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

[jayne lee wilson]

Yes, that's a Muscovy Duck, but of the domestic/farmyard variety, i.e. well hybridised with Mallards and hybrid Mallards.

Yep.....confirmed....

[oddoneout]

Yes, that's a Muscovy Duck, but of the domestic/farmyard variety, i.e. well hybridised with Mallards and hybrid Mallards.

Rather sad that it's lost its red face patches along the way. There is something called a Mulard which is a muscovy cross and seems to come in a wide range of variations on the general black/white feathers, bill colour, facepatches or not.

[Vox Humana]

Rather sad that it's lost its red face patches along the way.

Actually, the wild Muscovy Ducks in South America have blackish facial skin.

https://www.inaturalist.org/guide_taxa/983640

[gradus]

Buzzards out in force today seemingly floating/gliding with no discernible effort for minutes on end.

[LMcD]

I've been watching a flock of (probably frustrated) house martins as they land repeatedly on a dark patch of ground in the belief or hope that it's mud. The lack of rainfall - past and forecast - in this part of the world makes it very likely that mud will continue to be in short supply, to put it mildly.

[Serial_Apologist]

Given the rarity of song thrushes these days, either seeing or hearing them, yesterday I was delighted out of all proportion to come within a few feet of one as it hopped beside my cycle path on the return journey from Sainsbury's.

[jayne lee wilson]

I've been watching a flock of (probably frustrated) house martins as they land repeatedly on a dark patch of ground in the belief or hope that it's mud. The lack of rainfall - past and forecast - in this part of the world makes it very likely that mud will continue to be in short supply, to put it mildly.

They are doing well in a nearby farm .. and the Swallows...wonderful as they zip past you so close after insects...

[Sir Velo]

Cuckoo heard in the woods here on the Somerset/Wilts border some ten miles south east of Bath for the first time in many a long year. Very vocal for a couple of weeks but seems to have got his calendar confused as his tune has definitely changed; indeed he may even think we're in July.

[Serial_Apologist]

I've been watching a flock of (probably frustrated) house martins as they land repeatedly on a dark patch of ground in the belief or hope that it's mud. The lack of rainfall - past and forecast - in this part of the world makes it very likely that mud will continue to be in short supply, to put it mildly.

I sometimes wonder whether one should deliberately water such bare patches of ground when it's dry, to give house martins in need of wet mud for home construction purposes a helping hand, or whether nature should be left to its own devices, as is often thought best.

[DracoM]

Heard curlews - first time for a long while.

[Serial_Apologist]

Heard curlews - first time for a long while.

Is a peewit somebody who jokes about being caught short on a long ramble in the countryside?

[LezLee]

Heard curlews - first time for a long while.

Now the motorways are so quiet, I can hear the curlews and oystercatchers in Skinflats (near Grangemouth) in the evenings. Lovely.

[EnemyoftheStoat]

Today we had the first (recorded) visit of a goldfinch to our garden! What a beautiful bird.

[oddoneout]

Today we had the first (recorded) visit of a goldfinch to our garden! What a beautiful bird.

Aren't they just - and the song is a delight as well, it's easy to understand their historical popularity as cage birds.

[LMcD]

Aren't they just - and the song is a delight as well, it's easy to understand their historical popularity as cage birds.

... and the collective noun for goldfinches is of course ....