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

[Bryn]

Oh goody. The garden is currently being raided by a posse of Aegithalos caudatus, the so-called Long-tailed tit (though they are not actually of the Parus tit family). Such a joy to watch, an so fleeting their visits. Now a couple of Coal tits have turned up to pick and the leaf buds on various shrubs.

[Dave2002]

Our garden seems devoid of most of the birds from the last few years, and still no goldfinches despite my putting out a feeder with their apparently preferred food. We do have jackdaws though, which I suspect have occupied one of the nearby trees, and they do come down to try to extract food from our feeders. There have been quite a few of those this morning. I'm convinced they watch us. In previous years we did have most kinds of tit - including long tailed ones. I have seen one or two parakeets but not frequently.

A week or so back by the sea in Scotland we saw kittiwakes, eider ducks and many other seabirds, and perhaps a pair of ospreys nesting in a tree, as well as buzzards and kites.

[ardcarp]

Have you or a close neighbour got a cat? Alternatively, does your neighbour offer superior bird-food!?

[Dave2002]

Have you or a close neighbour got a cat? Alternatively, does your neighbour offer superior bird-food!?

Mmmm...

One neighbour had two cats, but one died. The other one is old and has been here for years. The other neighbours do have a cat, which is somewhat younger, and has only been around for a year or two, so maybe that is what's causing the shunning of our bird food.

We ourselves try to keep a dog and cat free zone. There are squirrels - which we also try to deter.

One factor might be the moving of a shed, as some birds used to take refuge in the hedge behind it, and then pop out to feed. Small birds used to be seen on a bush queuing up to get on the bird feeders, which they would visit quickly and then return to the bushes. However, that doesn't explain the large scale desertion of our garden by visiting small birds. Some small birds would hide in larger trees, and then drop down quickly to the suspended feeders in the more exposed lawn position, and some even got brave enough to be able to fly between the feeders.

Perhaps the younger cat has been up in the trees and deterred birds from nesting there.

One dose of bird food last year was sprayed with Squirrel Stop - which is supposed to deter squirrels, but not birds, but I don't think that's been a problem. As a rule we don't go out of our way to encourage ground feeders (nothing against them, just don't), but when I have put out stale bread or other odd scraps on the ground they have gone within hours, so some birds are not averse, and will even risk the ground and the cats - which I've suggested are not really such a big and persistent problem.

I don't think my neighbours "do" birds, so don't offer a gourmet menu.

[Richard Tarleton]

Recently back from a week in Suffolk during which I visited Minsmere every day (the middle week of Springwatch ). Although we did go during the day, Mrs T not being an early riser, I also went for 2-3 hours each day at first light, ensuring superb views of everything with only a few other serious people about. Minsmere's "big four" have always been marsh harrier, bittern, avocet and bearded tit, but these have been joined in recent years by the stone curlew which, through skilful management by the RSPB, is becoming established on the surrounding sandy heaths. And as a bonus rarity, we had marvellous views of a red-necked phalarope.

No sightings of Springwatch's "big three", though I talked to someone who had seen Micaela Strachan out running . I did meet a member of the "Springwatch Unsprung" [sic] team out early one morning. He remarked what a fabulous place for wildlife it was, I told him I'd been coming annually since 1972, he asked me what had changed....I listed a few obvious things, and then said "of course in those days we had coypu". He looked completely blank and said "what's a coypu?", which surprised me. Coypu were finally eradicated from East Anglian reedbeds in the 1980s. Coypu were very much a part of Minsmere life (I worked there for a winter), there was even a recipe for coypu curry pinned to the wall of the volunteers' kitchen.

The BBC presence on the ground was remarkably discreet - just a few cables here and there, some microphones, fixed cameras on the sticklebacks which you could apparently watch all day on the red button - the production village being well tucked away in trees. The wooden chalet from which they present the programme has temporary planning permission, I believe.

My hairdresser who watches both Springwatch and Top Gear remarked how similar the presentation styles of both programmes had become - he referred to a scene in which Chris Packham was talking to us in front of a crowd of other people, Clarkson-style. I've remarked before on the convergent evolution apparent in the presentation of BBC programmes.

[Serial_Apologist]

So, the Redbreast has been voted our national bird.

[vinteuil]

So, the Redbreast has been voted our national bird.

... pedants always on hand to point out how innarestin' it is that the bird is called a 'red' breast, when the colour is clearly 'orange' - the answer being that it was so named by our ancestors before the word 'orange' was available in the English language - 'red' was the best they could do...

