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."

"I’m out in Jersey at the mo, nothing out of the ordinary as yet although having a gentle swim in a quiet bay a cormorant popped up about ten yards from me , I dunno who was more surprised , it hung around for about ten seconds before diving . Saw a red squirrel very close this morning ."

"On holiday, lovely place, hotel immaculate - funny enough remarked to Mrs C that aside of anything else, there wasn't even any bird guano in spite of gulls - transpires there is a good reason Well a first for me, got close and personal with a Harris Hawk and saw the beauty in action The hotel has a resident 'bird controller' with his 'gull operative' He periodically appears and at the sight of intruding herberts, sets his hawk loose, swooping and turning through the terraces, then returning for a reward perched on his wrist I had a good chat with the bloke and was able to observe the hawk at a 2ft distance - absolutely stunning bird, hefty beak and scissor hand talons No wonder it doesn't ever get to the terminal point with the gulls, they are off sharp at the mere sight An unexpected holiday highlight"

"I'm very fortunate to live in a greenfinch enclave. Beautiful, fierce-faced little things. Underrated singers."

"House Sparrows up, Greenfinches down. Rubbish."

Jazz is aural farm slurry.

Jazz is aural farm slurry.

Pesky poofy white cat from down the road murdered a wood pigeon on my front lawn yesterday event. The little white shit is in for a thorough soaking when next I see it. Has to be said it did leave the ex pigeon's feathers in a very neat pile...

"Unlike Jazz, which is not nice"

Banjos are the musical equivalent of bacon: they make everything better.

"Don't be fooled Mike, she loves a bit of Bluegrass..... :)"

Nursey's barn door is a banjo-free zone. That's all you need to know.

"You have a barn? There you go, always knew you iz a posh tart really ...."

I could tell you my barn owl chicks story but it's a bit long winded

"They are amazing aren't they Zeb, was sitting in my parents garden years ago and one came in and landed on a silver birch tree, it was only the flash of white that made me see it, as you say they are silent."

Just went into the garden for a ciggie and saw a Barn Owl zoom over left to right. It was utterly silent.

Foxes round here come the size of small Alsatians. I know because once I caught one in the headlights as I came home from late one evening after a really heavy coaching supervision. Maybe it was my spirit animal.

Why would I feed them? The exercise they get from catching their own food helps keep them fit

"The male is very male, he's straight in on the sunflower hearts in the safety cage feeder. with his long beak he can go where the fat pigeons, Skwirls and Rats cannot get to. The lady pecker is far more cautious, she flies around sussing out the lay of the land, sits atop the feeder, more looking about and once SHE has decided he moment is right she daintily pecks away, Alas past month's rat encroachment led to the removal of the peanut feeder and the GSW's favourite food source. Caught one of the rats in a cage trap and drove it 3 miles away to release into the woods but it's mate hung around so no more peanuts for the GSW's for the time being"

"Lovely stuff. I gave a male GS woody that visits, but never his missus."

"I have both male and female greater spotted woodpeckers on my feeder most days. Also have a bonus, unexpected wilding patch where the feeder stood over the winter. Now full of bird poo (Excellent fertiliser) and dropped bird seed I know have barley and some other grasses growing abundantly. Thank birds for bring your own floral diversity"

DON'T FEED THEM Fucking things.

"Just seen my first two York urban foxes, after living here for over 20 years. Much bigger, and much redder than the ones I used to see in Birmingham. Probably due to them hunting rodents and small birds (sorry) rather than the contents of black bin bags, and being less dirtied by traffic fumes. I suppose, from a fox perspective, York is much more like a village than a city like Birmingham. From a human perspective, York is only inferior to Birminghan in one way - Birmingham has better football teams (but none of them is West Ham, so that counts for fuck all)"

"Now looking at my books and am firmly discounting the Lesser Whitethroat (too grey), the Blackcap (lacks a clear black eye stripe) or Wood Warbler (too green). Saw what at first I thought was a pair of sparrows, then looked again because they were sitting too still. Definite black and white tail with ruddy back and wings as they took flight as I approached."

Yup.

Very rare .