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

[Anna]

A green woodpecker, Anna? Regular ground feeders, especially ants. Sadly disappearing as a breeding species here in the extreme west of Wales.

Yes, a common green one, I don't often see one ground feeding like that but a near neighbour who has a vast expanse of very anty lawn tells me he has a woodpecker visiting on an almost daily basis! Why should they be not breeding where you are?

[Dave2002]

A trip into Buckinghamshire enabled us to watch red kites, which are now quite frequently seen there. Sadly, many of the red kites in the area around Dingwall/Conon Bridge in Scotland have been killed - http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/e...-rspb.23862858

Mention of a bullfinch was interesting - as we had a bird with a similar flash of red across its front a few weeks ago. Obviously could have been a robin, but in the short time I saw it, it looked a bit different with a different red colour.

I think we also had a greenfinch about a week ago. The most common small birds now are tits, with magpies, jays, crows, pigeons and jackdaws, and a fairly frequent great spotted woodpecker representing their larger brethren.

[Richard Tarleton]

Yes, a common green one, I don't often see one ground feeding like that but a near neighbour who has a vast expanse of very anty lawn tells me he has a woodpecker visiting on an almost daily basis! Why should they be not breeding where you are?

It's a bit of a mystery, which I'm not sure the experts understand. The new Atlas offers no explanation. They seem to have a predominantly central, S and SE distribution in the UK.

[Richard Tarleton]

anyone watching the BBC Springwatch "live cams" on the Red Button (Freeview 301) ?

I've watched bits of Springwatch as Minsmere is a place I've known well for over 40 years - even had a spell as a long-term volunteer there in the hard winter of 1978-9 (when Suffolk was under deep snow). I'm glad we didn't turn up during the preparations for Springwatch - this year we'd postponed our normal spring visit to coincide with part of the Aldeburgh Festival later this month. I'm afraid I'm allergic to the insufferably Tiggerish Martin Hughes-Games, who addresses the nation as if it was one vast primary school class, with much arm waving and jumping about - the technology has improved in inverse proportion to the quality of the presenting. Though I've warmed to Chris Packham, who talks a lot of sense.

[ardcarp]

The concealed cameras watching nests and broods hatching are just amazing. I wonder how often the rearing of nightingale chicks has been observed? Yes Chris P knows a lot...but the presentation is often cringe-worthy. Oh well, if that's what the nation wants......

[ardcarp]

PS We have a sparrow hawk appearing regularly in our garden at the moment. Beautiful bird. I fear for the various fledglings though (blackbirds and wrens). They also have to survive our cat.

[Lento]

Has anyone had success in watching the Springwatch cams on OSX? They work on my Windows laptop but not properly on the Mac. Simon King, formerly of Springwatch, has his own webcams now, which can be fun to watch. A rather dim sparrow hawk used to hang around conspicuously in my garden, apparently waiting for the sparrows and starlings to arrive. I fear he didn't survive very long.

http://www.simonkingwildlife.com/page/live-cams#wpHeaderArea_guide/latlng:54.559323,-4.174804999999992/6//

[Padraig]

Pleased to report my first bullfinch. I say 'my', but I mean the first I have ever seen. He posed long enough for me to note his (yes, his) complete colouring and to marvel once again at the varied beauty of the small birds in my garden.

[agingjb]

First nightjar heard last night. That's a week or so later than most years but I've been away a bit recently.

[Anna]

I saw the SpringWatch red button last night. About 10 mins in was a short item about great tits catching and eating bumble bees. This was really interesting as it could explain the following:

I had at the weekend two instances of a blue tit flying at high speed straight into a window (instant deaths through broken necks) I have a bumble bee nest which is about 12’ up, under wooden cladding, in the centre of a right angle of the building, one arm of the angle is brick the other a window approx 4’x9’ directly into the angle and therefore straight under the nest (there are no curtains at the window) The area beneath the nest is not usually where any birds are seen as it’s paved with flower tubs and no surrounding trees or bushes. I assume the blue tits launched themselves off the low roof at the end of the angle facing the window but were they just after insects, not the bees?.

A google on various bumble bee conservation sites reveals that it’s usually great tits that have been seen catching bumbles although robins also do so – it seems they rub the sting off before eating.

Also, re the dead birds, do you give them a decent burial or chuck them somewhere for the magpies and crows to deal with?

[greenilex]

Have been trying to film the wood pigeon with large untidy squab occupying the bay tree in front of ours - second brood this year. The baby keeps cosying up to parent, fluffing its breast feathers etc in hopes of a regurgitated morsel, but none seems to be forthcoming. It's more of a challenge on an iPad than I had realised.

Parent does watch me very carefully through the window.

[Richard Tarleton]

Also, re the dead birds, do you give them a decent burial or chuck them somewhere for the magpies and crows to deal with?

Leave them out - a lot of good protein there

Will keep an eye on our blue tits. We put out an assortment of bee nest boxes but they don't seem to have been used, hopefully an indication that there are lots of natural sites hereabouts (plenty of bumble bees).

Nice addition to the garden list the other day - red kite (the rule is you have to be in the garden when you see the bird ). Lots of people have them on their garden list these days, but these ones have been bracketing the target for a while now. Brings the garden list to a stonking 79 (being near an estuary helps) - I can't really count the escaped peacock that hung around for a while until the fox got it - just a pile of shiny feathers left

PS Padraig - yes something exotic about male bullfinches, different colour palette to most of our natives.....
ajingjb - I'm looking forward to a fix of nightjars at Dunwich Heath later this month, as seen on Springwatch

[Lento]

re the dead birds, do you give them a decent burial or chuck them somewhere for the magpies and crows to deal with?

A recent window-strike juv starling that I left on the lawn was attended by a magpie very swiftly and was taken away by a crow within 2 hours! I believe foxes tend to dig up birds that have been buried. Where the cause of death is disease (especially trich) I would tend to dispose of in the bin in case they cause a hawk to become ill.

[Padraig]

'My' bullfinch was back today.
Are they aggressive birds? 'Mine' seemed to be squabbling at the seed feeder with a green finch.

[Richard Tarleton]

'My' bullfinch was back today.
Are they aggressive birds? 'Mine' seemed to be squabbling at the seed feeder with a green finch.

I'd venture to suggest it was the greenfinch that was the aggressor, Padraig? They're quite feisty, dominant birds, whereas bullfinches (and I've handled a few, to ring them) always seem pretty dozy, skulking and not particularly bright. Come to think of it I've never seen them at a seed feeder. My ringing career was short, didn't take to it.