Your favourite bird

[ianrauk]

Seem to be seeing more Pied Wagtails in the garden these days. Lovely, lively little hoppers..

 

[gbb]

I absolutely love all sorts of birds for all sorts of different reasons, but one and one only will always bring a smile to my face....the swift.
Small flocks, darting and circling around the houses, just above the rooftops, shrill screaming as they dogfight their way around at full speed...they sound as though they're excited beyond words.

What better way of relaxing in your garden, watching them in the evening.

 

[deptfordmarmoset]

Seem to be seeing more Pied Wagtails in the garden these days. Lovely, lively little hoppers..

Keep your ears out for a double or triple click call near where you work - there are a few grey wagtails down on the Creek. There's also a virtually tame pied one that appears on market days in the High Street. And there was also a little egret just upstream from the Creek Road bridge a couple of weeks ago. The lesser-spotted marmoset, though, seems to get spotted less and less this year.....

 

[ianrauk]

Keep your ears out for a double or triple click call near where you work - there are a few grey wagtails down on the Creek. There's also a virtually tame pied one that appears on market days in the High Street. And there was also a little egret just upstream from the Creek Road bridge a couple of weeks ago. The lesser-spotted marmoset, though, seems to get spotted less and less this year.....

Haven't seen the Egret though do see a Heron who has been a regular visitor for years, along with a couple of Red Throat Grebes..

 

[Doseone]

The Lapwing. I just love watching them fly.

 

[deptfordmarmoset]

Haven't seen the Egret though do see a Heron who has been a regular visitor for years, along with a couple of Red Throat Grebes..

I've never knowingly seen a red throated grebe! I'm going to have to google them.

 

[Mad Doug Biker]

I also like House Martins, Swallows and Swifts in the summer, master aviators and always a joy to watch!!

 

[Deleted member 23692]

 

[RussellZero]

I was going to post a photo of Diana Rigg as Emma Peel, but I see it's not that kind of thread.

Didnt read this thread until now, what a disappointment.

ps. Just seen 2 robins in our garden as well, and had a very obvious, but nevertheless one of those never fails to be amusing discussions - with the Mrs about the size and colour of the tits on display today. There were several.

 

[Richard A Thackeray]

I work with a Robin (male) & a Jaye (very definitely female!!!)

 

[slowmotion]

Oooh, have to choose just one?


But if forced to choose just one, it would have to be nature's comedians, the little owls that live in the drystone walls all around us

Lovely walk!

 

[Poacher]

Since @ianrauk and @Ffoeg have already chosen my favourite British birds, I'll have to go for a more exotic one.
Mrs Poacher has a thing about Hoopoes:

...so much so that I did a freehand (i.e. inaccurate) sketch and made a marquetry inlay on top of a cheap musical box for her:

Yes, I know Hoopoes have 3 front toes, not 2, and the beak's not quite right. This has already been pointed out to me, but I claimed artistic licence, and anyway, I was getting rather tired by that stage. I can well understand her liking these birds. They're so errm, self-possessed, I suppose, and remarkably unobtrusive, so much so that when I tried to point out three of them separately working over an allotment to a German couple in Lagos (the Algarve one, rather than African), they just couldn't see them, despite knowing exactly what they were looking for. Anyway, that's her choice.
For myself, I quite fancy a Caribbean bird (Fnaar alert). I nearly peed myself on Dominica, laughing at a family group of about 9 Smooth-billed Ani teaming up to tackle a single butterfly and only just managing to defeat and eat it, but for sheer silliness of name, I'll choose the national bird of Tobago, the Rufous-vented Chacalaca:

 

[Dave 123]

Oooh, have to choose just one?

It might be the long-tailed tits that visit my garden, like little pair of lollipops nipping from tree to tree,
or it might be the robin that watches me mow the lawn, then follows me round investigating the borders when I've weeded, looking for worms.

Or it could be the any of the finches that flock in when the dandelions are in seed, or the blackbird that sat under my window the night Dad died and sang so beautifully.

Or the Thrush that uses the flat stone at the top of the garden steps as an anvil, gorging on the snails

Or the skylarks up on my favourite dog walk that appear like little pinheads in the sky singing their liquid trilling songs, they'd be in contention.

But if forced to choose just one, it would have to be nature's comedians, the little owls that live in the drystone walls all around us

In an old job I was driving a tractor and trailer to the compost heap, the drive was lined with plane trees and a post and rail fence. A very young little owl flew off the fence away from me down the drive. It decided to have a rest, so elected to stop on one of the tree branches, at the very end, of a very flimsy twig!
The branch bent down towards the ground. Our intrepid hero never let go.... He just hung upside down for 3-4 seconds until I drove off peeing myself laughing. I'm not sure owls do expressions and emotions, but he certainly looked embarrassed!