RMweb Premium Mallard60022 Posted May 27, 2015 RMweb Premium Share Posted May 27, 2015 Today my back garden has mainly been Minsmere! Hardly any swifts there either. However, a good serving of Bittern (they have 12 males there this year so far) actually flying about and best close up views of Bearded Tits and Terns I have ever had. No sign of the lesser speckled BBC Presenters though but will look out for me and SWMBO this evening on Spring Watch! If you have never been to Minsmere Reserve and Dunwich Heath, do make the effort at some time as it really is a lovely area. Quackers. 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
lightengine Posted May 27, 2015 Share Posted May 27, 2015 (edited) Swifts sighted from my house at last! Panic over. Edited May 27, 2015 by lightengine 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
lightengine Posted May 27, 2015 Share Posted May 27, 2015 Today my back garden has mainly been Minsmere! Hardly any swifts there either. However, a good serving of Bittern (they have 12 males there this year so far) actually flying about and best close up views of Bearded Tits and Terns I have ever had. No sign of the lesser speckled BBC Presenters though but will look out for me and SWMBO this evening on Spring Watch! If you have never been to Minsmere Reserve and Dunwich Heath, do make the effort at some time as it really is a lovely area. Quackers. Light blue fleece, dark blue fleece or brown jacket? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Mallard60022 Posted May 27, 2015 RMweb Premium Share Posted May 27, 2015 Shirt sleeves and blue strides.....and that was just the Bitterns. Missed Vic Reeves as well! Quackers. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DDolfelin Posted May 28, 2015 Author Share Posted May 28, 2015 Some swallows, martins and swifts about but nothing like the numbers of previous years. Lots of baby birds about. Dried mealworms are popular. No exotica to report. Goldfinches, Greenfinches and Siskins are munching through the Niger seed daily. Jackdaws, Rooks and Dyson the Wood Pigeon are clearing the waste bread each morning. Pied and Grey Wagtails taking insects from the banks of the stream. A good variety of Tits but no rarities. Nuthatches seem to be doing well. Wrens have lost one or two newly emerged chicks to cats. Here endeth the report from darkest Wales. I've probably forgotten quite a lot. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold beast66606 Posted May 28, 2015 RMweb Gold Share Posted May 28, 2015 Whilst photographing the stone train tonight I was obviously near someones nest as a pair of great tits (ooo Missus) was making a lot of noise and hinting that I might like to move along I (as I type) have starlings (young as well), blue / great and coal tits, chaffinches, robins, green finches and sparrows I think but they are too far to be clear. 9 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Mallard60022 Posted May 28, 2015 RMweb Premium Share Posted May 28, 2015 Good pics Beast. Send some to Springwatch. P Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DDolfelin Posted May 31, 2015 Author Share Posted May 31, 2015 An awful picture of some distant morning visitors - running at great speed before I could focus! A peacock and two hens. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
andyram Posted May 31, 2015 Share Posted May 31, 2015 I am very jealous of all of these wonderful garden visitors. We have been living in our new build property for nearly a year now and have little in the way of feathered visitors. I think the building site activity scares them away. We have had a pied wagtail recently, and after dark a resident bat but that is it for wildlife. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Mallard60022 Posted June 3, 2015 RMweb Premium Share Posted June 3, 2015 Yea, Bullfinch in the garden this afternoon for the first time in 13 years (AFAIK); Female or possibly a single youngster as it wasn't very chubby! P 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Killybegs Posted June 3, 2015 Share Posted June 3, 2015 (edited) Siskins in the garden today, first for a long time. Baby greenfinches being fed by mum under the bird table. Blue tits nesting in box in the porch. What a day. The 'red' magpie was back yesterday but hasn't reappeared since I placed my camera ready for action! Edited June 3, 2015 by Killybegs 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium melmerby Posted June 10, 2015 RMweb Premium Share Posted June 10, 2015 Had this chap in the garden for a while today: Probing for ants down the side of the flags I suspect. Spent about 15mins in total moving down the flags every couple. Keith 6 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DDolfelin Posted June 18, 2015 Author Share Posted June 18, 2015 A huge raft of different birds visiting (many with their offspring). Here's a poor picture taken through the double glazing of the Sun Room. Goldfinch and Siskins. 