Where have all our garden birds gone?

[Porkscratching]

Now that ants trick is clever..!... Kind of rings a bell being told about this at school.

ps...I also tried to photograph the swallows at work, same result, not a chance !

Edited July 12, 2019 by Porkscratching

[Mallard60022]

On ‎12‎/‎07‎/‎2019 at 08:50, Porkscratching said:

They're having a 'dust bath' to scrub their feathers and get rid of parasites etc, in theory....but looks like they rather enjoy just for the fun of it when I've watched them..

Well I don't want to appear dismissive but this is not the dust bathing pose, this is sun bathing and does not involve wing flapping and dust!!!!! Honestly, it really is quite different and this posing does not involve movement once they strike the position.

P

Edited July 13, 2019 by Mallard60022
Speeling

[Porkscratching]

Fair play, they're still photos so looked like that to me, but I'm certainly no expert !  Nice to see anyway..

[88D]

Been down at Buckler’s Hard today, near Beaulieu in Hampshire. Amongst the little egrets was a Cattle Egret, second I’ve seen this year. I’m sure there’ll be more inhabiting the shores soon.

[Mallard60022]

On ‎13‎/‎07‎/‎2019 at 22:28, Porkscratching said:

Fair play, they're still photos so looked like that to me, but I'm certainly no expert !  Nice to see anyway..

Here you go buddy... I learned a few bits here as well.

 

http://www.bto.org/our-science/projects/gbw/gardens-wildlife/garden-birds/behaviour/sunbathing

[jbqfc]

the fledgling count has gone up again a blackbird with mum tonight 

 

John 

[jbqfc]

i have gone to see what all the noise in the garden was and we have another load of green finch fledglings 

 

John

[The Lurker]

This morning I was about to go to work a parakeet flew across our garden screeching loudly - nothing unusual there, but following it closely was a birdof prey, moving very rapidly.

 

seconds later the parakeet returned weaving towards bushes,  followed by the bird of prey. That screeched as they disappeared over the fence. I suspect it was a peregrine - there are ones that have nested on top of Marlowe House. I had to go to work so had no time to try to check out the denouement of this - but now we know parakeets have predators too!

[Mallard60022]

Our Sparrows have melted.  Our Blackbird juve has heatstroke. Nothing else is alive as far as I can see.

 

Phil

[Mallard60022]

4 hours ago, The Lurker said:

This morning I was about to go to work a parakeet flew across our garden screeching loudly - nothing unusual there, but following it closely was a birdof prey, moving very rapidly.

 

seconds later the parakeet returned weaving towards bushes,  followed by the bird of prey. That screeched as they disappeared over the fence. I suspect it was a peregrine - there are ones that have nested on top of Marlowe House. I had to go to work so had no time to try to check out the denouement of this - but now we know parakeets have predators too!

I once witnessed a S Hawk in pursuit and closing on a Collar Dove as I drove up our road a few years back. I imagined it was like a Spitfire on the tail of a ME109, absolutely magnificent 'tailing' matching the CD's twists and turns. I did nit see the outcome but I think the CD did not escape.

P

[88D]

30 minutes ago, Mallard60022 said:

I once witnessed a S Hawk in pursuit and closing on a Collar Dove as I drove up our road a few years back. I imagined it was like a Spitfire on the tail of a ME109, absolutely magnificent 'tailing' matching the CD's twists and turns. I did nit see the outcome but I think the CD did not escape.

P

One of my colleagues from work saw a similar incident. He didn’t know the outcome because he crashed!

[AndyID]

1 hour ago, 88D said:

One of my colleagues from work saw a similar incident. He didn’t know the outcome because he crashed!

 

We have a lot of wild turkeys around here. A week ago some poor chap on a motor bike was killed when one flew into him from the side. He lost control and collided head-on with a truck.

[rodshaw]

On 13/07/2019 at 20:33, Mallard60022 said:

Well I don't want to appear dismissive but this is not the dust bathing pose, this is sun bathing and does not involve wing flapping and dust!!!!! Honestly, it really is quite different and this posing does not involve movement once they strike the position.

P

Yes, they were perfectly still for half an hour or more.

[brian daniels]

What tits are these, are they young Blue Tits that haven't got the blue yet?

 

[Mallard60022]

10 minutes ago, brian daniels said:

What tits are these, are they young Blue Tits that haven't got the blue yet?

 

Juve BTs I reckon.

[PhilJ W]

Or juvenile coal tits?

