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

[ardcarp]

"Two for joy".

[oddoneout]

Saw a couple of Magpies making out on the path on my walk. The birds seem more vocal today, possibly due to the fine weather.

There is a pair of magpies very much in evidence this past week or so, and I wonder if they will breed this year. There used to be two pairs that raised young when I moved here 6 years ago, but since the felling of 3 large conifers that they used to make their homes in, they've not been much seen except in passing. I'm not in the anti-magpie camp, and took a naughty delight when talking to one such hater last year who was holding forth about their detrimental effect on small bird numbers in saying that since the magpies left the numbers of such small birds nesting in my garden and neighbouring ones had noticeably declined, and I thought it had something to do with the magpies no longer chasing cats away. Much spluttering. Naughty because although I think the cat deterrent effect was useful the drop in numbers was probably due mainly to clearance of 2 previously overgrown plots which removed nesting sites, shelter and food.
A pair of collared doves has been around intermittently and I'm hoping they might settle. There used to be several pairs but they disappeared quite suddenly a couple of years ago. I don't think the increase in the woodpigeon population helped - not able to muscle in on the food sources and easily driven away by the great fat pests' thumping around trees, roofs and fences.

[jayne lee wilson]

Oh, please don't call the Ring Doves pests. I love the way they call through the night (very comforting to an insomniac, like a Cat's purr), and their colourful, genial presence in the trees around the house and feeding on the ground. Very numerous now, more come in from the big winter flocks out in the fields and woods, much warier than my local residents. Very beautiful birds too, and a few become very tame, almost feeding from the hand for many years. They live and die here, and mate for life. It can be very sad to find one recently passed. It feels like the loss of a wild pet.

I hardly see a Collared Dove here anymore, remarkable considering the flocks of 20 or 30, and the resident pairs that were so commonplace a few decades ago.

Very pleased to have a male Blackcap visiting regularly now, especially since my woodland walks are off-limits, I hope temporarily, after some non-Covidian ill health. I do miss the Buzzards and Horses though. All those Fieldfares! And the sheer remoteness two miles out. I tried a short distance today, but soon turned back...

[HighlandDougie]

Oh, please don't call the Ring Doves pests. I love the way they call through the night (very comforting to an insomniac, like a Cat's purr), and their colourful, genial presence in the trees around the house and feeding on the ground. Very numerous now, more come in from the big winter flocks out in the fields and woods, much warier than my local residents. Very beautiful birds too, and a few become very tame, almost feeding from the hand for many years. They live and die here, and mate for life. It can be very sad to find one recently passed. It feels like the loss of a wild pet.

I hardly see a Collared Dove here anymore, remarkable considering the flocks of 20 or 30, and the resident pairs that were so commonplace a few decades ago.

Very pleased to have a male Blackcap visiting regularly now, especially since my woodland walks are off-limits, I hope temporarily, after some non-Covidian ill health. I do miss the Buzzards and Horses though. All those Fieldfares! And the sheer remoteness two miles out. I tried a short distance today, but soon turned back...

Jayne

Really sorry to read that you have, as it were, been in the wars but equally glad to read that you have been being cheered by one of my favourite birds. They (blackcaps) are to be found all year round in my garden in France so, confined as I have been in Scotland since mid-September, I greatly miss them. I was, though, much cheered a couple of days ago by a dipper singing happily away, perched on a stone in the river which runs near my house. And, as ever, by the two red squirrels in the garden.

[Maclintick]

"Two for joy".

Rather ashamed to admit I've never dropped the superstitious ritual of saluting lone magpies...should know better at my age, I suppose...

[oddoneout]

Rather ashamed to admit I've never dropped the superstitious ritual of saluting lone magpies...should know better at my age, I suppose...

Nothing to be ashamed of in my view. We all have little quirks and rituals, most of which would probably make no sense to an outsider. Unless they start to dominate life or dictate actions they are likely pretty harmless. Your acknowledgement of the magpie is a link to an older way of life - you are living history, a valuable resource!
I sometimes think that the modern obsession with being permanently 'connected' borders on superstition - fomo(fear of missing out) if not live on social media 24/7 isn't rational.

[cloughie]

Grey wagtail revisiting garden today.

[johncorrigan]

Skylarks back up there this morning.

[ardcarp]

That's a good sign. Quite early in the year?

[Serial_Apologist]

Skylarks back up there this morning.

Heard my first song thrush singing this morning at 6 am. Am wondering what can have happened to our tropical immigrants the green parakeets, not having heard one squawk since the beginning of the cold spell last week. Tough little blighters though they are, there must be limits to the cold they can withstand, I would have thought. I'm trying to imagine the damage which must have been perpetrated on the wildlife specific to the southern US, geographically classified as sub-tropical.

[johncorrigan]

That's a good sign. Quite early in the year?

Certainly earlier than last year, ardcarp. This morning I actually managed to see two of them flying in the sky, singing away - cheered the soul. Also saw a flock of more than a hundred thrushes and fieldfares and redwings in the trees round the garden this morning. Never seen so many in one go.

[gradus]

I was buzzed by a buzzard whilst gardening - at least he swooped to about 30 feet above my head constantly mewing.

[Globaltruth]

I was buzzed by a buzzard whilst gardening - at least he swooped to about 30 feet above my head constantly mewing.

Does anyone know why buzzards mew when they are at height? The noise carries a very long way - I wonder if it is a deterrent? They're not the flashiest hawk but still a personal fave. Sadly they regularly get illegally killed round here by the pheasant breeders.

At the other end of the scale - saw a goldcrest a few days ago, first one for a decade. Close up too, a subtle beauty.

[jayne lee wilson]

Does anyone know why buzzards mew when they are at height? The noise carries a very long way - I wonder if it is a deterrent? They're not the flashiest hawk but still a personal fave. Sadly they regularly get illegally killed round here by the pheasant breeders.

At the other end of the scale - saw a goldcrest a few days ago, first one for a decade. Close up too, a subtle beauty.

They mate for life, so even if you don't see it, the partner is probably close by and the call is to locate and communicate. Possibly a territorial marker to other Buzzards too, but they call often, even when well away from the potential nest-sites.

Treatment of Birds of Prey by various hunts is a scandal (especially Bowland with the Hen Harriers), on which I've repeatedly petitioned and written to the MP....

[Padraig]

Not pleasant. This morning I turned up a quiet residential street on my walk, and lying dead in the middle of the road was a blackbird. I pushed it in to the kerbside, noticing that it was a female. My eye caught another black shape at the same kerb about 20 feet away - another blackbird, this one a male. They were in place when I returned that way an hour later. Over time I have seen the odd dead garden bird but never before have I seen two together.

More pleasant. I'm watching now to see if my blackbirds show up for their daily dip - 'the cleanest blackbirds in Ireland'.