Messageboard
The Village Hall permalink
The Bird Table
This discussion has been closed.
-
Message 1.Â
Posted by Syd Rumpo (U1483538) on Friday, 3rd April 2009
The new thread for anything ornithological.
Syd -
Message 2
Posted by Westsussexbird or Birdy aka Westie (U6316532) on Friday, 3rd April 2009
Thanks Syd
-
Message 3
Posted by Auntie Clockwise (U8040384) on Friday, 3rd April 2009
This is such an exciting time of year, with summer visitors arriving and the dawn chorus getting louder by the day.
Hi westie. Are you plesed about the South Downs becoming a National Park? -
Message 4
Posted by Flightless Anachronistic Bird (U6437464) on Friday, 3rd April 2009
BHB4, I've never heard of robins, in particular, being liable to desert - I hope you get away with it
Last year I sat out in the garden for the first time in a while (I'd been busy with work) and realised that a pair of blackbirds were feeding chicks in a nest somewhere in a vine up the back of the house. By the time I got a step ladder out to look the following day, 'something' (a cat?) had upturned the nest. I wonder if the cat had noticed the blackbirds hesitating a bit on their way in - they certainly weren't alarm calling.
Two years ago I discovered a robins nest on the woodland floor - perfectly camouflaged among the leaf litter. I was quite surprised as I didn't know they were ever ground nesters, but have since heard that they are one of the few species that regularly nest on the ground in woodland. -
Message 5
Posted by Bean_here_bee_four (U3889512) on Friday, 3rd April 2009
Fri, 03 Apr 2009 20:48 GMT, in reply to Flightless (Anachronistic) Bird in message 4
BHB4, I've never heard of robins, in particular, being liable to desert -Â
Wish i could remember what phrase I googled on, but one of the top hits remarked on the nest desertion act. -
Message 6
Posted by Westsussexbird or Birdy aka Westie (U6316532) on Friday, 3rd April 2009
I think of the South Downs for views and flowers, in particular cow slips ... funnily enough I don't particularly associate it with birds but of course if you are lucky you get to see skylarks up there. I've never taken my scope up there which is madness when you think of the views! I must put that right this year.
I love the way the Downs just lie there ... I love looking down on the villages from above and in particular Parham House. I'll try and find a picture.
This shows the house with the Downs just rising beyond it ... in the way I love.
-
Message 7
Posted by Auntie Clockwise (U8040384) on Friday, 3rd April 2009
Loads of birds on the South Downs. Don't forget there's lots of scrub, not just open downland. As well as breeding birds, there's plenty of interest with passage migrants and wintering birds. -
Message 8
Posted by Westsussexbird or Birdy aka Westie (U6316532) on Friday, 3rd April 2009
I'm sure you're right ... it's just not somewhere I've been to intending to notice the birds! I think it's because I usually have a dog and have never been there on my own, so looking at birds hasn't been the priority at that time. Also, as I've said, I've never taken my scope up there either so I really must rectify the situation .... I remember once seeing a huge flock of thrush like birds drinking from a dew pond ... field fares maybe?
-
Message 9
Posted by Anne-Marie (U1474870) on Friday, 3rd April 2009
Today was a birds of prey day in these parts.
First of all son and I had an excellent view of a red kite today. We were strolling along a bridleway and there it was perched in the top of a tree. After I while it took off and circled several times overhead, with some screeching. I've never had one quite so close to me, execpt when in the car and they swoop over a hedgerow.
Immediately after that, there were 4 buzzards high in the sky soaring on the thermals. Suddenly two of them clashed; grappling with each other's talons and down they plummeted. What a wonderful sight! Do you think it might have been mating behaviours?
Also plenty of much more sedate pheasants skulking in the fields.
AMx -
Message 10
Posted by Bean_here_bee_four (U3889512) on Saturday, 4th April 2009
Sat, 04 Apr 2009 08:27 GMT, in reply to Anne-Marie in message 9
Rejoice time. After yesterdays apprehension about having possibly caused a pair of robins to abandon a nest. I am pleased to say it looks as if Hen Robin has started the incubation process.
