

[Aalborg Hammer]

Exeter - sprinkle some chilli powder or ground pepper around their foraging spots

[WHU(Exeter)]

Anyone got any tips on stopping squirrels ripping out buds and small plants? Read that a few spices could work, but anyone had the same and been able to put a stop to it?

[Aalborg Hammer]

Nurse- I don't know if it's the same your end but there seems to be a lack of birds coming to our live meal worm feeder- this time last year ,I'd be getting through a kilo bag a week ..maybe it's a bit early for nesters.
I'm happy to report that our resident pair of Firecrests nesting in our Cypress tree -the Chiffchaff, blackcap and garden sparrow are singing their little hearts out and a full set of woodpeckers are present lesser ,greater and green - sad that there's no sign of our nuthatch yet. Song thrush ,wren ,dunnock and tawny owls all here too.
We're in farming country and 20 years ago ,our feeders would be full of linnets,yellowhammers,siskins and redpolls - not so much now -  maybe due to the housing estates that have gone up - the greenfinches,goldfinches and bullfinches
seem to be made of sterner stuff and empty our big seed feeders in a week !

[Mex Martillo]

Zeb, I used to get that pollen or spring and autumn allergies thing when the seasons were changing. Then after 8 years of seeing different doctors about a minor but very annoying sore tummy, 2 years ago I had an appointment with a smart female doctor who after a few tests found I was celiac and put me on a gluten free diet. My tummy is much better now and I no longer get allergies and a snotty mess twice a year. Not sure, but I wonder if it is all related?

[Nurse Ratched]

[zebthecat]

It is wonderful Nurse and such a contrast to last year.
Loads of bees and butterflies already, the apple trees in my garden are about to come into blossom and the bats are stuffing their faces at dusk every day.
Four years ago I planted a tree (Amelanchier Lamarckii) in my front garden and it has struggled but is full of blossom this year.
Then there are the owls.
The one downside is the epic pollen count - 5 seconds and I am a snotty, bleary choking mess even with allevia. Worth it though for sure.

[Nurse Ratched]

How beautiful is this Spring? I've been grinning like a simpleton. Blue skies, bright, fluffy blossom on the trees, loads of bees about and the birds are wonderfully busy and shouting their heads off.