BS: Backyard Birds 2018

Subject: RE: BS: Backyard Birds 2018
From: gillymor
Date: 23 Jun 18 - 12:36 PM

Just IDed a Black-bellied Whistling-Duck from photos taken last week. A first for me. It looked like a cross between a heron and a duck and we were calling it a "Heck" until now.

Subject: RE: BS: Backyard Birds 2018
From: Raggytash
Date: 22 Jun 18 - 09:42 AM

At the bird feeder

House Sparrow
Magpie
Hooded Crow
Collared Dove
Grey Wagtail
Siskin
Crow

This in the centre of a small town

Subject: RE: BS: Backyard Birds 2018
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 22 Jun 18 - 09:14 AM

Pip had a robin perch on her hand yesterday. I gather this got interrupted by Furball (cat) deciding to come and say "hello". Apparently the robin started cursing and swearing like mad (or whatever they do) at the cat.

Subject: RE: BS: Backyard Birds 2018
From: gillymor
Date: 22 Jun 18 - 08:50 AM

Yes, I do know.

On a walk through a pine flatwood the other day I thought I heard a hawk crying and I looked up and saw and heard a mockingbird doing a very good imitation of one.

Subject: RE: BS: Backyard Birds 2018
From: keberoxu
Date: 22 Jun 18 - 08:39 AM

They say it is a sin to kill a mockingbird.

That may be,
but every time I hear a mockingbird showing off its repertoire,
I think about the windbag in the Oval Office of the White House,
and I feel like ... you know.

Subject: RE: BS: Backyard Birds 2018
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 19 Jun 18 - 09:35 AM

Thanks Gillymor. We do have some stickers on the glass. My feeling is that they reduced mishaps.

Trying to think what's been around here apart from our usual mix of assorted tits, robins, blackbirds, etc. I did see a bullfinch a couple of weeks ago although it was only the once. I gather there has been a Eurasian Jay (not rare here but it's been a while since one used the front garden) around a few times.

Subject: RE: BS: Backyard Birds 2018
From: Charmion
Date: 19 Jun 18 - 09:04 AM

Cardinals, lots of them, all whistling their little red heads off.
Blue jays, driving the cats mad.
House sparrows, aka LBJs -- little brown jobs.
Chickadees in profusion.
American robins, also in profusion.
A Cooper's Hawk checking out the customers at the bird table next door.
Starlings all over the place
A grackle being run off by a pair of robins
Somewhere in the neighbourhood, a woodpecker at work.
Too many Canada geese.
Mallard families all over the river and its banks.
The municipal swans, who perform complex feather maintenance on the river bank in the evening before stepping up onto the footpath for a resounding shit.
And the ever-present crows, especially on garbage day.

Subject: RE: BS: Backyard Birds 2018
From: gillymor
Date: 18 Jun 18 - 07:40 PM

Perhaps you're aware of this, Jon but stick on bird decals seem to be effective at preventing birds from flying into sliders. They've always worked for me and in the USA there are outfits like The Audubon Society that will send you some.

On a trip to SW Montana earlier this
month I saw Trumpeter Swans, Blackbilled Magpies,Yellow-headed Blackbirds, a Bald Eagle, Mountain Bluebirds, Mallards, Canada Geese and lots of smaller birds that I'll have to ID from my photos.

Subject: RE: BS: Backyard Birds 2018
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 18 Jun 18 - 01:45 PM

We’ve just got back from taking a great tit to a rescue place (near Keswick which until today I thought was in the Lake District – didn’t know there was one near Bacton in Norfolk). It hit the sliding doors early afternoon. We did our usual safe quiet place with a stunned bird but this one couldn’t fly and was falling over to one side when we tried to release it and it was still like that after a further hour. . We thought it had damaged a leg but the rescue guy examined it and said its legs and wings were fine and he thought it was still quite concussed. We’ll find out how he got on tomorrow.

Subject: RE: BS: Backyard Birds 2018
From: gillymor
Date: 11 May 18 - 08:37 AM

Swallowtail Kites are nesting here in SWFL, and I saw loads of them soaring about while on a walk through a marsh trail yesterday morning. What a sight.

Subject: RE: BS: Backyard Birds 2018
From: Black belt caterpillar wrestler
Date: 11 May 18 - 02:34 AM

First swifts of the year arrived yesterday, but where are all the swallows? I have only seen 4 together once so far.

Robin

Subject: RE: BS: Backyard Birds 2018
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 02 Jan 18 - 11:47 AM

Robins and chaffinches today. Haven't seen a sparrow here all Christmas.

Subject: RE: BS: Backyard Birds 2018
From: Mitch the Bass
Date: 01 Jan 18 - 03:50 PM

At the bird feeders or feeding from the seeds beneath -

Blue tits
Great tits
Cole tits
Long-tailed tits
Robins
Sparrows
Dunnocks
Goldfinches
Siskins
Blackbirds
Collar doves
Pigeons
Starlings

In the garden
Wren
Bullfinch

In the skys above -
Jackdaws
Crows
Seagulls
Kite - being chased by crows
Sparrow hawk
Buzzards

On the roadside -
Pheasants

Happy new year from the Leicestershire/Rutland border.

Mitch

Subject: RE: BS: Backyard Birds 2018
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 01 Jan 18 - 02:56 PM

Long-tailed tits
Blue tits
Great tits
Coal tit
Fieldfares
Blackbirds
Blackcap
Tons of crowiferous birds
Phil the Pheasant

Good start!

Subject: RE: BS: Backyard Birds 2018
From: JHW
Date: 01 Jan 18 - 02:43 PM

This morning Jan 1st 2018. On tree trunk then on bird table in my back garden.
Nuthatch. Not rare but only second visit here.

Subject: BS: Bakyard Birds 2018
From: Janie
Date: 01 Jan 18 - 02:26 PM

No idea how Raptor has fared over the last few years since his motorcycle accident. Hope he is doing well, and always grateful to him for starting this annual tradition - one I realize may be falling by the wayside as fewer and fewer of us visit Mudcat, much less post.

"The Rules"

Keep a list of the birds you see or can unquestionably identify from their song/call in any one place. for most of us, that is usually our own yards. Can chose one or more different places where you may spend time observing the birds, but keep a separate list for each site.

If you kept a list for 2017, post to the 2017 Backyard bird list thread, which I refreshed a little earlier today.

Happy bird gazing in 2018!