BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others

Subject: all our feathered friends
From: keberoxu
Date: 09 May 18 - 12:59 PM

Mudcatter Senoufou, long may she prosper, has sighted the fruitful and multiplying swan pair with the arrival of spring. And they have multiplied, as they do every year.

Now comes the fraught interval of watching the swans go from one body of water to another, every day, while interfering with motor vehicle traffic of all kinds. God willing, without casualties.

A Mad Swan monitor thread almost, but not quite,
makes up for the silence left by Mudcatter Liz the Squeak
when she went elsewhere to report on her sightings of blue tits.

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Senoufou
Date: 09 May 18 - 02:25 PM

Those Mad Swans give me heart attacks every blooming year. Neighbour-across-the-road has a bit of land with a small lake behind the village, and she's trying to get the swans to stay there by feeding them morning and evening, but they seem determined to do the 'trek'. Our village council has now erected a proper road sign at each entrance to the village, with a lovely silhouette of a swan and some cygnets, saying SLOW DOWN! SWANS! but lorries are still belting along far too fast.

Have thoroughly washed out and refilled our two bird baths ready for the goldfinches. Cuckoo still tooting away in the woods behind the village.
I got sunburnt sitting on the bench during the Bank Holiday. Husband didn't (He's jet black already and never burns)

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Mr Red
Date: 10 May 18 - 04:21 AM

I have heard tell of a road sign that read "Caution low flying duck"

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 10 May 18 - 04:37 AM

We have ducks that live in the beck just down the road and spend half their time in our front garden. Often to be seen slowing traffic down by waddling down the middle of the road oblivious to the dangers. Luckily it is not such a fast nor busy road. We also have what we refer to as 'Sparrow Towers' in our front hedge. We have leylandii (bloomin' awful things that we did not plant) but next door have a lovely big privet hedge that is full of holes where the sparrows pop in and out of. We think of that as their bedrooms and ours as their dining room :-)

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 10 May 18 - 09:47 PM

Liz is still around, just not on Mudcat very often. Perhaps she will pay a visit and describe her tits for you.

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Rusty Dobro
Date: 11 May 18 - 02:45 AM

In Suffolk, we have had our first recorded visit from an American Bittern, which is, as you might expect, flashy, confident, assertive, and hard to ignore. However, it has based itself perilously near to the Norfolk border, so, Senoufou, when you tire of your swans, do not attempt to cross into God's Own County to lure it away.

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 11 May 18 - 04:01 AM

I though the flashy, hard to ignore Americans visit was scheduled for July 13th?

I'll get my coat...

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Mr Red
Date: 11 May 18 - 04:14 AM

the OP refers to tits, not twits.................

And isn't he a red twit?

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Senoufou
Date: 11 May 18 - 04:14 AM

Hahahaha! The Lesser Spotted Trump Bird!!

Don't mention bitterns to me. A friend and I were desperate to see a blooming bittern, and went several times to a Norfolk Nature Reserve to try and spot one. Whenever we arrived, there was always a crowd of people heading for the cafe, saying, "Ooooh! We've just seen the bittern! It's only just gone!" I'm convinced that wretched bird knew we were coming and deliberately made itself scarce.

We live in the Wensum Valley, which has a plethora of lovely wildlife.
Our village has an ancient mill-race and a bridge, where one can always see twitchers and their expensive cameras hanging about trying to spot some rare thing.

My funny neighbour (he's a true Norfolk chap) once told us that spot was a popular venue during the night for dogging. My husband's eyes opened wide with amazement when we explained what 'dogging' was.
Now, whenever we see these twitchers, he inevitably remarks, "Zeeze peeeeple, zey are filming zeee dogging!"

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 11 May 18 - 05:23 AM

Did you watch Peter Kay's car share when his character had to explain to his car share partner, who had been telling people she was dogging when walking the dog, what dogging actually was?

Hilarious.

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Senoufou
Date: 11 May 18 - 05:37 AM

Tee hee, yes Dave, I love that programme.

I suppose the doggers at that bridge in our village could always pretend they'd come there 'to hear the nightingale sing' as in the folk song. I've always thought the line where 'he took a fiddle out of his rucksack' is a euphemism, but perhaps I have a rather rude mind!

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: keberoxu
Date: 11 May 18 - 01:07 PM

Hereabouts (eastern Massachusetts)
it's wild turkeys and Canada geese.

The wild turkeys keep to themselves,
but they WILL cross the road.
There are signs posted, TURKEY XING, in warning yellow and black.

The Canada geese are another matter.
They take over parking lots: not to nest,
but as a place to sort of go on promenade
and harass the drivers of the parked cars.

One classic example is a strip mall with a nice pond next to
the parking lot in the back.
The geese have of course claimed the pond,
and they think of the parking lot as their territory as well.

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Senoufou
Date: 11 May 18 - 01:44 PM

I love Canada geese, very handsome birds.

A new lady has taken over our village shop, and has closed it while she makes a lot of changes, one of which is to chop down and remove a lovely large privet hedge that ran the length of the shop carpark. It used to be full of hedge sparrows (which are getting rather scarce) I noticed this morning our garden had six of these cheery little chaps eating up the bits of bread and scraps my husband chucks out for the birds. I hope they find other 'accommodation' after their huge hedge went in a skip! We don't have any hedges, as clipping them is a bit much for us nowadays.

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: keberoxu
Date: 11 May 18 - 09:53 PM

Although my location is quite a few miles inland,
seagulls are not uncommon.
Scavengers that they are, they don't bother with inland water,
but they head for the parking lots and the dumpsters!
Screaming all the way!

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Jos
Date: 12 May 18 - 03:40 AM

I hadn't come across the term 'strip mall' before, and with it turning up so soon after the car share posts I imagined a shopping mall full of strip clubs ...

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 12 May 18 - 03:53 AM

There is an old joke hereabouts (in Manchester it was about Scousers)

Why do seagulls have wings?

So they can beat (insert peoples of your disdain) to the dump :-)

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Senoufou
Date: 12 May 18 - 06:10 AM

I'd never heard of a 'strip mall' either Jos. What exactly IS it?
I know the weather's been quite hot lately, but to strip off in the Mall is a bit extreme! :)

I've noticed many seagulls here inland too. They tend to follow the plough and eat up any worms. They also scavenge. They seem to have lost their interest in fishing on the sea. They produce gallons of horrible squishy poo, which ends up on our conservatory windows.

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: keberoxu
Date: 12 May 18 - 10:53 AM

Try this link, re "strip mall".

What is a "strip mall" called in British English

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Senoufou
Date: 12 May 18 - 11:11 AM

Ah I see, thank you keberoxu. I'd call that a 'parade of shops'.
Even the word mall is fairly new here. I'd call a mall a 'shopping centre'.
My husband was very confused when he first heard the word. It means 'evil' in French. And 'sale' (pronounced 'saal') means dirty. He was a bit scared to learn we were on the bus going towards evil. And when he saw the signs saying 'SALE' he wondered why we all wanted to buy dirty stuff!

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: keberoxu
Date: 13 May 18 - 11:24 AM

In a past year,
I must have told you about the
monaastery ducklings.
I ought to post a link in this thread.
(They're in Michigan.)

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: keberoxu
Date: 13 May 18 - 06:15 PM

This is different than the one I had in mind --

enjoy anyhow.

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Senoufou
Date: 13 May 18 - 06:32 PM

How lovely keberoxu! I like it when animals and birds come into church. Our local church has the great west door open in summer, and Phyllis's little grey cat sometimes peeps round looking for her owner. She miaows a bit then comes right in to find her. Nobody minds at all.

In Senegal I attended a Catholic Mass in Djouloulou (small village in Casamance) The priest stood up to deliver the homily in French, and each sentence was translated into Wolof by a tall chap. Next to him stood a little tiny Djiola tribesman who added his bit. Then outside, a 'ting' bird did a loud 'TING!" This sequences was repeated until the sermon was over. Needless to say I got the giggles. But then the African choir and drums started up, and I was blown away. We all stood up to dance. Wonderful memory...

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: keberoxu
Date: 14 May 18 - 06:49 PM

I don't think of Trumplestiltskin as a Bittern.
Bitterns aren't all that assertive,
they do make an impressive noise
but they would rather be heard than seen,
is my experience.

I guess I'm not going to succeed in my search for that book
that was published by, I do believe,
the Dominican Monastery of the Blessed Sacrament
in Farmington Hills, Michigan.

The Dominican order has no monks, only friars;
so Dominican monasteries are limited to nuns along with lay sisters.
So it is with the above foundation, which moved into the suburbs,
and had formerly been in the heart of Detroit.
Inner-city Detroit was hazardous in a number of ways,
and the move to Farmington Hills was a big move.

No one expected to disrupt the patterns of a pair of ducks.
I ought to say, no one intended to. They did, though.

Like all strict monasteries, this one is enclosed, and there are walls.
And with the new construction,
suddenly the breeding ducks discovered
an obstacle in between their habitual nesting area
and the all-important pond nearby.
The whole darned monastery was in the way.

Now, of course, duck and drake could fly over the wall.
But their ducklings could not.

The ever-vigilant nuns and lay sisters were greatly startled when
mother duck marched her ducklings, single-file, up the walkway
to the main entrance in the wall, in broad daylight.

The doors were hastily opened, and the humans courteously held back
and watched mother duck, at the head of the queue,
quacking loudly as she led the ducklings down the monastery corridor,
straight through the complex and to another door on the far side.
Excellent sense of direction, that duck,
for that door was the closest to the pond.

Twice a day, coming and going,
mother duck led her ducklings through the monastery enclosure,
until the little ones could fly.

And has continued to do so, year upon year, at last report.

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: keberoxu
Date: 27 May 18 - 09:20 PM

Well, another BS thread
has seen a Mad Swans update. The cygnets this year
are big enough to walk,
and the whole famn damily, as the censored version goes,
has been sighted and reported on by Senoufou/Eliza.
Here we go again.

