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

[Bryn]

They are often early markers in the dawn chorus!

Indeed, and street lighting can set them to singing through the night, too.

[ardcarp]

For any keen birders in the Southwest, a pair of avocets have just reared chicks on Seaton Marshes. First time here.

https://eastdevon.gov.uk/news/2023/0...20the%20county.


Most avocets seen locally, e.g on the River Exe, are adults from SE England or Europe wintering on tidal mud-flats.

[RichardB]

I'm not much of a twitcher myself, but since moving house I've been very impressed by the amount and variety of waterfowl to be found on the doorstep so to speak: coots, ducks, geese, herons, grebes and today an oystercatcher, which surprised me, I'm about 15km inland and I thought from the name that they'd be seabirds. But maybe it was something else that looks similar. The area I'm living in has all been built since 2000, and the planners seem to have been very keen to make sure all the local wildlife habitats are preserved. Another thing that puzzled me was finding bits of crustaceans littering the footpaths, but today I realised they are the remains of freshwater crayfish that the local birds feed on. Having spent the last 40-odd years living in big cities, I find this all most fascinating and pleasing.

[ardcarp]

Another thing that puzzled me was finding bits of crustaceans littering the footpaths, but today I realised they are the remains of freshwater crayfish that the local birds feed on.

That is fascinating!

[oddoneout]

I'm not much of a twitcher myself, but since moving house I've been very impressed by the amount and variety of waterfowl to be found on the doorstep so to speak: coots, ducks, geese, herons, grebes and today an oystercatcher, which surprised me, I'm about 15km inland and I thought from the name that they'd be seabirds. But maybe it was something else that looks similar. The area I'm living in has all been built since 2000, and the planners seem to have been very keen to make sure all the local wildlife habitats are preserved. Another thing that puzzled me was finding bits of crustaceans littering the footpaths, but today I realised they are the remains of freshwater crayfish that the local birds feed on. Having spent the last 40-odd years living in big cities, I find this all most fascinating and pleasing.

A small colony has established in my home town, which is much further inland than your location. They breed inland but seem to do a fair amount of commuting, including at night, between their base inland and the coast.
I hope your birds are eating the signal crayfish rather than the threatened native whiteclawed crayfish! I imagine they are, given the scarcity of the native, and if so then the visitors would be providing a useful service.

[Maclintick]

A lesser-spotted woodpecker on our garden feeders in the last week..

[Bryn]

A lesser-spotted woodpecker on our garden feeders in the last week..

Lucky you. We only get the Greater Spotted and Green, around here.

[Globaltruth]

A lesser-spotted woodpecker on our garden feeders in the last week..

Us too.
We changed the mix we use and have noticed a difference in visitors.
Not just the LSW but bull, green and chaff finches.
4 young bullfinches, quickly reduced to 3 by a young sparrow hawk. Food chain in action - we saw it happen - precise flight skills.

[Ein Heldenleben]

For any keen birders in the Southwest, a pair of avocets have just reared chicks on Seaton Marshes. First time here.

https://eastdevon.gov.uk/news/2023/0...20the%20county.


Most avocets seen locally, e.g on the River Exe, are adults from SE England or Europe wintering on tidal mud-flats.

Tremendous reserve that - a real credit to East Devon Council - and that’s not a phrase you hear every day.

[Serial_Apologist]

Lucky you. We only get the Greater Spotted and Green, around here.

Here too; but for that we should be grateful to be seeing any of the varieties at just six and a half miles from Trafalgar Square. I remember reading a report a few years ago that 3 decades ago woodpeckers could not be found anywhere within 20 miles of the centre of London. Actually a friend has recently reported seeing a red-capped one in Hyde Park!

[RichardB]

A small colony has established in my home town, which is much further inland than your location. They breed inland but seem to do a fair amount of commuting, including at night, between their base inland and the coast.
I hope your birds are eating the signal crayfish rather than the threatened native whiteclawed crayfish! I imagine they are, given the scarcity of the native, and if so then the visitors would be providing a useful service.

I've only seen a few claws (reddish in colour and spiny) and a few heads (brownish). Which species would they be?

[ardcarp]

Tremendous reserve that - a real credit to East Devon Council

The one on the River Axe (otherwise known as Seaton Marshes) is one of East Devon's spectacular successes too. Even saw bitterns in the reeds there last year.
This is the one where the avocets made their Devon nesting debut.

[Dave2002]

Last week the unprecedented visitation of a lesser-spotted woodpecker to our garden feeders, returning for several days in a row. On Sunday evening a distressed mewing drew my gaze to the belfry of a small local chapel, to which an agitated red kite clung. They’ve been nesting in the village for several gears, so I suspect this was an anxious parent concerned for an errant fledgling.

You may be right, though red kites do make a noise a bit like a cat sometimes I believe. So was it the red kite you heard, or the woodpecker - or something else? Do woodpeckers attack red kites - or their offspring? I think the conjunction of two sentences has caused some confusion - in my mind at least!

[Bryn]

You may be right, though red kites do make a noise a bit like a cat sometimes I believe. So was it the red kite you heard, or the woodpecker - or something else? Do woodpeckers attack red kites - or their offspring? I think the conjunction of two sentences has caused some confusion - in my mind at least!

I generally describe the Red Kite call as a mew. Seems to me to hit the nail on the head. Round here, I often hear them long before I see them.

[Joseph K]

Took out my phone while walking along the bus lane (which bisects the park I walked through recording all those birds in my above post) and the first birdsong it picked up was that of a Robin. Otherwise it was the usual suspects - Common Chiffchaff, Wren, Blackcap, Blue Tit, Blackbird - the only new one being the Great Tit.