Garden / Yard List 2017 (10 Viewers)

halftwo said:

MERLIN !!

one just streaked past the house at about 100mph! Low down and looking fabulous!

A nice replacement for the departed Hobbies.

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Your new place is looking pretty good, H.

My total for Sunday, an hour or so mid-morning ...spent most of the morning demolishing a beaver dam and doing assorted general maintenance.

Total is pretty typical for October, most birds already migrated out. Notable by their absence during this count, Hooded Crow and Jackdaw (had been flocks just before); Willow Tit (didn't come to feeders), Grey-headed Woodpecker (seems absent at present), Sparrowhawk (usually some drifting over at this season), Crossbill (mostly daily at present).

Mallard - three over
Common Buzzard - 1
Feral Pigeon - flock visible in neighbouring ploughed filed, only third or forth time seen this year
Black Woodpecker - three together, bit of a squabble
White-backed Woodpecker - two male together at the feeders
Great Spotted Woodpecker - at the feeders
Middle Spotted Woodpecker - at the feeders
Wren -three or four
Fieldfare - several flocks
Chiffchaff -three, little bit late for my land
Marsh Tit - at feeders
Blue Tit - at feeders
Great Tit - at feeders
Nuthatch - at feeders
Treecreeper - one
Great Grey Shrike - back for the winter, first day
Jay - several at feeders
Magpie - pair visible on neighbouring plot
Raven - one over
Chaffinch - one at feeders, most migrated already
Brambling - one
Goldfinch - six
Linnet - four, little bit late
Siskin - flocks of about 40
Bullfinch - pair
Yellowhammer - one

26 species.

SueO said:

My daughter and I are going on a road trip with my four youngest grandchildren. We are going up to Northern Cal to the Redwoods. I have a chance to add a few good birds to my 2017 list and possibly a lifer if I can get my target bird: American Dipper. I ordered two sets of cheapo binoculars so the kids can help grandma find birds. I took the new bins out to see if they were even halfway decent and hear and see a small flock of Barn Swallows fly over my head. Also forgot to add Eurasian Collared Dove from quite some time ago. Maybe if I went out more often, my list would be bigger. New bins are surprisingly good.
32. Eurasian Collared Dove
33. Barn Swallow

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Don't have a new garden bird, but I had to post this update. The grandchild camping trip was mostly containing and entertaining the kids. Didn't have a chance to bird except casually. Last week I packed my new camping gear and took off for the Sequoias. Got my American Dipper!!

Another Merlin north-south this morning!

halftwo said:

Another Merlin north-south this morning!

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Incredible H,Barnsley has changed, when I was a lad and visiting my grandparents on Sheffield Road, the only birds I used to see were sparrows - and they were soot coloured:eek!:
Well done on the Dipper Sue!

First Brambling of the autumn in the garden this afternoon, time to dig out my gloves and wooly hat.

Richard Prior said:

First Brambling of the autumn in the garden this afternoon, time to dig out my gloves and wooly hat.

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My first one two days ago, gloves and woolly hat time too.

No new birds, but finally managed to see an elusive mammal at mine today; was cutting the comfrey patch and putting on the compost heap when noticed a movement on the heap itself; a tiny yellowy-brown thing with a rather long tail; a Harvest Mouse! Seen nests before, but not the actual critter.

Also 4 butterfly species and a Hummingbird Hawk-moth.

Oh and a Skylark singing away whilst flying around. Bit odd I guess.

A small flock of 4

68: Pink-footed Goose

this morning.

Good week for birds. Since sunday several birds that stay for some months in my garden have arrived a bit earlier than usual but the robin I always see on first or second of october hasnt arrived yet!
Great tit 2 so far , Chiff chaff 2, Green finch 2 so far, Black cap male and female ,
beautifully marked Black redstart 1 -its the best black redstart I have seen .
Redstart in garden recent months is still here.
Lots house sparrows 30+ all year round, never without sparrows in the garden
Lots swallows 100+ still around flying madly overhead part of each day been about
couple months others went on these have stayed so far.
I get out about once week at the most to supermarket now but cant get out otherwise
as have no suitable transport.
Sit in my garden as many hours as possible ,including for breakfast and lunch
depending on weather.
Can only use bins max five mins at a time so many times a day I look without them
from kitchen glass door open or closed and kitchen window if weather not good enough
for me to be in garden. Just seen 35 birds within ten minutes just looking from open door.
Was sitting in garden several hours yesterday beautiful day ,today been very damp so
not possible.

Most days all summer I have seen between 35 to 60 birds a day from looking out or when in the garden.
I have a parasol over the garden table, my garden is quiet, some flowers loads of weeds several trees couple bushes thick hedges , at moment rotten apples on a tree and on the grass , the good ones pureed etc and in the freezer since two months already.
To Richard Prior , I dont think will see any bramblings in garden before end of the year, usually see lots end dec first week jan .Havent started putting anything in feeders as there still lots stuff around including insects etc worms lizards snails berries and the apples!

Costa Rican backyard

I can't believe I've only just found this thread, can I play?