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Senoufou
Date: 28 May 18 - 02:48 AM

It's so upsetting keberoxu. Quite a few big livestock-feed lorries trundle through the village on their way to the various farms. Our village street is winding and one can't see round the bends. There could be the horses from the riding school out for the riding lesson, children on their bikes, elderly people crossing the road, and...SILLY SWANS, but these lorries never slow down, and it's only a matter of time before there's a disaster.
Sometimes a fox will get a gosling, and that's Nature, but I do feel quite ill thinking of those huge lorries bearing down on the wee things.
My husband, on the other hand, slowed down and stopped completely when a similar family of little partridge babies and their mum scuttled across the road out near Swanton Morley. He's very soft-hearted and would be in tears if he killed a little bird with his car.

Does anyone else spit when they see a single magpie? ("One for sorrow, two for joy" etc) I don't mean really spit, but go 'pffft'. My Irish mother used to do this, and I do too. It cancels out the curse. It rather startles my husband. He says 'First World folk are more superstitious than African ones!'

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Senoufou
Date: 28 May 18 - 02:50 AM

WHY do I keep calling them goslings when they're CYGNETS??

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Rusty Dobro
Date: 28 May 18 - 03:30 AM

Back to the 'assertive' bitterns - I saw (and photographed) one beating a prowling marsh harrier away from its nest at Minsmere.

It's us quiet ones you have to watch.....

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Jos
Date: 28 May 18 - 04:15 AM

What do I do when I 'see a single magpie ("One for sorrow, two for joy" etc)'? I look for the other one, of course, which will bring me joy (supposedly). Superstitions vary. Some people believe they should salute a magpie if they see one.

Round here, however, the magpies go around in gangs ("five for silver, six for gold, seven for a secret that's never been told"). If I see them in my garden I shout at them or throw sticks at them to scare them away from the nesting blue tits, great tits, coal tits, robins, blackbirds, dunnocks, wrens ...

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Senoufou
Date: 28 May 18 - 04:49 AM

If you go to 'Lyng Stores' on Twitter, and scroll down a bit, you can see a photo of the silly swans walking down the main street. I think it was taken only yesterday.

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: keberoxu
Date: 28 May 18 - 10:23 AM

Jos has tit nests in the garden! Do you know Liz the Squeak?

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Jos
Date: 28 May 18 - 11:05 AM

I do, but I haven't seen her for quite a while.

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 28 May 18 - 11:24 AM

Jos, Magpies seem to be about the first active here. Up long before I'm up and too early to scare them even if I (perhaps with apologies to smaller birds) wanted to. One thing I see them do on the cctv is fly up and take pecks out of fat balls. Seems a lot of energy expended but also seems worthwhile to them.

Back to Swans, I used to like feeding them at Salthouse but as well as getting out less often, since learned that bread is not good and may also debate the way I used to feed them with kids in mind. While I'd not like to meet one in "attack mode" (or geese in that mood for that matter), I'd let them approach me and let them take bread from my hand (they have quite rough beaks btw).

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Jos
Date: 28 May 18 - 12:26 PM

A pet shop near me sells bags of food suitable for feeding wild ducks and swans, so there is no need to stuff them with bread.

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Senoufou
Date: 28 May 18 - 12:36 PM

My daft husband has been trying, in his head, to design a small cart on rubber wheels, just large enough to accommodate the cygnets and adults, which he could pull along the road to save their struggling babies. One side of this contraption would be a ramp, which one would swing up once the family was on board.
He thinks I could walk behind with a flag to alert motorists (twice a day!).

He can't believe that the main snag to this Heath Robinson idea is that the swans won't get on board, they'll attack him in a big way.

However, I'd love to see it working. Imagine a very black African wearing his national costume (bright purple today) pulling a cart full of swans along, with a fat elderly white lady walking behind waving a large St George's flag (we've had it since the World Cup a few years ago)

Sounds like a scene from Monty Python!

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: robomatic
Date: 28 May 18 - 05:02 PM

Can't say enough good things about Bird Note which comes on our public broadcasting radio station at least once a day with some informative bit of bird business, almost always with sound effects.

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: keberoxu
Date: 29 May 18 - 01:30 PM

Another bird you have to watch out for,
if it runs amok,
is the turkey -- don't let small children get too close.

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Senoufou
Date: 01 Jun 18 - 05:36 AM

We were in fits of laughter early this morning. It seems a new pair of pigeons has taken to sitting on the roof of our bungalow. The male has a weird call. It sounds exactly like, "Hap-py birthday toooo yooo! Hap-py birthday toooo yoooo!" on and on. Maybe it's his pigeon-wife's birthday? This village gets madder and madder.

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Senoufou
Date: 01 Jun 18 - 02:41 PM

Sat outside on The Bench and watched the house martins this evening. At last they all seem to have arrived, about twenty in all, nesting up in the corner of the barge boards of everyone's houses. They're zooming around hoovering up flying insects. wonderful aerobatics!

I think they find this location useful because of all the watery places (river and string of narrow lakes) where they can scoop up wet mud to form their cup-shaped nests.

I should have qualified my last post. They aren't ordinary pigeons, they're wood pigeons.(Now that sounds like the M&S advert!)

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Rusty Dobro
Date: 01 Jun 18 - 03:18 PM

I sat on the Bench for twenty years, and all sorts of odd birds appeared before me....

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Senoufou
Date: 01 Jun 18 - 03:25 PM

Hahaha Rusty. Such as the 'Lesser Spotted Shoplifter'?

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 01 Jun 18 - 06:09 PM

That would be wood pigeons, Senoufou. And their call is officially rendered as "My toe's sore, Betty! My toe's sore, Betty!"

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: olddude
Date: 02 Jun 18 - 12:14 AM

I never had blue tits. But I did have blue balls more than once

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Jos
Date: 02 Jun 18 - 04:23 AM

I was told as a child that wood pigeons are saying
"Poor cuckoo's dead, poor cuckoo, poor cuckoo's dead, poor cuckoo"

In fact, it usually includes an extra not at the end - "Poor cuckoo's dead, poor cuckoo, poor cuckoo's dead, poor cuckoo - dead.

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Senoufou
Date: 02 Jun 18 - 04:35 AM

I love wildlife in general, and know nearly all the individual birds round here. The male blackbirds have their own distinctive songs, mostly melodious. But there's one poor thing that squawks like a parrot with a sore throat. I think he's rather old. The others have liquid exquisite songs, but he just screams and screeches as best he can. I feel sorry for him really, but his little brown wife seems to like him just the same, thank goodness!

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Jos
Date: 02 Jun 18 - 05:41 AM

That was a typo where I put "it usually includes an extra not at the end" but maybe I was right, and the wood pigeon is saying:

"Poor cuckoo's dead, poor cuckoo, poor cuckoo's dead, poor cuckoo - NOT."

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 02 Jun 18 - 06:29 AM

You must be in the wrong part of Norfolk, Sen. Wood pigeons are as common as muck here. Stupid birds that can annoy me squabbling on the bird tables or just sitting there and putting other smaller birds off but quite successful all the same.

I did see a rare (I'm not sure I've ever seen one there before) bird for our garden about 1/2 hour a go. That was a bullfinch.

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Senoufou
Date: 02 Jun 18 - 08:58 AM

They're common as muck here too Jon, but each pair seems to have adopted a house/bungalow and its garden. This Happy Birthday chap is new round here; I imagine he's seen off the original pair we had.

My husband still feeds his favourite lone starling. He's very fond of it, and says he likes his markings and glossy feathers.

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Jos
Date: 03 Jun 18 - 05:17 AM

Two weeks ago my garden was busy with baby great tits, and then baby coal tits. Last week it was baby blue tits and today there are young blackbirds - and a couple of butterflies dancing in the sunshine, getting to know each other. As long as the blackbirds don't eat the butterflies (or resulting caterpillars) all is right with the world.

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: olddude
Date: 03 Jun 18 - 02:49 PM

Last year I saved three Canadian geese from careless fishermen. I hate when they leave line laying around. The birds get tangled up and will die. I had to remove hooks lines sinkers from three of them and it’s not easy. They don’t know you are trying to help. It always takes two of us. I suspect this year it will be the same. I picked up baskets of the shit the fishermen leave on shore ugh

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Senoufou
Date: 03 Jun 18 - 03:25 PM

Aw Jos how lovely, all those babies! Our starlings keep digging their beaks into the lawn to get at the leatherjackets (larvae of craneflies) which is excellent, as the larvae eat the roots of the grass and wreck the lawn.
Good for you olddude! I hate it too when stupid fishermen leave their detritus behind. So ignorant and thoughtless. Well done for holding the geese down and getting the fishing line off!

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: keberoxu
Date: 03 Jun 18 - 03:34 PM

And then, speaking of our feathered friends,
there is the sound of crepuscular bird speech.
Sorry for the fancy word:
Crepuscular means "at dawn" and "at dusk."

I'm spending time in Arizona again.
Besides the mockingbirds,
who sound as though they are running for elected office,
there are the breeds of jays.
I'm not sure what kind of jays these are in Arizona.

It is really something else, at dusk, as the daylight fades,
when the jays get hunkered down in the tree branches
and stop foraging in the parking lots.

At a certain moment, in the encroaching dark,
the jays tuck themselves into the tree foliage
and do their last big vocalizing for the day.
If I knew how to make a You-Tube video of them doing this,
I would post it so that you could hear the sound.

They make all kinds of bird vocalizations that they don't resort to
at any other time that I am aware of.
It probably is not a conversation
but it certainly sounds like one!

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: keberoxu
Date: 03 Jun 18 - 11:59 PM

My apologies! I was mistaken, must correct myself.
Just went online to see if I could find these amusing noisy birds.
No, they are not jays at all.

They are Great-Tailed Grackles. Right here in the Arizona cityscape.
They frequent parking lots everywhere.

If this link works, it will take you to a site about birds,
which has a short video of two adult male Great-tailed Grackles,
and you can see and hear them.

Now, if you could just imagine that little video
with about a dozen or more Great-tailed Grackles
doing that, simultaneously, in an ornamental tree in
a parking lot ... it is quite an aural experience.

