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

[Serial_Apologist]

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.

That's weird!

[DracoM]

Blackbird - v.angry I was pruning 'his' ivy.

[cloughie]

Blackbird - v.angry I was pruning 'his' ivy.

You’ve blown its cover!

[vinteuil]

.

... walking the tow-path of the Grand Union Canal down from Southall to Brentford and the Thames yesterday - have never seen quite so many coots. And so aggressive ! Various coots chasing rivals at least a hundred yards along the canal, angry quacks/hoots, flapping of wings. And not giving up, relentlessly chasing a 'rival' again and again and again. Is it territorial, or chasing rivals away from a (potential) partner?

The swans, moorhens, and mallards (gay and straight pairs) were peace personified in comparison...

.

[DracoM]

<<You’ve blown its cover! >>

[jayne lee wilson]

First time on the garden bench this year, sunshine, lovely to the hear the gentle air full of twittering and calling, from Tawny Owl to Parakeet, Black-Headed Gulls to Long-Tailed Tits....Goldfinches and Great Tits with their endless melodies. Smooth Classics without any need for a presenter.

Then, suddenly - a Peacock Butterfly! Alighted on my hand (which was on The Cat's back). We both stared at it wonderingly... then it was off, back into the sky against the sun, and gone. One of the earliest I've ever had. Perhaps it had hibernated in the garage, or a curtain-top somewhere with the ladybirds, who are also stirring now......

Must go and re-site one of the suet blocks now. Disappearing every morning, I suspect the Jackdaws up to their old Spring Tricks again. Nestling it among the wild rose thorns would be best, but I'll need the garden gauntlets...
I never made a better bird-gardening purchase than those green RSPB hooks...

[cloughie]

First time on the garden bench this year, sunshine, lovely to the hear the gentle air full of twittering and calling, from Tawny Owl to Parakeet, Black-Headed Gulls to Long-Tailed Tits....Goldfinches and Great Tits with their endless melodies. Smooth Classics without any need for a presenter.

Then, suddenly - a Peacock Butterfly! Alighted on my hand (which was on The Cat's back). We both stared at it wonderingly... then it was off, back into the sky against the sun, and gone. One of the earliest I've ever had. Perhaps it had hibernated in the garage...

Come on Jayne with that scenario there must be a poem!

[Serial_Apologist]

Come on Jayne with that scenario there must be a poem!

Very difficult to find a word that rhymes with Messiaen, though!

[vinteuil]

Very difficult to find a word that rhymes with Messiaen, though!

... vol-au-vent ?

.

[cloughie]

Very difficult to find a word that rhymes with Messiaen, though!

What about hessian?

Or as the subject is birds Bessie Hen!

Probably even more difficult to put the poem to his music!

[oddoneout]

First time on the garden bench this year, sunshine, lovely to the hear the gentle air full of twittering and calling, from Tawny Owl to Parakeet, Black-Headed Gulls to Long-Tailed Tits....Goldfinches and Great Tits with their endless melodies. Smooth Classics without any need for a presenter.

Then, suddenly - a Peacock Butterfly! Alighted on my hand (which was on The Cat's back). We both stared at it wonderingly... then it was off, back into the sky against the sun, and gone. One of the earliest I've ever had. Perhaps it had hibernated in the garage, or a curtain-top somewhere with the ladybirds, who are also stirring now......

Must go and re-site one of the suet blocks now. Disappearing every morning, I suspect the Jackdaws up to their old Spring Tricks again. Nestling it among the wild rose thorns would be best, but I'll need the garden gauntlets...
I never made a better bird-gardening purchase than those green RSPB hooks...

That reminds me of the time about 3 years ago when my neighbour cut up some fat blocks and put them on his open bird table. Magpies came down and carried them off. Working in a border some months later I found out what had happened to some of them - they had been buried... I did wonder how many were retrieved by the magpies, how many were eaten by other creatures(there were a lot of rats), and how many stayed buried - and decomposing.

[LezLee]

It's a bright sunny day and my lovely little wren (m/f?) is singing away in the cotoneaster bush.

[Serial_Apologist]

It's a bright sunny day and my lovely little wren (m/f?) is singing away in the cotoneaster bush.

I hadn't realised that the wren is Britain's commonest bird - can you believe that?? It came up on one of those irritating pre-ad break questionnaires yesterday.

[oddoneout]

I hadn't realised that the wren is Britain's commonest bird - can you believe that?? It came up on one of those irritating pre-ad break questionnaires yesterday.

I suppose because they are so small and tend to hide away it is not obvious how many there are in any given space - and the nature of that space would also be a factor. Hereabouts open large fields favour(unfortunately) pigeons rather than wrens, which are about in the gardens but only one or two at a time rather than the pigeon flocks of 10 or 20.

[ardcarp]

Don't suppose anyone's seen one of these in the back garden?

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/feb/25/black-browed-babbler-found-in-borneo-180-years-after-last-sighting