• Welcome to BirdForum, the internet's largest birding community with thousands of members from all over the world. The forums are dedicated to wild birds, birding, binoculars and equipment and all that goes with it.

    Please register for an account to take part in the discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.
ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Search results

thxpress_search_the_forum Search Opus
  1. abi107

    Wader, Co. Galway

    Thank you both for your replies. Waders can be so colourful in their summer plumage - so different to the grey and whites of winter. Aoife
  2. abi107

    Wader, Co. Galway

    I think these may be sanderling in a mix of winter to summer plumage. Do you think they are? I've only previously seen them running about in winter plumage. I've been puzzling over the bird that has a deeper and more extensive red colouring. Its second from the left in images 1 and 2. Finally I...
  3. abi107

    Cormorants gang up to kill 30lb Carp

    And here is the fish getting their revenge on the birds: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZwPG_x6QEk
  4. abi107

    County Galway Birding (local patch)

    Kane Bride's ringing blog - http://birdringing.blogspot.ie/ - mentions the recovery in Norway of a common gull he ringed at Nimmo's Pier. "A Common gull caught at Nimmo’s Pier in Galway, Ireland on 03/01/2011 was recaptured by ringers on 22/06/2012 at Breiavatnet, Stavanger in Norway, 1113km...
  5. abi107

    County Galway Birding (local patch)

    Thank you for the information on the waders Hugh, Aoife
  6. abi107

    County Galway Birding (local patch)

    Hello, Last weekend at Bun na hAbhainn there was a flock of 40 turnstone (some in summer plumage) and 5 dunlin (all in summer plumage) along with a couple of whimbrel. Would the turnstone and dunlin have been on migration from somewhere further south (like the whimbrel) or would they have been...
  7. abi107

    County Galway Birding (local patch)

    This may be of interest to those on the NUIG campus. For a week or two in the spring when the insects first emerge there are great eye level views of treecreepers in the "courtyard" to be seen from Smokies. There was also a chiffchaff there today (presumably overwintering).
  8. abi107

    Midsummer Murders

    How about the bit where the female blue-crested hoopoe was said to "vigouriously attack the nether regions" of its partner after mating!!
  9. abi107

    What Bird Names Would You Change?

    I'd change the name of the goldfinch. The first thing I always notice about these birds is the red on their head, so I'd call them Ruby Finches. Aoife
  10. abi107

    How much would a Green Sandpiper eat per day?

    Interesting question. This paper - http://cees.eldoc.ub.rug.nl/FILES/root/Animal_Ecology/Articles/2006/VerkuilY-Migrating/VerkuilY-Migrating-2006.pdf - hopefully you can access it - gives rates of between 1 and 100 prey items being eaten per minute by sandpipers. The rate depends on the...
  11. abi107

    wader and gull in Galway

    Thanks Andrew and Jan-Paul.
  12. abi107

    wader and gull in Galway

    What are these 2 birds? I think the waders are sanderlings. They were about the same size as ringed plover and were constantly on the move running up and down the beach. The gull looks like a common gull, but is it too small in comparison to the herring gulls nearby? Thank you Aoife
  13. abi107

    uk flying flocks

    I cant identify the species, but the second photo would appear to be waders as well, possibly even the same ones as in the first photo but from the underside (birds have same shpae in each photo). Aoife
  14. abi107

    County Galway Birding (local patch)

    Monty Hall's Great Irish Escape is on BBC2 on Thursdays at 8 pm. He's based on Inishnee near Roundstone. The show is mainly about cetaceans, but still thought it'd be of interest to people on here.
  15. abi107

    Fussy coal tits

    This reminds me of when I first put out a feeder full of sunflower seeds, instead of mixed seeds. One coal tit was absolutely delighted with this and would empty the feeder by taking a seed, hiding it in the garden and immediately flying back for another one. It did not take long for the...
  16. abi107

    is there ANY other real bird movie (non-documentary) than "the birds"?

    Fly Away home is a nice feel-good PG-rated film about a girl teaching abandoned Canadian Geese to migrate. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0116329/
  17. abi107

    Redpoll

    In addition I'd say its a male at the front, a female to the right and a juvenile to the left. A nice family group photo!
  18. abi107

    Very odd looking bird

    The BTO are doing a survey of garden birds with beak deformities. I'm sure they'd be interested in your photo. http://www.bto.org/volunteer-surveys/gbw/about/background/projects/bgbw
  19. abi107

    Lesser Redpoll ID : South Wales

    Juvenile redpolls I've seen tend to have orange head markings rather than red. A little difficult to tell the shade in the photo, but it looks more orange than red to me, so I'd say its a juvenile.
  20. abi107

    Unusually large amount of roadkill.

    I think you do see more roadkill at this time of year - Both young animals and birds who dont yet have any real sense of danger from cars (I had to stop the car yesterday to avoid runinng over a fledging coal tit sitting in the middle of the road) and adults who are desparately trying to keep...
  21. abi107

    County Galway Birding (local patch)

    There have been a pair of linnets which have appeared in my garden in Knocknacarra over the past couple of week and have become regular viistors. It seems unusual to me for them to be visiting a suburban garden feeding on a seed feeder along with greenfinches and house sparrows. Over the same...
  22. abi107

    County Galway Birding (local patch)

    Several summer vistors heard around Galway city over past couple of days: 138 Sedge warbler and 139 Grasshoppper warbler at Dangan yesterday. 140 Cuckoo near Barna Golf course today. Willow warblers singing everywhere. Looking online their territory size is 1-2 per hectare which equates to...
  23. abi107

    How many birds in UK?

    The authors of the paper I cited earlier calculated the relative biomass of birds to humans for Europe. 4 g of bird for every kg of human!
  24. abi107

    How many birds in UK?

    Interesting thread. This article from 2004 calculates the number of wild breeding (non-marine) birds in the UK to be 126,541,000 and number of humans to be 59,657,000, which works out as about 2 birds per person. Including non-breeding and wintering birds and marine birds would push that number...
  25. abi107

    Something I can't quite understand

    The birds in my garden are always suspicious on anything new. Eventually one brave soul will give it a try, which encourages other birds too. If they like it then they'll be back again and again. I put apples in my garden in the winter which the blackbirds and blackcap like. It takes a week or...
Back
Top