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

[jayne lee wilson]

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... our Shepherd's Bush birds are clearly a bit slow. There's been good stuff waiting for them, but they haven't realized it.

Happy to report that, a month on, they have finally clicked - and now we have great tits, blue and long-tailed tits all benefiting from the various feeders. All we need now is goldfinches on the nigella feeder and we will be completely happy...

On a radio 3 note - the bird-song identifier on Martin Handley's Sunday programme pointed out that (to contradistinguish it from the collared-dove) the wood pigeon clearly signs itself by singing "Wooood pigeon - - pigeon" "Wooood pigeon - - pigeon" .

All too accurate, We have such, and now can't stop reciting during their songs - "Wooood pigeon - - pigeon" "Wooood pigeon - - pigeon"

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Hmmm..not quite. The longest note is usually the second. (I've lived with them, coming to the hand, for many years now; often the first call I hear at dawn, and, like Robins and Blackbirds, they often call at night).

The Wood Pigeon's call is typically a five-note one, as the RSPB recording shows (the first example on the tape is short of the first note; they sometimes begin that way; listen on...) often with a shorter note to finish.

https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/wildlife-guides/bird-a-z/woodpigeon/

"Coo coooo-cooo, coo-coo, coo-coooo-cooo, coo-coo, co(o)"

There are variants of course (possibility regional ones, within resident i.e. non-migratory populations), but this is by far the most typical. Haven't heard the R3 recording, but the first sound should not, typically, be the longest.

The Collared Dove is much simpler, with three notes endless repeated....

https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/wildlife-guides/bird-a-z/collared-dove/

[vinteuil]

Hmmm..not quite. The longest note is usually the second. ]

... that may be what they do in Liverpool.

Here the longest note is the first, but the stress is on the second -

"Wooood pigeon - - pigeon" - "Wooood pigeon - - pigeon"

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[cloughie]

... that may be what they do in Liverpool.

Here the longest note is the first, but the stress is on the second -

"Wooood pigeon - - pigeon" - "Wooood pigeon - - pigeon"

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That description sounds like the Collared Dove except that the words will be different! We have both here and I go along with Jayne’s sound description.

[jayne lee wilson]

... that may be what they do in Liverpool.

Here the longest note is the first, but the stress is on the second -

"Wooood pigeon - - pigeon" - "Wooood pigeon - - pigeon"

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Have you listened to the RSPB recordings I linked to above? How do they compare to your locals?
Please could you tell us when it was on R3? I'd love to hear what they actually played...

I guess its this one.....

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/34jF1nwh8Z32sbB92dH23yf/a-beginner-s-guide-to-identifying-birdsong-this-spring

Again, starting almost 4-note (after a very short intro one), thereafter a repeated five, and the last short cutoff, echoing the very beginning - like punctuation at each end of a complete song......I had forgotten if I ever noticed, that symmetry before. Fascinating.
But similar to the RSPB example.

[Bryn]

Have you listened to the RSPB recordings I linked to above? How do they compare to your locals?

In Braccan Heal, the relative note lengths fit with your description, though the stress does follow that described by vinteuil.

Here's tweet of the day: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/b0378svz

[johncorrigan]

I was in a friend's garden in Dunkeld a couple of weeks ago and he pointed out a busy couple of siskins at the feeder. Because of that I noticed one in the garden today - otherwise I'd probably have thought it was just a wee greenfinch - beautiful wee thing it was. Later, the feeders were invaded by an acrobatic red squirrel hoovering up the seeds. Entertaining.

[jayne lee wilson]

Real little Gems, Siskins, aren't they?

I was thrilled a few weeks back to see, on the nearest feeders to the house, of all precious jewels - a pair of Redpolls! It was 5 years at least since they were last here, and then much further off.....
A privileged view, especially as they are now on the RSPB Amber List of species whose numbers have recently declined.

It was more than usually important to remember, as I lifted the binocs for a real close-up, "no sudden movements"....slow-mo it had to be...
I haven't seen Brambling here for some time though. The rarer finches are among the most gorgeous of Avian Gifts.

[HighlandDougie]

I was in a friend's garden in Dunkeld a couple of weeks ago and he pointed out a busy couple of siskins at the feeder. Because of that I noticed one in the garden today - otherwise I'd probably have thought it was just a wee greenfinch - beautiful wee thing it was. Later, the feeders were invaded by an acrobatic red squirrel hoovering up the seeds. Entertaining.

When I refill the three medium-sized feeders and put them back in the garden, one of the neighbouring flock must send out a message on the Siskin What's App group as it takes them about ten minutes to descend en masse (there is a hill largely covered in conifers nearby so I guess that that's where they hang out) and, boy, do they like stuffing themselves. One unfortunate clearly overdid it recently and, as I'm no expert in the Heimlich manoeuvre for small birds, unfortunately expired. I suspect choked itself to death (the same happened a few months ago with a hen bullfinch and some berries). Both given a proper burial but sad, all the same. Redpolls appear from time to time but there can be at least 10 siskins at any one time in the garden. And, if I'm lucky, both the red squirrels either chomping their way through the hazelnuts in their shell or scurrying around burying them. I hope that I am finally going to get back to my house in France tomorrow but will hugely miss the squirrelobatics.

[ardcarp]

Bon voyage. Mais pas d'écureuil roux en France? (My sister who lives in Norway sees only red squirrels. Not sure if greys predominate over there.)

[Maclintick]

I was thrilled a few weeks back to see, on the nearest feeders to the house, of all precious jewels - a pair of Redpolls!

4 Redpolls arrived in our garden during an unseasonably warm patch last Feb -- the only sighting to date, & precious jewels, as you say. Yesterday at the reservoir a mudlarking conga of 8 Turnstones & 2 Sanderlings. This afternoon a Coal Tit fledgling clinging precariously to the garden fence -- parents flitting to-&-fro with titbits.

[Serial_Apologist]

Normally when I think of magpies, the colours black, white and blue come to mind. Yesterday a magpie crossed my path before flying up onto a fence about two metres away, and looking at its tail, the range of colours displayed was astonishing, almost psychedelic, with blues, turquoises, purples, pinks, maroons and greens blending into each other. Probably a case of iridescence, I assume, with sunlight reflecting off oils in the bird's plumage, rather as with certain beetles' wing cases.

[vinteuil]

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... guillemots, puffins, shags, kittiwakes, razorbills.

The Farne Islands...


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[ardcarp]

Lovely! Plus one lucky duck.

[Joseph K]

Absolutely lovely scenes here this afternoon. Several varieties of birds seen over the course of a few hours according to my mum and brother. But when I came down there were several (what we think are) starlings and house/tree sparrows around, and one or two starlings splashing about in the bath for a few minutes causing quite a spray which other birds came and basked in. Not sure if it has anything to do with having just mown the lawn but apparently the starlings having been coming for worms.

[DracoM]

SWALLOWS! At last!!
Under cloudless skies.

Wonderful sight up here!