For WHO's birders

[Nurse Ratched]

"I thought you might like this video.



It's a compilation of different birds singing. Beautiful photography. If you expand the 'title' under the video it gives a list of species and the times they pop up in the video. Most of the species are familiar to us in the UK, but there are some 'exotics' (the cranes - wow, what a noise!) It was filmed in Belarus. The guy has a channel you can subscribe to. Anyway, I hope you enjoy it and maybe it'll take your mind off you-know-what for a few blessed minutes."

[Nurse Ratched]

Zeb - they have bright blue eyes!

[zebthecat]

I have found that the local birds are far too savvy for my cat. It is probably a safety in numbers thing. As soon my cat goes into the front or back garden the Robins and Sparrows kick off with the alarm calls and I swear that all the others are listening in. Currently have Starlings with their fledgelings. The fledgelings stay in the trees while the parents root about for food. Again it is a numbers game as there are dozens of them. The chimney Jackdaws are a bit late to the party as the chicks are still in the nest. It is cool to hear them from the chimney vent in the living room and chicks' voices are getting deeper as the days progress. Just hoping I get to them fledge again this year. Jays are beautiful animals - You are so lucky to see one that close up Nurse.

[Darby_]

"Link to daughter and geese, Soldo?"

[blueeyed.handsomeman]

anyhow does anyone own a cat licenciously abridged

[blueeyed.handsomeman]

its not you being stoopid NR its about you aiming to save yourwhiskas just for yourselves

[gph]

"Admit it - you're scriptwriting the next generation of Tom and Jerry, and want to create new material by seeing what happens..."

[Nurse Ratched]

"I haven't owned any cats for well over 25 years. Do you think I'd be so stupid as to lure birds into my house, or even my garden, if I had a cat?"

[Nurse Ratched]

"I haven't owned any cats for well over 25 years. Do you think I'd be so stupid as to lure birds into my house, or even my garden, if I had a cat?"

[Hammer and Pickle]

That’s nice love - what happened to the cats?

[Northern Sold]

"Popped down to see my daughter at Reading uni’ a few weeks ago… she has had a massively tough time in her first year but one of her solaces that has got her through the madness has been her Geese… her digs are about 20 min walk from the Thames so she has been going down there every day… and has befriended basically a load of Canadian, Graylag’s and a family of Egyptian Geese… quite remarkable to see her walk down to the River and give a whistle to see her being surrounded by 40 odd geese… all you can feed from the hand… and the young Egyptians are more tame than my budgies… it’s like viewing some sort of fucked up Bird woman on the steps of St pauls in Mary Poppins…. Feed the Geese… tuppence a baaaaaag…."

[Aalborg Hammer]

Nurse Doolittle - congratulations!! I have a way to make sure the small birds get the live mealworms..I bought a bIrdfeeder that's in a cage with access only for robins and the like..inside I put an old tupperware container screwed to the bottom..I put a handful of live mealworms out for them early and at lunchtime...I bought some Morio worms last week and didn't realise how big they are (the Rambo of the mealworm world)They're about 5cm long and the birds have a bit of a tussle with them !! I've been lucky this year with nuthatches and a pied flycatcher on the feeder along with all the tits except Marsh tits..Well done on getting the birds in the house

[Nurse Ratched]

Hermit I'm going to teach them to fetch my slippers next. Surf - Arf! A LOT I worry about you...

[SurfaceAgentX2Zero]

"Just make sure you don't end up harbouring one of these buggers, Nursie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8yHdBKd_Fs"

[Hermit Road]

"Nurse Ratched 3:28 Tue May 11 That is outstanding. Next up, teach them to drap a scarf round your neck while you sing Disney songs"

[Nurse Ratched]

"Yes, I'm on a bit of a high about it."

[the exile]

"Nurse, that is fabulous."

[Nurse Ratched]

"There's been a significant development. I've been a busy birder. As a result of the recent magpie and starling putsch, the robins and great tits were getting muscled out of the live mealworm action, and the very expensive live worms were getting gobbled down by the mags and starlings at a rate I can't afford. It was breaking my heart to see the robins and tits miss out and I wanted their chicks to benefit. So over the long bank holiday weekend I 'taught' the robins and great tits to come into my sitting room via the open patio door to eat from their own dish of worms. It really wasn‚Äôt that difficult. They were already showing a lot of curiosity about the inside of my house, coming onto the doorstep or the top of the open door to peer in. My robin would hitch a ride on my wheelie bin as I took it to be emptied, etc, just to 'remind' me he was about. Anyway, they are quite blas?© about my presence now and there is a constant stream of them flying in and out. They now even come in and feed from a dish on the desk while I'm sitting there working. It's close to the open door, so they feel secure. But the best part is, they are now getting their fair share because the starlings and mags (though they look in from time to time) aren't brave enough to venture inside. About half an hour ago a JAY flew onto my desk. I don't know which of us was more startled when we saw each other. He grabbed a worm and buggered off sharpish. This isn't great news, because I'm going to have to discourage him in case the mags, etc, get ideas."

[plankton]

"You don't live in Richmond, do you, Mrs Jones? :)"

[Hello Mrs. Jones]

I have a Anna's Hummingbird nest with eggs on my patio.

[gph]

"How come some birds are so intelligent when their brains are so small? It turns out the answer is miniaturisation. Just as today's laptops have more computing power than yesterday's room-sized mainframes because of the small size of their chips, bird neurons are much smaller than mammalian ones, except for primates. And even primate neurons aren't as small as bird ones. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdsVRh9oKiE (If you don't want to hear about brain soup, avoid)"

[Fo the Communist]

Nurse Reckon that's wise. Breeding mealworms does look a bit mucky. Also saw my first swallow of the year earlier this evening. What a glorious time of the year spring is.

[Hammer and Pickle]

"Winter’s over - they can find their own food now. Anyway, just took the brachet out to the oxbow lake (the Vistula forms these along most of its lowland course being a largely wild big river) where we heard the year’s first cuckoo and noted the plentiful swallows. The local beavers have been very active, at one point engineering convenient tunnel access to the water where the bank was deemed too steep; the beaver really is a remarkable infrastructure engineer."

[Nurse Ratched]

"Fo - I'm going to have to go back to putting out (soaked) dried mealworms because I can't afford to keep them in live ones! My birds are absolutely voracious. Crassus - the father of my kids (who likes fishing) suggested the same thing a while back. I looked into it. Birds will happily eat maggots, but apparently it's not recommended due to not knowing what the maggots are fed on, or something. I'm playing it safe."

[eswing hammer]

"Last year coz l was off like most people l was able to monitor the blue tit family in my secluded little side garden , l was able to get right close to the box and see the chicks up around the entrance and then for the first time in my life , witness them fledge , apparently the parents call them , anyway l watched as one of them left and joined the parents on next doors garage !"

[lab]

"Ted 3:41, magpies are such cunts , birds round here get devastated,I get quite tearful ."