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

[greenilex]

Sorry, that sounds appalling.

[Serial_Apologist]

Sorry, that sounds appalling.

I'm sure doversoul has a GSOH and won't mind!

(And nor will the plum tree! )

[Padraig]

Today I spotted two of my friends - the wren, whom I have not seen for ages, and a magnificent thrush, not a frequent visitor.
Plum trees and tits - how about pear trees and thrushes - just to vary the image, as it were.

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poems/detail/51002

[ardcarp]

Little egrets were discussed a while back. I've just spent a few days on a boat up a creek in Brittany. As night fell a great squawking arose...similar to rooks squabbling in a rookery. But it was caused by a massed choir of little egrets. Strangely close to a road-bridge crossing the river, they were occupying three large old trees which had become their habitual night roost. I tried to count them but after getting to 100 (it was a tricky job anyway) I gave up, but I estimate there were maybe 1000 birds. After about an hour they fell silent, presumably having negotiated their personal spaces. In the darkness the trees looked weird, as if decorated for Christmas with white baubles. Sticking my head out in the early mornings (well, not that early) they had all gone, obviously departing silently because I'm sure I would have heard them otherwise,

I wonder if there are any egret roosts of this magnitude in the UK? And presumably this mass roosting behaviour is a 'safety in numbers' tactic?

[Richard Tarleton]

I wonder if there are any egret roosts of this magnitude in the UK? And presumably this mass roosting behaviour is a 'safety in numbers' tactic?

Ardcarp, nothing on this scale - acc. to the RSPB, the UK breeding population of little egrets is 660-740 pairs, the wintering population around 4,500 birds. Winter roosts of 10-20 possible hereabouts, bigger ones in the S and SW I daresay. Vox Humana may know?

My Herons bible - quite pricey though

[ardcarp]

I've seen nothing like it in Cornwall where egrets are quite common on the rivers and estuaries. It would be good to hear from V-H. Next time I go to this spot in Brittany I will try to get hold of a camera that will operate in very low light conditions. My aged iphone produced only a misty blob.

[Vox Humana]

Many years ago I was gobsmacked when I heard that a Little Egret roost on the River Lynher in East Cornwall had topped 100 birds. There's another roost nearby on an island in Plymouth Sound that has attracted 75 birds, but 40+ is more usual. Brownsea Island in Poole Harbour is another of roughly the same size, but I've not been able to discover precise numbers. The trouble with large waterway areas like the Tamar/Tavy/Lynher complex and Poole Harbour is that there are certain to be multiple roost locations. I think it would still be fairly unusual for any egret roost here to top 100 birds, but I'm so out of touch that I could be quite wrong.

While Googling I found this old account of the species' colonisation of the UK: https://britishbirds.co.uk/wp-conten...3_280_A076.pdf

[greenilex]

Going back to my percussion question, wing-claps might also qualify...I am informed that pigeons do this for display.

[doversoul1]

Going back to my percussion question, wing-claps might also qualify...I am informed that pigeons do this for display.

Wood Pigeons certainly clap their wings but I wouldn’t count it as percussion. Not the noise the ones in my garden make. It’s completely rhythm-less, just very loud and un-bird-like.

(Don’t talk about pigeons. They sit on the tops of my purple sprouting and feast on the young shoots as they come, having stripped the Brussels Sprouts tops. They know the sound of the back door open and when they hear it, they just hop over to the nearest ash branch and wait for ‘all clear’)

[greenilex]

You probably should employ a small boy with a football rattle...when he is not being crammed for grammar school entrance, that is.

[ardcarp]

[HighlandDougie]

Here in the sunny south (OK, of France), the first swifts have returned. It must have been touching 70 degrees F this afternoon, even at 2,500 feet above sea level. As had a stork, on top of the church, which was presumably having a short break en route from east to west. Blackcaps singing like mad - most cheering.

[greenilex]

I suppose the stork wasn't prospecting a nest site? Will it go to Benelux for that?

[Stanfordian]

If it had a long tail and wasn't a parakeet there's really nothing else it can be other than a wagtail or a Long-tailed Tit. White Wagtail (the continental race of our Pied Wagtail) would be unusual this early in the year (we tend to get them during migration), so I'd put my money on a female Pied Wagtail.

I think the same bird is back and it is now sporting a greeny yellow breast. In my book it looks nearest to a Grey Wagtail?

[Richard Tarleton]

Sounds right - grey wags have very long tails, proportionately longer than pied. Did you mention where it was? They're fond of wet places - ponds and streams, flitting along them, that's when they're not admiring themselves in the wing mirrors of your car.