Lovely birds and rare sightings

Greyduster

*MayBee70*, yes, that’s true of many birds of prey. Buzzards look huge on the wing and I always thought they were until I saw one perched on a fence post and was surprised how small it was.

I saw two buzzards work together to ambush another bird or animal once. When I lived in Cornwall I often used to see them on top of fence posts and when I see one bird flying I always look for the other one. When me and my daughter both had tiny puppies we were worried that there were more buzzards around than usual but, in my daughter’s case, the crows and rooks saw them off. Mind you, it was probably just a coincidence as they are mainly carrion eaters. I read last night that the reason why rooks have lighter faces is that they dig around for worms etc so, like vultures, they don’t want feathers around their faces as they would pick up dirt and debris.

The best thing I’ve ever seen in my garden was a humming bird hawk moth. I thought it was a bird at first! It was hovering over the valerian.

We're lucky enough to live in an area where short-eared owls fly, and I saw one yesterday - a lovely sight.

Long tailed tits in my garden on the sunflower hearts feeders which is a bit unusual. We have plenty of goldfinch, tits and a Robin. Lots of feeders and ground food out and 3 birdbaths which I empty at night. It saves me having to break the ice in them every morning.

When we lived onboard we fed a lot of Swans.
If there was no food there for them the cheeky buggers would tap on the porthole in the bathroom.
I was actually on the toilet one day when one of them decided to do this. That porthole was only about 2 foot from my face.
The we had the ducks who would rattle their feeding tin if it was empty.
One day we rescued a swimming chicken.
We have rescued 2 frozen birds. One was a sparrow hawk. It was on a fence pole and just let my partner take hold of him and put him inside his anorak.
The other frozen bird was a seagull frozen to the ground. We took him home and run a Luke warm bath.

MayBee70, yes, that’s true of many birds of prey. Buzzards look huge on the wing and I always thought they were until I saw one perched on a fence post and was surprised how small it was.

I love to hear of all your different birds!

I was getting too many starlings (introduced species) at our suet feeder, so I stopped for a while. When it gets really cold I will put out another block.

Other than the starlings, there were Steller"s Jays, the odd Northern Flicker, and Northern Crows. Sometimes a group of Dark Eyed Junkos; they are very cute!

Further out (not in the yard), there have been eagles, ravens, blue herons, and quite a few mergansers in the harbour. I haven't been close enough to identify which variety.

I’m always amazed at how tiny Barn Owls are and yet how huge they look when flying. Along with being so other worldly.

Yes, barn owls are white on the front and beige on the back with a heart shaped face. They are a bit smaller than tawny owl and slimmer.
Lots of fieldfares about today and a fox! We rarely see them here unlike living in the city of Leicester.
There was a large flock of small birds on the field - maybe skylarks?

When I lived in Hove I used to drive to work along the coast road to Brighton past the remains of the West Pier.

Thousands of starlings live on the pier, I believe it is the biggest flock on record. Nearly every day, very large groups take to the sky in a huge murmuration.

I often wished I could stop, get out of the car and just stand and watch them.

A Blackcap has just arrived in our garden and is singing away in the tree 🎶

Last spring I was delighted to be visited by a family of fox cubs, who popped through the fence into my garden.

We used to have little owls on the school field next to my house. The parents would sit on the goal post and watch the youngsters hunt worms below - until the School chopped the tree about and installed a plastic pitch.

The red kites here are very impressive, with their whistling call. Last year we had aerial "dog fights" as a second pair arrived and territory was disputed.

My favourite bird feeder vistors are a pair of nuthatches.

are they white? we went for an evening drive yesterday and there was a white bird at the side of the road, it looked like an owl but was smaller than a barn owl

The moon was humungous

I’ve seen a Little Owl just the once, probably some twenty years ago. It was sitting on a fence at the top of a mountain pass. I didn’t realise what it was at first, I only twigged when it flew off that it was a bird!

“Road sign”!!

I have only been privileged to see a Little Owl twice - one perched on a roadside in rural Suffolk, and one on top of a dry stone wall when we were walking some high moorland in the Peak District. On neither occasion did I have a camera. On our 50th anniversary we stayed in a hotel in Norfolk and had a table in the dining room with a view over part of the salt marsh. Each evening a barn owl would come and quarter the reeds looking for his supper. Silent and ethereal. It was the best kind of floor show!

Greyduster
You reminded me about owls, we're lucky enough to get both tawny and barn owls and 2 years ago we had little owls nesting down the apple lane and staying around the rest of that year.
Unfortunately I've not seen or heard them since. Their calls are quite eery almost spooky.

This morning when I passed the apple tree i was very lucky to spot a weasel running along the top of the wooden farm gate where all the apples are.
I know weasels dont eat fruit so they must have been after the feeding birds. I see them here very occasionally so that made my day!

Just off our lane is an old apple tree, everybody who passes chucks them onto the verge and each year this time when they start to rot we get hordes of blackbirds, fieldfares, thrushes and sometimes redwings feeding

We used to enjoy doing the Garden Bird Watch but we get so few birds now that it gets boring.

Greenfinch

Have just seen a green woodpecker on the lawn. They used to be frequent visitors but I haven’t seen one for a year or two.Beautiful!

We used to get a couple of green woodpeckers visiting annually, presumably pecking up ants so 🤞 they will be back this year.

I always think the Great Garden Bird Watch should take place a bit later or twice in the year as more birds appear here in the Spring.

Have just seen a green woodpecker on the lawn. They used to be frequent visitors but I haven’t seen one for a year or two.Beautiful!

Our fat balls are popular with the woodpeckers ( greater spotted) and occasional ring necked parakeets. We sometimes see a green woodpecker in the front garden pecking on the ground. Red kites are a common sight now - sometimes a whole family arrive teaching the young to snatch food on the wing. Sadly we see fewer small birds, they still come to the seed feeder, usually in groups waiting in the surround trees for their turn on the feeder, but no longer nest in the nest boxes.

Yesterday I saw something which struck me as extraordinary as it's so cold -beautiful lime green Parakeets flying from a garden across the road into the bare branches of a tree .

We rarely see birds in our garden now, apart from wood pigeons. The neighbours cats have slaughtered a pair of nesting bluetits - they sat on the fence close by the nesting box and waited until the birds appeared!
These cats are undeterable, for want of a better word. Since they’ve been in the area the small bird population has dropped significantly.