If I can get some half decent light will try to get some digicsope pics or maxizoomed video clips. -
Message 11
Posted by Bean_here_bee_four (U3889512) on Saturday, 4th April 2009
Sat, 04 Apr 2009 08:33 GMT, in reply to Bean_here_bee_four in message 10
Now I am getting totaly confused. Just done a google image seasrch on robins eggss and all the ones shown are a bright blue.
The eggs I photographed are a nutty red brown ie very much like a wrens egg. But there is a robin on the nest???????????????
Perhaps better light will reveal what is going on. -
Message 12
Posted by Westsussexbird or Birdy aka Westie (U6316532) on Saturday, 4th April 2009
BHB4 ... a small bird copying the cuckoo's behaviour perhaps :0))
-
Message 13
Posted by Flightless Anachronistic Bird (U6437464) on Saturday, 4th April 2009
BHB4, In trying to google for info on nest desertion, I came across photos of 'robin' nests with blue eggs. Then realised I was looking at American sites. The American 'robin' is actually very similar to our blackbird (feeds on lawns etc), but has a rufous brown patch on its breast. I googled a bit further and found some 'robin' eggs that looked a bit more like yours!
-
Message 14
Posted by Auntie Clockwise (U8040384) on Saturday, 4th April 2009
The English settlers named it after the proper Robin because of the red breast. The American Robin, as FAB says, is a thrush while the European one is a chat. -
Message 15
Posted by Bean_here_bee_four (U3889512) on Saturday, 4th April 2009
Sat, 04 Apr 2009 09:51 GMT, in reply to Flightless (Anachronistic) Bird in message 13
BHB4, In trying to google for info on nest desertion, I came across photos of 'robin' nests with blue eggs. Then realised I was looking at American sites. The American 'robin' is actually very similar to our blackbird (feeds on lawns etc), but has a rufous brown patch on its breast. I googled a bit further and found some 'robin' eggs that looked a bit more like yours!Â
Thanks indeed for that FAB, these blasted colonials will keep muscling in on us more refined species!
What I thought might have been the start of incubation seems to be wrong as well. Perhaps it was just an inspection and probably another egg being laid. I am not going to push my luck by having a peek. -
Message 16
Posted by Westsussexbird or Birdy aka Westie (U6316532) on Saturday, 4th April 2009
>while the European one is a chat.<
How interesting ... of course ... it perches in prominent places in the same way. -
Message 17
Posted by Flightless Anachronistic Bird (U6437464) on Saturday, 4th April 2009
BHB4, Most passerines ('perching' birds, but actually basically the small(ish) standard sort of birds) lay in the early morning. However, recent research has shown that even in those species that 'don't start incubation until the clutch is complete' there may be a short period (10 minutesish) a day when the female raises the eggs to incubation temperature. The egg cell has already divided so that there are thousands of cells by the time an egg is laid, and these short periods of incubation seem to 'keep the embryo going' before the period of incubation proper starts.
-
Message 18
Posted by Bean_here_bee_four (U3889512) on Saturday, 4th April 2009
Sat, 04 Apr 2009 11:05 GMT, in reply to Flightless (Anachronistic) Bird in message 17
Thanks for that most informative post. Birds never cease to astound me. What might be lacking in a "bird brain" in the way of intellectual capability is more than amply compensated for in the tricks each individual species have to keep the generations coming. -
Message 19
Posted by ooo-- Misty --ooo (U2226804) on Sunday, 5th April 2009
Hello! I posted a query on the previous thread asking for possible identification of some local black, graceful birds with a loud, melodious song. They move very quickly, & one was seen taking off with its wings initially folded, which looked a most skilfull manoevre!
Syd thought they might be blackbirds, but they don't look like blackbirds, & I'm still of the opinion that they could well be swifts. Their song sounds ~ quite literally! ~ like "cheep-cheep-cheep-cheep!!", which I've seen described as "screaming" ~ but to me it's simply a loud & joyful song.
