Where have all our garden birds gone?

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

On 19/06/2023 at 13:32, melmerby said:

...an open dish of water which quickly got soiled...

We started to have this problem last year, wood pigeons wanting to immerse their rubbish chute before dumping, and rooks soaking food. (Someone locally is putting out breadcrusts and no one owning to it.) The puzzle is that numerous wood pigeons and rooks have always been present in the oak/hornbeam woodland behind our garden all 28 years we have lived here, and there is more water in surrounding gardens then when we arrived, so why this recent change.

 

Whatever, an inherited hanging basket frame is now attached over the birdbath, which will admit everything up to a mistle thrush/green woodpecker size, and that has fixed it.

 

General report: the red kites, buzzards, occasional eagle and peregrines are doing well. The chiltern ridge we live on is clearly great for updrafts and any day of good weather if you sit outside and observe, a 'stone' will be seen falling out of the sky: three peregrine kills in our garden already this year, and more in others nearby this year. All wood pigeon, except one cock pheasant. 

 

All the regular garden birds are present and chaffinches appear to be recovering in number, also the ring necked parakeets which overwinter on a server farm a mile away. We will be asking for another slaughter of these pests with poisoned bait this winter, if only for the reason of the raucous interactions between these and the corvid crowd. Sadly after a bumper crop of blue tits in 2022, (11 flew which settled the argument of how many we could see on the box camera) this year's brood completely failed. There were 10 eggs when we went away for a week, but a cold wet spell (while we basked on the Lizard) appeared to do for them. Plenty of evidence of other successful broods nearby, and great, coal, longtail, titmice too.

[melmerby]

I bought a proper bird water dispenser about a month ago.

The trough is just big enough for small birds to dip their bill into drink, it's not really big enough for dumping or wood pigeons to use.

The birds took about 3 weeks before they started to use it, a week later it is broken and unrepairable after it fell to the ground (dryish grass).

I tried a bit of super glue but the main vessel is one of those flexible plastics like polythene, which can't be superglued!

Edited July 7, 2023 by melmerby

[Flying Pig]

1 hour ago, 34theletterbetweenB&D said:

General report: the red kites, buzzards, occasional eagle and peregrines are doing well. The chiltern ridge we live on is clearly great for updrafts and any day of good weather if you sit outside and observe, a 'stone' will be seen falling out of the sky: three peregrine kills in our garden already this year, and more in others nearby this year. All wood pigeon, except one cock pheasant. 

 

White-tailed eagles?  Very scarce wanderers here in Wiltshire, though maybe the Isle of Wight programme will change that.  I envy you your pigeon-eating Peregrines as woodpigeons are everywhere here.

[The Lurker]

the peregrines that nest on top of the tower block in Sidcup have been observed taking parakeets = or at least I have seen them attacking several swooping low like a dogfight over our garden. Only one parakeet got away.

[jbqfc]

I am pleased to say that after a slow start the numbers in the garden are picking up 

Loads of sparrows starlings goldfinches but still not many blue tits 

John

[tigerburnie]

I get raptors flying over the garden at a fair height usually, we have breeding Peregrines a mile away and Ospreys about 5 miles away, Buzzards are everywhere and we get daily visits from Sparrow Hawks. There was a White Tailed Eagle reported over our village, but I missed it, they are in the hills about 15 miles away. We get the rare visit from a Kestrel and even had a couple of Red Kites. There are Barn Owls and Tawny Owls around the village, we did get a Tawny hooting one evening sat in our Birch tree. Rarer ones like Harriers and Goshawk I have seen in the county, but not closer than about 8 miles away at the river estuary, where we also get Short Eared Owls. Finally there are Golden Eagles, but they stay well away from people, it's a 30 mile drive to see them, we do have Long Eared Owls in one of the forests, but I've not seen one.

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

1 hour ago, Flying Pig said:

 

White-tailed eagles?  Very scarce wanderers here in Wiltshire...

Most recent I saw was a Goldie. Before that this year a Steppe Eagle, no one managed a close enough look to see if it was an escape with jesses. And also an introduced Osprey on Panshanger Park lake which roams about.

[The Lurker]

Sitting watching the swifts this evening- first time this year I have seen a decent gathering of them - at least a dozen. That’s quite heartening because I’d not seem many this year so far. It won’t be long til they go - another 3 or 4 weeks- so I am hoping it means they have had a better year

[03060]

12 hours ago, The Lurker said:

Sitting watching the swifts this evening- first time this year I have seen a decent gathering of them - at least a dozen. That’s quite heartening because I’d not seem many this year so far. It won’t be long til they go - another 3 or 4 weeks- so I am hoping it means they have had a better year

 

In the places that I've been in this year (Leeds area, Western Scotland and North Wales) I've certainly seen plenty of Swallows and Housemartins, with a healthy number of Sandmartins noted on the Isle of Bute.

 

We have had a good few Swifts in and around Airedale where I live but I don't recall seeing many on my recent travels in North Wales but that may just have been me not looking for them .... as ever, I could sit and watch the Swallows aerobatic skills all day long.

 

Regards,

Ian.

Edited July 8, 2023 by 03060
Correction.