Quiscalus mexicanus

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Senoufou
Date: 04 Jun 18 - 04:03 AM

Great-Tailed Grackles!!! What a lovely name! And their calls are very unusual. I love their long, elegant beaks. Thank you for posting that keberoxu.
We haven't heard any more from Happy Birthday boy. I wonder if our usual pair have chased him and his missus away.

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: keberoxu
Date: 06 Jun 18 - 11:50 PM

Is it true
that pink flamingos
are pink
because of what they eat?

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Stanron
Date: 07 Jun 18 - 01:56 AM

Pink elephants are pink because of what we drink.

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: BobL
Date: 07 Jun 18 - 02:55 AM

To answer Keberoxu's query - Yes. Consult the fount-of-all-information-but-not-necessarily-knowledge at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flamingo#feeding

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Senoufou
Date: 07 Jun 18 - 12:52 PM

Neighbour-across-the-road sat with me on The Bench today, and suddenly announced, "Hair come Scruffy!" (That's how she talks, broad Norfolk)
I couldn't see anyone walking along our road, but she was pointing to a bird. It's a male blackbird, and his feathers are in complete disarray, sticking out at all angles.

It's the one she feeds with scraps and raisins, and he comes right into her kitchen and sits on the counter top waiting to be served. He obviously knows her voice, as he approached confidently right up to our feet, head on one side.
I hurried indoors to get some raisins and he actually took them from our hands!

She was telling me that all the land on which our houses are built once belonged to her grandfather, a dairy farmer. He had one bull and several milking cows. She'd been chased by the latter many times when they had calves with them, but said that bulls charge with their eyes closed, and if you dodge about, they won't get you!
I never knew that...

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Senoufou
Date: 09 Jun 18 - 03:08 PM

My VERY naughty neighbour-next-door came home towing a large piece of farm machinery. He climbed down from his van, grinned broadly at me and bellowed, "Yew ought ter trim yer bush mawther!"

I had to think for a minute, but realised he was referring to a large bush which is growing a bit too far over the pavement.
I bet the whole street heard him and had a good snigger!

Anyway, I haven't trimmed my bush because a pair of sparrows are nesting inside it, and I don't want to disturb them...

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Jos
Date: 09 Jun 18 - 04:50 PM

Another blue tit family today. When I looked out this morning there were two adults and five young ones bouncing around on and near the bird feeder, with the adults busily feeding the youngsters.

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: keberoxu
Date: 10 Jun 18 - 12:29 AM

Visiting Tucson, Arizona for a week or so.
The doves out here really ARE different
from the doves that turn up in other places.

When they launch into flight and their tail-feathers fan out,
the plumage is remarkably colored. No, not like peacocks or anything.
More like the long skirts of the Ballet Folklórico dancers.

And their cooing is really a different call than the birdcalls I'm used to.
It puts me in mind of Lola Beltrán, of happy memory,
the native of Sináloa, México,
whose singing commanded música ranchera/norteña for decades,
and of her song "Cucurrucucú Paloma."

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: keberoxu
Date: 07 Nov 18 - 09:39 PM

Am returning from Phoenix, Arizona to my northeastern US home tomorrow.
Today I drove to my favorite parking lot in Scottsdale
and said goodbye to the great-tailed grackles,
when it was getting on from afternoon to evening,
and they were sitting in the trees
voicing their near-infinite variety and diversity of bird calls.
It is the darndest-sounding thing, a continual entertainment.
Until they shut up for the night.

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Thompson
Date: 07 Nov 18 - 10:43 PM

Senoufou, your dafe husband doesn't need to build a special yokey - you can already buy cycle trailers for pets; I'm mumbling over the thought of getting one for my new puppy, who's going to be a big boy, so I can bring him to the sea and local parks for romps.

However, he might be wise to take a course in wildlife rehabilitation - there are skills involved, and knowledge. (For instance, you would never in a million years see me pick up a sick bird nowadays unless with rubber gloves and very much at arm's length, and probably not even then; there's a very nasty virus going around Europe that has already killed virtually all of Paris's blackbirds, and which is transmissible to humans.)

You may have seen a video that's going around the internet of an Irish vet (veterinarian for our American ex-co-Anglophones) jumping out of a taxi to run and rescue a young swan on the road at Donnybrook in Dublin. He wrapped it in his jacket, carried it to the river Dodder and let it loose, and it swam happily away.

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Jos
Date: 08 Nov 18 - 03:01 AM

Thompson, when I read "he might be wise to take a course in wildlife rehabilitation ...", at first I thought you meant your big puppy should take a course before you took him to the seaside.

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Thompson
Date: 08 Nov 18 - 08:37 AM

Hah, could be true too!

I've rather backed off the pet trailer idea on discovering that they're about €800…

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Thompson
Date: 08 Nov 18 - 08:42 AM

Though wait, no, Amazon has some for around £80 to £150.

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Senoufou
Date: 08 Nov 18 - 08:46 AM

There's a lovely photo of our Mad Swans online. If you go to 'Lyng Stores and Tearoom', it takes you to a Facebook thing (but no need to sign in or anything), and a large picture of the swans walking along the road in front of the village shop.

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: keberoxu
Date: 08 May 19 - 07:40 PM

Ah, I'm a bit late refreshing this thread.

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: keberoxu
Date: 09 May 19 - 06:08 PM

and here they are! (2019 edition, that is)

Norwich's Mad Swans

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: keberoxu
Date: 09 May 19 - 06:13 PM

And this is the
2018 edition of the Mad Swans of Norwich.

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Jos
Date: 10 May 19 - 04:50 AM

I wonder where the idea of the 'Ugly duckling' came from - yes, I know it was Hans Christian Andersen, I mean before that.
Those could never be described as ugly.

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: keberoxu
Date: 11 May 19 - 09:55 PM

They do appear to be making a royal progress
in that photograph, don't they?

No wonder they avoid, somehow,
being run over.

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: keberoxu
Date: 12 May 19 - 04:21 PM

Grand weather for water birds and
anything with webbed feet today.

the local Canada Geese must be thoroughly at home.

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 12 May 19 - 08:09 PM

Once upon a time...... (sounds like a good start for a short story). There was an area with a couple of small lakes and a nature reserve surrounding them, with pathways round the whole thing. It was widely reported that a male swan had been nicknamed 'Psycho' because it kept going for people on the pathways. I being middle aged and fit went running around those pathways, uninterrupted for around three weeks. However, on this particular day.... there he was, bold as brass, spreading his wings in an intimidating manner in front of me. Little did he know that I had been brought up in the countryside and was used to dealing with flocks of geese on various farms in that area. He moved threateningly towards me, sticking his neck out and making a hissing noise.... just as the geese did.... so i did exactly what i did with the geese and smacked him on the top of his beak. He moved to one side and i carried onmy r=un. The following day, I took some bread, soaked in milk, and when i saw him, i approached him with outstretched arm and fed him the juicy bread. I did this every dasy for many months and he allowed me to also feed his partner (Swans will only ever have one partner). Then came Spring time. He allowed me to feed his pasrtner whilst she was sitting on her eggs, which is a great honour as male swans will usually drive anyone who gets near to the nest away. I carried on with this amazing relationship for many more months. The babies were fed by me, early on in their lives and all seemed wonderful. Many people came to see me with those swans because they did not believe that 'Psycho' could be so tolerant. They saw him and his partner put their heads on my legs and look at me with love in their eyes. The press cameand interviewed me and took pics of me with those lovely birds. In the Autumn (Fall), I found 'Psycho' with one eye shot out by some idiot with an air rifle. I arranged for him to get it sorted at the vets but all they could do wasd make it germ free. A month later, someone found 'Psycho' with his neck tied in a knot.... dead. As you can imagine, I was devastated. How could someone do this to him........ His partner and the younng ones disappeared and were not seen locally again. i sort of blame myself for 'Psychos' demise, because he might have thought that the people who killed him were as friendly as me........maybe i should not have becomea treusted part of their lives.

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: keberoxu
Date: 15 May 19 - 06:12 PM

This happened a short drive from my apartment building.

i've got good news and bad news...

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: keberoxu
Date: 18 May 19 - 02:31 PM

Well, Senoufou continues to stay a safe distance,
and
the closest I ever get to Senoufou's Mad Swans
is looking at the
Norwich Lyng Stores internet spots.

Nothing new on this year's edition of the cygnets.
When I see an update, I will let you know.

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 19 May 19 - 12:20 PM

I was amazed on holiday to see a hoopoe right outside my apartment window. (even more amazed I identified it correctly)
On checking it online I was a little disappointed to find that they are fairly common in Majorca.
Hoopoe

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: keberoxu
Date: 26 May 19 - 04:27 PM

Canada Geese, not swans, are the ones
who think territorially about
parking lots, medians, and even stretches of open road.

Everyone minded their movements and manners today,
and nobody got dented or ruffled anyplace.
Only, they would talk back and forth to each other
as they jostled for position on the street pavement:
cars honking at geese,
and geese honking back at cars.
It was downright amusing.

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Jos
Date: 27 May 19 - 05:26 AM

Much feeding of baby blue tits going on in my garden at the moment, but regularly interrupted by the arrival of wood pigeons who will eat everything edible they can find unless I chase them off.

I feel bad being nasty to wood pigeons, but if they behaved like the collared doves and just spent a few minutes feeding and then flew off, the little birds could still get their share.

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Jos
Date: 02 Jun 19 - 04:27 AM

We now have lots of baby great tits - they move about too quickly to get an exact number. I am pleased to see that when the bird feeders are too crowded they have taken to eating the aphids on the roses.

We also have visits now and then from a group of young starlings, squawking and squabbling like unruly teenagers.

The young blue tits are now quite capable of feeding themselves but their parents keep on feeding them anyway, unlike the robins. Four young robins will arrive at the bird feeders and sit there waiting in vain, until they eventually get bored and feed themselves. Their parents seem to ignore them completely, and only come to feed when the babies are elsewhere.

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: keberoxu
Date: 16 Jun 19 - 03:00 PM

Mad Swans and Englishmen …

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: keberoxu
Date: 17 Jun 19 - 02:50 PM

Oooooooh,
how I miss
Senoufou / Eliza
with the cygnets and their swan parents in Norwich or thereabouts.

