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

[ardcarp]

I can't imagine too many eating dove and hare these days.

I've had both pigeon pie and rabbit pie (on separate occasions) in the past. The former was awfully fiddly, I found, the bones-to-meat ratio being rather high. Rabbit pie, OTOH, is wonderful, and I really don't know why it's not more commonly eaten. Must be to do with British notions of fluffy bunnies, I suppose.

[Serial_Apologist]

I've had both pigeon pie and rabbit pie (on separate occasions) in the past. The former was awfully fiddly, I found, the bones-to-meat ratio being rather high. Rabbit pie, OTOH, is wonderful, and I really don't know why it's not more commonly eaten. Must be to do with British notions of fluffy bunnies, I suppose.

Never having been to Mr Stringfellow's club, I wouldn't know.

[greenilex]

'Fraid the freezer may be full of fledgling songsters today...

[Richard Tarleton]

perhaps his voice is "evolving" in a different direction

Mind you if he fails to perform for long his territory will swiftly be occupied by another....a moral there....

Blackbirds are contraltos, of course, and no two songs are the same. I had one outside my house for 2 seasons running, many years ago, that sang the first 8 notes of "O God our help in ages past". The weakness in blackbird song is the way it "tails off" at the end, as several birdbooks put it, into a rather scratchy "unmusical ending" - the great voice coach has never sorted that out. The blackbirds in our garden have been joined by one of my favourites, the blackcap (rather a lot of traffic noise on this recording). But even more than the blackcap I love his close relative the much scarcer garden warbler's song - another of nature's contraltos.

[ardcarp]

the great voice coach

You mean...gulp...the One Up There?

I've probably mentioned this before, but outside our student flat (in the Stone Age, you understand) there was a g minor bird...may have been a thrush or blackbird...which would whistle quite accurately the opening bars of Mozart's 40th.

[P. G. Tipps]

When strolling through my local wooded park on a bright summer's day, and, please note, the essence of upright sobriety, I often think that I'm listening to a Shostakovich symphony performed by the orchestra in the trees.

The Russian plagiarist ...

[ardcarp]

When strolling through my local wooded park on a bright summer's day, and, please note, the essence of upright sobriety, I often think that I'm listening to a Shostakovich symphony performed by the orchestra in the trees.

The Russian plagiarist ...

Would that be The Wreningrad?

[Serial_Apologist]

You mean...gulp...the One Up There?

I've probably mentioned this before, but outside our student flat (in the Stone Age, you understand) there was a g minor bird...may have been a thrush or blackbird...which would whistle quite accurately the opening bars of Mozart's 40th.

Most of the starlings of my youth would wolf-whistle, causing many a turned head - the breed has been on the decline for some time now.

Does anyone have any stories to tell about training pet crows to speak? Apparently many in the crow family can be taught. My mother used to tell us about a "pet" jackdaw she took in as a child after discovering it with a broken wing. The poor thing never recovered its flying ability, but seemed content, wandering around their terraced* house in Middlesbrough and its back yard, and managing to avoid neighbouring cats and other would-be predators until reaching a natural death. Mum claimed that she taught it to speak. What did he say, I asked her? "Jack", she said.

*That's terraced, by the way, not terrorist.

[vinteuil]

... starlings can indeed be quite vocal. Those who have read Sterne's 'Sentimental Journey' may recall chapters 41, 42, 43 -

http://www.bartleby.com/303/1/41.html

[P. G. Tipps]

Would that be The Wreningrad?

[ardcarp]

Does anyone have any stories to tell about training pet crows to speak? Apparently many in the crow family can be taught

Our local TV News channel ran a story a few years ago about a crow (can't remember which sort) that had learned to imitate a phone ring-tone. You couldn't tell the difference between it and the real thing.

[teamsaint]

Probably house martins ferney? I've just found that it's seen as a lucky bird perhaps because the martin has been viewed in the Christian faith as serving God, being God's 'bow and arrow'. Not so lucky if it does bung up your vents!

The other evening, after a heavy downpour, a woodpecker methodically going along the grass pecking and feeding, (actually quite a good thing I suppose as it aerates the grass as it goes?) Also, I notice a rare visitor (to my garden, not to others) of a bullfinch, so lovely and bright. The colony of sparrows are still very active nest building up under the tiles of the roof

House Martins have returned to their nest under the eaves of our house.
i think they must have cleared some debris out of the nest from last year, as there are unexplained bits of moss, and other stuff littering the patio underneath the nest.

[greenilex]

Wood pigeons once again thinking about nesting here. Not on the street this time, and not too near the window either, so I hope they succeed. Should be able to hear them from the bedroom, but not too early I hope...

[Lento]

Male sparrowhawk has reappeared in my garden and took a dunnock (I think) just outside my window. Beautiful colourings but a grisly (and gristly) kill. A pity that nature has not given the hawk the means to kill its prey more quickly. Interesting that birds have started to come back only minutes after the hawk, with prey, flew off. Perhaps they are smart enough to know that he is set up for today (unless he's an early breeder, of course)!

[Padraig]

Of interest to rare sea-bird spotters? I might even visit this place myself - not only have I ever been, but I have never heard of it!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-36174122