Birdwatching

[The Picnic Wasp]

Quite a lot of activity in the garden recently and thankfully no sparrow hawk carnage of late. My (nice) neighbour has solar panels on his roof and town pigeons roost under those. They make easy pickings for usually Mr Hawk despite his fairly diminutive size and he seems to favour my garden for his butcher work, probably because there's more cover. No surprising species to report and last year's bullfinches haven't appeared again which is a pity. Last year being the first time I saw them. Cockatiels have begun to make themselves known a mile or so away and I'm hoping my hybrid poplars put on another couple of metres in height this year and attract them.

A worrying thing appeared in my FB news feed about fat finch disease and how regular feeding can cause this disease to spread. It's suggested garden owners plant more shrubs to encourage natural feeding on insects. I plan to get planting when the risk of frost subsides, although there are plenty of established shrubs here already.

Still no jays in these parts. I wonder why.

The saddest thing for me is the total disappearance of the the lapwings from the field a couple of hundred metres from here. We called it the peewit field when we were growing up. There were common snipes there too, now nothing. The local burn which appears fairly clean always had fish life, brown trout and sticklebacks were always present but now the water seems lifeless. No water voles either which we always used to catch a brief glimpse of when playing there. Dippers too. Very, very sad.

Deer and foxes galore now at least as farmers must be less inclined to get their guns out these days,

[Fishy]

Must have been having afternoon naps around here... only saw 2 Magpies 1 Robin 3 wood pigeons and two blackbirds.. between 2/3 pm..

[Slim]

I just did some very lazy impromptu wildlife photography out of the living room window with a 500mm telephoto. The shot was underexposed (tried to rescue it in darktable) and handheld.

But anyway .. I think it's a sparrow.

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[Slim]

Went walking on Wednesday and we saw a Pied Wagtail hopping along the path through the woods in front of us. Not rare, but quite charming.

[Slim]

Out on a bike yesterday and saw three our four pheasants being eaten by corvids, all females. I asked ChatGPT if the females are a bit more vulnerable to cars.

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[Fishy]

We seem to have some blue tits in residence in one of our bird houses.. and on a side note our bee hotel has some customers..

You gotta love nature man...

[Nickslikk2112]

Our Bee Hotel rapidly turned into a Bee slum...

[Slim]

I asked ChatGPT about bird evolution, it's very good at infographics now. Click for a decent size render.

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[dom]

Doesn't that show how fascinating evolution really is.  Just heard a news article this week that the front arms in dinosaurs such as the T-Rex became basically useless due to the power, strength and dexterity of the jaw.  Those arms became an evolutionary dead end.

For another set of dinosaurs (not that far apart looking at the Coelurosaurs above)  those arms become the enablers of one of the most amazing feats of evolution - flight!

[Slim]

I find it amazing. Not just the anatomical development, but behaviours for example. Like leafcutter bees.

[Fishy]

We had a duck in our garden last night.. was perched on the roof for 15 mins then flew down onto the grass and had a wander about.. flew away then came back 10 mins later and sat on our side wall..

[Nickslikk2112]

Don't mention Ducks! We get a pair, or sometimes just the duck which come and stare through the window until they get fed. You haven't been stared at until a Duck stares at you. Failing that they come and stand on the bird food box.

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[David L]

Don't mention Ducks! We get a pair, or sometimes just the duck which come and stare through the window until they get fed. You haven't been stared at until a Duck stares at you. Failing that they come and stand on the bird food box.

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Get some pancakes and plum sauce

[Nickslikk2112]

Not content with stuffing its beak with fatballs, bloody Woody Woodpecker has found the nest box with Blue Tits in in our garden. Greatly enlarged the entrance hole and I presume has made off with the chicks.

[David L]

Not content with stuffing its beak with fatballs, bloody Woody Woodpecker has found the nest box with Blue Tits in in our garden. Greatly enlarged the entrance hole and I presume has made off with the chicks.

Chicks are always attracted to a big pecker


Coat please!