I've found a very helpful RSBP site which lists all UK birds in families. (Sorry I'm no good at posting links ...)
Birds which I know visit my garden include: Blackbird, great tit, magpie, wood-pigeon. Yesterday I was pleased to see a couple of sparrows, which I understand are becoming less in number. I never see any starlings these days ~ are their numbers dropping, too??
In the local shopping centre, pied wagtails are very frequent visitors!! -
Message 20
Posted by Auntie Clockwise (U8040384) on Sunday, 5th April 2009
~Misty~ it's a bit early for swifts (assuming you live in the UK). When I lived on the south coast the first swifts arrived at the beginning of May. Swifts are normally seen flying high in the sky, although they come lower down to catch insects in certain weather conditions. Furthermore, if you saw your mystery bird 'taking off' it's not likely to be a swift. They live almost entirely on the wing except for when nesting.
-
Message 21
Posted by Flightless Anachronistic Bird (U6437464) on Sunday, 5th April 2009
Hi ~ Misty ~,
We can rule out swifts very easily for two reasons: the first is that they are among the latest arriving of the migrants - because they are entirely dependent on flying insects. They arrive very consistently on almost the same date each year - for examplwe May 1st in Oxford, and 6-7th May in the village where I lived in the Peak District. Secondly, swifts don't perch - at all! All four of their toes on each foot point forwards: they can 'hang' from a wall, but I've never seen them doing that. Otherwise they fly (it's generally thought they must sleep on the wing) or they are in their nests for part of the time during the breeding season. When they land at their nests (eg under roof tiles) they 'fly straight in' and then shuffle along on their tummies. So not swifts
I'm a bit conufused about what the song sounded like. You originally said 'melodious' - and that fits blacbird, which gets voted as the UK's favourite song by a bird in 'Today' program votes. Then you said cheep-cheep-cheep - which I wouldn't describe as 'melodious' - and sounds like sparrows. Swifts really do 'scream' a harsh sounding continuous note - nothing 'cheep' about it
So, not swifts, but I'm not sure what they were. Have you tried listenig to the sound clips on the rspb website? (click on the 'listen' link - top left). Navigate to other species using the alphabetic links top right.
Good luck! -
Message 22
Posted by ooo-- Misty --ooo (U2226804) on Sunday, 5th April 2009
Hi there Auntie ~ yes I'm in the UK, in the East Midlands. In a sort of leafy-suburban area.
So ~ they aren't swifts then! The mystery deepens ...
From what I described, what do *you* think they could be?? They seem most vocal in the morning, & seem to live mostly under the eaves of a house.
(Yes, just one house).
I hope you can help! Thanks, Misty x -
Message 23
Posted by Flightless Anachronistic Bird (U6437464) on Sunday, 5th April 2009
Hi Auntie C, Sorry, you posted while I was writing (at length, in my usual verbose way
) -
Message 24
Posted by ooo-- Misty --ooo (U2226804) on Sunday, 5th April 2009
Thanks for the info, FAB ~ much appreciated!
Unfortunately I've no way of "listening" to a clip at present, but I'll see if my son can fix-it for me to do so when he gets in.
I've looked on that RSPB site & found it fascinating ~ I'd like to learn a great deal more about our feathered friends. x Misty -
Message 25
Posted by ooo-- Misty --ooo (U2226804) on Sunday, 5th April 2009
Speakers now functioning!!
I've had a listen to the birdsongs, and have pretty-well definitely identified the birds in question as House Martins (d'oh ...) Should have realised that, as they seem to like living under the roof of a *house* ... Misty x -
Message 26
Posted by Lindy (U9525153) on Sunday, 5th April 2009
Well done Misty.
I am really bad at identifying birds, apart from the commoner ones. And some birds seem to have some many different sounds.
Went for a wonderful walk this morning on the Hills, but abit disappointed, as only saw Buzzards, and heard the ChiffChaff.
