Off Topic On a brighter note................

I'm at a cafe near Ascot doing some bird watching myself. It's 11:40 and some are already about two glasses of prosecco away from knickers coming off.

 

Someone warn them about the lesser spotted Watford

 

I'm trying to change my name to West WindsR but can't work out how.

 

Click on your name in top blue bar, then personal details, then change username at bottom left

 

Who'd have thought we were such a closet bunch of twitchers!

My garden gets overflown by herring gulls and black-headed gulls, but they never land any lower than my chimney pot. So far this year we've been visited by blackbirds, sparrows, blue tits, great tits, goldfinches, greenfinches, robins and starlings. A couple of times we've had a jay, and a green woodpecker was feeding from our lawn in the spring but I've not seen it since. There's a great spotted woodpecker living in the trees opposite and some crows in the trees at the back in next doors garden. Woodpigeons, too plus there's a dovecote nearby and we get to see them fly by in formation at certain times of the day. Just the once, at dusk, I found a little owl sitting on my garden fence. It stayed motionless for ages.

We're often overflown by some form of bird of prey or other but not close enough for me to see what it is. The gulls or crows pack up to chase it off, making quite a racket.

I never used to pay birds any attention until recent years. Now I love watching them.

 

Any idea what size or colour the bird of prey is?

 

I'm no expert on woodpeckers Beth, but yes they do prefer decaying or soft wood trees.

 

Been working in the Borders today, and was lucky enough to see a couple of Red Kites, and a Buzzard just sat on a fence post - they are huge when seen up close....

Have a blackbird nesting at the woods at the back of the house, nothing spectacular, but his singing is beautiful. There's also a couple of deer that come down into the garden occassionally with their young.

 

Light brown-ish, maybe with a touch of red in it. No obvious markings on the wings that I could detect with the naked eye. Definitely not black or grey. Last week we had a pair soaring overhead, just riding the thermals and never noticeably flapping a wing. Quite majestic. The gulls went for them and they just let the thermals take them higher without any fuss until the gulls were satisfied.

I'm two miles from the New Forest and a mile from the coast - Christchurch - if that helps.

 

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Funniest Bird Names

http://www.ranker.com/list/funny-bird-names/amylindorff

 

Buzzards, my favourite bird of prey. Like mini eagles. Unless red kites have got as far as you. Both with similar colourings and size (4'-5' wing span). Kites have triangular tails whilst buzzards have a more rounded tail and chunkier wings.

 

Genuinely think this is a lovely thread and really I hate to be one of the twats to take the piss but this did make me chuckle.

 

I'll remember that for next time. Ta!

 

Nice thread Col.....

We have a huge number of Swallows around us at the moment, the speed they fly at is remarkable. Read a piece about them in the Sunday Times Mag a few weeks ago about how they feed in flight on insects and hardly ever land on the ground, choosing to nest in the rafters of houses......

 

Amazing aren't they. Yet a Hobby can catch them on the wing................quite remarkable!
Had a great day today, spotting the following: many Buzzards and Red Kites; a Kestrel; a Sparrow Hawk and late this afternoon a Peregrine Falcon hurtling along overhead.

 

Not good...

Hen harrier plunges towards extinction in England
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-40422732

 

Yes, this has been an increasingly worrying trend. They nest on the ground, which makes them vulnerable to start with, but their biggest adversary is mankind, who illegally kill them so that they can continue to enjoy their Grouse shoots etc. It really is sickening!!
They are a wonderful raptor, but I haven't seen one in my area for approx 3 years.