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

[eighthobstruction]

2200, almost dark, the kitchen window open on the sunken garden...... a Jay screeching, grating, scolding something, high in the trees...an Owl, a Cat below?

Then, two Ravens flew over, once again with that dark guttural cry....... vronk...! veronk...!

Don't others here relish that wildness, that otherness?
All just a bunch of townies, I reckon....

....No I am loving just the ordinary hedge sparrows [lots] and Dunnocks....( I think they are same but slightly different shape)....Haven't seen a swift or swallow yet ( but I not walking as much as usual)....The Jays around here not often seen as loads of Rooks and Magpies....When you started with "2200" I thought it was going to be a moody dystopic piece about the year 2200....

....full of reish and in the odd pickle too....

[gradus]

2200, almost dark, the kitchen window open on the sunken garden...... a Jay screeching, grating, scolding something, high in the trees...an Owl, a Cat below?

Then, two Ravens flew over, once again with that dark guttural cry....... vronk...! veronk...!

Don't others here relish that wildness, that otherness?
All just a bunch of townies, I reckon....

Flieg Heim ihr Raben!
Did the sight inspire Wagnerian yearnings jayne?

[jayne lee wilson]

Flieg Heim ihr Raben!
Did the sight inspire Wagnerian yearnings jayne?

The Three Eyed Raven has greater resonance for me now...

[cloughie]

Flieg Heim ihr Raben!
Did the sight inspire Wagnerian yearnings jayne?

https://www.shazam.com/gb/track/49890644/the-raven

Or is this more local?

[Joseph K]

Not watching but hearing - I just had to switch off some music because I kept hearing a rather disquieting noise from a bird, a call that has something human about it, like it was a human mimicking a bird or a bird with a similar throat to a human - a bit unsettling!

I have, BTW, decided that it was the sound of seagulls we mysteriously get round here...

[ardcarp]

TH White was a big admirer of pigeons, especially their aerobatic abilities.

[Padraig]

Pigeons, those that I have from childhood called 'streetpeckers', are frequent visitors. I think I reported here that I was trying to 'tame' one loner. Over several weeks I had him coming nearer and nearer to my hand - he no longer flew away when I appeared. I have not seen him for two weeks now.

[Bryn]

I have, BTW, decided that it was the sound of seagulls we mysteriously get round here...

The mystery is why they are commonly known as seagulls. Gulls have never been restricted to coastal areas.

[ardcarp]

Not really a mystery surely Bryn? Their original habitat was the coast and the sea, but as the RSPB says:

Gulls are a traditional part of seaside environments, but there's concern about their increasing presence in urban areas

This refers most of all to the herring gull whose scavenging habits take them to anywhere humans have food lying about. But places such as Lyme Regis (where they are something of a problem) have the biggest, healthiest, scariest beasts imaginable, well-known for removing kids' chips between hand and mouth.

[ardcarp]

Nightjats

I'm sure most birdy people will know all about them. But I thought I'd relate what three of us did last night to celebrate the solstice. We went up to an area of high ground about half a mile from the sea which is part mixed woodland and part scrubby heathland. We were dressed in white, with white hats (but trying not to look as if we belonged to the Ku Klux Klan). At around 10pm when twilight was setting in the chirring began all around us. For anyone who hasn't heard this sound it's a continuous noise changing in pitch rather abruptly from time to time and has sometimes been described as a pneumatic drill in the distance...though not by me. Then in ones and twos these amazing birds came silently out of the trees to investigate the white intruders. They have thin pointed wings...rather peregrine-like...but manoeuvre silently in a somewhat bat-like fashion. They are truly awesome birds, ghostly and other-worldly, a feature rather emphasised by a shrill coo-ick as they fly. We also heard the occasional wing-clap, possibly a warning signal.

More about them: https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wi...-a-z/nightjar/

and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_nightjar

[jayne lee wilson]

Nightjar wing claps are part of their courtship display flight (they breed a bit late, egg laying late May/June), though Hollom suggests it could possibly be used as a "call"...

You can occasionally see them on the coast, migrating through April/early May.... very unusual though. They would perch awkwardly on high twigs or fences, scrubby thorn bushes in dunes......when I saw one at a middle-distance, I took it for a Cuckoo at first..... then the exciting revelation...!

[eighthobstruction]

Nightjar wing claps are part of their courtship display flight (they breed a bit late, egg laying late May/June), though I guess it could possibly be used as a "call"...

!

....It always worked for me ....well used to....

[LezLee]

Last evening I saw a grey heron flying over the small area of wasteland at the back of my house, presumably coming to or from the canal. I always forget how big they are.

[DracoM]

Manic swifts and swallows in ever in bewildering and ever accelerating gangs shaving roofs ad walls for insects. Crikey!

[gradus]

Lucky you, all I have seen this year so far are 3 house martins.