Lindyx -
Message 27
Posted by Flightless Anachronistic Bird (U6437464) on Sunday, 5th April 2009
Hi ~ Misty ~, well done! House Martins normally return to the UK in April, so they would be earlyish, but possible, especially if you are in the south. I guess you've looked at this page: You mentioned before that the birds are black, but the white (it's a very 'clean' white) should be visible too. You should also be able to see the remains of last year's mud nests (middle photo, top of RSPB page) under the eaves. How nice to have such dapper little birds nearby
-
Message 28
Posted by ooo-- Misty --ooo (U2226804) on Sunday, 5th April 2009
FAB ~ I'm actually in the East Midlands, but I'm fairly sure they're house martins ... I'll take a look for the white parts of their plumage the next time I go round the corner ~ although they're quite difficult to spot!
Whilst out doing a bit of gardening just now, I noticed that it was the call of the wood-pigeon which was the most noticeable. Do some birds only sing at certain parts of the day??
(Just going to pop & watch Songs of Praise ~ back later) ***<<<8~D -
Message 29
Posted by Bean_here_bee_four (U3889512) on Sunday, 5th April 2009
Sun, 05 Apr 2009 16:52 GMT, in reply to ~ Misty ~ in message 28
After all the robins nest speculation, the hen has now settled down for some serious egg incubation. I should be able to get some reasonable video clips of hungry mouths being fed in a couple of weeks time if all goes well.
Blue tit is still collecting nest material. She will soon have to burrow upward from the nest box hole. -
Message 30
Posted by Lindy (U9525153) on Sunday, 5th April 2009
I have got several wood pigeons nesting in some beech trees in the garden. Their nests seem to be rafts made of twigs. I love the sound they make, but not too keen on them
Lindy -
Message 31
Posted by ooo-- Misty --ooo (U2226804) on Sunday, 5th April 2009
Lindy ~ hi! There's probably a whole family of woodpigeons living in the neighbourhood, but I only ever see them *singly*. The one I see struts around as though he owns the place, & I'm sure the neighbourhood cats would never dare to go near him!
-
Message 32
Posted by sagethyme (U5272261) on Sunday, 5th April 2009
Hi folks, joining in to bookmark.
Nothing much to report except a starling in the park near work which let us nearly fall over it before flapping off. -
Message 33
Posted by Flightless Anachronistic Bird (U6437464) on Sunday, 5th April 2009
~ Misty ~, I think they're probably house martins, too. The thing you described about folding their wings as they took off 'makes sense' when I think 'house martins'. The white tummies (and rumps - just above the tail) and mud nests (leftovers from last year) would clinch it.
-
Message 34
Posted by Bean_here_bee_four (U3889512) on Monday, 6th April 2009
Mon, 06 Apr 2009 09:44 GMT, in reply to Flightless (Anachronistic) Bird in message 33
Patience with an eye on the outside world -
Message 35
Posted by Lindy (U9525153) on Monday, 6th April 2009
Thanks so much BHB4, who needs Springwatch
Lindy -
Message 36
Posted by Flightless Anachronistic Bird (U6437464) on Monday, 6th April 2009
Lovely, BHB4! We had an open-front nestbox in the garden when I was a sprog, but nothing ever used it. I'm very jealous
Looked in my garden nest box this morning - the great tits have 6 eggs (not yet incubated) - so they must have started laying on the 1st April. Garden great and blue tits are usually just a little earlier than the ones in woodland. -
Message 37
Posted by Bean_here_bee_four (U3889512) on Monday, 6th April 2009
Mon, 06 Apr 2009 11:08 GMT, in reply to Flightless (Anachronistic) Bird in message 36
Keep checking the blue tits box, and no eggs yet. Nest material keeps arriving though. -
Message 38
Posted by The Blessed Songsinger (U2319309) on Monday, 6th April 2009
Mon, 06 Apr 2009 16:01 GMT, in reply to Bean_here_bee_four in message 37
My local jackdaws and crows are busy gathering nest material and one of the jackdaws has learned how to turn upside down and peck at the fat balls even though he is a bit big for this. I do all I can to dissuade the carrion birds from coming near the food but it is an uphill struggle.
