What birds (are you/have you been) watching? What birds have been watching you?

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  • johncorrigan
    Full Member
    • Nov 2010
    • 10349

    A dozen long-tailed tits on one feeder of fatballs this morning - brilliant sight!

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    • Joseph K
      Banned
      • Oct 2017
      • 7765

      Originally posted by johncorrigan View Post
      A dozen long-tailed tits on one feeder of fatballs this morning - brilliant sight!


      In addition to fatballs, my mum likes to scatter feed all over the garden - loads of birds!

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      • ardcarp
        Late member
        • Nov 2010
        • 11102

        ...presumably she doesn't have a cat!

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        • Padraig
          Full Member
          • Feb 2013
          • 4231

          Lovely photo of a curlew here. Not many left.



          Includes two pieces on Corncrakes.

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          • ardcarp
            Late member
            • Nov 2010
            • 11102

            I would hate to turn this lovely thread into anything (a) political or (b) contentious, but one cannot help noticing that the project-boat to bring cattle to graze meadows was partly funded by the EU. All this sort of thing will now cease, and is unlikely to be replaced by anything else. Island communities have done particularly well with EU help, as anyone visiting Scilly will notice.

            Returning to curlews, can anyone give figures about the decline in the UK population? There still seem to be lots around in the West Country.

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            • oddoneout
              Full Member
              • Nov 2015
              • 9150

              The early bird may catch the worm but the late one gets the bugs. I was doing some clearing up in the garden this afternoon and as I decided the light had got too dim to be able to carry on I became aware that a female blackbird was fossicking around the various bits and pieces that I had been shifting. A wistful robin song was in evidence some of the time but the bird itself didn't appear this time - never mind, nice to hear and know it's still around.

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              • ardcarp
                Late member
                • Nov 2010
                • 11102

                fossicking
                Nice word odders. Presumably equivalent to 'rootling' or (here in the West Country) 'spuddling'.

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                • cloughie
                  Full Member
                  • Dec 2011
                  • 22115

                  Originally posted by ardcarp View Post
                  Nice word odders. Presumably equivalent to 'rootling' or (here in the West Country) 'spuddling'.


                  Not heard it before but I would say the Cornwall origin is very likely as a result of Cousin Jacks moving around the globe with their mining skills when mines closed in Cornwall in C19th.

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                  • oddoneout
                    Full Member
                    • Nov 2015
                    • 9150

                    Originally posted by ardcarp View Post
                    Nice word odders. Presumably equivalent to 'rootling' or (here in the West Country) 'spuddling'.
                    I've no idea where it first entered my vocabulary or why but it's been there a good few decades. Yes for me it's an alternative to rootling I suppose.

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                    • Maclintick
                      Full Member
                      • Jan 2012
                      • 1065

                      Originally posted by oddoneout View Post
                      I've no idea where it first entered my vocabulary or why but it's been there a good few decades. Yes for me it's an alternative to rootling I suppose.
                      or furtling, perhaps ?

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                      • ferneyhoughgeliebte
                        Gone fishin'
                        • Sep 2011
                        • 30163

                        Adds a whole other meaning to "and fossicking all others"!
                        [FONT=Comic Sans MS][I][B]Numquam Satis![/B][/I][/FONT]

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                        • vinteuil
                          Full Member
                          • Nov 2010
                          • 12797

                          Originally posted by Maclintick View Post
                          or furtling, perhaps ?
                          .... I noticed ferney used 'furtling' the other day. I was a little surprized -





                          .

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                          • ferneyhoughgeliebte
                            Gone fishin'
                            • Sep 2011
                            • 30163

                            Originally posted by vinteuil View Post
                            .... I noticed ferney used 'furtling' the other day. I was a little surprized -
                            http://drlindahumphries.com/?p=1021
                            Would you have been similarly surprized if I'd announced that I'd put my nuts in a bowl on Christmas Eve, reading to get cracking the next day? "Furtling" is used as an expression to hunt out something hidden - originally, IIRC, refering to root vegetables exploring under the soil to see if they were ready for digging up.

                            That the word was - as with so many others - reused to apply to other rootlings is no fit matter for this Forum, I would have thought? Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off for a quick session on my Jingling Johnny.
                            [FONT=Comic Sans MS][I][B]Numquam Satis![/B][/I][/FONT]

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                            • oddoneout
                              Full Member
                              • Nov 2015
                              • 9150

                              Originally posted by vinteuil View Post
                              .... I noticed ferney used 'furtling' the other day. I was a little surprized -





                              .
                              Fentimans (makers of fizzy drinks) picked up on this some years ago https://twitter.com/fentimansltd/sta...705537?lang=en A notable birthday tea celebration 4 years ago in a fairly upmarket establishment yielded a selection of the mats, rather to our surprise.
                              Back on topic, a glance out of the kitchen window yesterday late afternoon revealed a couple of (red leg) partridges pottering on and around the patio. One was happy grazing the grass but the other, having very clumsily flown up and landed on the fence, was eyeing the bird food on the adjacent table. It kept leaning over and I wondered if it was going to try and land on the feeder; it thought better of it and then spent sometime staring at me with its head on one side - almost as if it was expecting me to do something. After it finally took the plunge and jumped off the fence into next door's yard I went upstairs to put some laundry away and saw that in fact there was a group(covey?) of 6 already there. There was some feeding but much of the activity was mooching around looking slightly out of place but not particularly wary or ill at ease, and demonstrating that they are really not very agile. The flapping up to the garage roof and from there to either the fence or the ground again was clumsy to say the least, took a lot of dithering before committing to action, and one could almost the grunt and 'oof' of effort each time. I was intrigued at the contrast between their showy front on plumage and the camouflage back. The setting sun was throwing a soft pink light over the garden and as the birds turned away from me the shape of their backs seemed to partly dissolve and merge into the surroundings, even on the green grass. The front-on faces do look very like puffins though - it was hard not to smile at them.

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                              • ardcarp
                                Late member
                                • Nov 2010
                                • 11102

                                Thanks for the lovely description of partridge behaviour odders! One wonders if gamekeepers/breeders over the years have selected for 'clumsiness' so that their rich clients can get rich pickings.......

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