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."

[geoffpikey]

"""Haven't seen the cսnt since, although think we can still hear one occassionally."" A certain nighttime WHOer?"

[MaryMillingtonsGhost]

"A couple of months after moving out of London we had an owl, probably Barn, on the decking. Looked like it was just staring back at us through the patio doors. Lucky the outside lights were on as we wouldn't have seen it. I didn't really want to move out of Poplar, but did think that there may be a couple of pluses to living in the countryside after all, however minimal. Haven't seen the cսnt since, although think we can still hear one occassionally."

[geoffpikey]

"I am late to this game, but have - perhaps mightily unimpressvely - wood pigeons nesting in little courtyard. See such birds all the time, naturally, but don't think I've ever had them actually nest 6 ft away from window. Noisy, but handsome in fat bastid sort of way. Spitting image of this one. https://youtu.be/AWet9qFT15M Think mine might be its sister. All else is little Finch types that come and go. No emus."

[Hammer and Pickle]

"If air pressure is low, all three species tend to fly low as that is where the insects are to be had. The higher the pressure, the higher they fly. This is basic cricket captain’s lore as the ball will swing if the swallows are flying low."

[Hammer and Pickle]

Agreed. Can’t mistake a swift though.

[Nurse Ratched]

"Usually swifts, swallows and martins will be moving too quickly for you to get a good look at the tail, and you're unlikely to get different species close enough to make a comparison. An easier way to work it out is to notice the general height at which they are flying. Swifts - way up in the air, so much so you can't see any details on the birds. Martins - housemartins in towns will fly around the height of the 2nd-3rd storey of a building. Swallows - fly lower (e.g skimming for insects off water and fields)"

[Hammer and Pickle]

Swallows have a more pronounced tail fork. Martins are smaller with a white breast patch. Swifts are bigger and super aerodynamic.

[Mex Martillo]

"I think there are plenty of swallows about here, they come every year without fail. I say I think as I‚Äôm not sure they are swallows? When I first came here I had a top floor flat and it was a delight to drink my coffee in the morning with the swallow type birds swopping by the kind of bay window doing their stuff. Lower, I see that spectacle every autumn. So you can have both, scare them to roost in other trees and see their performance. Proper cսnt me."

[Hermit Road]

Just saw a large Jay in the garden. Beautiful bird.

[zebthecat]

"lowermarshhammer 12:06 Sat May 30 Yeah, I haven't seen any this year and we usually have quite a few. Have seen swifts though but only a few. Nothing like it was 5 years ago. I did read that the migrating flocks got caught in a couple of huge storms this year that blew them onto the continent rather than here. Fingers crossed"

[gph]

"A quick search reveals that the peregrine is the bird of prey with the widest range, but whether it's got the widest range overall need a more sophisticated search. Albatrosses seem to be the individual birds who get the most about. I guess that's why they get called ""wandering"""

[gph]

"A quick search reveals that the peregrine is the bird of prey with the widest range, but whether it's got the widest range overall need a more sophisticated search. Albatrosses seem to be the individual birds who get the most about. I guess that's why they get called ""wandering"""

[lowermarshhammer]

"Swallows are fucked, hardly any about, been neating on LMH senior's plot for centuries probably, absent for two summers now. What a cսnt."

[lowermarshhammer]

"Gph, good question, I'd say a top predator, I'm going first choice peregrine, barn owl as a wild card..."

[zebthecat]

I love the fact that birds are living dinosaurs. At the very least the direct descendants of them.

[gph]

"UK pterosaur fossil means they must have been almost worldwide, if not actually so. What present-day bird* has the widest range? *yeah, I know that pterosaurs aren't the ancestors of birds, and were just the first flying vertebrate"

[lowermarshhammer]

Personally I'd be delighted to have a couple of hundred thousand starlings shitting everywhere. A small price to pay for this spectacle. https://youtu.be/eakKfY5aHmY

[Mex Martillo]

"Zeb, watch out for these Starlings if they start roosting before you know it you will have 100s or 1000s of the fuckers making a big racket and shitting everywhere. Nip on the bud, I don’t let them settle making load bangs. They go to the neighbours trees. He moans like fuck, I even told him what I do, but he can’t seem to manage it."

[zebthecat]

Also had a couple of Buzzards lazily circling overhead this afternoon and there is a very noisy pheasant not too far away.

[VickyPkVillageIdiot]

Saw a PARAKEET in the park today.

[zebthecat]

My Starlings have come back for a visit. They are all chattering away in the oak trees over the back of my garden and had lunch on my back lawn. The Jackdaw chicks voices are getting deeper and closer to their parents. The sparrows were tidying up the aphids on one my roses too. Thanks little guys and girls.

[Mex Martillo]

"Coffee, I have heard that saying and could have a guess at the meaning, why? I would only shot the pigeons and I was thinking to eat them or at least feed them to my dogs. I am concerned on 2 things, I guess it would be nice to wait until the breeding season is over and hate to think I may injure one and not kill it. I guess I would need to go for head shots, not sure. I think lots of practice will be needed first. These sparrow birds don’t eat the sunflower seeds and large corn! Table is getting full of it. I’m thinking to use it in some sort of feeder for other birds?"

[Coffee]

"Mex, are you familiar with a saying that starts with hell hath no fury...?"

[Mex Martillo]

"Have to say I lost interest in the birds there, but I’ve started trying to feed them again and am getting quite a few sparrows, which surprisingly is an advance compared to back in April - March or whenever it was? I have to say, I’m at a bit of a crossroads and am in two minds, either go for the RSPB buy and Lowermarshes home made bird feeders or buy an really good air rifle and start shooting the little fuckers? Perhaps I do both?"

[Nurse Ratched]

My goldies are ignoring the nyjer feeder and going for the sunflower hearts. I've ordered a different type of nyjer feeder in case that's what's putting them off.