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

[eighthobstruction]

10' from Song Thrush this morning....

[amateur51]

10' from Song Thrush this morning....

Being songful, eighth? Da boid I mean

[johncorrigan]

Walking round a Loch this morning 15 minutes north of us a young heron hunched in the rocks escaping the worse effects of the fresh air.

[vinteuil]

the fresh air.

... is, I imagine a Scottish euphemism for an eighty-mile-an-hour gale, hail, rain, and frost.

As the equivalent Irish "a soft air" is the equivalent of a Cherrapunji monsoon....

[Globaltruth]

Pair of siskins on the feeders. Not that rare but first time in our garden for four years. (I keep notes & dates in our spotting guide in a mildly obsessive way).

It's the tawny owl that constantly evades us - never spotted, heard regularly though & definitely a pair (the male has a sweeter hoot y'know)

[Richard Tarleton]

Good one for the RSPB garden birdwatch if you were doing that! Siskins a rare treat in our garden, they breed a few miles away in alder woodland. We have a tawny pair, but they seem to prefer pitch dark, I don't bother trying to see them, just nice knowing they're there....

[jayne lee wilson]

I love Siskins! They always turn up here in Spring, stay a few days, then gone. Last year one was joined, very unusually, by 3 Redpolls, 2 of them males in full summer plumage, all eating the sunflower hearts. Gone the next day as the Siskin remained.

On the mend, I braved the not-so-cold wind today to install the RSPB Squirrel Baffles and a new medium-size seed dispenser. Old tweed coat, hair flying, cat romping and climbing the apple trees. Life returns! The large transparent umbrella domes have an oddly space-age appearance, but we'll see how the birds take to them tomorrow. Quickly at ease, I would guess. The hooks the RSPB offer make hanging, and choosing a twig, very easy.

The sparrowhawks cause frequent "dreads" among the larger birds who often whoomph off the lawn having barely settled to eat. It tends to be a Great Tit that gives the alarm, but they don't always get it right. I imagine a rooftop dialogue, feral to feral:
"I was enjoying that!"
"Don't moan, that tit just saved your life."
"It was a SEAGULL, you idiot!"

[Padraig]

In Glencullen

Thrush, linnet, stare and wren,
Brown lark beside the sun,
Take thought of kestrel, sparrow-hawk,
Birdlime and roving gun.

You great-great-grandchildren
Of birds I've listened to,
I think I robbed your ancestors
When I was young as you.

J.M Synge

[amateur51]

As I was tottering home this afternoon around 16:00, the sky was still pale blue and I was listeing to the bird-song that has become more prevalent of late, mostly robins and tits. And then suddenly a squadron of five green long-tailed parakeets flew rapidly overhead making quite a racket - in fact I heard them before i saw them - and headed off in a South-easterly direction.

All very cheering as we enter the longest part of the Winter, I always feel.

[Richard Tarleton]

In Glencullen

Thrush, linnet, stare and wren,
Brown lark beside the sun,
Take thought of kestrel, sparrow-hawk,
Birdlime and roving gun.

J.M Synge

Padraig, what's a "stare"? Starling, by any chance?

Sadly the last line still the fate of millions of spring and autumn migrants around the Mediterranean.

[Padraig]

Padraig, what's a "stare"? Starling, by any chance?

Sadly the last line still the fate of millions of spring and autumn migrants around the Mediterranean.

Yes Richard, it's a starling. I once heard the name used and fortunately there was a flock of them there in front of me.
I don't see many flocks now, though I still have a pair who visit the garden.

[Madame Suggia]

Had a Nut hatch in the nest box.

[amateur51]

Had a Nut hatch in the nest box.

Triffic, Madame Suggia - is s/he making a nest?

[Madame Suggia]

Hope so amateur51

we picked up the box at a car boot sale for peanuts.

[amateur51]

Hope so amateur51

we picked up the box at a car boot sale for peanuts.

Peanuts, eh?!

Fingers crossed, Madame Suggia