in praise of tits!

[srw]

Yes, jays are beautiful looking birds. They're also quiet and shy - it's really hard to believe that they're related to crows.

As well as the one in the picture which has visited the garden (I think the photo was taken through a window) there are one or two which live in our local woods. They don't seem noticeably shyer than most of the other corvids around here - and I think we get most of the native species. I'll except magpies from that sweeping generalisation!

 

[jonny jeez]

it is gorgeous...its a Seabright

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sebright_(chicken)

just in-case you need to satisfy your new found interest in cock's

....this is a very odd conversation

 

[biggs682]

our local heron was perched on a nieghbours roof at lunchtime till 2 crows decided to attack it

 

[Fnaar]

Some tits have had a really good go at my fatballs today.

 

[Mr Phoebus]

Here's another one from our garden, taken through a window. The green woodpecker is perched on the side of a shallow flowerbed wall, eating ants from the bed, then it spots me.

John

What a great yaffle. I've seen plenty of greater and lesser spotted woodpeckers, but have yet to see a green one in the wild.

 

[coffeejo]

Can anyone identify this bird for me? It's a new visitor to my garden, saw it three or four times today.

 

[ianrauk]

Looks like a Pied Wagtail to me

 

[Mr Phoebus]

Can anyone identify this bird for me? It's a new visitor to my garden, saw it three or four times today.
View attachment 5516

Looks like a Pied Wagtail. They're dead cute.

 

[coffeejo]

Thanks!

 

[rich p]

They wag their tails like Lisa

 

[Rezillo]

What a great yaffle. I've seen plenty of greater and lesser spotted woodpeckers, but have yet to see a green one in the wild.

I've only once seen a lesser spotted in the garden but green woodpeckers are often around in summer on the lawn for ants, sometimes in pairs.

They are common round here and have a distinctive cry when disturbed. As this often happens while cycling past them (if they are by the field edges next to country lanes) they are usualy seen flying away!

John

 

[coffeejo]

There's a green woodpecker who lives somewhere on my landlords' side of the property but I've got a greater spotted on my side. Did have three last winter, but they all vanished in late summer and only one has since returned. I know where one's tree is so I guess the others came from farther afield during the prolonged snow and ice and just kept coming back out of habit.

 

[biggs682]

on todays stroll round part of summer leys , spotted a couple of bright bronze bull finchs , a flock of what we think were fieldfares and a greater spotted woodpecker , so not bad

 

[Baggy]

There was a very acrobatic woodpecker hanging upside-down on the fatballs earlier. It dangled there for about 5 mins and came back later for another go. A green woodpecker visited a couple of times last year, but have yet to see it this winter.

 

[gbb]

Birds having fun !!!! watch Swallows in summers evenings, darting round and round at full speed in groups of 6 or so, just above the rooftops while you sit in the garden, shrill screaming between each other, like they're having the time of their lives. I can sit for hours watching them, fabulous.

Brilliant thread BTW .
Some other mentions here...
We had (i havnt seen them for some years now) a small population of Green Parakeets in Longueville school woods in Peterborough, escapees i would think that built a small population...thats sadly gone now i assume. Working in Uruguay, there were loads of them (or similar) in the treetops in the town i was staying....very noisy birds.

Green woodpecker are common here, plenty in the same woods, you can see them particually early mornning in spring and summer mornings in the local urban estate, they've become reasonably accustomed to traffic etc.

Marsh harrier, a really quite rare bird to see, again, there's a reasonable population about 10 miles away on the edge of the nene washes, much bigger than Red Kite (and they're not small). Saw one on a ride this last summer.

I was incredibly lucky to see an Osprey on one ride. Normally you'd only see them as a speck at altitude, but something caught my eye in a copse about 100 yards away...an Osprey sat in treetops. Unmistakeable 'booted' legs and light colouring. Its not unusual to see them in the summer, they nest at Rutland Water and are seen travelling east toward (i assume) the nene washes...but always very high up.

Then sometimes, i'll use the hybrid to go birdwatching to the local country park (Ferry meadows) where there's a couple of hides. Sat there one day...somehing flitted in the corner by the door...

He (she)'d made the nest just in the gap between the walls and roof...about 4 ft from where i was sitting

Told some of these before..riding one day, something caught my eye in the verge as i passed...an eye (thats all i saw) WTF was that ??? turned round, and there was a young Jay huddled there, with only one eye !!! (funnily enough, it was yards from where i saw the Osprey). Wished i'd had the camera (as is often the case)

Oooh, i could go on and on.