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True to their nature i have had huge flocks of fieldfares dropping by as they stay 1 step ahead of the cold weather. They also get to feast on the bountiful haw berries on my hedges and the worms on the wet meadows.
We do apparently have green parakeets knocking about not half a mile away but I’m yet to see them.
I was in Regents Park, London, a few months ago and heard lots of odd squawking from the trees, which was a small flock of parakeets. They are surprisingly difficult to see when they are in a summer tree canopy, even if you know exactly where they are.
I don't make a list but my wife does, she's got 93 species on it so far this year. CBA typing it out 🤣
It not a garden list, just what we see when we're out and about, largely Angus. More interesting/obvious ones include, osprey, red kite, little and great egret, great spotted woodpecker, puffin. But there's a whole mix of sea birds, wetland, woodland and moorland birds.
Just been out for a local wander now and saw a mix of tits, firecrests, tree creeper,field fares and redwings, red kite, buzzard, mute swans, goosander, coot, mallard, Cormorant, as well as crows, pigeons etc.
Has anyone seen any Waxwings in their area? Big flocks have come over from the Scandinavian side of Europe.
Just go to the nearest super market with planters and red berries, that's where the wax wings show up first.
<br /><br />My garden list is not too bad, and only includes species that have landed in the garden or our trees. Plenty of others seen from the house, with Pink-footed Geese the most obvious at this time of year. <br /><br />
Swallow
Blue tit
Great tit
Coal tit
Crow
Rook
Woodpigeon
Great spotted woodpecker
Pied wagtail
Robin
Chaffinch
Tree sparrow
Dunnock
Blackbird
Greenfinch
Wren
Feral pigeon
Jackdaw
Yellowhammer
Starling
Siskin
Goldfinch
Linnet
Brambling
Song thrush
House sparrow
Lesser black backed gull
Herring gull
Treecreeper
Reed bunting
Lesser Redpoll
Collared dove
Magpie
Willow warbler
Mistle thrush
Kestrel
Sparrowhawk
Pheasant
Bullfinch
Yellow browed warbler
Goldcrest
Long tailed tit
Whitethroat
Buzzard
House martin
Grey Wagtail
Blackcap
Grey Partridge
Fieldfare
Redwing
Long-eared Owl
Stock dove
Spotted flycatcher
I also run Aberdeenshire Bird Tours as a bit of sideline so if anyone is up this way and fancies a trip out let me know. Can even combine it with some cycling. <br /><br />
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There's been loads of waxwings in our area apparently, but I've not seen them yet despite the berries being in abundance near us.
Wow TLR. Great photos!
Bunnyhop - give @waxwingsUK a follow on twitter. They are pretty good with updates. Lots in Hyde today - locations here;
https://manchesterbirding.activeboard.com/mobile.spark?p=topic&topic=22704702
@beagle we drove out to Hyde on Saturday afternoon but it was such awful weather it was dark by the time we got there at 2.30
Even more annoyingly, i worked in the building between the motorbike shop and the bus station for the last 11 years. We moved to Manchester city centre last month...
(We did have waxwings in our car park tree a few years ago)
Saw a kingfisher on the Tay yesterday. I’d forgotten how beautiful that flash of azure blue is. Stunning!
Ahhh. Saturday was grotty. I may drive through at some point tomorrow, if time allows. Crazy about working there for so long. Typical. My best workplace spot was a regular black redstart on the green roof directly outside my window in Canary Wharf, twelve stories up. Gutted when I had to move to another desk!
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53360924150_6321684b95_k.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53360924150_6321684b95_k.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2pijFFC ]Waxwing[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/robd12/ ]robb d[/url], on Flickr
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53360685383_f5a922489f_k.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53360685383_f5a922489f_k.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2piisGX ]Waxwings Liverpool[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/robd12/ ]robb d[/url], on Flickr
Had 40 the other week in Liverpool
I don’t get a huge variety in my garden, but lately my regular visitors are:
goldfinches
sparrows,
pigeons
blue tits
great tits
long-tailed tits
coal tits
marsh tits
robin
blackbirds
wren
starlings*
There’s a stream down the road that runs through a culvert, and walking into town the other day, I usually look downstream to see how much water was in the brook, and I noticed a flash of white about 50 meters or so, behind a lot of shrubs. It was difficult to make out until it moved into the middle of the stream, and it was a great white egret!
*Starlings. I’ve been putting food out for years, and for ages their numbers were pretty low, in the teens-twenties. Of late, the numbers coming into my garden have been increasing, but it’s so difficult to judge, because the noisy little wretches don’t keep still. <br />A week or so back, I could see movement out of the corner of my eye, and it was the starlings using the bird bath out front. They were flying up to join others on the tv aerial over the road, and the robin took over. Then a much larger flock of starlings came over and were joined by those over the road. I had my phone handy and took some photos of the big flock, and I was able to count them - there’s 141 birds in the flock, which is a big increase over the last few years.
I haven’t seen any kites around my location recently, and the ravens haven’t been around either.
Well after almost 57 years on this planet as a keen naturalist I finally saw a Kingfisher yesterday. Beautiful plumage. On the canal in Risca at the bottom of the new trails if anyone is ever there.