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."

[Mex Martillo]

I couldn't say exactly what sort of pigeons we have here, but certainly not gentlemanly. They dominate all food soucres and do not let other, especially smaller birds in. My most disliked bird species. I really think they are out of control due to lack of predators and that something should be done about them to give other birds a better chance. If I wasn't concerned that their meat is probably diseased I would be hunting and eating them.  Cannot bring myself to cull them though.

[Nurse Ratched]

Wood pigeons. Dopey-looking, pootling buggers, but not to be underestimated. I've always admired their gentlemanly behaviour towards smaller birds. They only become aggressive towards territory interlopers of their own species and collared doves (not much smaller). Plus they will stand their ground against magpies, which is brave of them. However, they're also shrewd. 

They like to hoover up the stray sunflower hearts that drop to the ground under the bird feeders. As soon as they see the tits, finches, sparrows and parakeets descend on the feeders, the woodies also swoop down to the ground to enjoy the dropped seed. 

However after a while it's not enough. They have a strategy. They wait until (usually) the big, heavy parakeets are on the feeders. The woody waits directly underneath. Then suddenly, ostensibly for 'no reason', the woody will burst into noisy, flappy flight, making a huge commotion, but only landing a couple of feet away. This is enough to make the parakeets scatter in panic. As the parakeets take off/accelerate away from the feeders, lots of seed comes tumbling out of the ports onto the ground. Woody waddles casually over to feast.

[Mike Oxsaw]

When I was living in Muscat, there were a few Mynah (not minor, sorry, joyo) birds living around the apartment complex I was living in.

I started putting out bits of fruit for them on my balcony wall and they were quite happy to come and feed, even when i was sat just a few feet away.

Had to stop after a few days though as they are messy feeders and my neighbours in the apartment below complained about fruit "raining down" on their balcony.

Cheeky fuckers - the birds, not the neighbours - then started pecking at my windows - I assume they could see me through the double glazing, even though I was sat in a different room.

Got a tree full of Mynah Birds (again, sorry joyo, not the type to interest you) outside my drum in Thailand, too. Noisy fuckers whom I've yet got to work out how best to feed.

Thought the only 'birds' you was interested in Thailand had cocks and sucked your gout ridden purple toes in your mud hut in the poverty stricken village near the Cambodian border!

The clear and obvious problem there is that you thought you could think.

Ladyboys don't scare me like they obviously do you.

[XKhammer]

When I was living in Muscat, there were a few Mynah (not minor, sorry, joyo) birds living around the apartment complex I was living in.

I started putting out bits of fruit for them on my balcony wall and they were quite happy to come and feed, even when i was sat just a few feet away.

Had to stop after a few days though as they are messy feeders and my neighbours in the apartment below complained about fruit "raining down" on their balcony.

Cheeky fuckers - the birds, not the neighbours - then started pecking at my windows - I assume they could see me through the double glazing, even though I was sat in a different room.

Got a tree full of Mynah Birds (again, sorry joyo, not the type to interest you) outside my drum in Thailand, too. Noisy fuckers whom I've yet got to work out how best to feed.

Thought the only 'birds' you was interested in Thailand had cocks and sucked your gout ridden purple toes in your mud hut in the poverty stricken village near the Cambodian border!

[Mike Oxsaw]

When I was living in Muscat, there were a few Mynah (not minor, sorry, joyo) birds living around the apartment complex I was living in.

I started putting out bits of fruit for them on my balcony wall and they were quite happy to come and feed, even when i was sat just a few feet away.

Had to stop after a few days though as they are messy feeders and my neighbours in the apartment below complained about fruit "raining down" on their balcony.

Cheeky fuckers - the birds, not the neighbours - then started pecking at my windows - I assume they could see me through the double glazing, even though I was sat in a different room.

Got a tree full of Mynah Birds (again, sorry joyo, not the type to interest you) outside my drum in Thailand, too. Noisy fuckers whom I've yet got to work out how best to feed.

[Nurse Ratched]

Arf!

[One Sunny Day]

Had the back door open in the summer and had a squirrel ran in, escaping from a cat, up the stairs and found it climbing around on the curtains in the kids bedroom. Fortunately managed to shoo it out, back down the stairs and out the door before it did too much damage.

