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

[Padraig]

Ah, but did you ever have a canary drinking at your bird bath?
Today I looked out and there was a lovely little yellow canary bobbing up and down on the rim.
Wait! I got the glasses on it, and it was a fallen daffodil.
How deceitful.

[Maclintick]

Ah, but did you ever have a canary drinking at your bird bath?
Today I looked out and there was a lovely little yellow canary bobbing up and down on the rim.
Wait! I got the glasses on it, and it was a fallen daffodil.
How deceitful.

Commiserations, Padraig ! If it's any comfort I've suffered similarly humiliating episodes of avian mis-identification, e.g. false nightingales. Walking at dusk recently in the Gower, we were excited to view what appeared to be a small owl perched on a metal stancheon, but which turned out to be a mirage conjured from flaking rust at the top of the post. Compensations for this disappointment -- oystercatchers & sandpipers at Rhossili , a peregrine & family of 5 choughs at Three Cliffs, & a remarkably tame bullfinch in Oxwich woods.

[Padraig]

. Walking at dusk recently in the Gower... a small owl -- oystercatchers & sandpipers at Rhossili , a peregrine & family of 5 choughs at Three Cliffs, & a remarkably tame bullfinch in Oxwich woods.

That was some walk Maclintick - I see you have a special Eden where you live. Even so, envious as I am of your peregrine and bullfinch, I have quite taken to your small owl.

[Anna]

Tawny Owls - male and female duet prior to breeding I presume or just having a conversation, more noticeable because first night I've left windows open. Have found mp3 audio clip here from an owl website for those of you who don't have owls nearby: http://www.godsownclay.com/TawnyOwls...22Apr06tr3.mp3

Apart from that just the usual except I find, from working all weekend in the garden, that I do have Dunnocks (after denying I ever saw them!)

[Globaltruth]

A sparow - At my local agricultural store buying 20kg sunflower seed (behind another old feller buying same weight of wild bird seed and shelled sunflower hearts) a male cock sparrow chanced his arm, er wing, by hopping through a temporarily open door and headed straight for the bird seed aisle. cutting out the middle man...

Local barn owls have gone quiet, nuthatches haven't (none stop 'chit chit chit chit' ), there is a huge clattering of jackdaws.

[Lento]

I do have Dunnocks (after denying I ever saw them!)

Very entertaining at this time of year: I often see 3 or even 4: lots of tail flicking, wing flapping and chasing.

[Richard Tarleton]

Very entertaining at this time of year: I often see 3 or even 4: lots of tail flicking, wing flapping and chasing.

You're seeing this - they're polyandrous - amazing for such dull-looking birds....

[Lento]

Absolutely.

[Padraig]

A well turned out cock pheasant graced our front gardens over the weekend. I bet the goldfinches turned green with envy.

[ardcarp]

I'm rather embarrassed to say that I've recently returned from the Caribbean where we saw pelicans, frigate birds and brown boobies [no jokes, please]. There seemed a dearth of small birds of the shore that proliferate in the UK....maybe I just didn't spot them. Each beachside hut (whether home, bar, shop or hotel) had its resident free-range hens pecking around though.

[ardcarp]

Anyone seen swallows yet? Mrs A. first spotted a couple on April 8th...they're still around....probably blown from the continent by a spell of South Easterly winds

[Vox Humana]

I've seen sand martins, but no swallows yet - but then I haven't been out much. There seems to have been a bit of an influx of hoopoes in the south - Cornwall must have had about ten in the last week.

[ardcarp]

There seems to have been a bit of an influx of hoopoes in the south - Cornwall must have had about ten in the last week.

Blimey. How exciting! In my head I don't think I've ever associated them with the West Country, though having just had a peek at the RSPB site, I see they are only found in a strip along the south coast. We are having some atypical weather which must be giving many species...including homo sapiens...a false idea of Summer in the UK.

[Vox Humana]

Blimey. How exciting! In my head I don't think I've ever associated them with the West Country, though having just had a peek at the RSPB site, I see they are only found in a strip along the south coast. We are having some atypical weather which must be giving many species...including homo sapiens...a false idea of Summer in the UK.

Spring in Devon and Cornwall tends to be either very exciting or flatly boring depending on the weather. This year, at least at the moment, it's the former. I thought Cornwall was doing well for hoopoes, but it seems there have been nearly forty in Eire! I think you should be able to view this page and if you scroll down a bit beyond the first map, there's another map pinpointing all the hoopoes in the current influx (zoom in for more detail). Mrs Humana and I scoured the Rame area this afternoon in hope of finding our own, but, sadly saw nothing more springlike than a solitary swallow and a whitethroat.

[John Wright]

Here in the Midlands this spring month is quite possibly the finest month we have ever had at this address for variety of birds in the garden. For years it was just blackbirds, sparrows and starlings, and the resident wood pigeons living in next door's leylandii, but this year add thrush, goldfinch, grey tits, robins, and we see them all every day!

Robins have nested in an ivy bush three metres from the kitchen window. Sparrows further down in a shrub.

Absent this year: magpie