Birds!

Post Reply New Topic

I have quite a few small warblers visiting the garden trees,but they are too fast for me to get a good identification with binoculars.
There were some black buzzards roosting in a pine in the lower field.They make lots of funny sounds communicating with each other.
Whippoorwills and fireflies every night!

A pair of bullfinches at it in a tree....

Swallow-tailed kites soaring.

A few days ago: flock of five swans flying past. A kingfisher, which I first spotted when it was heading directly towards me - took a moment to understand what the little mop of shaggy orange feathers zooming through the air was!

The usuals that winter over.Snowbirds and sparrows .
Haven’t heard the geese going over yet.

The robin who keeps demanding to be fed while I wait to go in for my evening shift is actually two robins. I think one is imitating the other, but hasn't quite got the hang of it. Landing on the picnic table and staring at me: 10/10. Actually picking up the crumbs: 0/10. Either it can't see them, or is too nervous to take its eyes off me.

I’ve had a Brown Thrasher come to the feeder all winter long.
Saw three Bald Eagles circling the other day.
Speaking of birds, time to fill the feeder.
Black oil sunflower and hen scratch.Suet cake when I have one.
Later on I will use orange slices to attract the Baltimore Orioles when they pass thru.

Two barred owls fledged this past week from their hole in an old storm-damaged oak. They are as cute as can be. Elongated bits of fluff, with a couple of skinny legs beneath. They are totally covered in brown to grey down. The first day they hung out in the nest tree. Walking along branches, flapping their wings, a bit of a hop/fly. This progressed to flapping wings, a jump and suddenly one is on a branch maybe 12 inches higher looking totally astonished. Then perhaps a bit of a walk, another leap with flapping wings and back where they started, looking mystified but pleased all the same.

By now, they have moved off into nearby trees, but will stay nearby for quite some time.

Sat in a shopping-centre cafe feeling absolutely wiped out when I noticed a trio of tree sparrows hunting pastry crumbs outside the window. Amazing little guys.

I saw a trio of American Redstarts at the bird bath.Their pictures in books don’t do them justice.
Also saw some Bullbats one evening.
Brown Thrashers are back eating berries and also a female Scarlet Tanager at bird bath.

Hugely excited by today's sighting! I happened to look out of the bus window at the right moment to see a Little Egret standing in a ditch. They're eerily beautiful creatures - tiny herons with pure white feathers. I've seen them before where my parents live in France. A while back, a conservation project reintroduced them to Brittany and Normandy, and some of the birds made it across the Channel to recolonise parts of southern England. Seems they've now made it all the way north to Yorkshire!

Nice spot. I didn't realise they were uncommon in the UK because there's loads where I live - I see more little Egrets than I do grey herons, but I'm near Poole harbour which I've just learned is a stronghold for them.

Huh?
Egrets are African birds that live in the tropics. You dont see them here in the US except maybe in south and central Florida.

Theyre as common as dirt in the Caribbean. Also known as "cattle egrets" they like to perch on the backs of hoofed mammals (domestic and wild) to feed off of the insects that attack the mammal, or get kicked up from the brush by the mammal.

Wished I had a camera while I rode on a bus through a town in Jamaica once. Saw an adult egret riding on the back of little baby kid goat. The beautiful white bird must have been four feet tall, as it stood erect and dignified...on the back of the kid which was the size of a house cat (but it had little baby horns)...with its back swayed underneath the weight of the bird as it tried to walk along with the bird on its back. Funniest thing.

I guess the egret's instinct is to...always find a hoofed four footed mammal to perch on...so...even one smaller than itself will do!

Some kind of bird that squawks like a seagull and flies in a flock. I'm not located near the sea so I don't know what they are?

Sea gulls can venture far inland, and compete with crows to scavenge human garbage where ever its found. But like crows they just have normal short legs.

But if what you are seeing look like how Phospherous describes...long legged wading type birds (like herons and storks et al) and are "eerie beautiful in white"... then it sounds like egrets. And if so then I am mistaken about their range.

There's a few different species of egret. The Cattle Egret is one species that has unusual habits - I think all the rest hunt in the water like ordinary herons. I'd love to see cattle egrets some day!