Just found a dead female blackcap (she has a red cap) flew into an upstairs window, rum time of year to lose yer mum!

So worried about opening this thread…  😀

Wev’e got a male blackbird with a broken wing hopping round the garden trying to get food for the bairns, along with Mrs blackbird. I’ve been digging worms up & leaving them in a small container near the tree where theyr’e nesting.

Soppy sod.

Good work mate.

Nice one essel!

we did something similar with a fledged blackbird chick. It’s back feathers had been ruffled by a magpie….we used meal worms soaked in water! It got away ok.:-)

Egf, extra karma points for you this evening 🙂 well done

I tried to help a seagull once in Grimsby when I was a kid. It pecked me in the head.

Birds can be knobs too.

I had a magpie today snatch one of the fledgling starlings right in front of its parents and ripped it apart taunting them with its carcass. A few other starlings came along to try and help but the magpie had back up as well. They made a right racket.

Far too many magpies about this year and not very many of anything else.

Far too many magpies about this year and not very many of anything else.

Tell me about it. Iv’e also been putting mealworms out for Mr blackbird but a **** maggie keeps nicking them! I’ll be loading the old Airsporter if it keeps it up.

Birds can be knobs too.

I know you probably meant in your garden with regard to Magpies ..but out on the moors yesterday there were loads of curlew, lapwing , red grouse and a rather large bird of prey which I couldn’t place ( it wasn’t a kestrel or a buzzard ..and was hovering fairly close to the ground ) ..

I very nearly had a wipe out accident with some ( days old ) grouse chicks which were crossing the trail ..

The only thing missing from their usual spot ( just outside Edmundbyers ) were the Red Kites ..

Round here Red Kites are as common as pigeons.

but despite me knowing sod all about birds a local gamekeeper pointed out some Peregrines that nest locally and the odd other kestrel.

Throw in foxes, deer, hares and badgers plus carpets of bunnies that I see on my commute and it pretty impressive considering it is Didcot area.

and a rather large bird of prey which I couldn’t place ( it wasn’t a kestrel or a buzzard ..and was hovering fairly close to the ground ) ..

Probably a Marsh Harrier

EGF…

I would like to think that was the case as I have ( probably ) only seen one once before ..am I right in thinking that it’s the only other bird of prey that hovers ?

If it was moorland then I would have said Hen Harrier. They’ll fly low and slow/hover into the wind. You’re very lucky if it was.

They’ll fly low and slow/hover into the wind. You’re very lucky if it was.

Yeah they have a nasty habit of mysteriously disappearing once they go near a grouse moor.

Yeah they have a nasty habit of mysteriously disappearing once they go near a grouse moor.

Marsh Harriers are more common than Hen Harriers, which are as rare as hens teeth, due to what Dissonance said.

Gamekeepers are often plebs who’ll blast at anything if it threatens grouse/££’s.