BS: Birdwatching 2021?

Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2021?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 28 Feb 21 - 12:30 PM

Not a swift. 99.99999% not a swift.

Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2021?
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 28 Feb 21 - 12:36 PM

...I have a photo of the one that got trapped but, as I posted a few days ago, am not sure how/if we can show pics here on MudCat..?

Are you thinking it's too early of swifts, Steve?

Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2021?
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 28 Feb 21 - 12:45 PM

...I just checked - the date on my photo is 30/5/2018; and google says they normally arrive at the start of April.

Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2021?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 28 Feb 21 - 02:42 PM

I was talking about the one you thought you saw flying by. They are strictly summer visitors and you won't see them before about mid-April. They usually vacate the country by early August. We were in Lecce in Puglia for a week in June 2016. We marvelled on the roof terrace of our hotel at the big flocks of screaming swifts which we imagined were mopping up the mozzies that might have been eating us instead.

Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2021?
From: JHW
Date: 01 Mar 21 - 05:44 AM

If 2018 is ok in 2021 thread how about the three note cuckoo I heard near Barningham (Co.Durham though it's south of the Tees) Cuck-uck-oo. Three notes perfectly musically spaced. First and last note the normal two. Heard one thereabouts again in 2019 but just a regular two note cuckoo.

Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2021?
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 01 Mar 21 - 06:23 AM

Are you sure it wasn't a collard dove call?

Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2021?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 01 Mar 21 - 06:41 AM

Wot Jon said. It's a common confusion. Once you hear a cuckoo there's no mistaking it.

Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2021?
From: Jos
Date: 01 Mar 21 - 06:57 AM

JHW - what time of year was it?

There are numerous rhymes about cuckoos along the lines of

"The cuckoo comes in April. She sings her song in May. In June she changes her tune. In July she prepares to fly. In August go she must."

That is to say, in June the cuckoo's call changes from cuckoo to cuck-cuckoo.

Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2021?
From: JHW
Date: 03 Mar 21 - 06:15 AM

Dug out old diaries, always record walks. 3 note cuckoo was 2nd May 2019. Moorland road W of Barningam nr flooded quarry with trees round. Same place May 13th 2020 normal 2 note cuckoo. (walk after Grab & Go groceries - Lockdown rule was a walk longer than the journey was ok, near all day walk)
Have listened to collared dove, get them most mornings and often on the bird table - thanks, sure it was a cuckoo but I've not heard one doing more than the two notes before (or since) Didn't see cuckoo either time.

Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2021?
From: Jos
Date: 03 Mar 21 - 09:10 AM

JHW - I can think of three possible explanations:

1. The traditional rhymes are wrong.
2. You heard a rather confused cuckoo.
3. There was somebody hiding in the bushes with a cuckoo bird whistle - a two note, one hole, whistle. I have one. It is very convincing.

Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2021?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 03 Mar 21 - 09:58 AM

Someone recorded a three-note cuckoo and posted it on the RSPB Community website. The third note is a repeat of the second (lower) note. It's been said that the interval is a minor third, but I think it's pushing toward a major third meself!

Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2021?
From: Senoufou
Date: 03 Mar 21 - 12:30 PM

The egret has been seen several times down by our river at the bridge. And quite a few 'twitchers' are stationed with their binoculars and cameras there to try and spot it.

Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2021?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 03 Mar 21 - 01:09 PM

Is that a little egret? About 20 years ago I contacted the Wildlife Trust recorder to say that a little egret had flown over my garden...great excitement... These days, they are common in Cornwall and you almost expect to see them on our Bude Marshes nature reserve. Global warming!

Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2021?
From: Senoufou
Date: 04 Mar 21 - 03:54 AM

It's a Great White Egret (Ardea alba) Steve. Blooming enormous. Very long, elegant white neck,stands upright a bit like a stork.
Since I've been feeding the birds in our back garden, the inevitable seagulls have been descending to grab bits of bread which they try to swallow whole. But yesterday there was one among them which really stood out - a great black-backed gull (Larus marinus). He was the only one of his kind among the other common ones. We aren't all that near to the coast, but the gulls come inland to try and find food in the fields (worms etc)
The large crows still call out what sounds like "FOOD!!FOOD!" when I appear in the garden. Always makes me smile.

Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2021?
From: JHW
Date: 04 Mar 21 - 06:14 AM

There were loads of egrets on the Axe estuary (near Sidmouth) not in some bird books but I guess they've moved with global warming.

As I was well into the wilds I was as sure as I could be my 3 note cuckoo was not an imposter. If I'd known it was rare at the time I could have recorded it. Just a curiosity. Three separate notes, top and bottom about the usual tone apart and a middle one like our semitone. Not a repeat. Terrain presumably suits cuckoos and their prey nests as there was another the next year. Lockdown says I stay at home this year.

Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2021?
From: Jos
Date: 07 Mar 21 - 12:35 PM

We are used to seeing a couple of red kites over our house most days, but yesterday there were nine of them circling around each other. I haven't seen so many together since I was near the Chilterns just south of Towersey.

Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2021?
From: The Sandman
Date: 07 Mar 21 - 04:26 PM

I saw a robin today, but i have not seen a song thrush here in rural ireland for a long time

Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2021?
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 10 Mar 21 - 07:45 PM

Have had a lesser spotted woodpecker in our garden on several occasions recently. We have the usual range of tits too, blue, coal, great and occasional long-tailed, robins, blackbirds, starlings and my husband saw a couple of goldcrests.
Closest encounters with cuckoos have been in the Western Isles: one on Islay sitting on a fence just arm’s length away, and another unseen but heard loud and clear and very insistent, from 6am on Barra. Other “keep you awake” birds are corncrakes, first experienced on Cape Clear island off Co. Cork, and later on South Uist.

Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2021?
From: Jos
Date: 11 Mar 21 - 02:25 PM

Only two red kites this time, but a couple of crows turned up and took on one kite each. After a minute or two of being dive-bombed the kites decided they'd had enough and flew away.

Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2021?
From: Malcolm Storey
Date: 11 Mar 21 - 08:49 PM

Funny old weather at the moment - how unusual for England!!
Wednesday was murky and cold and wet but the pigeons were perched high in the trees looking thoroughly miserable. Why not move down we thought with some shelter?
Thursday we had the really strong winds and not a pigeon to be seen in the trees but still one or two pottering around the garden.
The blue tits have been showing a lot of interest to the nest box and Thursday we had a magpie grab a chip (big helping from new management from fish and chip shop) and make off with it. Was struggling and got as far as the greenhouse where it managed to drop it in the rain gutter but was then unable to retrieve it.

Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2021?
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 12 Mar 21 - 07:30 AM

Thinking magpies and "beakfulls", here's a blown up part of a picture of one I got a few years back on our bird table. It was carrying as many peanuts as it could each visit.

Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2021?
From: JHW
Date: 12 Mar 21 - 08:36 AM

Lucky seeing an actual cuckoo. I often got spotted woodpecker on peanut feeder but gave up the feeder last year as nothing was being eaten. Refilled several times with different peanuts including RSPB but no takers. Same place on pear tree as a long time. (Partridge free)

Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2021?
From: Jos
Date: 12 Mar 21 - 08:49 AM

I gave up on peanuts a long time ago as they ended up going mouldy, but fat balls and fat blocks are popular - the long-tailed tits really like the blocks and they're big enough for several to feed at once.
And there is a tray of mixed seeds and mealworms, which are popular with blackbirds, robins, dunnocks, blue and great tits – and the sparrows eat anything there, they're not too fussy.

Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2021?
From: Malcolm Storey
Date: 12 Mar 21 - 09:36 PM

With others regards the peanuts - waste of time even the starlings don't go for them.
Some years ago the people opposite had a mature leylandii in their front garden which was a roost for starlings and we loved to watch them murmuring as we relaxed after dinner.
Those neighbours moved away and the new occupants almost immediately got rid of the tree. We had a couple of evenings of bittersweet pleasure watching the confused flock (well over a 1000 of them) before they realised their digs had gone.
Have noticed recently a small murmuration about 400 yards away so will keep an eye on that.
Glory be - a hedgehog in the garden as I was locking up - by the time I got the camera out he/she had disappeared.
We used to get them regularly at one time as well as toads but they have been scarce of late, as have both slugs which we don't miss and snails which we enjoy.

Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2021?
From: JHW
Date: 13 Mar 21 - 05:34 AM

Note peanut stories. Mine went well for years. Though I know the birds are not veggie they have to be if they come here as I am so I don't have fat balls nor mealworms. What a job that must be knocking little mealworms on the head. A store did bird quality peanut butter for a while which all went.

Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2021?
From: Black belt caterpillar wrestler
Date: 13 Mar 21 - 05:42 AM

We get a few Great Black Backed gulls up here in the Pennines every winter. We mostly have common gulls and an occasional group of Black-headed gulls. We have a reservoir about a mile away from us and a few more within 3 miles, about 30 miles to the sea.

Robin

Subject: BS: Birdwatching
From: EBarnacle
Date: 06 Apr 21 - 11:51 AM

Yesterday, Lady Hillary and I were scouting launch points along the Passaic River in Chatham, NJ. We heard an unusual bird call and, using herself's SmartPhone, we were able to identify the call as a red bellied woodpecker. The environment was right, with a lot of dead trees but we were well North of its usual range.
We never did eyeball the bird but the call was loud and distinctive.
I was able to verify it on line.
Do you think this is simply a bird that got off course or a function of global warming?

Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching
From: EBarnacle
Date: 06 Apr 21 - 07:35 PM

Lady Hillary and I stopped of at the local Audubon center and chatted with a couple of staff. It seems they are resident throughout the Northeast, especially since Hurricane Sandy killed a lot of the trees. They are resident year 'round. I guess I just never noticed them before. Surprising, considering how loud the call is.

Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching
From: leeneia
Date: 07 Apr 21 - 11:37 AM

Congratulations on your first siting of this bird. Like a lot of birds, it is increasing its range.

A few days ago, the DH got a fine photograph of a flicker calling at the top of a tall, bare tree. We had been hearing it for at least a couple of years, suspected it was a woodpecker of some sort, but didn't know which one. Now we know.

Its cry is a raucous rattle that sounds like something out of an old jungle movie. So out of place in my neighborhood of songbirds.

Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching
From: Charmion
Date: 07 Apr 21 - 12:37 PM

A Facebook friend of mine resident in the Ottawa area recently posted a photo she took of a Carolina wren at her back-yard bird table.

Carolina wrens are not supposed to hang out in sub-boreal climes like the Ottawa Valley.

Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching
From: EBarnacle
Date: 07 Apr 21 - 09:30 PM

We have several copies of Peterson's Eastern birds. They describe the range of the red belly as barely North of New Jersey. When I shared this with a friend in Maine, she said they are comman in her area [Freeport}. As I posited above, in the time since Peterson's was published,we may see this as an effect of climate change.

Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2021?
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 25 May 21 - 01:42 PM

Further to my mistaken ID above, now I definitely am seeing swifts darting around outside my 11th floor flat in Manchester.

Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2021?
From: Black belt caterpillar wrestler
Date: 26 May 21 - 03:38 PM

Our swallows are depleted and weeks late this year, but the swifts seem to be on the usual schedule and in the usual numbers.

Robin

Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2021?
From: EBarnacle
Date: 27 May 21 - 11:55 AM

We've been having various finches a other small guys coming to visit our drinking pan. During this dry spell there have been more than usual.
As far as squirrels, I put out unsalted pistachios as I believe we should feed the local red tailed hawks.
We were out several weeks ago, checking out local canoe launch sites, and we heard a red bellied woodpecker drumming. Identified with the help of a smartphone app. We never actually saw it. That bird was loud as I heard it without my hearing aids.
The other day, Lady Hillary and I happened to see a pair of Baltimore Orioles for the first time in our neighborhood [central NJ].

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat crash Birdwatching 2015
From: JHW
Date: 26 Jul 21 - 05:23 AM

Surely there was a recent Birdwatching thread but search doesn't find it.
I had a 'blackbird' I wanted to ask about. Build of a blackbird and habit of turning over leaves, wouldn't fly up to the birdtable but pecked on the ground (like a dunnock).
What I can't find is it's 'cape' a splendid rusty brown head and shouders then rest of the bird is black. I thought maybe a young Mrs. Blackbird but can't find online or in books. Here several days NE UK, July 2021.
Any ideas please?

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat crash Birdwatching 2015
From: Jos
Date: 26 Jul 21 - 05:44 AM

It will have been searching for food on the ground and under leaves because it wants worms and grubs, which are not usually on the bird table.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat crash Birdwatching 2015
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 26 Jul 21 - 06:18 AM

Brown Headed Cowbird?

Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2021?
From: Jos
Date: 26 Jul 21 - 07:24 AM

Is this the thread Jon Freeman was looking for?

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat crash Birdwatching 2015
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 26 Jul 21 - 10:57 AM

The American cowbird has characteristics a lot like cuckoo; I forget what the native species is here, but the the species it victimizes has a nest built, and the cowbird lays it's egg in the same nest. The original bird doesn't just toss the wrong egg, it literally abandons the first nest and builds a new one on top, and again lays eggs, to which the cowbird adds another. This cycle can happen several times before the host bird gives up and ends up raising a cowbird young. I remember this from decades ago in a university course; some details are missing.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat crash Birdwatching 2015
From: Joe Offer
Date: 26 Jul 21 - 12:29 PM

I've moved all the 2021 messages into this thread, and crosslinked all the birdwatching threads.
To find recent threads, use the Filter at the top of the list of threads. The Search depends on an index, and the Forum hasn't been indexed recently.
-Joe-

Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2021?
From: JHW
Date: 26 Jul 21 - 02:29 PM

Thanks Joe and Jos. Yes looking for grub like a Blackbird.
I found the cowbird on line but didn't expect one here in North East Old England. Unless someone knows better which is why I asked. 'My' similar coloured bird had a 'cape' which had feathered edges, not a neat line.
No tweet and I should have checked bill colour but was too impressed by the magnificent cape.

Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2021?
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 27 Jul 21 - 05:57 AM

I found the cowbird on line but didn't expect one here in North East Old England. Unless someone knows better which is why I asked.

I'm not sure I'm understanding you there. The link I gave concerns a cowbird turning up in County Durham in 2010.

Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2021?
From: JHW
Date: 28 Jul 21 - 05:20 AM

Thanks. Been no queue of twitchers round here. Bird must have moved on. This is Co.Durham, just. Will try and take pic if it returns.

Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2021?
From: Senoufou
Date: 28 Jul 21 - 06:05 AM

Early yesterday morning (which was actually 'Norfolk Day'!) I saw Mr and Mrs Red Kite soaring overhead, plus their two young ones. The male was calling "Kwee! Kwee!". They circled around our end of the village then headed off towards the lake near Fustyweed. I was really pleased to see they had young. This bird used to be rare.

Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2021?
From: Jos
Date: 28 Jul 21 - 07:10 AM

When I was growing up, my parents had a record of songs from "Oklahoma", which was played often.
Because of this, whenever I see red kites these song lines comes to me:

"Sit alone and talk,
Or watch a hawk
Making lazy circles in the sky ..."

Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2021?
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 28 Jul 21 - 07:39 AM

My parents also had the Oklahoma sound track, Jos although that one (the title track) is not one I remember well. We can sing "Oh What A Beautiful Morning" here though...

To get back to birds. Peanuts have been going down at a crazy rate (needing daily filling up - if I get round to it/feel inclined to do so) on a feeder round the back and the sunflower hearts are also going quickly there.

My camera that way shows some squirrel activity but a lot of it seems to be from a family (parents and 1 offspring?) of jays. There are also a few magpies around.

Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2021?
From: Black belt caterpillar wrestler
Date: 28 Jul 21 - 12:18 PM

We had a red kite over our field 2 days ago. The first time I have seen one here, though a neighbour said that he saw one about 3 years ago.

I have seen them before down near Oxford, whenever we go down to Basingstoke, but our nearest ones are supposed to be in either Cumbria or Yorkshire.

Robin

Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2021?
From: JHW
Date: 29 Jul 21 - 05:28 AM

Might have mentioned before I'm originally a Norfolker. Nee Norwich.

Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2021?
From: Senoufou
Date: 29 Jul 21 - 07:18 AM

Oooooh JHW!!! Do you miss it?

Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2021?
From: keberoxu
Date: 29 Jul 21 - 11:02 PM

I got a close-up look at something that is very common
but that I don't get to see often.

Amongst the crows hanging out at a shopping center parking lot,
not far from the dumpsters (where else?),
was a youngster.
Out of the nest, too big for the nest.
But this young crow's plumage was a fascinating mess to look at.
Only certain parts of the crow's anatomy were
properly, what, 'fledged'?
Wings had lovely glossy black feathers already, likewise much of the tail.
But the young crow's head, breast, and the back below the head
were all fuzzy and dull-looking with chick stuff.