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: keberoxu
Date: 27 Jun 19 - 08:14 PM

oh where, o where,
have the Mad Swans gone,

oh where, o where can they beeee .........

no new news of this year's cygnets
since last month.

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: The Sandman
Date: 28 Jun 19 - 04:46 AM

Great Tits songhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nDLF2fxoWQ , great tits are charming I love them

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: keberoxu
Date: 30 Jun 19 - 05:43 PM

What on earth is happening in the Channel Islands?

What do you call one hundred feral chickens?

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: keberoxu
Date: 01 Jul 19 - 05:20 PM

These are nouns for other breeds of bird.
What would work for marauding feral chickens on the island of Jersey?

aerie
ascension
band
bevy
bouquet
brace
brood
building
bury
cast
chain
charm
chattering
clamor
clutch
colony
company
congregation
conspirancy
convocation
cote
cover
covey
crèche
deceit
descent
dissimulation
dole
dule
episode
exaltation
fall
flight
flock
flush
gaggle
hedge
herd
host
huddle
kettle
lamentation
mob
murder
murmuration
muster
mustering
nest
nide
nye
ostentation
pack
paddling
parcel
parliament
party
peep
piteousness
pitying
plump
raft
rafter
rookery
scold
sedge
siege
skein
sord
spring
storytelling
team
tidings
unkindness
volery
wake
walk
watch
wedge
wing
wisdom
wisp

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: keberoxu
Date: 01 Jul 19 - 05:21 PM

. . . but then, I am partial to this quote
from Theodore Roethke's poem, Root Cellar:

"And what a congress of stinks!"

which might be what the homeowner says
after the feral chickens in their hundreds
walk across the front lawn ...

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: keberoxu
Date: 04 Jul 19 - 02:45 PM

miser, miser,
modo niger
et ustus fortiter .....

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: keberoxu
Date: 21 Jul 19 - 09:44 PM

reprise of

o where, o where, have the Mad Swans ...

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: keberoxu
Date: 18 Aug 19 - 03:05 PM

Senoufou sent me an update.
I can barely credit my eyes.

The Mad Swans, after all these years,
have altered their ways.
They are still alive,
and their little what-d'yer-call-it of cygnets
is thriving.

And they stay AWAY from the route to that lake/pond/river
miles from their nest.
No more royal progress down the main thoroughfare.
But they returned to the same nest as before.

wonders never cease ...

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: keberoxu
Date: 08 May 20 - 11:49 AM

how's the birdwatching going across the pond?

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Senoufou
Date: 08 May 20 - 12:33 PM

Well those silly swans are doing it again! This time they have EIGHT cygnets and lead them up the village street every morning, 'dad' in front and 'mum' at the back while all the poor babies struggle along in an orderly line.
My neighbour owns 'The Pit' (a gravel pit filled with water on her land) and she told me a nasty male swan has decided to live there. He's been attacking the family, and 'dad' and he have had a terrible fight. She's tried to chase the squatter away, but it can be a bit dangerous provoking a large cob swan.
Our lovely house martins are back from Africa and are building mud nests in everybody's eaves. And the huge kites (a pair, with a third 'hanger-on') soar above the village every evening.
I do so love it here!

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Mrrzy
Date: 08 May 20 - 01:41 PM

Ah, yes, the wonderful O, where I learned about the cob and the cos.

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: keberoxu
Date: 08 May 20 - 03:29 PM

Two male swans? Swans are infamous for being territorial.
Sounds like serious problems.

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Senoufou
Date: 08 May 20 - 04:07 PM

Yes keberoxu, and my neighbour reckons one might kill the other.
Her family for many generations back have owned the land there, and she says there have always been swans, and many fierce power-struggles for territory among the cobs. They fight to the death, sadly.
She always carries a large stick when she's out in the fields, in case a heifer, bullock or swan comes at her!
Personally, I think the rogue swan may be a grown-up son of the present cob. They often challenge their father for territory.

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: keberoxu
Date: 10 May 20 - 11:07 AM

What about the other birdies out there?

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: gillymor
Date: 10 May 20 - 12:05 PM

I've been watching a pair of black necked stilts that are nesting near a local pond and am hoping to see some little ones running about soon. Stilts are not a real common sight here in SWFL.

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Donuel
Date: 10 May 20 - 02:49 PM

Hummingbird

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Donuel
Date: 11 May 20 - 10:24 AM

oops, the picture link changes daily.

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Senoufou
Date: 11 May 20 - 11:44 AM

Well now it's bees! Many people in our village keep bees, and some have several hives. Due to the unseasonably hot weather, there have been literally dozens of swarms zooming over our heads. One swarm clung to a tree in someone's garden, and it was two metres long! The lady tracked them down and she and her daughter managed to get the whole thing into a sack.
On our Village Facebook, there are many helpful reports of swarm sightings, and successful taking of swarms.
Our village honey is absolutely gorgeous.

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Donuel
Date: 11 May 20 - 02:38 PM

We have such a bee shortage in the US we have to send trucks full of the same bees from farm to farm.

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: keberoxu
Date: 12 May 20 - 03:34 PM

Anyone for hilariously bad amateur photographs of

various birds and beasties?

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Senoufou
Date: 07 Jun 20 - 05:34 PM

In our village we have a lady who lives in the Old Rectory. She has a horse, a dog and - a red deer! He's called BamBam, and the lady rescued it when it was a small fawn. She bottle-fed it and it grew quite large (red deer are huge!) She's had it neutered, and it's so tame and loves people. She lets it roam around the village, and especially down by the river. All the locals know it, and it swims about with the children, licks all the dogs and sits politely while people have their picnics.
Now there is a new warning sign saying SLOW! DEER! added to the SLOW! SWANS! one.
This village gets madder and madder.

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 07 Jun 20 - 06:28 PM

Earlier this evening I watched two magpies beating up a predatory cat in our back yard..

What a brilliant natural symbolic image for Black and White unity...

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: keberoxu
Date: 07 Jun 20 - 07:34 PM

... but how have things turned out
between the two male swans who are fighting each other?

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Senoufou
Date: 08 Jun 20 - 08:41 AM

I don't know how it turned out keberoxu, because my neighbour hasn't been down to the lakes/river/pools recently. But the eight cygnets are still being shepherded along the village street quite often by the cob and pen.
We now have a male blackbird who sings a line from Jingle Bells:
"Jingle all the way!" And the two fat pigeons who shout "Food! Food!" when I go into the garden with some scraps of bread for them.
Crazy place, this village!
Oh by the way, I really liked those funny 'failed photos' you posted. What a scream!

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Roger the Skiffler
Date: 08 Jun 20 - 08:52 AM

We often see a wren fossicking about in the pots on our patio and hear it more often. This morning we were visited by FOUR which is unusual as they are elusive (though apparently ubiquitous).
RtS

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Senoufou
Date: 09 Jun 20 - 07:20 AM

Well, a pig is on the loose again. Last seen trotting down a lane with her fat bottom wobbling. Half the village has been out trying to locate her. Her owner the pig farmer should repair his fences a bit more often!
So now we have a tame red deer, a Christmas Carol-singing blackbird, two adult swans and their cygnets, a baby jackdaw rescued by our neighbour from the (gentle) mouth of a gun-dog spaniel, and now The Pig.
Whatever next?

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Charmion
Date: 09 Jun 20 - 12:01 PM

The "other" Avon River runs through Stratford, Ontario, where it is dammed to form a bit of lake on the north edge of downtown. On its banks, the town fathers created a most delightful park, with paths and benches and lovely overhanging trees. The only creatures who like it more than the humans are the Canada geese and the mallard ducks, who nest in their thousands every year and raise their families on the lake.

The town also maintains a little flock of mute swans, about 20 at present, who spend the winter in a converted curling rink and march down to the river every spring. Their wings are clipped so they can't fly, so they hold up traffic when they leave the river to graze on the municipal golf course and on the soccer pitch behind the Festival Theatre. I have seen literally dozens of vehicles steaming in the summer heat while their drivers sit out the unhurried journey of a family of swans from one patch of grass to another.

Here's the thing. The people of Stratford love the swans and like the ducks, but they hate the Canada geese. All three types of waterfowl crap all over the grass and the swans leave droppings nearly the size of meadow muffins, so goose poop can't be the issue. The ducks make plenty of noise, so disturbing the peace isn't it either.

I have decided it's facial expression. The swans look like supermodels and the ducks have a kind of Gidget thing going on, but the goose demeanour looks like disdain verging on dislike. The geese also stand their ground, hissing and flapping their wings at encroaching dogs and humans, and march their large families back and forth across Lakeshore Drive, like teaching nuns escorting their pupils to the art gallery, heedless of the traffic. I once saw a gander (I assume it was a gander, it's hard to tell) with his wings outspread and his neck thrust out, hissing fiercely at a red Mazda Miata. I think the driver had honked his horn -- bad form.

Anyway, so while our property taxes pay for swan maintenance and preservation of duck habitat, the town of Stratford employs a guy who roams around the lake with two border collies to hassle the geese. Also, when he finds a nest, he breaks the eggs or pours oil over them so they won't hatch. That's just cruel.

It also doesn't do any good. After three years of "goose abatement operations", the goose population of Stratford is unaffected.

Except now their disdain and dislike are fully justified.

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Senoufou
Date: 09 Jun 20 - 12:49 PM

Oh the poor geese Charmion! We get scores of Canada geese here in the Autumn, and they overwinter and leave in the Spring. They're really quite beautiful. I'm afraid there are Laws protecting all wildlife and migratory birds etc here, and farmers don't even cut their huge long hedges until the nesting season is well over.
I have such happy memories of Ontario, and many other places in eastern Canada. Never have been to Vancouver or BC though.
My uncle took me to Expo '67 in Montreal, then Ottawa and Toronto.
Flew over Newfoundland in the old Boeing 707 during the night flight out from London Airport. (I was quite alone, and it was my first-ever flight). One of the air hostesses teased me and told me to look out for the North Pole. I was expecting a tall Pole sticking up in the air. (Didn't see it though)

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: keberoxu
Date: 18 Jun 20 - 10:25 PM

North America swans
are particularly intolerant of Canada geese, I hear.

