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."

[Aalborg Hammer]

Nurse- wonderful you mention Stanley Unwin - nothing (and apologies for it) to do with birds but someone sent me the following youtube link when Stanley interviewed Peter Hawkins (the voice behind the Flowerpot men and Daleks) It's a delight - deep joy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNEWovL90sM

[zebthecat]

Nurse Ratched 8:56 Wed Feb 22 There is a great spot about 10 minutes drive from my house for warblers - The Ashdown Forest. Forest is bit of a misnomer as it is mostly open heathland. There are Dartford Warblers and Skylarks and I like to wander to a quiet part and just listen to the warblers (only seen one a couple of times) and listen to and watch the skylarks do their thing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssEZWMsQg_8 Vaughan Williams would approve.

[Crassus]

"Ahhh bless it, having a right old go there I've heard them when fishing, now know cause Thanks"

[Nurse Ratched]

https://youtube.com/shorts/7dnDlKTgm1Y?feature=share Look at this mad bark. I flipping love warblers. They're all mental.

[Crassus]

"Me too and showing it with these memories I was very young mind but googling, he ‘did’ all sorts of animals, in feature films too He voiced, for want of a better phrase, the alien in the film"

[Nurse Ratched]

"Yep, but vaguely. I also remember Stanley Unwin. Again, vaguely. I'm very old, you know."

[Crassus]

"Bloody hell Nurse, that’s the bloke Do you remember him too?"

[Nurse Ratched]

Percy Edwards?

[Crassus]

"Lab When I was very young there was an old boy who would turn up on all sorts of tv programmes, Percy something or other, he could imitate birds of all type and became a legitimate act Simpler more innocent times I’m going to Google him later now haha"

[lab]

"Love that! I can imitate Collard Doves and Woodpigeons well . I remember sitting outside a pub when a dove landed on the roof , I done my bit and it done the same much to the amusement of a close table !"

[Crassus]

"lab I've mentioned this before, it can be done relatively easy at the right time of the year Cutting to the chase, I read a story where a couple moved into a house, the husband a keen ornithologist, with a large hedge between them and the neighbours. Relations were cordial but not intrusive. One day the wife met the woman next door and they started chatting, got onto their husbands and discovered that they were both birders, furthermore, one said to the other the somewhat sheepishly, that her old man chatted to owls every night, hooting away. Much amusement followed when the other said hers did too and clearly the silly sods were hooting at each other. Then one balmy spring night, drink had been taken and actual owls were having a hoot off in the fields behind, I recounted the story to the kids. My daughter asked me to 'speak' with the owls, so I did Over the following few weeks when ever they had their mates round I had to march out and have a chat with my new mates, not quite so easy when drink had not been taken....."

[lab]

You call to owls ? I’ve called carrion crows and magpies but never owls.

[Crassus]

"Twilight yesterday morning and a squawk interrupted my first fag Then a barn owl chased by a crow(? black silhouette) flew over the left fence then skimmed the ground before swerving around a big eucalyptus on the right to make his escape A big, beautiful bird and the agility ..... I enjoyed that, first formal sighting of an owl albeit over the years heard plenty in the fields behind, even 'spoke' with a few but that's another story"

[BN2]

Pair of black redstarts in the garden yesterday. Very pretty

[Mex Martillo]

"Cricky, an owl smaller than a blackbird! I try my best, but that does not sound easy to spot, would love too though."

[Hammer and Pickle]

"They're tiny Mex, smaller than a blackbird, so you'll have maybe heard rather than seen them. The call is a single sort of submarine sonar-type ""ping"" repeated at intervals after sundown - used to be a common feature of the Med, now sadly rare. Last one I heard was years ago in the Mora de Ebre region."

[Mex Martillo]

"Hammer and Pickle, I hate to say I have never seen an owl in the wild. Would love to. I looked up scops owls apparently their range covers where I live so perhaps one day?"

[zebthecat]

Tomshardware 10:43 Tue Feb 14 Oh yes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1s1YNwlM8g

[Tomshardware]

I'd bloody love a pet starling.

[Mr Anon]

"This may annoy the twitchers so sorry nurse but I had no idea what great mimics starlings are, friend has raised one they found laying injured on lawn and it's mental the noises it makes. Phone, TV tunes etc. Apparently they can talk so they're trying to teach it"

[Mr Anon]

"This may annoy the twitchers so sorry nurse but I had no idea what great mimics starlings are, friend has raised one they found laying injured on lawn and it's mental the noises it makes. Phone, TV tunes etc. Apparently they can talk so they're trying to teach it"

[Hammer and Pickle]

Do you have Scops owls Mex? They once used to be a lot more common in their range.

[Mex Martillo]

"Mrs. Jones, I absolutely love the Hoopoe, they come to my garden and eat the poisonous processionary caterpillars that come down from the pine trees. Boy do I hate those caterpillars and boy do I love to see the hoopoe eating them, need a lot more hoopoes in this world. I haven't seen one yet, but I've heard them, they kind of go puput and thats what they call them in these parts."

[lab]

"Wow , would love to see one of those"

[Hello Mrs. Jones]

I'm in Mallorca and saw my first Hoopoe yesterday. Stunning bird.