West Ham Online

"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."

"We have a rose hedge along one side of our driveway where after flowering the blooms turn into rose hips, usually we get greenfinches in late August and early September coming in to eat the hips. The numbers have been gradually dwindling for the past few years but this year not a single one has turned up. The number of swallows this year has drastically gone down as well. Any clues as to why ? Other birds numbers don't seem to be any different from usual."

"Kampinos - the large forested area north west of Warsaw. The eagles are common enough - they come up the river where prey like rats and beaver are plentiful. The ravens are one of the local pairs. Got a breeding pair of goshawks nearby and I even see the odd merlin, which is a delight; these can easily be mistaken for swifts until you notice the wing to body ratio is different as is the flight pattern."

"Very nice spot, Pickle. Where?"

White-tailed Sea Eagle as usual being mobbed by a pair of distraught ravens. These things are absolutely massive given it was at least five times the size of a large bird like that.

I see a Red Footed Booby has turned up on the Scilly Isles-only seen in South America - apparently you can't get to the islands 'cos of all the twitchers!!

Saw a grey wagtail bobbing about next to a stream in North Wales.

Think I’ve only had to water the garden 3 times since June :(

"Saw a peregrine falcon take out a pigeon in canonbury this week, I interrupted the final killing and the pigeon flapped under a parked car. Falcon looked peeved. Also there's a family of swans near where I work, in which the parents have fucked off and left two geese in charge of the 5 cygnets, but they occasionally pop in to check on them. Weird."

"Saw a peregrine falcon take out a pigeon in canonbury this week, I interrupted the final killing and the pigeon flapped under a parked car. Falcon looked peeved. Also there's a family of swans near where I work, in which the parents have fucked off and left two geese in charge of the 5 cygnets, but they occasionally pop in to check on them. Weird."

Loads of them at the WE R Festival this weekend especially the Tattoo Tits and Swallows

"A bit of holiday birding. This one was kind of in my face. The sparrows here have a bright blue face and underneath. Cool as fuck, come on the breakfast table looking for crumbs, but respectful enough not to be a hygiene hazard. Looked them up, southern cordon-bleu (Uraeginthus angolensis). Cute little fuckers!"

"Nice one. Earlier just parked up and what i thought was a leaf swirling around and then hitting car window before falling to the ground turned out to be a goldfinch fledgling. Poor little thing was startled, no sign of parents and it being next to a busy road I picked it up and took it into our garden. Held it for a few minutes and then released it and thankfully it flew off really well into neighbours trees."

"Some flipping good spots, here."

"Some flipping good spots, here."

Saw a pair of Wheatears on a feeder in Yorkshire a couple of weeks ago

"Passed through Eguisheim in Alsace, France where they have storks living in huge great messy nests in the middle of a very picturesque little town. Very amusing and beautiful creatures. Lovely."

"Nurse Ratched 1:55 Thu Aug 10 Thanks Nurse, yes it's Merlin I am using :-) Had a Spotted Flycatcher in the garden yesterday!"

Nurse Ratched 1:56 Thu Aug 10 Ah shame. Thanks for the Merlin recommendation a few weeks back. It is really good at picking through multiple birds singing at once and a handy way of learning to identify the songs as well. I went on a Nightjar walk a few weeks ago in the Ashdown Forest. Did not see any but did hear them - they are bloody noisy at dusk (Merlin got them as well). Almost all of the nesting birds have gone now except Wood Pigeons having yet another go. It is definitely quantity over quality for them as their nests are a total disaster area. Did see a pair of jays and swifts swooping overhead yesterday. After all the miserable rain the bats are back and watching them at dusk is marvellous. Also the Tawny Owls have started calling to each other again. Marking out their territories and gearing up for the next breeding season probably.

Birding doldrums. ‚ò?Ô?è

"Snareston - depends on the app. I'm on Android, and I've probably tried all of them for our region (Britain/Northern Europe). By far the best and most accurate is 'Merlin'. After downloading it, you then download a packet of data specific to your region. I can't fault it so far."

"Toms, where I work in Bristol, all the offices have the usual type of plants that you see in every office district in every city, bar one place. It's a new hotel that have employed a company to come up with something different, and what they've done is used wild flowers only - it's BY FAR the best display for many a square mile and I'd imagine a lot cheaper than the other plants too. Also get loads of bees around it. I don't know why every city doesn't go in for a lot more of it."

"Whu Exeter, lovely plant and will self seed and spread given half a chance."

How accurate are these bird apps that record and match bird songs? Recorded for 40 minutes yesterday and had 21 different types of birds in and around our garden :-)

"Put quite a bit of Mexican Fleabane down in the garden a few weeks ago, now have ladybirds, which I’ve not seen in my garden for at least 10 years."

"Yes, magpie sounds are not the most relaxing."