Eliza/Senoufou,
what's new with the Mad Swans and their cygnets?

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Senoufou
Date: 19 Jun 20 - 03:49 AM

That's interesting keberoxu, because (as I think I have said on here a while back) out at Wroxham (on the Broads), the Canada geese and the swans sit around amicably together on the banks of the Broad looking as if they're having a nice chat.
Our swans have raised their cygnets, and no longer waddle along the street because their young offspring can now fly (phew!)
But the red deer BamBam is often seen strolling across the road and nearly getting hit by a car. He still swims with the village children in the river.
The naughty pig was caught (but he'll be out again, as the pig farmer's fences are ramshackle) and yet more huge swarms of bees buzz overhead, with their owners frantically following with a smoker and a skep to try and capture them.
At our village riding stables, due to the pandemic distancing rules, the staff tack up every horse in each stall, having sterilised the saddles and bridles, then smack their rumps. They trot outside to the waiting riders to be mounted (not the staff, the horses I mean). After the ride, the riders smack their rumps and they obediently trot back to the yard for unsaddling. Very weird but necessary I suppose.

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Doug Chadwick
Date: 19 Jun 20 - 06:23 AM

.The town also maintains a little flock of mute swans, about 20 at present, who spend the winter in a converted curling rink and march down to the river every spring. Their wings are clipped so they can't fly, ....

The swans should be free to come and go. If the environment is right for swans, they will stay around. If not, then they shouldn't be kept in unsuitable conditions like some sort of municipal fashion accessory. Nothing is more glorious than seeing a flight of swans coming in to land on a lake. The townsfolk don't know what they're missing.

DC

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Senoufou
Date: 19 Jun 20 - 06:57 AM

I agree Doug. Wild creatures should be free to live as they wish.
We live in a village among a chain of streams, small lakes, ponds, a large watermill and the river Wensum. The number of wild water birds is amazing.
When I sit on my garden bench in front of the house, flocks of swans, necks outstretched, pass overhead, not to mention geese, all kinds of ducks etc. They call and squawk as they fly, and it always brings tears to my eyes. Then there are crows, magpies, jackdaws, swifts and house martins, all making a lovely din (and depositing their gifts all down our window panes, but we have an excellent window cleaner called Andy)
I should have written 'she' for the pig - it was a fat old sow!

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Jos
Date: 19 Jun 20 - 08:24 AM

I just posted a message on the 'Fun with maps' thread but it really belongs here. It says:
"Eliza, I found my way to a village on street view with a road named after a Pightle. I wandered about virtually and found a bungalow with a bench outside and a bird table, but there was no African to be seen, so I don't know if it is your house. I didn't see any mad swans or deer or errant sows or blackbirds. I might go for another virtual walk around later on and have a look at the older part of the village, maybe they will be there."

Years ago we had a wild duckling. My son had found it wandering alone by the river. He had tried to find its family to return it but couldn't find them so he brought it home. It was only about a day old. At first we made it a little pen in the living room, where it settled happily when we gave it a mirror so it didn't feel lonely. It grew fast, and moved outside to the garden pond. It grew feathers and learned how to fly across the garden, then one day it flew up high, glimpsed water in the distance and flew away. I was happy to see it go off and find other ducks to be with.

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Senoufou
Date: 19 Jun 20 - 08:29 AM

Aw, what a lovely ending Jos! So glad it flew free after your kindly help.
I've PM'd you about our village and street (hush hush of course!)

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: keberoxu
Date: 21 Jun 20 - 06:24 PM

Glad to hear that the Mad Swans
have safely raised another brood of cygnets
and no longer stop traffic on the roads.

And, in California,
hopefully Joe Offer
is no longer plagued by mating frogs.

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Senoufou
Date: 22 Jun 20 - 04:11 AM

BamBam the tame red deer has taken to having nice strolls around the entire village. He ended up at the riding stables, and wanted to cuddle up to the horses (much to their astonishment and alarm).
His owner arrived in her 4X4, opened the boot, tapped it and BamBam leapt in, sat down and was transported back to the Old Vicarage.
My friend, who rides every week, watched all this with much amusement.
Red deer are quite large, and can be dangerous. But BamBam has been neutered, and has no horns, just bumps.

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Charmion
Date: 22 Jun 20 - 10:07 AM

A "municipal fashion accessory" -- well, that about sums it up. Thanks, Doug Chadwick, for ces mots justes.

Mute swans are not native to Canada, although Wikipedia tells me that they have been introduced to North America and live in the wild in substantial numbers. Ontario cannot be particularly swan-friendly; our winters last a long, long time, even now. The Stratford swans normally have already hatched their cygnets when they are released in April, so I guess they nest before the snow and riverside ice are gone.

I first saw wild swans in southwestern Germany, on ponds and creeks near the Rhine River. I remember standing in the middle of the road, gobsmacked at the sheer beauty of a swan family alighting in the reeds. Then a farmer towing a honey-wagon honked his horn at me ... Mood broken.

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: keberoxu
Date: 30 Mar 21 - 10:04 PM

I wonder if Joe Offer in California
is being plagued by the frogs courting each other again?

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Senoufou
Date: 31 Mar 21 - 02:44 AM

We have had The Invasion of the Bees in our village. Many people here have beehives and the blooming things are now swarming (strange heat-wave this week, temperatures of 24 Degrees C!) They form large clusters in trees/shrubs/around telegraph poles etc. People dashing about carrying skeps to 'take the swarm'. I like bees and they don't scare me.
The Frogs of Fustyweed are also on the march. Literally hundreds of 'em crossing the road and motorists kindly stopping to let them go by. (Or cruelly squashing them in their impatience) Fustyweed is the next village to ours, and is more-or-less adjoining)
No Mad Swans (yet).

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Senoufou
Date: 31 Mar 21 - 02:51 AM

I forgot to add the BamBam the tame deer is dead. The whole village is in mourning, and a large sum of money (£2283) has been raised in order to put up a statue of him in front of the village hall, plus a plaque.
He died after having fits at the Old Vicarage.

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: keberoxu
Date: 02 Apr 21 - 05:14 PM

I recall one spring where the swans had more drama than usual,
because there were two males and they fought each other.
Wonder what happened there ...

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: keberoxu
Date: 07 Apr 21 - 08:13 PM

Spring should be in full flood over Eliza/Senoufou 's way.
My part of Massachusetts is more springlike all the time,
the ponds near the highway no longer have ice on them.

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: keberoxu
Date: 08 Apr 21 - 08:16 PM

An acquaintance of mine passed a pond,
recently thawed of winter ice, next to a roadside;
and there was a turtle sunning itself.

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: keberoxu
Date: 10 Apr 21 - 11:56 PM

... and the black squirrels have ventured out again
in the trimmed-lawn areas where we humans can see them.

All winter long the black ones stayed out of sight,
unlike the grey squirrels who never went away,
even when the crows tried to chase the grey ones off.

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: keberoxu
Date: 13 Apr 21 - 09:16 PM

Swans?
Frogs?
Anybody?

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: keberoxu
Date: 05 May 21 - 09:14 PM

Eliza/Senoufou,
how are things this spring?

(Congrats about the Canaries.)

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: cnd
Date: 06 May 21 - 01:26 AM

I've been seeing a lot of Eastern Towhees and Orioles, but I did see a brown thrasher the other day

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Senoufou
Date: 06 May 21 - 03:05 AM

Thank you keberoxu, we're all rather chuffed about Norwich City FC going up. Just hoping they don't go back down again as they did last time.
Here the weather has been very very cold, with night frosts, tons of rain (much-needed, but enough is enough!) and high winds, so all the birds are behind with their nesting. So no swans tottering up and down the village street as yet. After the death of BamBam the deer, we don't need any more sorrow with lovely swans and/or cygnets getting squashed on the road by cattle-feed lorries.
But there are lambs and calves in the fields, which are lovely to see.
And my neighbour, the veterinary nurse, who has a flock of rescued sheep, took in another poor ewe, a 'culled' one (a farmer had decided to have her slaughtered as she was 'elderly and past lambing') When the poor old thing arrived, she promptly lambed and produced a sweet little baby! He's been named Bertie. (All her sheep have names. One of them, a very cheeky and pushy Shetland sheep, is called Shitland!!)

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 06 May 21 - 10:50 AM

Some angry birds in the Norfolk news lately. The Norwich Cathedral peregrenes having a run in with a red kite and Crows attacking a shop door in Dereham

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: keberoxu
Date: 08 May 21 - 10:30 PM

Driving up the road today, I was surprised at
what I saw just to one side, although
it was close to a large pond:

a Canada Goose watchng closely over
about half a dozen little grey goslings,
so little I almost missed them:
they were grazing in a stand of fresh green grass.

But they were dangerously close to the road!!

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Senoufou
Date: 09 May 21 - 04:01 AM

I like Canada geese very much keberoxu. Pretty creatures. Goslings and cygnets will follow their parents on the roads even though the little ones can't fly. You must have felt concerned I'm sure.
I learned yesterday from my neighbour-across-the-road that a lady who runs the caravan park near the Mad Swans' lake has erected a low wire fence around her plot, which is keeping the cygnets in, and off the road. The parents can fly in and out to attend to their babies, who will have to wait until they can fly before they 'escape'.
This is actually illegal though, and neighbour (whose family owns the land) says, "Oi'll be gooing down thair termorra ter give her a piece o' moi moind. She hint gort ner roit ter dew tha!!"
We await developments!

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: keberoxu
Date: 27 May 21 - 04:30 PM

The goslings with their Canada Goose mother were in the exact same spot
as I drove past today
(at nearly the same hour as before, which makes good sense).

The goslings are considerably larger now.

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: keberoxu
Date: 30 Jun 21 - 09:56 PM

. . . and now, when I drive past that same grassy spot,
there are the mother goose with this year's little ones
who are now almost as big as their mother,
with the plumage of an adult.

But whatever happened with
the swans, the cygnets,
and the manager who ought not to have erected a fence
without the landlord/owner's permission ??

