Birds (the feathered variety)

[Deleted User]

I saw a couple of ninja Jays in my garden. Jays are cool.

[Deleted User]

Jays are indeed beautiful.  It's occured to me that there aren't many finches around here; I may've seen the odd chaffiinch.  My parents have goldfinches, chaffinches, greenfinches and bullfinches.

I also have crows (who roost in the woods with much cawing at twilight) and wrens.  Not that many house sparrows - great tits and blue tits dominate in the small bird category.

Ultra Saffy

We have a pair of bullfinches visit our garden regularly. They're beautiful birds.

SuperCaz

When the mood takes them we get Grey Wagtails, Chaffinches, Goldfinches and green woodpeckers.

debbo

We're got at least four bullfinches, masses of goldfinches and lots of different tits

I saw a hawk today - not sure what kind

and parakeets in bushy park last weekend

Peter Everitt

I had another little walk this afternoon and apart from another Robin and three Parakeets it was mostly boring pigeons and magpies. We used to get loads of different garden birds, finches, tits and the like until they developed the site out the back of our garden and removed all the bushes and trees. Do get some Dunnocks occasionally but as nice as they are, they are a bit dull.

Johnny Blaze

Nuthatch today, some gold and green finches, bullfinch, chaffinch, coal, blue and great tits.

Pretty bog standard but I like to watch them.

[Deleted User]

I saw a nuthatch at my parents house on their half coconut feeder, they are such beautiful birds. 

I forgot that there are wagtails close by in the stream too.  Has anyone noticed that when it snows they come into cities and don't seem to be afraid of humans?  Last year when it snowed I also saw a goldcrest land on the awning of a cafe and my parents have a regular visiting one. 

I hear green woodpeckers regularly in the woods near me and see them in flight but never on trees.  The great spotted are a lot less shy and twizzle round trees and drum loudly just above me when I'm walking friends' dogs in the woods.

Nykie

Today I've seen a bantam that has moved into our back garden,  four redkites, a kestrel or sparrowhawk (I can never decide which they are) two magpies, a thrush that's building a nest in the hedge at the front, two collered doves, blackbirds, some other little birds and a budgie.

Last weekend though, I went to a falconry and had various birds sat on my arm, including a harris hawk, a peregrine falcon (briefly - it wasn't playing) and a golden eagle (also briefly, but because it was so damn heavy!).

Nykie

Oh, and a woodpecker on the tree in the front garden on the nut feeder. It's some sort of stripy one, red, black and white with a red strip on the back of its head. Gorgeous and still quite young. We had the parents last year.

Ultra Saffy

I'm very jealous of those of you with woodpeckers!

Not seen many birds in the garden today, but we have a billion (at least!) frogs in the pond. I frogs

[Deleted User]

A billion frogs has to be worth a woodpecker or two Saffy Sweety Pea

Three siskins flirting with my peanut feeder this morning.

This thread has made me realise I haven't seen any thrushes recently, I like thrushes.

Peter Everitt

Thrushes are on the RSPB red list as the highest priority and threatened globally - I can't remember the last time I saw one.

Nykie - your woodpecker was probably a greater spotted one (possibly a lesser spotted) - I've seen them round where I live but generally see green woodpeckers. I really love the way they fly, so distinctive!

E mmy

@Peter - your knowledge of birds is far greater than mine but i've seen a few robins and magpies around.... the rest - I know they are there because I can hear them! Whilst I was away on business this week in Germany - every morning at 3am the dawn chorus met me like a great boombox!

Ultra Saffy

I was woken up rather early this morning by crows scrapping over the bird feeder

M...eldy

Disturbed a Heron yesterday on my run .... they weren't designed for flying far were they !!


The rook were having a right old party on my roof the other morning and I am sure they had their boots on

DOnt think I have seen a thrush for a while either so I will keep a look for any

compo 1

we get a lot of robins in the back garden magpies used to be a pain but do not come hardly now

[Deleted User]

A budgie Nykie?  I don't think an escaped one would last long out there; they've native to Australia.

[Deleted User]

Saffy Sweety Pea wrote (see)

I was woken up rather early this morning by crows scrapping over the bird feeder

Ditto Saffy and magpies were involved too!  They dispersed when my tired face peered out of my bedroom window.

On a run last year we saw herons and I heard otter calls in the river but my running partner was keen to get on an didn't want to investigate.

I saw a squashed moorhen on my run last week.   Still I see lots of live ones too in the lake near where I live.

I'm going to nip down to the woods today with my binoculars to see if I can spot any great spotted woodpeckers - there are usually a few around.

I love frogs too Saffy... and newts ... and toads.

Peter Everitt

Morning(ish) all! Heard lots of birds this morning but seen very little (maybe 11 is bird siesta time?). Nothing much of interest today so far, just the usual suspects. Did manage to spot the skylarks but too high up so still no idea what they look like.

Emmy_bug - not particularly knowledgeable but can find my way round the RSPB website well enough!

[Deleted User]

Bird identification can be quite confusing, as females are often duller in colour than males and juveniles haven't gained their full plumage (EG young robins don't have red fronts).

I was always puzzled as to why some cormorants had white patches until a birder I asked told me it was an old age thing, kinda like white hair.

The blue tits are on the Vision feeder's fat ball as I type - about a metre away.  

[Deleted User]

I hadn't realised that thrushes were on the RSPB red list - we used to see them regularly in the garden and then it occurred to me I hadn't seen them in a while, I'll keep an extra special look out now.

I also saw a greater (or possibly lesser?) spotted woodpecker fly over the garden yesterday, I think that maybe the first one I've seen (although the greens are regular visitors) and I heard it drumming before I saw it, quite exciting.

I put a bird box up where I could see it from my kitchen window and was very excited to see two great tits checking it out - then I saw my cat had found a nice place to perch just above it; the box has now been moved!

Nykie

Today the female parent woodpecker was on the nut feeder. They are greater spotted woodpeckers; my OH is the bird person so I asked him.

I also saw, on my run today, numerous pheasants, a greenfinch and some MASSIVE crows. (They make a racket, don't they?) Those are the notable ones anyway.

Red Squirrel, the budgie is called Floyd Mayfeather and lives in my house

[Deleted User]

Good name for a budge Nykie.

The crows around here are getting v cheeky.  They've been eyeing up the Vision feeder with attached fat ball.  It'll collapse if they try to get on it.

Peter Everitt

We used to have a big crow standing on the kitchen window sill most mornings - they are really big close up and don't scare easily! It took a while but eventually I guessed it was eyeing up a Clarice Cliff style mug - we stopped leaving it on the draining board and never saw it again! In the same house we also had a family of foxes living at the back of the garden and with a few treats would come and play by the back door. Not sure why we moved now!