 

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

Definitely Blue tit juvenile. We have a mixed flock of tit juveniles, Great, Blue and Coal, about 15 in total and just like a bunch of primary school kids, wildly excitable as they fly about together. And then go very quiet when a greater spotted woodpecker or Nuthatch appears. (Which one is the local psycho and which one the forbidding school caretaker? It was the latter we were all rather scared of at primary school. I was one  of the boys with the duty of collecting the coke for the temporary classroom stoves, from 'his' coke store which also supplied the main school building's heating. And it was always 'service with a snarl', he was so pleased to see us...)

[Mallard60022]

13 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

Or juvenile coal tits?

 

I think the CTs have a darker and 'bigger' cap.

[Anthony]

I don't think this has been covered in this topic before, but apologies if so.

 

Since before the hot weather, my apple trees here in London SW have been visited by up to 20 rooks (I assume rooks in my ignorance, since would crows flock like this?) at a time, who have pecked away at the very unripe apples, to the extent that I expect to lose the whole crop.

 

We have lived here for 20 years, and this is the first time that it has happened, so I wondered if anyone could explain this behaviour.  I could have understood it if it had started in the heatwave, or if there were no ponds on the very adjacent common (there are many).

 

I may be over-suspicious, but after I have persuaded them to depart, they seem to leave a sentinel on a neighbouring roof-top, waiting to give the all-clear..............

[Porkscratching]

Sounds like you need to hire a Worzel Gummage type character..! 

[Mallard60022]

4 hours ago, Anthony said:

I don't think this has been covered in this topic before, but apologies if so.

 

Since before the hot weather, my apple trees here in London SW have been visited by up to 20 rooks (I assume rooks in my ignorance, since would crows flock like this?) at a time, who have pecked away at the very unripe apples, to the extent that I expect to lose the whole crop.

 

We have lived here for 20 years, and this is the first time that it has happened, so I wondered if anyone could explain this behaviour.  I could have understood it if it had started in the heatwave, or if there were no ponds on the very adjacent common (there are many).

 

I may be over-suspicious, but after I have persuaded them to depart, they seem to leave a sentinel on a neighbouring roof-top, waiting to give the all-clear..............

Maybe worth searching Corvid behaviour?

[hmrspaul]

Corvids appear to be following Wood Pigeons into urban gardens.

 

Here near central York there has been a small rookery near the racecourse but three years ago a pair of crows nested near our green square - using a large tree in the garden of a B&B. They, and I am guessing their offspring, have hung around and this morning the two most local crows had their well grown juveniles with them on our garage roof and in the garden - as the crow flies we are probably only 200 metres from York station. And before the leaves had come out a number of Crows nests were noticeable along Tadcaster road - at the city end.

 

Paul

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

On ‎28‎/‎07‎/‎2019 at 11:10, Anthony said:

... my apple trees here in London SW have been visited by up to 20 rooks (I assume rooks in my ignorance, since would crows flock like this?) at a time, who have pecked away at the very unripe apples, to the extent that I expect to lose the whole crop...

Likely to be rooks, they are the gregarious larger black corvid as you obviously realise. I would guess at population pressure leading to moves to new territory.

On ‎28‎/‎07‎/‎2019 at 15:17, Mallard60022 said:

Maybe worth searching Corvid behaviour?

Or possibly human behaviour. There was a new licence requirement for shooting recognised flying vermin introduced with most inconvenient timing as I recall, Probably more here. https://www.countryside-alliance.org/generallicences?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI8InqxJjc4wIVzLHtCh0BVQrWEAAYASAAEgI65vD_BwE

[Mallard60022]

15 minutes ago, 34theletterbetweenB&D said:

Likely to be rooks, they are the gregarious larger black corvid as you obviously realise. I would guess at population pressure leading to moves to new territory.

Or possibly human behaviour. There was a new licence requirement for shooting recognised flying vermin introduced with most inconvenient timing as I recall, Probably more here. https://www.countryside-alliance.org/generallicences?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI8InqxJjc4wIVzLHtCh0BVQrWEAAYASAAEgI65vD_BwE

Very controversial those licences as they are quite generic, hence Chris Packham's opposition.

P

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

44 minutes ago, Mallard60022 said:

Very controversial those licences as they are quite generic, hence Chris Packham's opposition.

Is he on the list then?

 

By coincidence I watched last night's repeat of the little wildlife study he fronted for the BBC, performed in a small group of back gardens local to me back in 2016/17. Made just before the perishing parakeets arrived and got settled: now they are a real pest, and I bet the 'fruit' garden featured has suffered.