I knew jackdaws were clever but didn't realise quite how clever until I saw this one this morning. -
Message 39
Posted by planetzig (U7531074) on Monday, 6th April 2009
Have lived in same place for over 40 years and have never seen or heard an owl but - very early yesterday morning - was woken by one calling.
Tried to turn back curtain very carefully but it had already gone and I could hear it called from same way away.
Used to be on the edge of a market town and heard and saw larks every year but build up drove them away and haven't seen one for four years now.
But our sparrow population is constant. We have one large bush in the garden which gets the sun from around 9.00ish onwards and we get anywhere up to 40 sparrows sitting on the bush sunning themselves for early warmth.
Magical!
And this year - for the first time - have seen chaffinchs in the garden.
Despite loving our birds I'm still at the stage when - by the time I've found them in the book I keep to look them up - they've landed in Africa!
Last year I was priviledge enough to see a Bitten fly in. Well, that's what the experts told me it was. Looked like a speckled hen to me. I shall learn. -
Message 40
Posted by Bean_here_bee_four (U3889512) on Tuesday, 7th April 2009
Tue, 07 Apr 2009 07:27 GMT, in reply to planetzig in message 39
Despite loving our birds I'm still at the stage when - by the time I've found them in the book I keep to look them up - they've landed in Africa!Â
Welcome planetzig,
I think the phenomena you describe is shared by all birders whether they have been at it 5 minutes or 5 decades. It is all part of the fun, and always being on a learning curve keeps the interest going.
My and I suspect many others are infuriated by our inability to identify birds from their song and calls. Each springtime seems to bring a bird call I've never knowingly heard before. Of course you can never see the blighter making the sound.
I wonder if some birds practice a new call during the winter knowing full well it will confound birders. -
Message 41
Posted by The Blessed Songsinger (U2319309) on Tuesday, 7th April 2009
Tue, 07 Apr 2009 08:45 GMT, in reply to planetzig in message 39
Me too, planetzig for the first time I have a chaffinch visiting regularly and I am thrilled. I live on the edge of moorland so the birds are usually flying overhead rather than dropping in so it is always a pleasure when new visitors come to stay.
It is reassuring to hear that experienced bird people also get stumped - gives me reason to carry on trying with identification. -
Message 42
Posted by GuzziNut (U6364582) on Wednesday, 8th April 2009
welcome, planetzig. Yes the visitors do like to confound, like our recently arrived siskins, doing their best to disguise 'emselves as greenfinches. but welcome nuntheless
shameless diversion. here we are in northumberland. Village river has dippers
we spent part of yesterday on Inner Farne, surrounded by puffins (yay) also guillemots and razorbills. not just a glimpse of a puffin but they were everywhere, in the water, sitting on rocks, pottering around puffin burrows, flying past my nose... -
Message 43
Posted by Bean_here_bee_four (U3889512) on Friday, 10th April 2009
Fri, 10 Apr 2009 08:03 GMT, in reply to GuzziNut in message 42
I suppose I aught to head this as thank goodness for cameras.
I recently picked up at a boot sale a book published in 1942 titled "A handlist of the birds of the Sevenoaks or Western District of Kent" very succinct, but hardly brief!
It is basically a condensation of various ornithological records covering the area and some of it seems quite awful from a modern perspective.
Typical of which are these notes for the Snow Finch:-
"The fact that this purely alpine species should have ever reached our shores constitutes an exceptional and accidental occurence. However as is recounted by Norman Ticehurst, such was the severity of the winter abroad in 1906, that some of these hardy birds felt constrained to leave their home. Thus it was that two out of a party of four or five fell to the guns of two local sportsmen at Paddock Wood."
It then goes onto recount how the corpses were preserved and ended up in a collection of British Birds at Brighton.
Thankfully wayward migrant birds these days will most likely have to just endure umpteen camera shots and hordes of twitchers frenetically coming to see them.
