Lovely birds and rare sightings

Thank you, Nannytopsy. That’s useful to know. My dd has rooks nesting in some old oak trees near her house. They don’t half make a noise on summer mornings, starting their racket at about 3:30am and waking her children. If it’s not the rooks, it’s owls sitting on the roof calling to each other.

Kookaburras look quite comical, Nanna8, sort of avian scarecrows!

Some really good sightings here. Isn’t nature wonderful?
On Christmas Day we were sat on my daughter’s decking outside and 3 kookaburras arrived to joined us really so close you could touch them. We gave them some meat for a Christmas treat.

SueDonim rooks are usually in bigger crowds (think rookeries!) with bone coloured beaks. Crows are more often in pairs or very small groups and have black beaks. There are ravens in Suffolk again but I haven’t seen one yet but I did see a spotted woodpecker and a few fieldfares.

We don’t see that many birds locally as we live on a new estate that’s had construction work going on for 5+ years. That’s finished now so I hope we’ll see more birds. We have robins, wagtails, crows/rooks (how do you tell the difference?) and the fattest collared doves. Overhead we get oystercatchers, various types of geese and seagulls.

At a park I take my GS to there are heron, sundry ducks and swans. They had five babies last summer, though on our last visit there were only four.

At my son’s near London I was outside one day when first a red kite swooped over the garden swiftly followed by a bright green parakeet!

On our visit to Australia in 2019, I loved seeing all the birds. I’d seen black swans in zoos and aviaries but to see them in the wild was amazing. Also the little parrot-type birds that lived in trees in Adelaide. They peered cheekily at us as we walked past.

I love watching the Kites playing silly buggers and showing off to each other on a windy day. A few days ago I saw long tailed tits on the bird feeder. We used to see them a lot, but I hadn't seen any for several years.

I only started recognising Red Kites when my neighbour explained that their tail feathers, unlike Buzzards, are kite shaped. I went on a walk round a nature reserve and saw an Egret at the start of the walk. Didn’t have my phone with me, though. Hoping that we might start getting murmurations there again. It was quite famous for them a few years ago.

IWasFirstClarinet

When I lived in Brisbane I was driving to work one day when the traffic stopped. Directly in front of me was an elephant on a trailer being towed by a four-wheel drive. He was from the local zoo, on his way to do a TV commercial I think. This happened quite a lot. The elephant looked at the garden on his left, leaned over, tipping the trailer half-way over to the consternation of the driver, seized a plant in the middle of the hedge and began chewing it enthusiastically. Then the traffic jam broke up and off we all moved. Driving home later that day, the gap in the hedge was massively obvious. I did think of stopping my car and telling the house owner that "An elephant ate it!" but common-sense prevented me. I feared what the man might say or even do!

I love that story !

We've heard the owl at night, thank goodness as he/she disappeared for a while because a neighbour had to have a tree chopped down which the owl used to frequent.

Not a lot of unusual varieties here at the moment, although the blue tits seem to be back, pecking away at the catkins and sunflower hearts. I do hope the sparrowhawk is not eyeing them up.

We have a large duck pond, Last spring we were thrilled by the arrival of a pair of Mandarin ducks. The male plumage looks as if it was designed by Disney :-) Hoped they would hang around to breed but they just stayed a week then were gone

www.audubon.org/news/an-open-letter-central-park-mandarin-duck

(not my pond)

In our last house, we used to get tawny owls coming up out of the woods after dark to roost on the chimney pots and tv ariels. They would be silhouetted against the night, calling to each other. I haven’t seen an owl since.

Oreo 😂😂. I often think that if I were not human I would like to be a bird flying freely though I don’t know why as I dislike aeroplanes.
The green parakeets have arrived locally but I haven’t yet seen one . They have been seen in our local country park and DS five miles away has had one in his garden.

I was watching a wee wren pecking about under a bush , he flew off and a robin took his place ,
Wonderful what one sees when the tv is off
My raised bed off the patio attracts wee birds

Lots of red kites here. Just watching them swoop for left over food in our neighbours garden. Beautiful with the sun on them

The magpies are buggers

I believe they had a breeding programme at Harewood at one time, Tuinoma, and they are certainly more visible now as you travel up and down the motorway.
I got very excited last year when I managed to photograph a pair of little egrets in our country park rearing young. We also have reed warblers now that our local reed bed has become established. These are former mining sites that have been given back to nature.
I had a young sparrow hawk feeding in my garden, too, until a magpie came and stole his supper. It was a bit of a standoff but he was no match for the magpie.

We dont get red kites here but around the village outside Leeds where my family lives they nest in great numbers and their haunting call is a constant in the background, they fly low over the gardens. I remember they were one of the places where they were first re-introduced a good 15 or so years ago, a great success story.

When I lived in Brisbane I was driving to work one day when the traffic stopped. Directly in front of me was an elephant on a trailer being towed by a four-wheel drive. He was from the local zoo, on his way to do a TV commercial I think. This happened quite a lot. The elephant looked at the garden on his left, leaned over, tipping the trailer half-way over to the consternation of the driver, seized a plant in the middle of the hedge and began chewing it enthusiastically. Then the traffic jam broke up and off we all moved. Driving home later that day, the gap in the hedge was massively obvious. I did think of stopping my car and telling the house owner that "An elephant ate it!" but common-sense prevented me. I feared what the man might say or even do!

The Red Kites really have been a reintroduction success haven't they? so much so I wonder if they will start to become a nuisance...

I saw a sparrowhawk yesterday stalking the hedgerows so I suspect it had young.

Hedge sparrows, the odd tree sparrow, fieldfares, mistle thrushes, the odd osprey flying over, buzzards en kestrels, a sparrowhawk dived over my bird table a while back and flew off with a bluetit while I was watching from my window.
Plus of course the usual crowd.
I love watching them

Not rare birds but we have a canal at the back of our house and I've never seen a pair of swans with four cygnets on it before this year.

My home town sits on the banks of the river Severn. A few years back a black Swan appeared and spent the summer with us. It returned for a couple of years afterwards. It caused a lot of interest.

Osprey, Owl, Kestrel, Red Kite, Buzzard, Gold Crest (new!), Finch, Robin, Blackbird, Jackdaw, Sparrow, Heron, and many more in my bit of Scotland.

We live near the sea so lots of seagulls. Pairs are appearing on last year’s nesting sites. Blackbirds are also around in pairs. Spring has sprung very early .

We have red kites in Hertfordshire. I love watching them.

I just saw a Greenfinch on this very site!😜
I have to agree that all the numerous sightings of red kites are lovely, they have a very haunting cry, that of bleak high moors and yet are now a common sight in the South East.Surprisingly large birds when low down.