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]

"Saw a couple of doves on the overhead cables, looked like they were celebrating the Hammers result. Happy days."

[WHU(Exeter)]

"Just read some extracts from the new book by Frieda Hughes, ‘George, a magpie memoir’.it’s REALLY good if the extracts are anything to go by. Have ordered a copy."

[Tomshardware]

Saw my first Swallow of the year yesterday.

[lab]

"Give him credit, he stayed up half the night putting that post together."

[gph]

Pity = attention Just saying

[Nurse Ratched]

I genuinely pity him.

[WHU(Exeter)]

If you can’t appreciate nature then…

[WHU(Exeter)]

If you can’t appreciate nature then…

[Swiss.]

Just the other day I saw a nice pair of tits. Get a life.

[Hammer and Pickle]

The brachet’s been moulting by the bail so we’ve been putting it out on the bird table. Always disappears by the next day - may find the time to see which of the local pairs have got the comfy nests.

[zebthecat]

I have a pair of long tailed tits nesting in the hedge. Haven't seen them here before and I have been here for 12 years. I do have collared doves and they are pretty. Really grating voices though. Also have planty of wood pigeons - they are completely daft and clumsy as anything.

[Nurse Ratched]

https://youtu.be/ObJdguz_QIg Speaking of all things 'nature' here is another of my favourite YouTube channels. *laughs evilly*

[Cheezey Bell-End]

Turtle doves do migrate to/from Africa. En route they stop 8n places like Cyprus and Malta where they are massacred by hunters.

[Hammer and Pickle]

Got a locally nesting pair of collared doves - much more common here than the larger woodpigeons. Think it’s the turtle doves that are migratory.

[bruuuno]

"Doves not migratory afaik crass. Such a shame, delightful birds"

[Cheezey Bell-End]

"8m in Australia these days and we have a local magpie which is unrelated to the European one. It's crow sized and feisty, but not a crow. I recently saw one fly across the road in front of me and collide loudly with a truck. It landed on it's back on the driveway of a petrol station and was kicking it's legs, but I assumed it would die. I ran across the road and picked it up and put it under the trees near where it fell. A few hours later, I went back past there and it was standing up where I left it. So for a few days I took food and water until I didn't see it. Now, whenever I sit at the bus stop opposite the petrol station, magpies come to me and sing. They probably just want food, but it feels like the magpie people are paying tribute to me. Their song is a distinctive piping warbling. I describe it as someone speaking Cantonese through a harmonica. I recorded one, but don't know where to upload it. I don't know what ultimately happened to the one I picked up as they look the same. But I do often see them dead by the road."

[Crassus]

Good call on the doves Bru I’m devoid of them so far too They were busy last year but not around Excuse my ignorance but are they migratory? If not internationally but within localised areas?

[Tomshardware]

"zebthecat 11:40 Sat Mar 11 They are very loud aren't they, song it beautiful and their alarm call is a racket. I was once divebombed by wrens that were nesting in a shed and every time I went in there she would go for me. Bruno, I still see plenty of collared doves around, think their numbers are doing ok."

[bruuuno]

"I used to see loads of collared doves when I was a kid, I rarely see them now. Shame as they’re lovely birds, I understand they mate for life"

[Crassus]

"Nurse You just made me snort, you have a way with words my lady Thanks for the bat info, we have those here too and had plenty of experience of them when night fishing. Agree with Zeb, their agility defies logic, they swoop, glide and evade through our pergola and I've watched them dodge my fishing rod mid cast, stunning little creatures Oh and whilst typing, a big thanks for this threads contributors, a delight to read and I'm constantly learning, which is always a bonus"

[Nurse Ratched]

"I love bats, especially those massive Aussie fruit bats. They look like flying puppies. This is despite being raised to think of bats as aggressive and dangerous. My mum had a serious phobia of bats. And spiders. And balloons. In fact, judging by the results of my recent Ancestry DNA test, the only thing she wasn't scared of is cock. (I'm still getting over it)"

[zebthecat]

Thanks Nurse - will give it a go. Also heard a fascinating radio programme on animals different perception of time. Bats are curious as they use time to perceive distance as they use sonar to map out their environment when they are on the wing. Also their perception of the passage of time changes as they spend a lot of life torpid in between bursts of hunting. Compared to us humans their reaction time is ridiculous - single digit milliseconds when they are feeding unlike us where even the fastest is about a quarter of a second.

[Nurse Ratched]

"Zeb The RSPB online shop has BAT DETECTORS you can purchase. The gizmo picks up the calls the bats make as they fly and, according to the frequency of the call, can tell you what species you have."

[zebthecat]

Thanks Crassus it is. So does yours. I also live in a short cul-de-sac right on the edge of town. The High Weald AONB starts at the end of the road which is next door but one and there is a stand of old oaks at the end of the road. Bats and owls are my favourite visitors. Watching bats darting all over the place on the hunt is amazing. They are much more agile than any bird.

[Crassus]

"Zeb Outstanding, sounds idyllic Ours is quite the opposite, a private drive off a cul-de-sac, so absolutely no through traffic but with an abnormally small back garden for the house The benefit however, is that we back on to green belt, so protected open rolling countryside from the back as far as you can see and virtually without a house in sight, the odd barn in the hedgerows As such, I consider our meagre garden conversely, a bloody big viewing platform, which being on a gradient, I levelled It provides all sorts of natural activity and obviously birdlife if you take the time to see it rather than the view and offers hours of simple pleasure through all seasons We are extremely lucky for sure"