Most wayward migrants are doomed anyway, but some do manage to flourish eg collared doves. Now where are some sportsmen? -
Message 44
Posted by Flightless Anachronistic Bird (U6437464) on Friday, 10th April 2009
BHB4, How's Patience?
-
Message 45
Posted by Bean_here_bee_four (U3889512) on Friday, 10th April 2009
Fri, 10 Apr 2009 09:40 GMT, in reply to Flightless (Anachronistic) Bird in message 44
BHB4, How's Patience?Â
Still on duty.
I have been endevouring to get her mate to take mealworms from my hand, but he is far too wary.
If I put them on the ground though he flies in and the first one goes to his mate and then he eats one.
I would love to be able to get a picture of the food exchange, but it is so quick. -
Message 46
Posted by sagethyme (U5272261) on Friday, 10th April 2009
Hi Bean
I bet the museum you mention is this one:
I spent part of my childhood near there and remember being dragged around it by my parents, always keen for free trips to occupy us in the holidays.
Haven't been there for years but it had an impressive selection of stuffed birds. The website indicates futher development to bring it at least into the 20th century so may be worth a visit. -
Message 47
Posted by Auntie Clockwise (U8040384) on Friday, 10th April 2009
< ended up in a collection of British Birds at Brighton.>
That's the Booth Museum in Dyke Road.
A shame that the early ornithologists had to shoot birds to gain knowledge, but presumably it was the only way until more modern techniques came into being. -
Message 48
Posted by Bean_here_bee_four (U3889512) on Friday, 10th April 2009
Fri, 10 Apr 2009 12:47 GMT, in reply to sagethyme in message 46
I bet the museum you mention is this one:
·É·É·É.²ú´Ç´Ç³Ù³ó.±¹¾±°ù³Ù³Ü²¹±ô³¾³Ü²õ...Ìý
Yes it is, because I wasnt sure if the museum still existed I didnt think it worth mentioning the name.
I rarely visit Brighton (there and back on a bike a bit far) but If I do visit, I may well pay a visit. -
Message 49
Posted by Auntie Clockwise (U8040384) on Sunday, 12th April 2009
First thing I heard as I stepped outside this morning was a Willow Warbler singing. Then we went for a walk along the coast before lunch and saw a nice selection of birds - purple sandpiper, turnstone, oystercatcher, sandwich tern, fulmar nesting on the cliffs, eider, goldeneye, mallard, shag, herring and great black backed gulls, linnet, rock pipit, stonechat, wrens singing loudly. Also saw some sort of dramatic event involving a helicopter and a lifeboat, with someone being lowered from the copter onto the boat. Maybe tomorrow's local paper will shed light as to what happened.
-
Message 50
Posted by Flightless Anachronistic Bird (U6437464) on Sunday, 12th April 2009
Auntie Clockwise, sounds wonderful. I haven't seen purple sands for, oooh, years.
I live in one half of a semi, both houses with extemely modest sizrd gardens, but with a small piece of roungh ground enclosed by buildings behind. The house next door is empty, and a pair of jays seem to have set up almost permanent occupation next door (in the garden ), although haven't yet given away where they are building. The only down side was watching a pair of long-tailed tits collecting nesting material from the garden today, and thinking that they probably wouldn't be very successful with the jays around
About this Board
Welcome to the Archers Messageboard.
or  to take part in a discussion.
The message board is currently closed for posting.
This messageboard is now closed.
This messageboard is .
Find out more about this board's
Search this Board
Ö÷²¥´óÐã iD
Ö÷²¥´óÐã navigation
Ö÷²¥´óÐã links
Ö÷²¥´óÐã © 2014 The Ö÷²¥´óÐã is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read more.
This page is best viewed in an up-to-date web browser with style sheets (CSS) enabled. While you will be able to view the content of this page in your current browser, you will not be able to get the full visual experience. Please consider upgrading your browser software or enabling style sheets (CSS) if you are able to do so.