Birdwatch

T

Triptych

At the Start
Joined
Jun 2, 2003
Messages
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Was I the only sad person with nothing better to do last Sunday than join in the birdwatch? Run by the RSPB it asked for anyone with a hour to spare last weekend to spend that hour counting the highest number of several species of birds in their garden at any one time. An amateur census of sorts some may say. I counted 20 sparrows, 1 robin, 2 chaffinches, 2 greenfinch and a yellowhammer.
 
We did it, but when I went to send my figures in online it wouldn't let me do it unless I gave my postcode.

Yeah right and be saddled with junk mail from the RSPB for the rest of my days.

So they didn't get any info from this household

2 Robins

2 Bullfinches

3 Chaffinches

6 Sparrows

1 Blackbird

1 Redwing

2 Great Tits

1 Coal Tit

6 Blue Tits

2 Collared Doves

1 Hooded Crow

and

586954239862 Starlings

and a squirrel :D
 
Just over a month ago I counted:

7 Swans a-swimming

6 Geese a-laying,

4 Colly birds,

3 French Hens

2 Turtle Doves

and a Partridge in a pear-tree
 
Are you sure all those Spuggies weren't actually Wrens?
p.s
out with the muts this morning, I nearly saw a rabbit!
sparra.gif
 
No, definitely not wrens. We've always had lots of sparrows, they seem to live somewhere around the roof. :what:
 
I did it but like D/G did not want bumff mail through my letter box so failed to send it in my log was in one hour.....

40 starlings

2 blue tits

2 ordinary tits :o ho sorry was her next door pegging clothes on line....... :D

1 robin

5 magpies

20 sparrows

4 large crows

1 black bird
 
No garden, but Lingfield Park provides starlings (though they shot a lot last year, because of nesting in the eaves of buildings), a wren, two pied wagtails, two wood pigeons, dozens of crows and rooks.

Our communal garden hosts a resident blackbird and spouse, and there are the odd sightings of sparrows again. They've taken a terrible tumble over the last 20 years, so anywhere they're seen is good news.

The derelict West Pier (The Shame of Brighton) still has enough stark struts left to host hundreds of street pigeons and starlings - the latter are an amazing sight in the summer here, swooping and swirling over the sea in gyrating roosts in their hundreds.

DG, you're darn lucky to have seen a hooded crow! :blink:
 
I did it too. In the centre of Birmingham, in one hour I counted

I dead sparrow.
 
Originally posted by tetley+Feb 5 2005, 01:18 AM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (tetley @ Feb 5 2005, 01:18 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> <!--QuoteBegin-Merlin the Magician@Feb 5 2005, 01:07 AM
4 large crows
Click to expand...
Are they different from normal size crows Merl? [/b][/quote]
YES I THINK SO?? the only normal BIRD watching I do is of the non feathered kind :o :D :D


Carrion Crow Scientific Name: Corvus corone
Length: 45-47 cm (18-19") Wing Span: 93-104 cm (37-42")
Weight: 370-650 g (¾ -1½ lb) Breeding Pairs: 800 000
Present: All Year
 
But they could have been the same birds flying off and returning, couldn't they? So the count is invalid?

Crows are clever. I can just imagine them in true Disney fashion sitting on a telephone wire somewhere out of view saying, "Let's take turns at going into people's gardens as many times as we can in an hour."

I didn't know anything about it but we have a regular visitor from a crow who should be wearing a disabled sticker. Named Hoppy (by Mrs Mo), she (decided by Mrs Mo) visits every day and has done for not far off the nine years we've lived here. She has one leg turned the wrong way but it clearly hasn't affected her ability to survive. She's got a smart handbrake turn.
 
Mo - you remind me of my waking one morning (well before the crack of noon, a near-miracle in itself) long ago in Torquay. I thought, what an amazing variety of birds outside - all kinds of clear calls wafted through the window. Keen to view what would've been a grand selection, I spied... one starling, swinging on a telephone wire, imitating a blackbird, a cuckoo, a dove, a crow, a CHICKEN, and finally... brr, brr, brr, brr... a telephone! Brilliant birds, I love 'em.
 
one starling, swinging on a telephone wire, imitating a blackbird, a cuckoo, a dove, a crow, a CHICKEN, and finally... brr, brr, brr, brr... a telephone!
Click to expand...

Your very own Rooster Booster :lol:
 
Ive just started a project at work trying to get young people interested in bird watching. Ordered some identification charts at a very reasonable £2.75 each which show the top 50 garden birds in the U.K.

So far we've spotted lots of Blue Tits, a few Coal Tits, some Mistle Thrushes, Song Thrushes, a pair of Pied Wagtails and best of all a Greater Spotted Wood Pecker!!!

Never took an interest in birds before this but im well into it now!!! :D
 
We have a great variety of birds out on the gallops - currently seeing yellowhammers, fieldfares, lapwings, buzzards & a couple of red kite. Also the usual fare of partridge & pheasants which can be guaranteed to fly up just as you are about to trot past them so causing the horses to whip round. We also have curlew later in the spring which sit on the edge of the all-weather gallop waiting to get you dropped - the bastards - but their call is quite beautiful.
 
That's quite an attractive mental picture, jinny, imagining a small group of curlew quietly probing the grass, inching closer to the edge of the gallop as a young horse begins his work-out.

"Kenny? You ready? Kathy? Carl? Kylie? Okay, get set, here he comes... wait for it... okay - GO! PweeeeeeeeEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!! Yessss! Reee-sult!" :teeth:
 
Funny you should mention the Kites, jinny....on Christmas Day there were about 4 of them circling near Mum's back garden. She was saying there had been a revival in their numbers & that there were quite a few in the area - not that surprising I guess, as you're just down the road!! When I was at Edgy's we would often see Buzzards about, there were a couple that nested near the track we used to get to the gallops.

A friend of mine has just set up her own yard in Spain - it's pretty much in the middle of nowhere, in a lovely place called Tesorillo Saint Martin which is very quaint, with literally thousands of orange tree groves. I was riding there a little while back, (as Maria is just setting up the yard, she doesn't have a lot of spare tack so I had to improvise........I rode my friend's jumpy TB in a racing saddle & a double bridle!!!!! :blink: :lol: ) where we were riding we went past several fields of cattle (there is a farm with fighting bulls very near the yard) & there were loads of fairly large white birds sitting on the cattle - I don't know their name, but they are the ones that perch on cattle & pick off the ticks!! It was great to see so many of them sitting on the animals...I wish I had a camera. Incidentally, it is fantastic to see the state of the cattle in this part of Spain - even in the field they look fantastic, almost like they have just been bathed & groomed. They are in fantastic condition with glossy coats - contrast that with most of the friesans I'm used to seeing out of the kitchen window at home in the UK that are covered in muck & bony as hell!
 
Actually, talking of birds, my parrot was in fantastic form last night, it's amazing to think that she wasn't tame at all when I got her, no-one could get within a few feet of her. She was exceptionally friendly last night & very affectionate - after letting me clip her wings without any fuss she lay in my lap while I rubbed her breast (a pretty sensitive area that a lot of birds won't let you near - no dirty wise-cracks either!!!!!!) & then spent ages sitting on my shoulder happily. To be honest, when I got her, I really didn't think she would ever be totally hand tame so it's fantastic & very satisfying to have her like this now.
 
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