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonny777 Posted June 18, 2015 Share Posted June 18, 2015 I think that I saw another Red Kite over my North Somerset house on Tuesday, but it was a brief visit for the bird as it was being mobbed by a rook and three black backed gulls. However, it was too small for a buzzard, and flying too low really; plus it was too red-brown for a sparrowhawk. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DDolfelin Posted June 18, 2015 Author Share Posted June 18, 2015 Look for the forked tail, jonny. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonny777 Posted June 18, 2015 Share Posted June 18, 2015 I didn't have time for that. It had gone almost before I worked out what all the commotion by the other birds was about. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Lurker Posted June 18, 2015 Share Posted June 18, 2015 I saw a male sparrow being hassled quite violently by a smaller bird, about 2/3rds the size, they tussled for quite a while. It looked like it might be a young sparrow hoping for food still but the feathers weren't at all fluffy and were smooth. In the meanwhile, what I think is a juvenile robin is a regular visitor 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonny777 Posted June 18, 2015 Share Posted June 18, 2015 It may have been a juvenile sparrow, but the adult it was hassling was not one of its parents. I have seen this with juvenile starlings when the adult has flown off for some reason but the baby did not follow. If another adult appears, it will be harrassed for food and I have seen some quite angry reactions with the adult pecking the juvenile until it goes away (what a nice introduction to independent life). I once saw an adult starling and an adult male blackbird having a bit of a standoff on the feeder tray. The starling was not going to give in but the blackbird was adopting its threat mode which seemed to be lower its body but push its head forward with its beak wide open. After a few goes at this, the starling picked up a sultana or something similar and popped it in the blackbird's open mouth. I had to laugh, but I'm not sure the blackbird was too impressed. 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Downendian Posted June 18, 2015 RMweb Gold Share Posted June 18, 2015 At Center Parcs Longleat this week for a family holiday. Goldcrests constantly calling in the firs and a Redstart wakes me up at the Dawn chorus. Slightly different to Devon! Neil 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Mallard60022 Posted June 19, 2015 RMweb Premium Share Posted June 19, 2015 We have a new Crow visitor; by Jiminy, it is a big bu**er up close. It can pick up (from next door that is) about six pieces of the bread our neighbour puts out. Quite a beak full. P 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonny777 Posted June 19, 2015 Share Posted June 19, 2015 If I have any old pork chop rinds I tend to put them on the bird table whole these days. It is not long before a magpie appears and takes them away in one go. I used to diligently chop them up into 'bite sized' pieces and put them out, but few birds took any interest and they ended up being there for days and gradually became covered in flies. I don't know what the magpie does with them, but out of sight out of mind as they say. 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium melmerby Posted June 19, 2015 RMweb Premium Share Posted June 19, 2015 (edited) Decided to try a niger seed feeder. We get occasional goldfinches and bullfinches but they never visit the feeders, just peck away at tops of weeds (and boy do we have weeds!) Let's see whether we can entice them more often. Keith Will update on progress. Edited June 19, 2015 by melmerby 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Torr Giffard LSWR 1951-71 Posted June 19, 2015 Share Posted June 19, 2015 Aft'noon all, Good to hear then see whinchat in The Moorlands during this afternoon's constitutional....probably the first that I've seen in the area. Dave 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold teaky Posted June 22, 2015 RMweb Gold Share Posted June 22, 2015 Just back from a brief holiday in Northumberland (Hadrian's Wall). Now I know where all the swallows went when they bypassed us! Still not seen any here. Oyster catchers and lapwings nesting in the fields near to the cottage we rented. Several goldfinches and wagtails on the cottage garden walls almost constantly. Plenty of other feathered and furry wildlife around too including a great view of a stoat with a vole for dinner. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium melmerby Posted June 22, 2015 RMweb Premium Share Posted June 22, 2015 We have started to get these pigeons in the garden. They aren't ringed so belong to nobody but don't seem to fit in with the look of a typical feral pigeon. There are four or five around and all have this colouration but some have more white than brown. The smaller of the two is also noticeably smaller than a typical grey feral pigeon which we don't see around here. Keith 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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