Earlier I predicted that the local bird population would, as they have
doine for years, disappear for the weekend as today/tomorrow are the
RSPB's birdwatch days.

I was wrong this year, for once!

Our first nuthatch appeared, early for round here, and was as nutty as
his or her predecessors have been - though not in any way anti the
idea of sharing the bird table with others. A robin appeared on the
bird table just before a flock of starlings swooped in. Poor little
robin was hemmed in on all sides until he managed to escape and joined
the tits hanging from the peanut feeder - I've never seen a robin
hanging from a mesh feeder before.

The main event was a bird appearing on a hanging feeder that turned
out to be a male green woodpecker - first time for one of those here
though we get great spotted ones regularly.

The only laugh was that after the hour of birdwatching, accompanied by
a decent bottle of wine as I couldn't go out and dig as that would
disturb the birds (that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!), I tried
to submit the results and found that all links to the RSPB's birdwatch
site returned "not working " errors!

So this year it's birds 1, RSPB 0!

Otherwise, significant changes this year are the total absence of
sparrows, collared doves and magpies. FWIW next door is a farm.

How did others fare?

Jake

"Jake" wrote in message
...
Earlier I predicted that the local bird population would, as they have
doine for years, disappear for the weekend as today/tomorrow are the
RSPB's birdwatch days.

I was wrong this year, for once!

Our first nuthatch appeared, early for round here, and was as nutty as
his or her predecessors have been - though not in any way anti the
idea of sharing the bird table with others. A robin appeared on the
bird table just before a flock of starlings swooped in. Poor little
robin was hemmed in on all sides until he managed to escape and joined
the tits hanging from the peanut feeder - I've never seen a robin
hanging from a mesh feeder before.

The main event was a bird appearing on a hanging feeder that turned
out to be a male green woodpecker - first time for one of those here
though we get great spotted ones regularly.

The only laugh was that after the hour of birdwatching, accompanied by
a decent bottle of wine as I couldn't go out and dig as that would
disturb the birds (that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!), I tried
to submit the results and found that all links to the RSPB's birdwatch
site returned "not working " errors!

So this year it's birds 1, RSPB 0!

Otherwise, significant changes this year are the total absence of
sparrows, collared doves and magpies. FWIW next door is a farm.

How did others fare?

Sparrows are gone since their roosting place was felled by a new neighbour.
Had a few blackbirds, dunnocks and wrens.
Plenty robins, still no collared doves, lots of woodpigeons.

"Jake" wrote in message
...
Earlier I predicted that the local bird population would, as they have
doine for years, disappear for the weekend as today/tomorrow are the
RSPB's birdwatch days.

I was wrong this year, for once!

Our first nuthatch appeared, early for round here, and was as nutty as
his or her predecessors have been - though not in any way anti the
idea of sharing the bird table with others. A robin appeared on the
bird table just before a flock of starlings swooped in. Poor little
robin was hemmed in on all sides until he managed to escape and joined
the tits hanging from the peanut feeder - I've never seen a robin
hanging from a mesh feeder before.

The main event was a bird appearing on a hanging feeder that turned
out to be a male green woodpecker - first time for one of those here
though we get great spotted ones regularly.

The only laugh was that after the hour of birdwatching, accompanied by
a decent bottle of wine as I couldn't go out and dig as that would
disturb the birds (that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!), I tried
to submit the results and found that all links to the RSPB's birdwatch
site returned "not working " errors!

So this year it's birds 1, RSPB 0!

Otherwise, significant changes this year are the total absence of
sparrows, collared doves and magpies. FWIW next door is a farm.

How did others fare?

Jake

Notwithstanding the "usual" bird table visitors" we've seen our first Black
Cap - a bti rare for us.

Bill

Quite a busy morning at the bird feeders, but only ordinary stuff in my one-hour submission. The jackdaw at the feeder was a bit of a surprise though. The really annoying thing is that if I'd waited till the following day to do it, I would have had a red kite on the list.

On Sun, 30 Jan 2011 20:39:12 +0000, echinosum
wrote:


Jake;911450 Wrote:
How did others fare?
Quite a busy morning at the bird feeders, but only ordinary stuff in my
one-hour submission. The jackdaw at the feeder was a bit of a surprise
though. The really annoying thing is that if I'd waited till the
following day to do it, I would have had a red kite on the list.

You lucky person! I've travelled to and through mid Wales many times
but have never been lucky enough to see a red kite "in the flesh".
I've had the odd buzzard landing in the garden and once had a heron.
But in the main it's the common ones.

Robin appeared again today and perched on the roof of the bird table
(the roof is there to provide some protection against cats as well as
keeping the seed a bit more dry) until a gaggle of various types of
tit and finch had their fill. Then he hopped down and was joined by a
nuthatch. About 20 seconds later the starlings swooped in. Poor robin
looked like getting overwhelmed again but little nuthatch demonstrated
a veracity that I haven't seen before and the starlings were summarily
evicted. Nuthatch and robin proceeded to enjoy an undisturbed feast
together whilst starlings collected in a nearby tree. Only when r & n
flew off together did the starlings return to the bird table. Any one
of them was bigger than r & n combined but they were obviously
cowards.

Try doing the BTO Garden Birdwatch instead - that's every week if you wish, so you could have had both the jackdaw and the red kite.

In article ,
ks says...

Earlier I predicted that the local bird population would, as they have
doine for years, disappear for the weekend as today/tomorrow are the
RSPB's birdwatch days.

I was wrong this year, for once!