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

Mention of the migratory insectivores prompts a bat report. We are starting to see  pipistrelles again regularly. A large oak nearby was so severely damaged by lightning four years past that about a third of it fell in a neighbours garden a year later, and after survey, it was massively reduced as unsafe. And the bats went with it...

 

So hopefully they are re-establishing elsewhere. I have seen one larger bat this year, but no way of identifying it. The pipistrelles were always the most regularly seen, but there were also two larger models operating previously, so the population is still recovering I expect.

[The Lurker]

As the swifts finished last night, the local bats were active. No idea what type or where they roost but I’ve seen them regularly over the last five or six years 

[tigerburnie]

6 minutes ago, 34theletterbetweenB&D said:

Mention of the migratory insectivores prompts a bat report. We are starting to see  pipistrelles again regularly. A large oak nearby was so severely damaged by lightning four years past that about a third of it fell in a neighbours garden a year later, and after survey, it was massively reduced as unsafe. And the bats went with it...

 

So hopefully they are re-establishing elsewhere. I have seen one larger bat this year, but no way of identifying it. The pipistrelles were always the most regularly seen, but there were also two larger models operating previously, so the population is still recovering I expect.

I have a magenta Bat5 detector, it aids with identification, though you need a chart as well and it is so cool listening to them, we have Pipistrelle and Soprano Pipistrelle in the village and Daubentons on the river.

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

I think you have solved the perpetual difficulty of finding the Mrs a surprise Christmas gift.

[tigerburnie]

3 hours ago, 34theletterbetweenB&D said:

I think you have solved the perpetual difficulty of finding the Mrs a surprise Christmas gift.

My missus bought me mine, when you listen to them beeping away, then you get the sudden burst when they find a moth, it's like a machine gun going off, never tire of listening to them

[monkeysarefun]

Some pics of the birds in the Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney today:

 

Dusky Moorhens:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Australian White Ibises (Ibii?)

Nesting season has begun and they were looking for twigs and so on, looked pretty ungainly balancing in the trees and palms.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited August 12, 2023 by monkeysarefun

[Downendian]

Yet more fun with the excellent Merlin app. 
Fished all day Monday and identified the usual suspects plus this gem - a Redstart. Since the age of  7-8 when I was  bought my first Observers book of birds I always wanted to see one- never have until today. Merlin identified one calling in an Oak tree directly above me, alas unable to view the bird properly but I did catch a brief glimpse of it flitting between branches. I’ll be on the look out next week for it for sure.

Edited August 23, 2023 by Downendian

[monkeysarefun]

A large mob of Little Corellas hanging around up to no good outside Woolworths just now.  Really needs to be seen in Screecharama to get the full effect.

 

 

 

 

Edited September 3, 2023 by monkeysarefun

[The Lurker]

My regular term time lunchtime walk takes me over some scrub lane where in the past skylarks nested. I think I repotted on here that it had been partially mowed before the summer holidays.

 

now it has been fenced off on one side and cattle kept there  - it is a farm after all. 
 

but on the fence I saw a bird I did not recognise. It patiently let me take a couple of (poor) snaps but I have no idea what it might be. Any clues?

 

[steve1]

We’re staying in a lodge by the side of a small lake On the water are the usual mallards, plus coots and moorhens. Then this chap pitches up…

 

steve

 

 

[Flying Pig]

On 08/09/2023 at 17:14, The Lurker said:

My regular term time lunchtime walk takes me over some scrub lane where in the past skylarks nested. I think I repotted on here that it had been partially mowed before the summer holidays.

 

now it has been fenced off on one side and cattle kept there  - it is a farm after all. 
 

but on the fence I saw a bird I did not recognise. It patiently let me take a couple of (poor) snaps but I have no idea what it might be. Any clues?

 

 

Sorry, missed this.  Your bird was a Wheatear, probably on its southward migration.

[phil_sutters]

5 hours ago, steve1 said:

We’re staying in a lodge by the side of a small lake On the water are the usual mallards, plus coots and moorhens. Then this chap pitches up…

 

steve

 

 

I thought there was one missing from the gang at Cuckmere.

Edited October 4, 2023 by phil_sutters

[The Lurker]

18 hours ago, Flying Pig said:

 

Sorry, missed this.  Your bird was a Wheatear, probably on its southward migration.

thanks - that's one I've never knowingly seen before

 

EDIT - and now I looked at the RSPB site at Wheatears it allowed me to identify another bird i had seen in profusion on the brambles when at Cuckmere Haven at the end of August - no photo but they were Whinchats, which must also have been passing through. The call recording helped too; the clicks in it were distinctive

Edited October 5, 2023 by The Lurker

[monkeysarefun]

One of the mob of cockatoos that turns up morning and evening for almonds.

 

 

Considering their feet are so big and clownlike its surprising how delicately they can hold the tiniest piece of nut in it.

 

 

[Anthony]

My Merlin birdsong app identified a Black Redstart earlier this week.  Not that rare it would seem, but I certainly haven't seen one around here in London SW16, nor had anyone else I contacted.

 

Always good to add a new name to the bird world here on Tooting Bec Common.

[steve1]

I put the feeders back out again at the weekend and was rewarded on Monday by my first sighting of a pair of Greenfinches.

 

steve