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: keberoxu
Date: 03 Jul 21 - 02:16 PM

Of all things, I am seeing and hearing -- especially hearing --

fledgling red-winged-blackbirds.
The region where I am spending the summer,
has wetlands and marshlands around the river valley,
and some rocky terrain unsuitable for building
where there are more wetlands,
filled with various kinds of reeds.
That's where the red-winged blackbirds make their habitat.

I don't have to hike over to the marshes.
The young blackbirds are coming out and hanging around on the
telephone pole cables, flying down to sidewalks and patios.

They are letting out the loudest clearest whistles
that I have ever heard from blackbirds of any stripe.
I reckon this is how the birds talk to each other
and I'm not used to hearing that piercing whistle so close to parking lots and restaurant/commercial buildings.

But there they are, the fledglings, looking sort of
fearless and clueless, as those young birds do at first,
trying their wings and exploring the outside world.

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: JHW
Date: 03 Jul 21 - 04:20 PM

My birds of the road story. For many years (till they chopped them down)I mooched the rhododendrum hill at Kepwick (North Yorkshire) Journeying on by car one day my way was barred by a peacock with full spread tail, another similar peacock 10yds further, again in the middle of the road. A parade of ducks and lings crossed the road between the peacocks who then stepped down and cleared the road.

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: keberoxu
Date: 10 Jul 21 - 08:07 PM

Curiously, I have never seen the Canada geese described in earlier posts,
swimming on the surface of the pond.
They are always close to the pond when I drive past,
on the state route that runs alongside the length of the pond.
But never out on the water.
Always in the grass on the banks of the water.

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Doug Chadwick
Date: 11 Jul 21 - 04:05 AM

Stop the car and walk straight towards them at a medium pace. Within seconds, you will see geese on the water.

DC

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: keberoxu
Date: 03 May 22 - 03:42 PM

Dear Senoufou,
how goes it with that pair of swans this year? Cygnets already?

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Senoufou
Date: 11 May 22 - 02:00 AM

Oh keberoxu, nobody on here will believe this, but I was talking to a neighbour the other day, and she said that a horsebox was being towed slowly through the village, when out the back popped the head of a GIRAFFE!!! Honestly, it's quite true - it was on its way to some new theme park thing being set up in a nearby village (This theme park has hundreds of tropical insects on show, an 'Invertebrates Stroking Farm', where people can hold/stroke massive spiders, beetles and millipedes etc. (shudder!)
No swans so far. At bingo last evening, everyone was concerned about why those swans haven't produced any cygnets yet.
But Mr & Mrs Quackie, the pair of mallards, are still waddling around The Bench at my feet. And many pigs have escaped from Mr Barrett's farm to roam at large around the place. Still a very mad village!

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: keberoxu
Date: 11 May 22 - 09:08 PM

But Eliza/Senoufou,
we Mudcatters know that your village is the place where EVERYTHING is possible.
We have not forgotten BamBam the red deer, after all,
so why not a giraffe!
It's grand that the mallard ducks are keeping you company.
I'm surprised, though, that the cat next door is not curious about the ducks.

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: keberoxu
Date: 11 May 22 - 09:09 PM

Oh, and here in western Massachusetts, in the Berkshires,
the Canada geese have returned,
but I have yet to see any goslings.

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Senoufou
Date: 16 May 22 - 02:29 AM

We're now having swarms of honey bees being found clustered under trees, patio furniture and children's garden swings. The 'bee man', who has many hives, has been busy collecting these swarms wearing his bee-outfit and carrying a smoker. He sells honey and it's delicious.
We're still awaiting the large wooden statue of BamBam the tame red deer. They collected over £3000 towards it, and commissioned a sculptor ages ago, but still no sign. I think they plan to erect it outside the village pub (The Fox).

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: keberoxu
Date: 27 May 22 - 10:01 PM

Are they back yet, Eliza/Senoufou?

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Senoufou
Date: 28 May 22 - 02:32 AM

No keberoxu, thankfully they're lurking around my friend's farm ponds.They have hatched a brood of cygnets but no longer seem interested in marching them along the village high street. My friend feeds the pair when she's down there and they seem to have learned their lesson and are staying put on the farmland.
But we now have escaped goats roaming around and eating flowers in people's gardens. Nobody admits they belong to them, so we don't know who to contact to come and recapture them. They seem to have chummed up with a little muntjac deer, and they wander around in a group munching away on lupins, roses and even tomato plants.
This village will never be anything other than completely bonkers.(But fun!)

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: keberoxu
Date: 28 May 22 - 05:16 PM

That does seem like the happiest possible outcome to the story:
the swans are still alive and well, still hatching cygnets,
and nobody got hurt.

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: keberoxu
Date: 29 May 22 - 09:07 PM

A fairly large gaggle of Canada geese was grazing in the grass
this afternoon on a public lawn.
No goslings, though, at this point.

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Senoufou
Date: 31 May 22 - 02:21 AM

I do love Canada geese! They're quite numerous here and fly over the village from river-to-lake. One group of three have a very funny system of communication while in flight. The leader goes "Onk! Onk!", the one behind him goes "Ink! Ink!" but the third one, presumably a 'subordinate', just goes "peep". We all listen out for these three going overhead, and have a giggle.
As I've said before, this village is as mad as a box of frogs!

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Donuel
Date: 31 May 22 - 08:45 PM

A windstorm blew in over Lake Ontario with 70 mph gusts over the flat expanse around Buffalo airport. Against the dark horizon I saw a bit of white speeding toward me when I looked into the terrified eye of a Canadin goose just above my head going 90 mph WHOOSH and he was down wind in an instant. This guy wasn't as scared as much as me since he was an outrageous show off.

If anyone calls you a bird brain be proud. The bird brain has a neural net organized vertically and horizontaly doubling its capacity for quick internal communication.

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 31 May 22 - 09:36 PM

We've a pair of swans with a nest by the Stort a couple of hundred yards from us, who come back and raise a batch of cygnets every year. The pen sits on the eggs a whole month or more, all weathers and no food.

The cob cruised around on the Stort nearby, regularly terrorising a duck he'd taken a dislike to. No animosity to the other ducks. Or there was a pair of Canada geese who drove him wild. I think they enjoyed his charging attacks, just hopping out often way and looking at him from the bank.

Or he'd standing the path blocking pedestrians, or having a go at the occasional dog. He's normally quite a placid swan - I think this was him being an anxious Dad.

When the brood hatched the swans shepherded them on te water as they learned to manage swimming for a couple of days, then the whole family cleared off down the Stort to a quieter part, as they do every year.   

The geese are having a more relaxed time now Mr Swan has gone, and they brought along their own brood of goslings the other day, to show them off as it were.

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: keberoxu
Date: 09 Jun 22 - 04:57 PM

I just spied a turtle! This while I was driving my car.
On the side of the road, as I hurried by at the speed limit,
stood a rather stout turtle staring across the road, or seeming to.

I wonder if he was not a SNAPPING turtle.
My reason for this guess,
is the size of his head and neck.
Even though his shell was quite round and thick and large,
his head and neck were SO big compared to the shell
that you wondered how he might manage to pull his head inside.
Which is kind of a giveaway of snapping turtles,
all that muscle tissue in their necks and jaws.

I've never seen a snapping turtle except in photographs before this.

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: keberoxu
Date: 14 Jun 22 - 09:37 PM

It's about time for me, when I drive to the dry cleaner's for my clothes,
to look out for the Canada goose and her goslings by the pond.

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Senoufou
Date: 15 Jun 22 - 02:35 AM

We had a 'Mad Cow' on the loose yesterday, roaming about on the main road (the A1067). All the farm animals around here are expert escapologists. (Or could it be that the farmers' fencing isn't up to scratch?) Nobody seemed to know who Houdini the Cow belonged to, but a kind farmer rounded her up and got her back in a field.

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: keberoxu
Date: 21 Jun 22 - 11:02 PM

We have two young cock robins fighting with each other every day
over the same bit of territory in and under the trees.

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Senoufou
Date: 24 Jun 22 - 04:56 AM

Apparently the BamBam statue is completed, and is going to be exhibited at the Royal Norfolk Show next week (Wednesday and Thursday) After that, it will be set in place outside The Fox pub.
But many of us are worried it will be vandalised.

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Neil D
Date: 28 Jun 22 - 08:11 PM

We recently moved to the country and put out bird feeders. So far our guests include sparrows, house wrens, starlings, cowbirds, cardinals, grackles, crows, blue jays, mourning doves, two kinds of woodpeckers (the redheaded one is especially pretty), robins, killdeer and ruby throated hummingbirds who have a separate feeder. We also have a big fat rabbit and a squirrel. Who knew they would eat bird seed.

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Senoufou
Date: 29 Jun 22 - 03:29 AM

That's a lovely collection of birds and other creatures Neil! My neighbours worry that I'm encouraging rats by putting out wild bird seeds (which I buy at the supermarket), bread and a few sultanas on my front lawn. But the birds eat the lot up by noon, and there's none left for the rats.

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: BobL
Date: 29 Jun 22 - 03:48 AM

Sounds lovely, Neil. Wish I could say similar. However at this time of year my feeders just get stormed by delinquent juvenile starlings en masse.

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 29 Jun 22 - 05:32 AM

We call our resident starlings 'the yobs' due to their behavior. The duck visits have ceased for this year I think, as the latest batch of eggs have probably hatched. The sparrow hotel in the front hedge is still open for business and going strong. Blackbirds must have had chicks as whenever our cat, Molly, is out, Mrs Blackbird sits on the gutter screeching her head off. Not that Molly would be able to catch anything anyway. She often sits right under the bird feeder in the back while the yobs fight for bits of fat ball 3' above her :-S We have some new residents in 3 huge wood pigeons. It is funny to watch them balancing precariously on the bird feeder. Jackdaws are back after a bit of a gap when their nesting willow tree was removed. Mrs G is trying to get one tame enough to feed close to her and having some measure of sucess. The other day she put some stale fruit cake out on the lawn and after about 2 minutes the sky went dark as we were inundated with starlings, wood pigeons, jackdaws and black headed gulls. With the odd little spadger trying to run off with a tasty morsel :-) We do see the odd tit and finch round the back but I think it is generally too busy with other birds!