Our first nuthatch appeared, early for round here, and was as nutty as
his or her predecessors have been - though not in any way anti the
idea of sharing the bird table with others. A robin appeared on the
bird table just before a flock of starlings swooped in. Poor little
robin was hemmed in on all sides until he managed to escape and joined
the tits hanging from the peanut feeder - I've never seen a robin
hanging from a mesh feeder before.

The main event was a bird appearing on a hanging feeder that turned
out to be a male green woodpecker - first time for one of those here
though we get great spotted ones regularly.

The only laugh was that after the hour of birdwatching, accompanied by
a decent bottle of wine as I couldn't go out and dig as that would
disturb the birds (that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!), I tried
to submit the results and found that all links to the RSPB's birdwatch
site returned "not working " errors!

So this year it's birds 1, RSPB 0!

Otherwise, significant changes this year are the total absence of
sparrows, collared doves and magpies. FWIW next door is a farm.

How did others fare?

Jake

SWMBO said it was to nice a day to sit indoors for an hour watching
birds, and "suggested" a walk. Having got frozen in the bitter north
east wind, but envigorated by the views across the Wye valley from the
hill top, even she decided that it might have been better to stay in!

Promptly fell asleep for an hour, by which time dusk was falling, so
must try harder tomorrow!


--
Roger T

700 ft up in Mid-Wales

In article ,
ks says...
You lucky person! I've travelled to and through mid Wales many times
but have never been lucky enough to see a red kite "in the flesh".



If you are ever in the Rhayder area around 2.00pm (3.00pm in summer) you
can hardly fail to mis them. There is a feeding station on the A470,
just south of the town, and they get around 100 there each day.

Another interesting place to see them is in Oxforshire, around Didcot.
Son-in-law counted 13 a little while back, just circling over the houses
to the west of the town.

--
Roger T

700 ft up in Mid-Wales

Janet wrote:
2 pheasants

Now in the freezer? ;-)

--

Janet wrote:
Now in the freezer? ;-)
Nope. Most days, we have up to ten in the garden, most of them
have been coming since they were tiny chicks so we haven't the heart to
kill them.

Awww. (obv, they wouldn't be in the freezer anyhow, they'd be hanging in a
shed. But comedy effect overtook me)

The one we ate the other week had died in mysterious circumstances.
J thinks it committed suicide by flying into the window. It was found by
our dog who is saying nuffin until her lawyer gets here.

I'd be very nervous of eating something if I didn't know why it had died!

Speaking of flying into things ... saw a bird hit a van on the M25 yesterday
at rather high speed (well, as high as the M25 gets at that time of the
week) - I always thought the huge cloud of feathers only happened in
cartoons!

They have become a common sight along the M40 in the Chilterns, especially around Stokenchurch. And out into the Oxfordshire plain too, and I've seen them as far west as the Oxford/A40 exit. I can't remember the last time I drove to Oxford in daylight without spotting one. I think most people don't even realise what they are looking at. We see them so often we recognise them immediately. I live out in the fields, but you can see them even in the town centres. A friend in Amersham saw 8 at once out of her window the other day.

Apparently the fundie twitchers consider the reintroduced red kites to be "plastic" and not deserving a real tick. I bet they'd tick Scottish Capercaillie or Sea Eagle though, and they are entirely reintroduced (in the 19th century in the former case). But I have seen non-reintro'd red kite in mid-Wales a few times. I suppose being a cyclist/hill-walker helps for that kind of thing - puts you out there for extended periods.

Similarly round Harewood House in W Yorks. But it still feels special when you walk down your urban street and realise there's two red kites gently spiralling above you.

On Sun, 30 Jan 2011 22:40:23 -0000, Roger Tonkin
wrote:

In article ,
says...
You lucky person! I've travelled to and through mid Wales many times
but have never been lucky enough to see a red kite "in the flesh".



If you are ever in the Rhayder area around 2.00pm (3.00pm in summer) you
can hardly fail to mis them. There is a feeding station on the A470,
just south of the town, and they get around 100 there each day.

Another interesting place to see them is in Oxforshire, around Didcot.
Son-in-law counted 13 a little while back, just circling over the houses
to the west of the town.

I suppose they are a branch of the older-established population always
to be seen as the M40 goes through the Chilterns?

--
Mike.

On Mon, 31 Jan 2011 14:41:26 +0000, echinosum
wrote:
[...]

[...] But I have seen non-reintro'd red
kite in mid-Wales a few times. I suppose being a cyclist/hill-walker
helps for that kind of thing - puts you out there for extended periods.

How does one tell the difference?

--
Mike.

"Janet" wrote in message
...
In article ,
says...

Janet wrote:
Now in the freezer? ;-)
Nope. Most days, we have up to ten in the garden, most of them
have been coming since they were tiny chicks so we haven't the heart to
kill them.

Awww. (obv, they wouldn't be in the freezer anyhow, they'd be hanging in
a
shed. But comedy effect overtook me)

The one we ate the other week had died in mysterious circumstances.
J thinks it committed suicide by flying into the window. It was found
by
our dog who is saying nuffin until her lawyer gets here.

I'd be very nervous of eating something if I didn't know why it had died!

It died because something broke its neck.

Speaking of flying into things ... saw a bird hit a van on the M25
yesterday
at rather high speed (well, as high as the M25 gets at that time of the
week) - I always thought the huge cloud of feathers only happened in
cartoons!

If you've ever seen a bird of prey snatch a smaller bird, there's
always a "featherburst" effect. Feathers are only very loosely attached.

I was once told that this is in the hope that whatever grabs the bird will
end up with just a bunch of feathers, while the bird escapes in it's
underwear.

--
Kathy