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]

"We had a chicken stew the other night and we threw the carcass down into our woods for the foxes to pick over.A while ago,on telly David Attenborough put some well rotted carcass down to prove a condor's sense of smell and it worked in about half an hour...a Rough Legged Buzzard appeared in our cherry tree ,much to the distress of our resident birds.He found the chicken and was gone."

[Tomshardware]

"Had a song thrush in the garden yesterday, rare sight now. The robin we had from October to late December that was holding down a territory has gone, haven't seen or heard it for a while now. We are right on the coast and it's not an ideal habitat for robins plus all our neighbours have bastard cats."

[Nurse Ratched]

Marvellous.

[Crassus]

"Nurse, it's lovely to see isn't it I have a variable tit attendance but my Robin is not bothered by them, but then I have multi level feeding stations and he is generally down low, that and the fact that there are loads of them My lad just has a thing about other Robins and reserves his ire Cross species beef occurs with the blackbird couple, whilst shoeing other males, he is happy to take out a few starlings for good measure if they venture to ground level, the squawky squabbling buggers that they are Its a wonderful thing to watch all of this caper, sparrows that mysteriously vanished for a few months are back in force, pretty damn sure I have Trees too, and they are gathering nesting materials already - we position the brushed dog hair with a peg for them"

[Crassus]

"Nurse, it's lovely to see isn't it I have a variable tit attendance but my Robin is not bothered by them, but then I have multi level feeding stations and he is generally down low, that and the fact that there are loads of them My lad just has a thing about other Robins and reserves his ire Cross species beef occurs with the blackbird couple, whilst shoeing other males, he is happy to take out a few starlings for good measure if they venture to ground level, the squawky squabbling buggers that they are Its a wonderful thing to watch all of this caper, sparrows that mysteriously vanished for a few months are back in force, pretty damn sure I have Trees too, and they are gathering nesting materials already - we position the brushed dog hair with a peg for them"

[Nurse Ratched]

"The same robin psychodrama is being played out in my garden as I type. Paired up couple versus interloper robin, versus (also) great tits. The great tits will NOT be bullied, though, so it's usually a stand-off, strike an intimidating pose, and everybody looking a bit startled and non-committal. But it's cold outside and flying around and keeping warm requires good quality fuel, and the prize is a heap of juicy live mealworms, so when the mags are away, the little'uns will play."

[Crassus]

"The word is out, have a growing mass of the little buggers around the large and variable foodstuffs on offer, must be tweeting each other Enjoyed the field fares, absolutely beautiful plumage when you see them at close range The territorial 'flagging' is amusing to watch, they are all at it but by far the favorite is the male robin, game little fella, has his Mrs in tow, shelter and tuck, God help any other red breast that happens by, they don't stay long ....."

[Nurse Ratched]

Brilliant stuff.

[DaveT]

"Rather impressive and strange weekend here. Sparrows, blackbirds, blue tits fighting on the ground, great tits, long tailed tits, robins, wrens, dunnocks, gold finches, barn owl, marsh harrier, thrushes, male pheasant, read bunting and even a moorhen even though we are at least two miles from a river"

[Hermit Road]

I’ll go with birders. Sounds much better. If you can get yourself out to Epping Forest at dusk at the moment then it is well worth a visit. The birdsong is incredible with a terrific range of birds...and no parakeets drowning them out with their squawking.

[Tomshardware]

Agree with that nurse. Prefer birders to twitchers.

[GBHammer63]

"Mex, Agree about the hoopoe, quite common here as are the processionary caterpillars which have apparently started early this year. Hoopoe is one of the only birds that can eat them I was told by a local. Had never heard of processionary caterpillars before but by all accounts are really dangerous especially for pets. Hoopoes the boss"

[lab]

"Hermit , in answer to your question, yes ."

[Nurse Ratched]

"Hermit. Sadly, they have become a nuisance. I have no idea how they will go about culling, but native species must be protected. Meanwhile, I might be wrong, but I don't think there are any twitchers on WHO. I think we are birders. Birders: people who enjoy watching, listening to, and learning about bird behaviour, and may travel away from home to do so, but are relaxed about the sorts of birds they happen to see, and enjoy seeing them all. Twitchers: proper head-bangers who are ticking off lists of spots and are more concerned with seeing rare species than enjoying all birds equally. Highly competitive with other twitchers."

[Mex Martillo]

"There is a puput (Euroasian hoopoe) back for spring in my garden. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LT9dzAkWZEw https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoopoe Its a cool looking bird, but I love it because it digs about under the pine trees and eats these dammed poisonous processionary caterpillars. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pine_processionary"

[Hammer and Pickle]

"Look Muppet, you're fucking mad pal, and not in a good way."

[Hermit Road]

"https://www.birdguides.com/news/government-considering-ring-necked-parakeet-cull/ Where do WHO’s twitchers stand on the London parakeet population. For me they have rapidly moved from being an exotic curiosity that I was excited to see, to being a noisy and unwelcome pest. Their population has grown at a rapid rate and is displacing many native species with bats, owls, starlings and many other bird populations suffering. Fortunately, the extended cold spell will help in culling their numbers, if not, should the guns be brought into play?"

[Hammer and Pickle]

Nurse Ratched 9:32 Wed Feb 10 Your talent is wasted on here.

[gph]

"""I just saw two collared doves mating. I think it may be a good omen for tonight."" Of course it was. We were on course for a Ratched on our way to winning the Cup. However, Bolty catapulted them before his gun arrived."

[zebthecat]

Hope go all Alfred Hitchcock on you bolty.

[gph]

"I""just saw two collared doves mating. I think it may be a good omen for tonight."" Bolty catapulted them before his gun arrived."

[Nurse Ratched]

"Bolty, those are lost and confused gannets, kittiwakes and guillemots. They think your head is Rockall."

[Mex Martillo]

"Wrong thread bolty, you should be on the hunting and fishing thread."

[boltkunt]

Air rifle on order for the little chirpy cunts who keep piping up in the evening.

[Hammer and Pickle]

Goshawk cruised by just now as I was walking the dog. Larger than a woodpigeon it was and very pale in its winter plumage.