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

[johncorrigan]

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

[Joseph K]

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!

[ardcarp]

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

[Padraig]

Lovely photo of a curlew here. Not many left.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-50874309

Includes two pieces on Corncrakes.

[ardcarp]

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.

[oddoneout]

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.

[ardcarp]

fossicking

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

[cloughie]

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

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fossicking

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.

[oddoneout]

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.

[Maclintick]

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 ?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Adds a whole other meaning to "and fossicking all others"!

[vinteuil]

or furtling, perhaps ?

.... I noticed ferney used 'furtling' the other day. I was a little surprized -

http://drlindahumphries.com/?p=1021

.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

.... 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.

[oddoneout]

.... I noticed ferney used 'furtling' the other day. I was a little surprized -

http://drlindahumphries.com/?p=1021

.

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.

[ardcarp]

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.......