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Senoufou
Date: 29 Jun 22 - 07:01 AM

Goodness Dave, that list of birds tallies exactly with the species I get on my front lawn every morning! I'm always pleased to see sparrows, as they've been scarce until recently.
'My' starlings are 'yobs' too. They descend in droves and grab all the sultanas. But a gorgeous black-headed gull comes down on its own to have some of the bread.
I've noticed the jackdaws/crows are bloomin' greedy. They scoop up as much as they can get in their giant beaks, fly on to my roof and gobble it up. The other birds are a bit scared of them.

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 29 Jun 22 - 06:01 PM

Don't knock your starlings. They are a very vulnerable species, under threat from all sides. We used to get lots of them on our feeders and in the fields over the fences from our house. We still get a few in the fields, though not in the joyous numbers of yesteryear. It's several years since we saw one on the feeders. A few years ago we'd get a big flock of sparrows every afternoon. In the last year I've seen one pair of sparrows on one day only. We used to get droves of greenfinches every summer, every day. It's late June and I have to see see greenfinches at all.

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 29 Jun 22 - 06:03 PM

yet to see

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: keberoxu
Date: 29 Jun 22 - 06:17 PM

I still get blackbirds and starlings mixed up with each other.

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Senoufou
Date: 30 Jun 22 - 01:39 AM

I actually find the starlings quite funny to watch. Several 'mums' descend with all their young in tow. Each baby starling stands beside mum with its beak wide open, and the poor 'lady' stuffs sultanas and bits of bread down each gaping mouth while all the offspring scream loudly for more. They have a funny waddling gait when they cross my lawn, and I do like their shiny, slightly irridescent black plumage.
I'm delighted Steve to see all the sparrows (house sparrows and tree sparrows) and they've made nests in the bushes around my garden. They love the wild bird seed and the bread.

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 30 Jun 22 - 03:35 AM

One of my daughters saw something funny the other day. A female blackbird unearthing worms for a fledgling. The fledgling just stood there staring at the wriggling worms with its beak open :-D

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Senoufou
Date: 30 Jun 22 - 04:02 AM

I'm going to give myself a detention and extra homework! There's only one 'r' in iredescent. Tut tut.

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Senoufou
Date: 30 Jun 22 - 04:03 AM

Gah! It's iridesecent. Stupid woman! I'll demote myself into the Bottom Group for spelling!

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 30 Jun 22 - 05:15 AM

Try "iridescent." I feel your pain... ;-)

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 30 Jun 22 - 06:16 AM

> The fledgling just stood there

Apparently that's normal procedure. First the mother brings the worms to the nest; next, when the fledgling can fly, she shows it where the worms come from. After that, she does a flit, and the fledgling has to work out what to do next for itself.

.... Apparently our alleged PM hasn't progressed beyond the second stage yet, but that's a rant for an entirely different thread.

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Senoufou
Date: 30 Jun 22 - 07:46 AM

Oh Gawd Steve! They'd better wheel me off to the knacker's yard! hee hee

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: keberoxu
Date: 30 Jun 22 - 08:07 AM

Thanks, Senoufou, for the tastefully indirect instruction
that the iridescent black birdies are the starlings,
and the grackles/blackbirds, while thoroughly black,
are NOT iridescent.

You don't have to be able to spell iridescent
in order to see and recognize the quality
on birds out on the grass in the sunshine.

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 30 Jun 22 - 08:44 AM

It looks like you have several birds that can be called blackbirds in the US but none are our Common (Or Eurasian) Blackbird

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 30 Jun 22 - 12:18 PM

Just to chuck another sabot in the gears, there's a species of crow in England with strange markings which I see whenever we go to church. Their heads look grey at the back, but black at the front, as if they've been bobbing for worms in the inkwells at the nearby school; or perhaps they've got chalk-dusted by being hit from behind by an accurately-thrown board rubber while gossiping in class (as crows will).

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 30 Jun 22 - 02:01 PM

Hoodies?

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Geoff Wallis
Date: 30 Jun 22 - 02:05 PM

Jackdaw, MaJoC.

Both female and male starlings feed their chicks.

Simple difference between starlings and blackbirds - starlings flock together and blackbirds don't.

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: keberoxu
Date: 30 Jun 22 - 03:01 PM

So that's what jackdaws are.

The blackbirds that I have grown up with in the northeastern United States,
I believe they might be grackles.

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 30 Jun 22 - 05:29 PM

Not jackdaws, folks: we have Mr and Mrs Jackdaw plundering our lawn (she's slightly lighter), and they're smaller than the inkwell crows; and neither are anything like the picture in the Wikipedia page on jackdaws. One clue: I remember hearing "If there's one rook, it's a crow, but if there's two crows, they're rooks" --- and there's a very noisy rookery (or many crows' nests) atop the copse behind the school.

I'll ask around at church, to see if there's a bony-fido ornothologist in the congregation. I'll report results as and when there's results to report.

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 30 Jun 22 - 05:36 PM

Hooded crows and carrion crows can interbreed and I guess that may lead to unusual markings? Where in England are you MaJoC?

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 30 Jun 22 - 05:53 PM

West Oxfordshire.

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 30 Jun 22 - 07:23 PM

West Oxfordshire means that they are almost certainly not hoodies. Gotta be jackdaws, I fear...

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 01 Jul 22 - 02:37 AM

I believe the ones in our Yorkshire garden are Jackdaws but I am willing to stand corrected. They certainly look like the pictures on the RSPB website. Dark bodies with a grey hood while hooded crows have pale bodies with dark wings and hoods.

https://www.rspb.org.uk/fun-and-learning/for-teachers/schools-birdwatch/birds-to-look-out-for/whats-that-bird/crows-and-jackdaws/

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 01 Jul 22 - 03:18 AM

I should think so, Dave. This RSPB page gives a distribution map and says:

Hooded crows can be found in N and W Scotland, N Ireland and on the Isle of Man, where it replaces the carrion crow. Outside the breeding season it is found across the breeding range and is also found, but scarce in E Scotland and even rarer down the eastern side of England. Most of the winter visitors come from Scandinavia.

I’m guessing they might occasionally stray a little further than that, say into Cumbria but I’d also guess that your chances of seeing one in most of England is virtually nil.

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 01 Jul 22 - 03:42 AM

I reckon so too, Jon.

We had a surprise visit from the ducks (Stan and Hilda) this morning which was nice. An extra wood pigeon arrived too and there was some sort of pigeon shenanigans going on but, not being privy to pigeon etiquette, I have no idea what.

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Neil D
Date: 01 Jul 22 - 04:10 AM

Keberoxu, grackles will have blue on their necks and back of the head, but from any distance, it's hard to see the blue. Even from forty feet I need binoculars to make it out.

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 01 Jul 22 - 04:00 PM

Thanks for the link, DtG: jackdaws they is, or near offer [OI!!! -- ed]. Case tentatively closed.

.... which led me onto pictures of Magpies ("Oh, we know what those are," says Herself), which reminded me of hearing a poem about them on the wireless, of which all I can remember is:

They are crows who have won the pools
and strut around all day in their dinnerjackets

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 01 Jul 22 - 06:19 PM

In the last few years we've had lots of jays. I kind of like them, but I suspect them of stripping the beans out of my broad bean pods. They're probably responsible for the hundreds of oak tree weeds sprouting everywhere in my garden. Oddly, there are no oaks for miles around...

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 02 Jul 22 - 08:05 AM

Stan and Hilda returned again this morning with another female in tow! Stan's plumage is looking worse for wear but with 2 ladies to see to I'm not surprised :-) All 3 were very hungry and ate 2 lots of corn and a serving of bread.

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 04 Jul 22 - 08:27 AM

Stan and Hilda having their breakfast :-)

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Donuel
Date: 04 Jul 22 - 08:36 AM

Nice yard too.

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 05 Jul 22 - 12:13 PM

Full of what I think is red clover at the moment. I quite like it :-)

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 06 Jul 22 - 04:09 AM

It's not red clover, it's heal-all (prunella vulgaris) A very useful medicinal plant so I think I'll collect some :-)

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: keberoxu
Date: 07 Jul 22 - 09:53 AM

Blackbirds again.

This is not precisely where I am living/sleeping,
but several miles up the road in a commercial strip
where I get fuel for the car and fast food for myself.
That stretch of road borders a wetland/marsh.

Young blackbirds, whom I cannot see, are clearly, loudly heard
practicing their whistling.
Goodness, it's piercingly clear in the sunny air.
Making of summer memories for me.

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 07 Jul 22 - 06:57 PM

We have a pair of blackbirds who follow me all round the garden. That's lovely, except that I know that the buggers dig up my French bean seeds and will shortly move on to my raspberry crop...

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Senoufou
Date: 09 Jul 22 - 03:12 AM

My neighbour-across-the-road has a pair of blackbirds nesting in her open woodshed. The female follows her around like a pet dog. She puts down lots of sultanas for her, and they have a rather nice little friendship. Fortunately, the bird understands Broad Norfolk. I often hear my neighbour saying, "R U orloit moi bewty? Dew yew want suffin?"
I've had to stop feeding all my bird friends from what I call my Bird Buffet (a long line of bread, sultanas and wild birdseed in my front garden) because everyone's car round here is liberally decorated with lashing of bird poo (mostly from the seagulls, jackdaws and crows).
We're all still waiting for the arrival of the lifesize oak statue of BamBam the tame red deer. I hope it's spectacular, having cost £3,800. And I also hope it doesn't get vandalised.

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 09 Jul 22 - 06:07 AM

It should be OK as long as it doesn't have a statue of Thatcher riding on its back. :-)

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Senoufou
Date: 09 Jul 22 - 06:39 AM

Exactly Steve! hee hee. But if it had an oak statue of Boris riding on its back, it would probably get sprayed with blue paint (not red). Or weed on by passing drunken yobs.

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 09 Jul 22 - 01:12 PM

Was "passing" a mistype, Eliza? :-)

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Senoufou
Date: 09 Jul 22 - 01:18 PM

Hahahaha Dave. Pissing or passing, either would do. :)

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: keberoxu
Date: 14 Jul 22 - 08:26 PM

Meanwhile, we await, with Eliza/Senoufou,
the appearance of the wooden figure in tribute to BamBam.

