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

[Serial_Apologist]

That's an interesting blog, Caliban. I see one of those pesky Black Swans I mentioned! Bill Oddie once commented on the surprising variety of birds that can be seen in central London.

When I first moved here 12 years ago, I read an article about the return of woodpeckers to London, saying that a quarter century ago one would have to go 25 miles out to come across any. Both varieties are now regular visitors and nesters in this and neighbouring gardens, just 6 miles from Trafalgar Square "as the crow flies", and much less shy about sharing the garden space even when it is peopled.

I always enjoy seeing Ring-necked Parakeets when I'm around the London and Home Counties. I don't think I'd want the raucous things visiting my garden regularly though.

One has to admire their toughness, though, seeing that they are really built for tropical conditions.

[Nick Armstrong]

I see one of those pesky Black Swans I mentioned!

Every time I go out now, I look for a / the Black Swan on the Round Pond or the Serpentine - I've yet to see the beggar!

Perhaps I will simply settle for this variety, much in the news today:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-york-north-yorkshire-41582994

[vinteuil]

Every time I go out now, I look for a / the Black Swan on the Round Pond or the Serpentine - I've yet to see the beggar!

... I thought it was the Lake in St James's Park that was famous for black swans -

http://www.rspb.org.uk/community/chat/f/2542/p/110617/841444.aspx#841444

.

https://www.royalparks.org.uk/media-centre/news-archive/1444-swanning-around-in-st-james-s-park

[ardcarp]

There's a pair of ordinary mute swans on our favourite Cornish creek. They have been dubbed Bobby and Knobby by our family. They glide up to boats to ask for food and are very tame, taking the tit-bits gracefully. In previous years they have reared cygnets, and we have witnessed broods of four, five and six We have a lovely i-phone video of (presumably Knobby) with three of them on her back, reaching up for bread and the cygnets sliding into the water. However they appear not to have had any babes for the past two years. Is it common for a pair to stop producing offspring as age sets in? I suppose it's possible that some early predator activity robbed them of their brood, but they can be very fierce and protective parents, so I rather suspect age-related infertility. Does anyone know about this?

[Lat-Literal]

I am currently hearing an owl outside and it is rather wonderful. The perfect antidote to the vehicles which now blight this road of just fifteen properties. I currently have a stick which may be used with invention. Anyhow, Ray Mears - one of the few tolerable human voices in the media; the best is that of Monty Don - claimed in a programme that I watched yesterday that the lesser spotted woodpecker is, oddly, the most common woodpecker in Britain. The RSPB disagrees. Who is right - and isn't the "spotted" really about markings?

[Vox Humana]

That's certainly wrong. He must have meant the Great Spotted Woodpecker. The populations of both that and Green Woodpecker are increasing. The Lesser Spotted Woodpecker is declining, has been since at least 1980, and is now very scarce. I have always taken the "spotted" to refer to the white marking on these two woodpeckers. I can't think what else they would refer to.

[Bryn]

That's certainly wrong. He must have meant the Great Spotted Woodpecker. The populations of both that and Green Woodpecker are increasing. The Lesser Spotted Woodpecker is declining, has been since at least 1980, and is now very scarce. I have always taken the "spotted" to refer to the white marking on these two woodpeckers. I can't think what else they would refer to.

From a distance, both appear spotted, due to the baring on their wings and, in the case of the Lesser, back.

[Richard Tarleton]

Indeed, Ray Mears talking through his hat if that's what he said

[Bryn]

I am currently hearing an owl outside and it is rather wonderful. The perfect antidote to the vehicles which now blight this road of just fifteen properties. I currently have a stick which may be used with invention. Anyhow, Ray Mears - one of the few tolerable human voices in the media; the best is that of Monty Don - claimed in a programme that I watched yesterday that the lesser spotted woodpecker is, oddly, the most common woodpecker in Britain. The RSPB disagrees. Who is right - and isn't the "spotted" really about markings?

Can tell us on which programme the spurious claim was made by Mr. Mears? I seems so bizarre as to suggest a slip of the tongue.

[gurnemanz]

On Autumnwatch the other night there were pictures of seven bee-eaters currently resident in UK. I'm no birdwatcher but loved seeing these attractive colourful creatures roaming free in Nottinghamshire.

[Lat-Literal]

Can tell us on which programme the spurious claim was made by Mr. Mears? I seems so bizarre as to suggest a slip of the tongue.

Perhaps I misheard it then?

It was on "Ray Mears' Wild Britain" - Travel Channel - Series 2 (Possibly Episode 2 - Scottish Moorland - although the part I saw didn't look like Scotland)

(Bryn - I think one of your comments on woodpeckers has ended up on Erno's thread)

[Stanfordian]

I don't think I've ever seen as many birds flying overhead, formation after formation, in a WWS direction towards the Ribble Estuary.

[Serial_Apologist]

On Autumnwatch the other night there were pictures of seven bee-eaters currently resident in UK. I'm no birdwatcher but loved seeing these attractive colourful creatures roaming free in Nottinghamshire.

Noting some resemblance I was wondering, are bee-eaters members of the tit family? This is the first I've heard of them.

Loved the Bee Eater Parking sign, btw! On The Wright Stuff programme a regular member of the audience who gives loud voice to his right-wing opinions has been designated "the wasp chewer"!

[Richard Tarleton]

Noting some resemblance I was wondering, are bee-eaters members of the tit family? This is the first I've heard of them.

Not even close - they come below kingfishers and above rollers and woodpeckers in the current order of things. No resemblance to tits - much more exotic looking, long curved beaks for one thing. Colonial nesters in holes in sandy cliffs (cf sand martins), they swoop about calling with a liquid "pruut pruut" sound - once you know the sound you hear them before you see them. I was in the Boquer Valley in Mallorca in 1982 on my first birding trip to the Mediterranean when another birder called "Bee-eaters" as a flock flew over calling at height (this is how you learn ). I've seen lots of colonies since. On a trip to Crete in the late 80s I saw a row of them on a wire, one was all green - a blue-cheeked bee-eater, a European rarity at the western edge of its range. Several more species in Africa and across Asia...

I haven't seen them in the UK, but would not want to add to the stress by joining a horde of twitchers to do so - another matter to find one by accident.

[doversoul1]

They look very pretty indeed but I hope they won’t come down to this corner of Kent. We’ve got enough problems with Green Woodpeckers feasting on the bees all winter.