Ornithamateurs - The Birding Thread

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Yes yes please!!!
And consider yourself formally invited to visit my gallery thread of mostly nature pics of Cascadia...

Why thank you! My camera skills are not great but two to set the scene I guess!

 

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You hear that sound?
It's all of us, clamouring for photos

Thanks, its not that glamorous, honest, though the scenery is great, cannot deny!

The pics here are fantastic, they are quite close up!!

 

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Another black and white bird!
Just lovely!

 

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What a great puffin!
Where is that? Scotland?

Always a favourite , the puffin, the cliffs are best known for gannets though! It's on the east coast of Yorkshire, the cliffs are 400 foot high!

 

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Another black and white bird!
Just lovely!

Indeed, if only I could get so close to other birds ... :

 

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Indeed, if only I could get so close to other birds ... :

Awwww..

 

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Awwww..

Sad eh, but the views are great. The UK doesn't do colourful birds like the US or Australia though... a morning bath in the garden for this one

 

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There's no denying these are cute

 

[La damnee elle la licorne]

 

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Another black and white bird!
Just lovely!

Kingfishers have a little flash of colour. Green woodpeckers are cheerful. The tits.

I do often miss colourful birds, but I also like the little tweed suited ones, I just find them hard to tell apart until I know them.

I agree, I get tree sparrows in the garden, lovely, different from the house sparrow and less common. Practice makes perfect, though am not great at ID it's an excuse to stare through binoculars for a while

 

[La damnee elle la licorne]

 

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Are tree sparrows the same as hedge sparrows? We have LOTs of hedge sparrows and I love them, their tiny beings, their fluttering together, their feeding from the ground, while so tiny making it look not like they are hopping but rather almost being blown by a breeze

This is getting a bit twitchy... but hedge sparrows are more properly known as dunnocks and are not actually a sparrow. We have the relatively common house sparrow, but tree sparrows are smaller, slightly more delicate with a chestnut brown cap, and a pale collar...

Greater spotted woodpecker this morning, frightened off by the dirty great rook trying to get onto the feeder!

 

[La damnee elle la licorne]

 

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Hmm, so I have to check if I have 'dunnocks' or 'tree sparrows'? I always was taught they were hedge sparrows and in trouble nowadays . I was please to live where we had so many.

We don't get so many 'garden' birds here, too rural, a few tits...not sure which, but they are tits, and lots of wag tails, both pied and....um, other ones, which I love, both busy and quite curious in the farm yard, and such sweet fine legs. And starlings, corvids, pigeons, and game birds, some waterfowl. But lots of 'small to medium brown birds' and I use rspb identifier a lot and still feel not sure about some of them . I just like that we all live here, that they sing so well, and wish they could eat more aphids and stuff, please.

Hi, you might have both! Hedge sparrow is another name for dunnock, the RSPB site will have them, but if you are more rural and away from a village then farmland birds like tree sparrow, yellowhammer are more possible. I was wary of mentioning tits given what a lot of the threads are about (!) but great tit and blue tit very likely, coal tit lovely little bird too. Keep watching, live the interest you show, the countryside needs nurturing these days!

 

[La damnee elle la licorne]

 

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Yes, we are not in a village. We have land we nurture for wildlife best interests regarding hedge cutting and so on. We want to build a bat house because we have to do some roofing here and have bats in the loft, but they are long ears, and want lots of space I think, so need the right house, not just a little type. I cannot find any good building guidelines ( we are a nursery roost, and they MUST feel welcome still, but the boxes aren't right...do you know of a guide to provide something right for this situation?)

( I think it's fine to mention tits, we cope with a little double entendre )

Was going to send a pm but can't! Look up Bat Conservation Trust if you haven't already, am sure they would have info.

Sounds a great location, the village here is ok but surrounded by working farmland which can be a little lacking, though my cycle rides on the lanes get me buzzard, sparrow hawk and if at dusk an owl or two!

 

[La damnee elle la licorne]

 

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My neighbouring farmers love wildlife! They do wildlife tours with the local primary school, and get really enthusiastic about the deer, and despite having a dairy herd, are probadger. I really like my neighbours.

I'll check, thank you.

Sounds great, which County? Or would you rather not say? Am wary of saying too much here, my interests away from wildlife are not well known, but I will share what I can here, welcome to pm me.

A bit too arable and big fields here, and the EU vote will have a surprisingly big impact on wildlife friendly farming it seems.

 

[La damnee elle la licorne]

 

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One more for now... guillemots clinging to the cliff face

 

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Sunday morning, bird feeders a bit like Heathrow Airport, the jumbo jets of the wood pigeons keep knocking the beautiful goldfinches and chaffinches off. The tits have no chance and confine themselves to speedy raids whenever they see a landing slot come available. So far no scary corvids to spoil the party!

 

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Not great quality due to distance and movement but..

Goldfinch

 

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Not great quality due to distance and movement but..

Chaffinch

 

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Not great quality due to distance and movement but..

And a less than common tree sparrow

 

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All great picks! Thank you Sinner!
I am intrigued by your enthusiasm as well.
Please drop by here any time you want, as long as it's frequently