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

[Lento]

Grasshopper warbler in full song: some human singers might envy the bird's biology.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQiGRus4ETk

[Richard Tarleton]

That gave me a turn Lento - thought for a moment you'd just heard one! I only saw my first wheatear yesterday!

Hearing the grasshopper warbler and the goldcrest constitute my annual hearing test - in the event of age-related hearing loss they're among the first to go. I'm looking forward to my first gropper in a month or so.

[doversoul1]

I expect most regular posters on this thread know this programme on Radio4 but I’ve just found it. Just over a minute long but rather nice.

5.58am Tweet of the Day

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01s6xyk/clips

[ed.] This is better

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01s6xyk/episodes/player

[Anna]

Sparrowhawk! I have a large Pyracantha about 8' from the house which was severely cut back in November so hang the feeders from the bare (before they green up) branches. Usually it's sparrows, tits, robins, that feed. Suddenly I hear panicked squawking of birds and when I look I see a bird, which I thought was after the feeders like the rooks do, but it was brown. Then it perched on the side of the shrub and flexed its tail, which was a broad wedge striped brown and buff. It then flew round and came back to sit on a branch on the other side.
It stayed for around 5 minutes, and had a bit of a preen before I went to open the back door and it shot off like a bullet, very low and fast.
Never have I been that close to one!
I think it may have been female, possibly juvenile? But it had a real bandit's mask and a black bar on the back of the neck which illustrations I've looked at don't show, chest was horizontal stripes on buff background.
(Camera, of course, had flat battery!)

[Richard Tarleton]

Sounds like sparrowhawk, Anna, unless (thinking of your bandit mask) goshawk? But female goshawk (perfectly possible across much of Wales) is huge, almost buzzard-sized.
Adult at this time of year. Male sparrowhawk smaller, grey with orangey-pink tinge to breast....

[Anna]

Richard, it was the bandit mask that was fascinating - made it look rather sinister. But it was brown and buff colouring, no grey-blue so must be a young female, body size wise minus tail I guess about the same as a magpie, the tail really wide when flexed (like a slice of pizza!) with broad stripes. When it flew off it was very low and fast. Anyway, don't suppose it'll come back but I've put the camera on charge. (A neighbour did see a goshawk take down a pigeon)
It was really quite thrilling to see it so close for so long.

[Richard Tarleton]

Richard, it was the bandit mask that was fascinating - made it look rather sinister. But it was brown and buff colouring, no grey-blue so must be a young female, body size wise minus tail I guess about the same as a magpie, the tail really wide when flexed (like a slice of pizza!) with broad stripes. When it flew off it was very low and fast. Anyway, don't suppose it'll come back but I've put the camera on charge. (A neighbour did see a goshawk take down a pigeon)
It was really quite thrilling to see it so close for so long.

I remember my first close quarters sparrowhawk, not easily forgotten. It's the angry yellow eye.... If your garden shows promise it could well be back - our local sparrowhawk has a regular beat. The small birds soon forget they're just part of the food chain

[hedgehog]

With the 'bandit's mask' this sounds more like a male juvenile - they are brown and buff too. Orange eyes rather than yellow will indicate a juvenile.

[Richard Tarleton]

Hmmm - first calendar year? can't be a juvenile in March....tho won't start its first full moult until May? Orange/yellow eyes a bit relative....from what Anna says of the size, female sounds likelier to me, but without the photograph....white eyebrow and dark ear coverts give the bandid mask impression.....Keep feeding those blue tits Anna!

[Serial_Apologist]

A couple of strange encounters of the avian kind recently.

The first was while walking past a hedgerow fronted by a chicken wire fence, I happened to notice a shuffling movement a short distance ahead of me, and approached, thinking it must be a rat or large mouse. The creature, which turned out to be a redbreast, puffed itself out and shuffled itself under the fence to hide under some leaves underneath the hedge. Not wanting to scare it further I walked away, but from the brief glimpse I surmised it was either a fledgeling, or an injured adult. But would it have the scarlet chest it possessed were it a young bird?

The second occasion was when I was alerted by the familiar chatter of a magpie to look out from my window. What I saw was two magpies on the ground, the second and slightly larger bird ostensibly harassing the other, hopping around from behind and vibrating its wings, while chattering all the while. The other bird seemed unperturbed, and, reminded of rock pigeons acting somewhat similarly at this time of year, I was expecting mating to take place. This did not happen, however; instead the "female" flew up and alighted on the branch of a nearby tree, followed by "her" companion, the both flew off in more-or-less the same direction.

[Richard Tarleton]

A couple of strange encounters of the avian kind recently.

The first was while walking past a hedgerow fronted by a chicken wire fence, I happened to notice a shuffling movement a short distance ahead of me, and approached, thinking it must be a rat or large mouse. The creature, which turned out to be a redbreast, puffed itself out and shuffled itself under the fence to hide under some leaves underneath the hedge. Not wanting to scare it further I walked away, but from the brief glimpse I surmised it was either a fledgeling, or an injured adult. But would it have the scarlet chest it possessed were it a young bird?

again, it can't be a juvenile at this time of year, too early - and no, juveniles have brown speckly breast plumage until nearly two months after fledging. So an adult behaving oddly, S_A.

The second occasion was when I was alerted by the familiar chatter of a magpie to look out from my window. What I saw was two magpies on the ground, the second and slightly larger bird ostensibly harassing the other, hopping around from behind and vibrating its wings, while chattering all the while. The other bird seemed unperturbed, and, reminded of rock pigeons acting somewhat similarly at this time of year, I was expecting mating to take place. This did not happen, however; instead the "female" flew up and alighted on the branch of a nearby tree, followed by "her" companion, the both flew off in more-or-less the same direction.

I haven't read Tim Birkhead's book myself but you'll almost certainly find the behaviour described here - only extracts available in this link so one for the library!

[eighthobstruction]

....a pair of Gooseanders diving in the local beck....

[hedgehog]

again, it can't be a juvenile at this time of year, too early -

richard, earlier this year somewhere up on this thread I reported seeing a juvenile magpie - late January or February!Very surprised but believe me no mistake. I think there are many juvenile birds around that were late fledglings 2014 and survived the winter. Climate change, global warming especially in built up areas can really have this effect. I think people should be prepared to believe odd sights!

[Richard Tarleton]

Crikey! Yes S_A lives in an urban area....

[Anna]

....a pair of Gooseanders diving in the local beck....

I love ducks! Plenty of them in the river here of course but I've mentioned before on another thread the ducks that hang around the bus depot (a short hop from the river) and on Saturday there was a cheer - our ducks are back!! They are a trio of mallards, 2 males and 1 female, constantly together and all three active when the ducklings are hatched in guiding them across the road, taking them out for a stroll, and hiding them behind the shelter whilst they go off somewhere. So, bearing in mind they are long-lived, why a menage-a-trois?

Apart from the sparrowhawk - and Richard it may have been in the garden before, who knows what goes on when I'm not here! - the other sight I omitted to mention was early one morning last week a heron flying across from the river, perhaps to raid someone's pond? (there is one I see almost constantly standing on the same spot on the river)