[Nurse Ratched]

A word to the wise: do NOT add monkey nuts to your bird/wildlife feeding regime if you do not wish to be beseiged by quarrelsome corvids and have a squirrel brazenly and regularly walk into your house to alert you that they want more. Ask me how I know 

[Hammer and Pickle]

Apart from it being really sad, it really is a call for action and maybe we can agree this is a real news story?

https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... abirds-aoe

[WHU(Exeter)]

Little pond I've put in has seen birds come back to the garden, as the pond attracts a whole new wave of inscects and bugs. No frogs or newts so far though, just mosquito larvae, which is always a fantastic addition to any garden

worth having it though for the increased bird visits and dragonflys that are also turning up more.

Plus watching water snails do their thing, whilst following updates on the COO on a Saturday afternoon. Bliss.

[dealcanvey]

Think we will hear a lot more about bird flu in the years to come. Not because it is more prevalent, but because it gets tested for so much more than ever before.  

[Nurse Ratched]

Bird flu. Quite a few dead pigeons around where I live. Seems no explanation to why they die. Could it be bird flu? Anything strange in your area?

Thankfully nothing like this in my area. In fact it's been a brilliant year for the birds here. Hardly any insects, though. These things tend to happen in cycles, don't they? 

[Mex Martillo]

Bird flu. Quite a few dead pigeons around where I live. Seems no explanation to why they die. Could it be bird flu? Anything strange in your area?

[zebthecat]

It'll take a bit of getting used to but it is nothing like as bad the makeover that the web site I work on has just had. It is an eye-searing, back to the 90s combination of electric blue and canary yellow and the main typeface looks suspiciously like a grown up version of Comic Sans especially the capital letters. It makes my head hurt.


 

I'm still doing a staggered start. 

Same here to build up tolerence.

[Tomshardware]

Most birds disappear for a while after the breeding season to recover and moult their feathers, you start to see them again once autumn arrives.

[Nurse Ratched]

Saw the local Jay pair today, which is also a relief as they have been quiet. Guess they have teenage sprogs to deal with…

My mags have managed to shake off their 3 offspring from what I can tell. 

[Nurse Ratched]

It'll take a bit of getting used to but it is nothing like as bad the makeover that the web site I work on has just had. It is an eye-searing, back to the 90s combination of electric blue and canary yellow and the main typeface looks suspiciously like a grown up version of Comic Sans especially the capital letters. It makes my head hurt.

 

I'm still doing a staggered start. 

[Hammer and Pickle]

Saw the local Jay pair today, which is also a relief as they have been quiet. Guess they have teenage sprogs to deal with…

[zebthecat]

It'll take a bit of getting used to but it is nothing like as bad the makeover that the web site I work on has just had. It is an eye-searing, back to the 90s combination of electric blue and canary yellow and the main typeface looks suspiciously like a grown up version of Comic Sans especially the capital letters. It makes my head hurt.
 

[Far Cough UKunt]

"That's fantastic. Amazing how the cuckoo coos without opening its beak. For anyone who knows about tropical birds: I saw a small bird the other day, about the size of hlaf a sparrow, but with a long, pointed beak and a yellow/greenish hue. Any ideas what it is? Calcutta is usually very noisy. Car horns, rickshaw bells, revving motorbikes, people arguing, shouting, expectorating, dogs barking. And that's just for starters. The lockdown has made things eerily quiet. No cars, few people. But for the first time ever, you can hear birds sing."

Coffee could it be a type of Hummingbird?

[Trilby55]

You’re lucky to hear a blackbird , between cats and magpies they ain’t got a chance round here .

 

[Hammer and Pickle]

Was glad to hear a blackbird do its warning call today.

Noticed they had totally stopped singing after we got back from France at the end of July when at the beginning of the month they were at it all the time. 

Is this just normal breeding-cycle behaviour, some kind of bird flu or both?

[Mike Oxsaw]

I think tomshardware saw a turtle dove recently.

Was probably hoping for a partridge/pear-tree event.

[lowlife]

I think tomshardware saw a turtle dove recently.

[Nurse Ratched]

I am visually overstimulated. Having to microdose myself to acclimatise. I wonder how zebthecat's coping.