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."

[Hammer and Pickle]

"Lovely. I'd just do the absolute minimum, keep feeding and observe."

[Nurse Ratched]

"Two nights in a row, emerging almost to the minute, has to be a good sign, don't you think? I think it might be bedding down in my garden. I have a corner with old bits of wood stacked up and old furniture that my ex was going to burn, but never got round to."

[Hammer and Pickle]

You have a visiting hedgehog? I'm seriously jealous.

[Nurse Ratched]

HEDGEHOG! Two nights in a row now. First spotted last night. This might be the happiest I have ever been in my life. I can hear it crunching its little hedgehog biscuits (God bless Amazon Prime)

[zebthecat]

"The loudest I have are the sparrows - it is not tht there calls are particularly loud individually but there are loads of them and they never stop. Jackdaws, Blackbirds, Robins and wrens after that. Best nest this year is a nuthatch in among the ivy that climbs Apple tree number one. Love those little guys."

[WHU(Exeter)]

"True. With the crows vs magpies, I'm surprised they find time to eat some days. Which again does sound like WHO..."

[Nurse Ratched]

To be fair that sounds like WHO.

[WHU(Exeter)]

"80% of the birds in/near my garden this year are magpies and crows, it's the same turf war/racket every day, you'd think after months of the same action every day with no gains made on the who owns which trees and chimneys they'd get bored of it all but I think they go through the same motions every day."

[Nurse Ratched]

‚ò?

[Cabbage Savage]

Pickle and Jakub see 2 wite swons on river today. very taysty

[Tomshardware]

Robins seem to love making their nests in sheds and garages.

[Nurse Ratched]

"Fo, I live in a run-down part of North London. It's all concrete, noisy mopeds and ghastly fried chicken shops. Nobody is more astonished about the birds I get in my garden than me."

[Too Much Too Young]

"Liveleak has changed its name to itemfix...its something i check each day for random stuff/news. Got to admit, never heard of the Lyre bird before. Shame we don't them over here. https://www.itemfix.com/v?t=c9s8yl"

[Fo the Communist]

"They will have to negotiate all kinds of junk in order to get to the great outdoors as well. You do seem to live in some sort of avian paradise, Nurse."

[Nurse Ratched]

Wonderful. I can't wait to see robin fledglings. They're dopey looking little buggers. I've had baby/fledgy greenfinches for the last few days.

[Nurse Ratched]

Wonderful. I can't wait to see robin fledglings. They're dopey looking little buggers. I've had baby/fledgy greenfinches for the last few days.

[Fo the Communist]

I have a robin in the garage current sitting on a nest with a couple of chicks already hatched . Me and the family are in and out of there several times each day and the mother (the robin not the missus) is completely unflustered. The nest is on a shelf at about beer belly height right by the door.

[zico]

"I just found a reasonably local wildlife and ambulance service online and spoke to someone. She advised to leave the hole in the wall till,,,,September, and to give them a call if I find anymore fledglings and they can advise. Apparently it's not the scent from you handling them that scares off the parents but if the parents see a human handling one so I may just put the next one in a shoe box temporarily inside and call that centre. Will look for a more local one on Facebook thanks. The hole has been there for years but I have never ever seen a fledgling in the house so to have two in two days is bizarre, just can't understand where they have appeared from."

[Aalborg Hammer]

"zico,they'll be a wildlife rescue centre near you somewhere- our local one is on facebook and awash with fledglings!!"

[zico]

"Nurse Ratched 2:01 Mon May 31 Just rang RSPB and it's just a message saying they aren't taking calls due to Covid and to ring the RSPCA, which I have already done. The advice on the message was just to leave the bird where you found it or if required leave it in a safe spot! Otherwise contact a local wildlife centre or local vet! Not much help really."

[zico]

"I rang the RSPCA, the only one open on a Sunday, and they just said to leave them alone as it's nature and to wait until any chirping stops and fill the hole. Hardly helpful considering I am as deaf as a post! Will try the RSPB when it's open. No idea where they are coming from, had one flying in the kitchen about a month ago who thought a sponge scourer was food! Saw what I assumed was a parent fly down to the little fella yesterday but it then flew off. Apparently caring for them doesn't help as any captivity lessens their chance of survival. It's a quandary because as they can't yet fly they are at risk to predators and the RSPCA said up to 85% of fledglings don't survive"

[Aalborg Hammer]

I have a feeder containing live mealworms inside a cage that only small birds like blue tits and nuthatches can enter - we have a family of thrushes and blackbirds who can't benefit from the feeder but a great tit has taken to getting a beakful of worms and dropping them on to the ground for the larger birds - how kind

[Nurse Ratched]

Oh no. Maybe it would be best to contact a local branch of RSPB or another wildlife group and ask their advice. I think maybe the chicks weren't yet at an independent seed-eating stage and still relying on their parents to feed them.

[zico]

"Glad I found this thread as I could do with some advice about Blue Tits. On Saturday morning I heard tweeting and found, what I now know was a fledgling Blue Tit in my lounge. Not knowing what to do I managed to guide it to my sliding doors and out into the garden where it wasn't to happy on the uneven pea beach! Cue the neighbours cat appearing which I shoed off several times but when I next saw it unfortunately it had a look of content on it's face! Sunday I found another fledgling in my kitchen! I had looked up bits since Saturday and used gloves to stop my scent putting off its parents and carried it carefully to a hidden area and placed it next to some bird seed. Kept checking on it but eventually it was on it's side with laboured breathing and sadly it passed. I was gutted tbh and buried the little fella. Not sure what else I could do. I think they have nested in an old over flow pipe hole in my brick work and the poor blighters probably fell down the waste pipe covering down under my kitchen sink area where they somehow crept under the small crack where my dishwasher cupboard doesn't quite reach the floor. That's all I can think of how they appeared. I have purchased a birds nesting box and was going to fill the hole and place the box on the wall (although after reading this I am not sure if that's a good idea!) However how long do I leave it until I fill the hole as I know it's illegal to interfere with nests and of course you can't see it so how on earth will I know when the are all gone?"

[Nurse Ratched]

Unintended consequences: I have spent a significant portion of my bank holiday weekend acting as a live 'scarecrow' against hordes of starlings who have worked out why the robins and great tits are flying in and out of my house.