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

[Lat-Literal]

The hill immediately behind my Scottish house (Drummond Hill) is where the-then Marquis of Breadalbane re-introduced capercaillies brought from Sweden in 1837. I used to go running up and on the hill and one particular area of original woodland was where they were often to be heard (among Scots pine and other native species, rather than the Norway Spruce otherwise blanketing it) and, if fortunate, to be seen. I suspect, though, that the hill's little colony, which had survived much, is now extinct.

What a pity.

I still like them.

[Vox Humana]

Fascinating, Vox, I hadn't heard of this. There doesn't seem to be much about it on the net, but a bit here

http://cornishringing.blogspot.co.uk/2015/06/wandering-red-kite.html

http://www.swopticsphoto.com/2011/06/red-kite-influx-in-west-cornwall.html

They're on my garden list - a couple of sightings overhead, several more within a mile or so, but well established in the county.

Thanks, Richard. So not just from the Chilterns then! There's a bit of information on this year's influx here: http://www.cornwall-birding.co.uk/ta...e-in-cornwall/

[Bryn]

https://www.forestry.gov.uk/forestry/infd-86jk4k

Gives information on the most recent ("final") stage of the re-introduction project.

[Anastasius]

Peregrine falcon in a stoop into our paddock the other evening. Fast? You better believe it !

[Richard Tarleton]

Was it successful? Did a pigeon evaporate in a puff of feathers?

[vinteuil]

.

... last weekend on the Isle of Purbeck. Many guillemots, what I thought were cormorants but our more bird-knowledgeable host assured me were shags, some razorbills, and - joy of joys - a couple of puffins.

[Richard Tarleton]

...one useful distinction being that shags leap clear of the water when diving, whereas cormorants just sink. Many of the helpful distinctions in the bird book aren't much use unless you see the two together - e.g. shag smaller, faster wingbeats

I used to be the local go-to person for stranded birds on my patch in N Ireland. After a severe storm one day I received a phone call from a farmer to say a strange bird had blown into his barn. I asked him to describe it. He said, in broadest Co. Down, that it was "about the size of a small turkey, with webbed feet". It turned out to be a shag. About a quarter of a mile inland, so quite severely off-course (on fresh water, it's always a cormorant ).

The famous nonsense rhyme treats them as a single species - The common cormorant or shag......

[oddoneout]

A great deal of activity at the bottom of my garden yesterday so I decided to sit awhile and try and find out what was there. Pleased to find that robins and wrens have successfully bred and were teaching youngsters the ropes, but for a while I was puzzled by the flittings of some very small birds. Then one stayed still long enough for me to identify it as a goldcrest, and it became apparent that the very high pitched pipings I'd heard were them rather than the juvenile wrens. I do see them around particularly in spring when I think they find the flowering conifers of interest, but had never seen a family group before.

[vinteuil]

..

The famous nonsense rhyme treats them as a single species - The common cormorant or shag......

... which I recited from memory to the rest of the party as we ate our buns, reclining on the cliff top admiring the bird-life around -


The common cormorant (or shag)
Lays eggs inside a paper bag,
The reason you will see no doubt,
It is to keep the lightning out.
But what these unobservant birds
Have not noticed is that herds
Of wandering bears may come with buns
And steal the bags to hold the crumbs.

Christopher Isherwood [1904 - 1986]

[Richard Tarleton]

I had absolutely no idea it was by C Isherwood

[ardcarp]

Sitting on board, sipping a Pernod towards evening, I became aware of a noise. Despite being in a sheltered creek, the water suddenly became a mini-maelstrom of tiny fish jumping and splashing. This went on for some time, and black-headed gulls (mainly), their heads very black at this time of year, swooped and scooped what they could.

A friend on a nearby boat whipped out his fishing rod and hauled in a few small sea-bass. He threw them back of course. (You are not allowed to keep bass below a certain size, and this river is a well-known and protected bass-nursery.) So for about twenty minutes there was a food-chain in operation. Teenage bass were clearly having a feeding frenzy on small-fry (sand eels, whitebait possibly) which were then preyed on by gulls. I have to say that the black-headed gulls didn't seem especially expert fishers. There seemed to be more swooping and flapping than full beaks.

[gradus]

Buzzards quite low over the house, albeit briefly, in the last few days.

[Lat-Literal]

.

... last weekend on the Isle of Purbeck. Many guillemots, what I thought were cormorants but our more bird-knowledgeable host assured me were shags, some razorbills, and - joy of joys - a couple of puffins.

Lovely.

[Vox Humana]

...one useful distinction being that shags leap clear of the water when diving, whereas cormorants just sink.

Well... It's a fairly reliable distinction, although I have to say that I have seen Cormorants jump-dive too on occasion. I find that the best distinction (although it mostly needs the help of binoculars or a telescope) is that the Shag has a definite angle where the forehead meets the bill, whereas on the Cormorant the two meet in a much smoother slope.

Shag

Cormorant

[Quarky]

A flock of swallows - at least 20 - have been sitting on my telephone lines for the past two days.

perhaps they are enjoying the good vibes along the wires!