Nice birds, but a rather boringly predictable choice.

Me, I think I wd've gone for a blue tit...

[Sir Velo]

I am suspicious that in our garden the birds are watching us most of the time. Some are very clearly aware of our presence when we move, but even if we are not absolutely in their line of sight, and trying to remain unobserved, their behaviour does seem to indicate that they know we're around.

Have you been reading Daphne du Maurier again?

[Padraig]

[QUOTE=vinteuil;491467Me, I think I wd've gone for a blue tit...[/QUOTE]

A Charm of Goldfinches

The pair of us were sitting alone in the empty public house -
The door wide open to the city street - on a summer's morning,
Drinking two quiet pints, myself and Justin.
Justin ventured a single rhetorical question:
'Did you ever set eyes on a charm of goldfinches?'
High up in the corner of the ceiling
Hung a cage with a goldfinch:
A scarlet-faced bird with a yellow bar on its wing feather
And a black-and-white chequered rump and tail.
Without uttering, we ordered two more pints
And the barman skedaddled back out again into the lounge.
Justin put two fingers to his lips and winked at me,
Got to his feet and strode over to the corner,
Stood under the cage and unlatched it.
The goldfinch on its perch peered down
Into Justin's eager, kindly, glittering eyes
And Justin looked back down at me -
And space stationa of silence seemed to orbit us,
Which amounted in actuality to maybe thirty seconds
And without a tinkle the goldfinch swooped out of the cage
And flew around the bar room,
Diving, circling, darting, weaving, whirling, veering, hopping,
Before flying straight out into the street
Never to be seen again - by us.
Justin in his blacker-than-coal sleek black beard
Under his sleek, thick mane of blacker-than-coal hair
Smiled the most extravagantly other-worldly smile
I had ever seen him smile
And we both folded our arms
Across our breasts
And swallowed, as deeply from enlightenment
As from our pint glasses.
Out on the street he rubbed his hands together with gratification.
An Lasair Choille, Mac Duarcáin - cried Justin - Flame of the Woods,
Son of the Melancholy Man, Thistle Seed Glutton!
We bid farewell to one another
And until death did us part
Neither if us would ever speak of that summer's morning again.

Paul Durcan The Days of Surprise Harvill Secker 2015

[vinteuil]

At Allaran, the otters' rock, between the breakers'
Uninterrupted rummaging and - from the duach -
Larksong, I mistake your voice for your mother's voice
Deciphering otter prints long before you were born

As though you were conceived in a hayfield so small
Stone walls surrounded a single stook, and the snow
Bunting's putative tinkle from beyond the ridge
Sounded even closer than the spindrift's whispering.

Michael Longley 'Snow Bunting'

[Dave2002]

Have you been reading Daphne du Maurier again?

But our birds - often jackdaws - fly away. We haven't yet got any fears of an attack - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Birds_%28story%29 No seagulls round here.

[Richard Tarleton]

So, the Redbreast has been voted our national bird.

Today's TMS (Times Diary) reminds us of the St Custard's nature walk in Down with Skool! [Geoffrey Willans/Ronald Searle], in which, seeing a little robin, the teacher tells his class: "There is no need to burst into tears, Fotherington-Tomas, swete tho he be. Nor to buzz a brick at it, Molesworth 2".

[Nick Armstrong]

I caught some of the Springwatch programmes, including the interesting (I thought) film about the dawn chorus in London. It identified for me at last that the birds singing ALL NIGHT in the trees in the square where I live are the robins. We've always had a number. And I've always noticed that whatever time one goes to bed, there is always birdsong in the trees, not just at dawn, but at 1, 2, 3 etc in the morning. And it was concerning to hear that this behaviour may be induced by artificial light pollution, and that the 24/7 robins are suffering from their sleep-deprived lives, in terms of reproduction, feeding etc.

[Lento]

I caught some of the Springwatch programmes, including the interesting (I thought) film about the dawn chorus in London. It identified for me at last that the birds singing ALL NIGHT in the trees in the square where I live are the robins. We've always had a number. And I've always noticed that whatever time one goes to bed, there is always birdsong in the trees, not just at dawn, but at 1, 2, 3 etc in the morning. And it was concerning to hear that this behaviour may be induced by artificial light pollution, and that the 24/7 robins are suffering from their sleep-deprived lives, in terms of reproduction, feeding etc.

The summary regarding what local councils could do about it was particularly good, I thought.

[Tevot]

Many years ago I used to watch Polly James and Nerys Hughes...

I was waiting for lift off. But they seemed terribly earthbound.