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: keberoxu
Date: 15 Jul 22 - 11:23 PM

... and it remains to be said,
the anecdotes about Monsieur Senoufou
are hugely entertaining.

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: keberoxu
Date: 16 Jul 22 - 08:12 PM

I saw a hummingbird tonight! They have a way of showing up
when one does not expect them.

In this region, hummingbirds are dark, maybe some green plumage.
It hovered around a big plate glass window before flying away.

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: keberoxu
Date: 19 Jul 22 - 09:25 AM

Today I got a better look at the fledgling blackbird that has been
practicing its vocalizations, and sounding very broken-voiced and shrill for a blackbird.
My guess was that it was breaking in its new singing voice,
learning and practicing how to whistle.

And yes, it is a very young red-winged blackbird.
THe markings have no red plumage/feathers at this point,
but on its folded wings you can see plumage that is
a different color than the rest of its black feathers.
As the bird matures, some of those feathers will turn a lovely red,
and its whistle will not have cracks and shrieks in it any more.
But it's amusing to hear at the moment.

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Donuel
Date: 24 Jul 22 - 06:25 AM

A sound track for bird lovers wood thrush

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 29 Jul 22 - 04:52 AM

Two rare visitors on our bird table just now - male bullfinch and nuthatch - at the same time!

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Senoufou
Date: 30 Jul 22 - 01:33 AM

While sitting on The Bench in my front garden, I'm always delighted to have numerous seagulls descend, to eat up the moist bread which I put out every morning, along with sultanas, dried meal worms and wild bird seeds. These seagulls are so enormous and beautiful, and they have no fear of me - they waddle almost up to my feet to get at the food.
(They leave a 'thank you present' down my windows, but it's easily removed with a moist paper towel!)
Even more interesting is that many species of birds (crows, jackdaws, starlings, sparrows) hop happily around together to eat, with no fighting, or flying away in fear from each other. I even saw a female blackbird pop a sultana down the gaping beak of a baby starling. Wasn't that kind of her?

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: BobL
Date: 30 Jul 22 - 03:04 AM

You want to watch out Sen, or those gulls will mug you for the edibles.

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Senoufou
Date: 30 Jul 22 - 04:36 AM

Hee hee Bob you may be right! I was sitting there eating a choc-ice yesterday evening and a lone gull was eyeing me greedily. I wonder if, like me, he needed a cooling snack? I know the seagulls over in Cromer etc often zoom down and nick bits of fish-and-chips from unwary holiday-makers. They're such large birds they can be rather intimidating.

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 30 Jul 22 - 09:03 AM

Most places in Cornwall strongly advise us to refrain from feeding gulls. They were a menace in Padstow yesterday, a menace in Exeter last week and are always a menace in Truro. They're very good at pinpointing your pasty or sandwich and swooping you to cleanly divest you of it. They can hurt if they crash you. As with dogs with bad owners causing problems, it isn't the gulls' fault. But don't feed 'em!

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 30 Jul 22 - 09:25 AM

Yes, people are advised not to feed gulls…

Nesting gulls can also be a problem. I remember one at Llandudno Hospital when herring gulls were nesting on the roof of the geriatic wards/day hospital unit where mum worked. The gulls would swoop down on elderly people as they entered/left the building. I think the hospital started having the nests/eggs destroyed to stop this.

All that said, I did meet a friendly herring gull who I did give a bit of food to one Conwy Festival week. (S)he was a funny creature who just stood beside me if I had food. The bird would refuse a chip if offered one but was satisfied when given a bit of my burger.

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 30 Jul 22 - 02:09 PM

There used to be signs all over Whitby saying "your food is not theirs". I thought it very unfair. We eat their food, why can they not eat ours? :-)

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: keberoxu
Date: 01 Aug 22 - 05:30 AM

Somehow I must discover what bird it is that sings with crepuscular timing.
The bird sings when the sun sets, and now,
at 5:30 in the morning,
it sings with first light,
well before the sun actually rises.

And it works hard, the singing is really vigorous.
But what bird is this songbird?

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 01 Aug 22 - 09:24 AM

We've had two young foxes hanging around for a couple of weeks, and I have a funny feeling that one of them has caught and dispatched the mole that has spent the last two months laying waste to a big piece of my lawn. Usually, when I level the molehills it throws up, they're back within hours, or a day at the most. The foxes have been sniffing around that area very intently, and the molehills haven't come back for the last four days. I live in hope.

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 01 Aug 22 - 04:01 PM

Three moles in a tunnel

First one says I smell honey

Second says I smell syrup

Last one says I smell molasses

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 01 Aug 22 - 04:05 PM

:-)

But our local mole catcher tells me that moles are antisocial buggers and that a trashed garden generally means just the one mole (though I suppose they have a breeding season).

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 01 Aug 22 - 06:08 PM

Jasper Carrott - The Mole

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: keberoxu
Date: 06 Aug 22 - 09:56 AM

I saw a goldfinch!
I saw a GOLDFINCH!!

The bird was in flight,
and the black-against-yellow was vivid against
the green foliage of the trees.

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: keberoxu
Date: 26 Mar 23 - 01:45 PM

It is spring in the Northern Hemisphere,
and from the North of England,
our Senoufou has reported (elsewhere)
of a Mad Swans sighting already.

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Donuel
Date: 26 Mar 23 - 05:30 PM

Keb do share your thread resurrection secrets.
The geese have returned.

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 26 Mar 23 - 06:43 PM

We've been giving our local young fox, a very pleasant chap who knows how to charm, a little snack every evening for almost a year. I love that he still regards himself as a wild animal that keeps me at arm's length. Thing, is, since he's been coming we haven't seen a mole or a squirrel, which is brilliant. And he gets on with our cat!

Good birds so far this spring. Plenty of long-tailed tits, coal tits and a couple of blackcaps. We've even had a house sparrow. Common as muck until a few years ago, now on the red list. :-(

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Senoufou
Date: 27 Mar 23 - 02:49 AM

The escaped sheep and the pig are still enjoying their freedom,wandering all over the village. Nobody has bothered yet to round them up. Escaped farm animals here tend to turn up at the pub door (The Fox) so maybe they'd like a pint of best bitter?

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Senoufou
Date: 31 Mar 23 - 03:32 AM

A lady rescued the poor sheep which had become 'cast' in the road (upside-down on its back and unable to right itself).Mr & Mrs Quackie are still visiting our front garden (the pair of mallard ducks).
No sign of the Mad Swans as yet. But the road sign on our village street is still in place (SLOW! Swans!)
Apparently, in Fustyweed (next hamlet almost joined with our village) the frogs and toads are still crossing the main street in droves. They've got a sign up saying SLOW! Frogs!. Any visitors from abroad would find this area completely mad! (Well, it is!)

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Rain Dog
Date: 31 Mar 23 - 04:59 AM

"Fustyweed (next hamlet almost joined with our village)"

Great name. It made me smile and then sent me searching. Thanks for that.

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 05 Apr 23 - 04:09 AM

We have the annual duck visitation. Les and Cilla this time. They will be here on and off until June.

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 05 Apr 23 - 07:18 AM

Les turned up without Cilla this morning and brought three of his pals. Maybe it was his stag (drake?) party and he is marrying Cilla tomorrow :-D

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 05 Apr 23 - 03:14 PM

We've named our fox Basil, as in Brush. He turns up every evening at cat's tea time. Luvly feller he is.

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Senoufou
Date: 05 Apr 23 - 04:36 PM

I've just learned that the village sign in Fustyweed has been stolen again! It's often pinched because of the funny name.

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Senoufou
Date: 09 Apr 23 - 02:15 AM

I love foxes Steve. There are many round here, but sadly there are often corpses of foxes at the side of Norfolk roads, along with dead badgers, pheasants and deer. Roadkill always saddens me.
Mrs Quackie, the mallard duck, has been having a passionate affair with another male. I think Mr Quackie is sulking - he spends much of the day sitting moping on the roof of the bungalow opposite. Maybe he's contemplating divorce. Her six eggs are still in my neighbour's front garden, and we're hoping they hatch soon.

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 13 Apr 23 - 02:23 PM

I have a couple of garden helpers today. Jackdaws raking up the winter moss. Dunno if it is for nesting or if there are some grubs in there!

https://photos.app.goo.gl/7aWondWAoNp1YpXh6

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 30 Apr 23 - 07:17 AM

Curious observation: when a magpie is walking across our lawn, its head bobs backwards and forwards further than the length of its stride. This doesn't happen when it's running or hopping forwards, only when it's strutting. What, I wonder, is the evolutionary advantage of this behaviour pattern? It turns up in other birds too, but with magpies it's especially notable, as the bobbing emphasises the strut.

PS: Not sure whether this should go here, or in the Spring thread, or somewhere better. Now whoever shouted "in the bit bucket" can stay behind after class.

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 30 Apr 23 - 09:58 AM

Look again. The bird's head does not move backward at all, only forward. When you apparently see the head move backward it's actually keeping still while the body moves forward. The thinking is that the stationary head on a moving body stabilises the bird's vision. If it didn't happen, the world might seem blurred to the bird. There are some mysteries still, for example why it happens only in some birds and not others. Ducks and geese don't do it, which could be something to do with their short legs and waddling gait. Plenty of unanswered questions!

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 30 Apr 23 - 10:24 AM

> Look again. The bird's head does not move backward at all, only
> forward.

I'll look closer if and when it returns. The stabilising of the gaze I can grok: I've seen that with chickens and pigeons, and it's related to the "spotting" done by a spinning ballerina who doesn't want to get giddy. But I could have sworn our magpies exaggerate the fore-and-back movement.

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 30 Apr 23 - 06:04 PM

Fertile ground for observational science. I shall study my own magpies tomorrow!

Subject: RE: BS: Mad Swans, blue tits, and others
From: keberoxu
Date: 07 May 23 - 09:15 AM

I just saw the resident goldfinch for the first time since winter.
And how he sang!