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

[ardcarp]

Swifts are different from martins, being much blacker and more...er...swift. I gather they seldom take the ground and indeed their legs are weak. Of an evening they fly around in a circuit, screaming. We have had them nesting in our roof space (not the mud nests under the eaves which house-martins make) and to get to the nest they approach the lawn at high speed then swoop up to the roof, stalling just at the level they need to clamber in. Ours left for their migration south some time ago...but don't know exactly when because we were away on holiday. Apparently they leave a parasite (a sort of tic?) behind them which lies dormant over winter and re-infects them next year. Yuk. What have we got in our roof-space?

Mrs Ardcarp says local house martins were still seem around last weekend (i.e. Sept 30th)

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Many thanks for this, ardcarp - my guests were definitely martins, then, not swifts: very clear white areas, and the mud nest uder the eaves (using the air vent as extra support, I suppose). I found their chirrupping very soothing - but, as I mentioned, they'd left by the end of August.

[ardcarp]

We have sand martins (generally browner and with a white collar) in the banks of our nearby river which runs into a south west coast estuary. Over recent years, there have been huge efforts to enhance the wildlife, including 'scrapes' reedbeds...and hides so that we can watch everything. The only failure was an attempt at attracting more sand martins. A large artificial earth bank was created and faced with wooden panels into which holes had been drilled to indicate where the sand martins might care to enter. Alas, so far, not a single tenant!

[mercia]

public being asked to record starling murmurations

https://societyofbiology.org/get-involved/biologyweek/starling-survey

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-29599792

[Dave2002]

public being asked to record starling murmurations

https://societyofbiology.org/get-involved/biologyweek/starling-survey

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-29599792

An interesting word, which I suspect many of us have never seen or used before!

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/murmuration

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Murmuration

[Pabmusic]

I know the word, at least:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eakKfY5aHmY

[Dave2002]

I know the word, at least:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eakKfY5aHmY

Pachelbel to you, too! Thanks.

[Vox Humana]

Very little in the garden currently. We did have a goodly charm of up to 20 Goldfinches, but they seem to have dissipated. Not much else except the to-be-expected Robin, Wren, Dunnock, Blackbird - and Magpies and Jackdaws if I put anything on the bird table.

However, I had a good few hours last Tuesday seawatching at St Ives Island in Cornwall just after the low that was hurricane Gonzalo passed through and the winds veered north-west. Others stuck it out longer and saw more than I did, but I was well pleased with c.20,000 Guillemots and Razorbills, c.15,000 Gannets, c.9,000 Kittiwakes, 400+ Balearic Shearwaters, a few Manx and Sooty Shearwaters, c.150 Great Skuas, c.50 Arctic Skuas, c.10 Pomarine Skuas, 5 Grey Phalaropes, 1 Arctic Tern, 1 Sandwich Tern and a juvenile Sabine's Gull which I managed to pick out myself passing right below the lookout. I hadn't done a seawatch for some years and was rather out of practice, so I was very grateful that there were some really red-hot seawatchers present. The lucky folk further down the coast at Pendeen struck gold with a Bridled Tern which had quite likely slipped past us unseen, as birds will.

[Serial_Apologist]

An interesting word, which I suspect many of us have never seen or used before!

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/murmuration

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Murmuration

Indeed, the few starlings seen around these parts tend to wolf-whistle more than murmurate.

Lots of jays at the moment, though

[mercia]

a curious bird wandering about these parts. I take it to be some sort of pigeon - it has a chocolate-brown body but pure white tail feathers and a white face giving its head a slightly budgerigar appearance - and white feathery legs. I haven't seen it in flight, occasionally it extends a wing revealing a lot more white underneath. It is just poking about the leaf litter undisturbed by any other birds.

[vinteuil]

... might it be a tumbler pigeon? There are any number of fancy pigeons out there -

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=tumbler+pigeon&rlz=1T4ADFA_enGB340GB340&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=xWRrVJ2KMM6kPM7vgSg&ved=0CCIQsAQ&biw=1280&bih=576

.

http://www.pigeonmad.com/guide_to_fancy_pigeon_breeds.php

.

[mercia]

could well be I suppose - in which case escaped from an aviary ? he/she is not outlandishly feathery as in your second link but I can't think I've ever seen a brown and white pigeon before.

[vinteuil]

... some seem to live wild. When we're out walking by the Thames near here we often see a tumbler pigeon who seems to be a regular.

[Vox Humana]

If it looks like a pigeon, then it probably is, but your description - and especially the reference to it poking about in the leaf litter - makes me think first of a female Blackbird with partial albinism. Albinism in Blackbirds is very common.

[mercia]

no, definitely a pigeon. And a correction to my description, the tips of the wings were white too and I've seen it flying now, the brown/white pattern was absolutely symmetrical, not patchy, making a very pleasing sight.