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

[Dave2002]

Maybe - http://carolinabirds.org/HTML/EU_Corvidae_Crow.htm

[Serial_Apologist]

On the Fylde Coast, seabirds aside, as a child (around 45 years ago) I rememember many sparrows, thrushes and starlings in the garden, fieds and woods. Now I see very few of those and see group upon group of crow faily members but I'm not sure if they are crows, ravens, jackdaws, rooks? I guess they might be jackdaws!

They're all members of the crow family of course, but if you're referring to carrion crows, you can tell them from rooks, (which are slightly smaller, and jackdaws, smaller still), by their more aerodynamic shape.

[ardcarp]

Well this really is a sign of global warming. In East Devon at Seaton Marshes, observed from the Black Hole Hide, 2 glossy ibises (ibi?) have been around for a day or so. Just off to see if I can spot them before dark...but it's foggy.....

[Richard Tarleton]

Well this really is a sign of global warming. In East Devon at Seaton Marshes, observed from the Black Hole Hide, 2 glossy ibises (ibi?) have been around for a day or so. Just off to see if I can spot them before dark...but it's foggy.....

Excellent - one of those species that we should be seeing more of in the future, thanks as you say to global warming. Back in winter 2011-12 we had a major influx of them in Pembrokeshire, max. single sighting 23. In fact their greater regularity in recent years has resulted in their removal from the list of species records of which need to be considered by the British Birds Rarities Committee - the "Ten Rare Men" - nowadays they're considered by county bird recorders. Spectacular birds - I remember the thrill of seeing my first ones, in NE Spain....A pair attempted to nest in Lincolnshire last year.

[Vox Humana]

Well this really is a sign of global warming. In East Devon at Seaton Marshes, observed from the Black Hole Hide, 2 glossy ibises (ibi?) have been around for a day or so. Just off to see if I can spot them before dark...but it's foggy.....

Good luck, ardcarp. Try not to think of them as dirty oil rags on legs!

[Richard Tarleton]

Good luck, ardcarp. Try not to think of them as dirty oil rags on legs!

Are we talking about the same bird? Have you seen them in breeding plumage? Irridescent!

[Vox Humana]

I was only leg-pulling. One's man's iridescence is another's oil!

[Vox Humana]

Being rather keen on North American birds, I shall regularly be visiting this webcam in Northern Ontario that has just returned online (it only functions during the winter). It's normally very good for Evening and Pine Grosbeaks and, in some years, Redpolls (including Hoary). Ruffed Grouse may drop in briefly at dusk too. Today I have only seen a couple of Blue Jays, two Black-capped Chickadees and a flock of up to nine Evening Grosbeaks, but the winter's still early.

[LeMartinPecheur]

I'm not much of a bird-watcher so please excuse my stumbling onto this thread.

Mrs LMP reported an odd sighting in Looe harbour a week or so ago: a seagull apparently trying to drown a buzzard. Alas, she didn't see the beginning of the combat, just the gull with a firm grip of the buzzard and forcing it under the water. The buzzard fought the good fight and escaped. It didn't however leg it as fast as possible but continued to swoop over Looe harbour/ river estuary.

I was a bit surprised that a sodden buzzard would be able to fly at all, but online there is a report of a very well-soaked buzzard escaping from the Port of London river police by the aerial route. There are also a good few reports and videos of gulls attacking buzzards in the air, but none so far spotted of attempted total-immersion baptisms (Fundamentalist seagulls???)

Any comparable sightings please???

[Dave2002]

Being rather keen on North American birds, I shall regularly be visiting this webcam in Northern Ontario that has just returned online (it only functions during the winter). It's normally very good for Evening and Pine Grosbeaks and, in some years, Redpolls (including Hoary). Ruffed Grouse may drop in briefly at dusk too. Today I have only seen a couple of Blue Jays, two Black-capped Chickadees and a flock of up to nine Evening Grosbeaks, but the winter's still early.

There was a bird on the tray when I first looked at the webcam, but now it's a bit boring. Maybe there's a way of keeping an eye on it while doing other things. Actually the blue bird with the strange white marks on its back does come back from time to time, and there was, very briefly what looked like a small grey bird a bit further out.

[Vox Humana]

I'm not much of a bird-watcher so please excuse my stumbling onto this thread.

Mrs LMP reported an odd sighting in Looe harbour a week or so ago: a seagull apparently trying to drown a buzzard. Alas, she didn't see the beginning of the combat, just the gull with a firm grip of the buzzard and forcing it under the water. The buzzard fought the good fight and escaped. It didn't however leg it as fast as possible but continued to swoop over Looe harbour/ river estuary.

I was a bit surprised that a sodden buzzard would be able to fly at all, but online there is a report of a very well-soaked buzzard escaping from the Port of London river police by the aerial route. There are also a good few reports and videos of gulls attacking buzzards in the air, but none so far spotted of attempted total-immersion baptisms (Fundamentalist seagulls???)

Any comparable sightings please???

That's really interesting! I've never seen a gull down a Buzzard.

There was a bird on the tray when I first looked at the webcam, but now it's a bit boring. Maybe there's a way of keeping an eye on it while doing other things. Actually the blue bird with the strange white marks on its back does come back from time to time, and there was, very briefly what looked like a small grey bird a bit further out.

Those will have been a Blue Jay and either a Black-capped Chickadee (a member of the tit family) or a Dark-eyed Junco which is now on the table as I type. Yes, the activity comes and goes.

[ardcarp]

That's really interesting! I've never seen a gull down a Buzzard.

Nor have I. Must have been quite a sight. Buzzards are very frequently mobbed in the air by other birds though, especially crows. There's a buzzardry in a little wooded creek we know and love, but sometimes their mewing plus crow-squawking makes the place less tranquil than it ought to be. Herons and egrets seem to co-exist quite happily there, BTW.

[Lento]

There was a bird on the tray when I first looked at the webcam, but now it's a bit boring. Maybe there's a way of keeping an eye on it while doing other things. Actually the blue bird with the strange white marks on its back does come back from time to time, and there was, very briefly what looked like a small grey bird a bit further out.

Cornell is also quite fun: Ithaca NY

http://cams.allaboutbirds.org/channel/40/Cornell_Lab_FeederWatch_Cam/

And we have live Autumnwatch cam from Scotland this week

http://www.bbc.co.uk/events/e96c8g/live/c69mxj

[Vox Humana]

[QUOTE=Lento;517336]Cornell is also quite fun: Ithaca NY

http://cams.allaboutbirds.org/channel/40/Cornell_Lab_FeederWatch_Cam/

This one's good, isn't it? I have just dipped in for a quarter of an hour and seen 2 Blue Jays, 2 Tufted Titmice, a Black-capped Chickadee, 3 American Goldfinches, Mourning Dove, Downy Woodpecker and 2 Red-winged Blackbirds. Oh, and some Canada Geese.

[Padraig]

Off topic, but I'm sure no bird watcher will object to this

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-34886545