Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching Challenge From: Raptor Date: 02 Nov 06 - 07:40 AM Septemper Home list: RCKI- Ruby Crowned Kinglet No new birds for October Year to date Total: 63 Species Raptor |
Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching Challenge From: Bobert Date: 02 Nov 06 - 08:11 AM Flickers Waxwings 33 and counting... Bobert |
Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching Challenge From: Liz the Squeak Date: 02 Nov 06 - 08:47 AM Tits, robin and blackbirds today.... The blackbird was happily pecking at the Hallowe'en pumpkin that was 'recycled' into the garden this morning... seems the worms like it too. LTS |
Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching Challenge From: GUEST,the animal Date: 02 Nov 06 - 11:52 AM There has sadly been wholesale slaughter this year in Bristol. Gone are the blackbirds, sparrows, bluetits, greenfinches, collared doves, robins. All we have left are the big nasties...one sparrowhawk, eight magpies, dozens of crows and a couple of jays. I partially blame neighbours who keep putting huge chunks of bread and other large pieces of cooked leftovers on their bird tables. Being supersticious I'm always saluting bloody magpies when I'd rather be shooting rge evil killers. Grrrr!! |
Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching Challenge From: the animal Date: 05 Nov 06 - 08:23 AM The robin's back! Hurrah! Tough little survivor. |
Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching Challenge From: McGrath of Harlow Date: 05 Nov 06 - 11:14 AM Just saw a heron flying past. |
Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching Challenge From: My guru always said Date: 05 Nov 06 - 03:54 PM Had a Juvenile Peregrine Falcon land on top of my bird-table this morning. Guests had reported seeing one on my washing line a year ago but I thought they were having me on, silly me! Looks like the food chain is working in my garden.... |
Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching Challenge From: Liz the Squeak Date: 05 Nov 06 - 04:50 PM Joy of joys today!!! I wasn't in my own house, but I was washing up for a friend and looking out over her amazing bit of garden and spied hedge sparrows, gulls, robins and a WREN!!! It's a city garden (OK, the city is Exeter in Devon, but it's got a building site, an Anne Summers and a University), so a wren is one of the least likely visitors... but this little beauty was popping in and out of the ivy on the mediaeval wall and having a wonderful time finding late insects by the pond. LTS |
Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching Challenge From: McGrath of Harlow Date: 05 Nov 06 - 07:21 PM It used to be a town had to have a cathedral to be counted as a city - so now it's a matter of having an Ann Summers sex-shop. O tempora, O mores... |
Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching Challenge From: Slag Date: 05 Nov 06 - 09:35 PM I'll add a Nuthatch as they are migrating through this time of the year and also a Spotted Towhee and a Bullock's Oriole. That's 3 more so I'm at 27. |
Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching Challenge From: Liz the Squeak Date: 06 Nov 06 - 03:37 PM It's got a huge branch of W H Smiths too... O Times, O Daily Mirror! LTS |
Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching Challenge From: Metchosin Date: 03 Dec 06 - 01:26 PM Five new for the month of November - Ruby Crowned Kignlet - Golden Crowned Kinglets in same flock - Red-breasted Sapsucker -Song Sparrow -Hutton's Vireo Another first for me, I've never seen a Hutton's Vireo before. Total to date - 30 |
Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching Challenge From: Raptor Date: 04 Dec 06 - 06:51 AM It's always good to get a lifer. Congrats. |
Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching Challenge From: Raptor Date: 31 Dec 06 - 10:36 AM No new birds for Nov. or Dec. My total for 2006 is: 63 |
Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching Challenge From: Janie Date: 31 Dec 06 - 11:08 AM A not very impressive 26 species for the year. If I knew bird songs better I would probably have some warblers to add to the list. My computer is directly adjacent to my living room window--I use the window sill as an elbow rest as I type. directly under the window on the front porch is a wrought-iron plant stand into which I had woven yew and holly branches for a seasonal display. A mocking bird kept me company for a good twenty minutes yesterday as it munched on the holly berries-undisturbed by my movements at the computer or the click of the keyboard. Some Young Son has programmed the sound for an owl hoot when the computer shuts down. The bird took off fast into the cover of the shrubbery, only to be grabbed by a feral cat that had been lurking in the bushes. I love cats as house pets, but the house is where they belong. Native predators like snakes and birds-of-prey don't bother me, but cats do. They don't belong at the top of the food chain in this part of the world. Janie |
Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching Challenge From: Metchosin Date: 31 Dec 06 - 12:08 PM Nothing new to add for December, as it was not a good month for bird watching here. I'm sure a lot of them, that did not have their little feet frozen solidly to large trees, were blown all the way to Ontario on hurricane force winds. After I add in a crow, which is common, but I have never put on my list, my total is 30 for 2006. Not an impressive number either, but I'm still thrilled to pieces. In 2006 I managed to see three birds new to me, the black headed grosbeak, a golden crowned sparrow and a Hutton's vireo. Thank you for suggesting this Raptor. I've really enjoyed it and if it hadn't been for you, I would probably never have bothered to get a rat and squirrel proof bird feeder. Thanks again. Susan |
Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching Challenge From: Raptor Date: 31 Dec 06 - 03:22 PM There's a new thread for 2007 Try to beat your 06 list. Raptor Anyone else? |
Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching Challenge From: Slag Date: 31 Dec 06 - 08:10 PM Well, I got a late start for '06 and recorded only 27. The last bird I saw was The Old Bird. Tomorrow I will see The New Bird. Looking forward to the '07 list from the top. Raptor, I suppose you will do the honors and start the official List? |
Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching Challenge From: Bobert Date: 04 May 07 - 08:13 AM Thought with spring it was time to refresh thie thread... We have a couple new kinds of birds who have decided that our farm is just right for them... 7 pairs (yeah, seven!!!) of red breasted grosbeaks... Not too sure why they have come here since they aren't supposed to live in Virginia other than jest east of the Alleghanies... We also have indigo buntings but haven't figured out how many but at least several... Not too sure what our total is... Maybe around 30 by now but we have 19 species living here at the moment, including so many gold finches that at time of the day when they are waiting their turn at the thistle feeder in the crepe' myrtl it looks like a lemon tree... Very nice... Bobert |
Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching Challenge From: Liz the Squeak Date: 04 May 07 - 11:30 AM I have wood pigeons nesting in my butterfly bush... how the hell they manage to do so when they're so big and the bush so spindly I don't know, but they are. The nest appears to be naught but a scant platform of badly laid twigs that you can see daylight through and it's carefully positioned so that one poop from the bird sitting will get the cat crapping underneath. The tits are still around but have chosen to nest elsewhere - their previous nest has been robbed out by the pigeons. Ever see a pigeon trying to get into a tit nest? Imagine trying to stick your head in a tennis ball... that's about it. LTS |
Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching Challenge From: Liz the Squeak Date: 05 May 07 - 02:11 AM I've upset the pigeons. I spent yesterday after noon tidying the garden up, picking up dead leaves, twigs, prunings, that sort of thing... Burnt them last night in a lovely bonfire. Now the pigeons are flapping around outside the window, glaring balefully at me with those creepy orange eyes and pointedly flapping noisily off to another garden to bring more twigs back into mine for their next. I hate pigeons. LTS |
Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching Challenge From: Arkie Date: 05 May 07 - 05:48 PM Here in Arkansas we have had Red Breasted Grosbeaks and Indigo Buntings about two weeks now. For the past week there have been Baltimore Orioles at my backyard feeder. When the first one flew through the yard I went to the co-op for a feeder. The first Oriole tried the humingbird feeder without luck. I have had two birds that I have yet to identify. They may be male and female of the same species but they were at the feeder on different days. |
Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching Challenge From: Bobert Date: 05 May 07 - 07:21 PM The female Red Brested Grosbeak, Arki, doesn't look anything like the male... They are like big sparrows... Maybe that's what you have??? B~ |
Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching Challenge From: Liz the Squeak Date: 06 May 07 - 01:05 PM Scored another one today - whilst out walking along a towpath in London, I spotted a female yellow wagtail flitting about. Haven't seen one of those since I moved to London, 17 years ago this August. LTS |
Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching Challenge From: Arkie Date: 06 May 07 - 09:53 PM Bobert, these birds are about the size of the male Red Breasted and they do look like big sparrows so they may be the females. Thanks. These birds have never been at the feeder when the males were feeding but I don't suppose that means anything. |
Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching Challenge From: ragdall Date: 11 May 07 - 03:35 AM I've been trying to get photos of the birds in my garden this spring. The House sparrows, male and female, and Black-capped Chickadees are with us year around. The Robins arrived back from their winter vacation in the tropics, at the end of March. Dark-eyed Juncos became more abundant mid-April. Yellow-rumped warblers started to show up near the end of April. May has brought us Purple Finches, Wilson's Warblers, and I now have about a hundred White-crowned Sparrows in my garden. The White-crowns brought a Lincoln's Sparrow along with them. A hummingbird zoomed past me, Wednesday. I need to get a feeder up for them. rags |
Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching Challenge From: GUEST, Topsie Date: 11 May 07 - 05:49 AM I think I saw a tree creeper yesterday - well, that's what it was doing anyway. |
Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching Challenge From: Jeri Date: 11 May 07 - 06:46 AM I came home last night to find an Indigo Bunting on my feeder. I saw one in my back yard several years ago, but not since. Apparently, the mysterious dull colored birds I occasionally spot in the summer and can't identify have been the females. I've been seeing lots of different kinds of sparrows, but seeing one of these little blue jewels can make my whole day! |
Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching Challenge From: Liz the Squeak Date: 17 May 07 - 03:46 AM I had a pleasant surprise yesterday - driving back from the DIY shop, a bird I thought was a pigeon flew in front of the car. Usually I speed up for pigeons, but I was nearing a junction so I didn't. As I stopped at the junction, I glanced to where the "pigeon" had landed in the shrubbery, and discovered it was a jay! These birds are mostly woodland birds, so I was rather surprised to see it right next to an industrial estate on the A13 road... Oh, thought my tits had come a cropper yesterday... the tits are nesting in the privet tree in next doors' garden. I was outside gardening and heard some strange rustlings coming from over the fence but it wasn't til I got upstairs and looked out of the window here that I saw the neighbours had cut back half the privet tree! I thought my tits were homeless, and worse, eggless! Luckily, this morning, it looks like the tree fellers missed the branches with the nest in, but it could now be open to attack from the crow that's sitting in the gutter above me. He's already had a go at the pigeon "nest" in my buddliea bush, I hope he can't see where my tits are. LTS |
Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching Challenge From: EBarnacle Date: 17 May 07 - 11:35 PM We have a couple of vireos in our nesting box, as well as a multi-colored heron in our local puddle. Up at the lake this afternoon to check the serial number on the Sunfish spotted a Baltimore Oriole in a nearby bush. Plenty of hawks, buzzards and vultures in the area as well as a surplus of various geese, Canadas, Brant, etc. Saw a Snow Goose this winter. |
Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching Challenge From: Jim Lad Date: 18 May 07 - 01:10 PM Four pairs of Violet Green Swallows in the boxes this year. There may be another two pairs but I haven't had the time to watch. Last years successful Chickadees are chasing me away & the wren hasn't showed up yet. He's been here for two years and evicted the swallows last year. |
Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching Challenge From: Liz the Squeak Date: 19 May 07 - 07:20 AM It's a week for unusual birds today.... This appeared in my garden today. Can I claim it? It was outside and flying free..... LTS |