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

[Richard Tarleton]

Could also be a wren, they have an amazingly loud voice and they like holly bushes. 'My' wren likes to sing from on top of the cotoneaster bush, waking me up at 5am!

Ending with distinctive trill, or buzz....robin more of a wistful thread of song at this time of year

[cloughie]

What looked like a young kestrel on our fence yesterday!

[Vox Humana]

Was standing outside the kitchen door, watching our regular Long-tailed Tit flock in our apple tree, which had been joined by a Blue Tit, a Great Tit and a couple of Chiffchaffs. They suddenly scatter as a Sparrowhawk zips round the side of the house, across the front of the tree and disappears through the neighbours' garden. I have to say it wasn't trying very hard.

Did I mention that I had a new garden 'tick' the other day? A female Pheasant was a huge surprise since our garden is really quite a tiny suburban one and we don't directly border any suitable habitat. I do hear them sometimes in the wood behind the houses across the road. I reckon it must have been flushed from one of their gardens.

[ardcarp]

A little while ago (eg#1696) oystercatchers were being discussed. I saw what was (for me) unusual behaviour last week We've probably all seen seagulls in parks and on lawns 'paddling' in order to coax worms to the surface. At first light and low tide a few days ago I saw a lone oystercatcher at the water's edge standing on one leg, while the other leg pumped up and down. Not quite 'paddling' but was this to produce the same effect? Has this been noticed before?

[Richard Tarleton]

I can't find any reference to this behaviour in oystercatchers. This detailed comparitive study of feeding strategies in oystercatchers and grey plovers doesn't mention it (skip past the statistics - me neither - to the discussion from pp 179 onwards).So - no idea - see if you notice it again!

[ardcarp]

Thanks Richard, I will. There needs to be a concurrence of me needing an early morning pee, a low tide and an obliging oystercatcher!
Went for a walk beside our local stream this afternoon and Mrs A and I saw a lovely dipper doing its stuff...quite unpeturbed by us...and a kingfisher (the usual fleeting glimpse). Made our day. There's also a report of a female osprey on the River Axe which has been there for nearly 2 weeks obviously preparing for its southward journey. Haven't seen it yet. Must go and have a look.

[ardcarp]

Osprey still there. Just seen it. Seems to prefer fishing up the estuary rather than out at sea. If anyone is near enough to visit, it can be viwed from any of the hides on Seaton Marshes, an area of wetlands owned by East Devon Council.

[Richard Tarleton]

Excellent. Still waiting for one on my local stretch of the Cleddau (usually at least one annually, a few pass through the extensive river system).

[un barbu]

One of the glories of my new flat is that it looks out onto a well-established woodland, the policies of the local Big House (now museum). So now, as dusk creeps up, I can murmur, "Light thickens and the crow makes wing to the rooky wood.' Looking forward to long walks and birding there this autumn.

[ardcarp]

Sounds excellent!
Always amused by 'un poilu' which means so much more than 'hairy man'. (This Forum is so wonderful for digressions.)

[AmpH]

One of the pleasures of birding at this time of the year at southern harbours is the likelihood of being able to connect with migrant Ospreys. Observations at Langstone and Chichester Harbours these last two weekends included 6 no prolonged Osprey sightings, including 2 instances of Ospreys successfully catching fish - surely one of the most rewarding sights in nature, watching one of these magnificent birds hovering before plunging into the water and then manipulating their wings to generate uplift from the water and then carrying the fish ' torpedo - like ' away to a nearby perch.

I have been re-reading Roy Dennis' excellent ' A Life of Ospreys ' recently, together with Alan Poole's ' Ospreys : A Natural and Unnatural History ' which is an excellent scientific study and widely regarded as something of an Osprey bible.

[un barbu]

Just after lunch today as I sat reading Richard Holloway's memoir, 'Leaving Alexandria,' I heard what I thought was a sound of something coming through the letter-box. Looking up I saw a wee blue tit perched on the curtain rod. It must have come in through one of the many windows open on this fine autumn day. I thought it might panic but it perched on my book and let me take it gently to a window for release. Insert your own metaphor for human life here, preferably involving mead-halls.

[Pulcinella]

Two swans have (re?)appeared on our estate lakes.
Hope they have better luck with their offspring next year than this (six, mysteriously vanished one day: a fox?).
But where will they have been over-summering?

[ardcarp]

Taken 26th August this year. The two adults knocked on the boat to be fed. Then they 'stood back' allowing their six (now rather large) offspring to take the lion's share. These two have been on this particular estuary in Cornwall for many years (see a previous post) but didn't manage to raise a brood last year. Good to see them successful again. They're named Bobby and Nobby by one of our g-kids, if that's not TMI.

[Bryn]

Taken 26th August this year. The two adults knocked on the boat to be fed. Then they 'stood back' allowing their six (now rather large) offspring to take the lion's share. These two have been on this particular estuary in Cornwall for many years (see a previous post) but didn't manage to raise a brood last year. Good to see them successful again. They're named Bobby and Nobby by one of our g-kids, if that's not TMI.

Driving through Datchet a couple or so years ago, I encountered a transitional cygnet wandering about in the road which runs alongside the Thames. I stopped the vehicle and tried to shepherd it back to the lawn between the Thames and the road, only to be confronted by an adult swan with the opposite intention. A quick phone call to the Windsor Swan rescue team advised that I was wasting my time. The adult bird would be a parent driving its progeny to independence. It might just have to learn the hard way that metalled roads are dangerous.