We are in an apartment on the Quebradas river in the Pérez Zeledón canton of Costa Rica for September to January. The apt has a lovely view of the property along with the Quebradas river running along the bottom of the garden. We've also set up a banana feeder on the edge of the balcony which is starting to bring in the birds.

Unfortunately the landlord, like a lot of avid gardeners in Central America has planted mostly exotic ornamental shrubs and trees. The result is there is little incentive for birds to stop in the property. Few local gardeners seem to want native fruiting trees.
Now that the local birds have discovered the feeder though I'm starting to see more of them moving through.
As a thrilling side note the Speckled Tanagers have started visiting the feeder. Always a big deal as we are just at the very low end of their altitude range.


So far, 48 species seen in the yard (including flyovers) asterisk shows species that have actually visited the feeder. Mostly we are seeing the usual suspects but it's all fun nonetheless.
Hope to add more as we go on.

Cheers,
Bryan

Bananaquit*
Bay-headed Tanager*
Black Phoebe
Black Vulture
Blue Dacnis
Blue and White Swallow
Blue-gray Tanager*
Brown Jay
Buff-throated Saltator*
Cherries Tanager*
Clay-coloured Thrush*
Common Tody Flycatcher
Crimson-fronted Parakeet
Fiery-billed Aracari
Golden-hooded Tanager*
Gray-capped Flycatcher
Gray-cowled Wood Rail
Gray-headed Chachalaca
Great Kiskadee*
Green Honeycreeper*
House Wren
MacGillivray's Warbler*
Olivaceous Piculet
Orange-chinned Parakeet
Palm Tanager*
Paltry Tyrannulet
Purple-crowned Fairy
Red-crowned Woodpecker
Red-legged Honeycreeper*
Riverside Wren
Roadside Hawk
Ruddy-ground Dove
Rufous-collared Sparrow
Rufous-tailed Hummingbird
Silver-throated Tanager
Social Flycatcher
Speckled Tanager*
Stripe-throated Hermit
Swallow-tailed Kite
Tropical Kingbird
Tropical Mockingbird
Turkey Vulture
Variable Seedeater
White-crowned Parrot
Yellow Warbler
Yellow-bellied Elenia
Yellow-faced Grassquit
Yellow-headed Caracara

No apples on our tree this year Brenda, snow at blossom time put paid to them so my freezer is full of courgettes and beans instead!
Brambling numbers vary hugely here from one winter to the next as do Siskin, a flock of which I saw fly through a nearby pass 2 days ago.
Two Dunnocks visited the garden yesterday, I could've sworn I'd seen the species already( they breed just a couple of kms up the mountain), but they weren't on the list yet. So

[/B]81 Dunnock

BryanP said:

I can't believe I've only just found this thread, can I play?

We are in an apartment on the Quebradas river in the Pérez Zeledón canton of Costa Rica for September to January. The apt has a lovely view of the property along with the Quebradas river running along the bottom of the garden. We've also set up a banana feeder on the edge of the balcony which is starting to bring in the birds.

Unfortunately the landlord, like a lot of avid gardeners in Central America has planted mostly exotic ornamental shrubs and trees. The result is there is little incentive for birds to stop in the property. Few local gardeners seem to want native fruiting trees.
Now that the local birds have discovered the feeder though I'm starting to see more of them moving through.
As a thrilling side note the Speckled Tanagers have started visiting the feeder. Always a big deal as we are just at the very low end of their altitude range.


So far, 48 species seen in the yard (including flyovers) asterisk shows species that have actually visited the feeder. Mostly we are seeing the usual suspects but it's all fun nonetheless.
Hope to add more as we go on.

Cheers
Bryan
a

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Welcome aboard Bryan, that is 48 species I have yet to see!

Welcome, Bryan.

Takes me back to my Costa Rica visit nearly ten years since - I must return.

One or two that I need for sure in that list - definitely the rail.

Richard Prior said:

Welcome aboard Bryan, that is 48 species I have yet to see!

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Thanks Richard, Ditto for me on the European species, I have a bit of catching up to do there me thinks.
Cheers,
Bryan

halftwo said:

Welcome, Bryan.

Takes me back to my Costa Rica visit nearly ten years since - I must return.

One or two that I need for sure in that list - definitely the rail.

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Thanks Halftwo, Yup, the wood rail is a good one to see or more likely hear since that is usually how you know they are in your patch. How can we not with that loud, complex and funny call. Always puts a smile on my face.

Cheers,
Bryan

Winter draws on

First proper frost overnight so it's back to windscreen scraping (or covering) :-C..
All the pumpkin and butternut leaves looked a bit sick as a result so we decided to harvest the lot (the pumpkins, not the leaves) I'm glad we did because as we walked out of the house a

82 Citril Finch


flew low over our heads, so they are on the move already. Later a flock of 7 Siskins paused in the leylandii 'tree' for a minute. Still a few Blackcaps, Chiffchaffs and Black Redstarts tarrying though so I'm looking out for any exotic fellow travellers (Yellow-browed warbler would be nice....).

An unexpected addition this afternoon under heavy skies:

69: Snipe:

two over in typical fashion.

Bryan: I've just been checking my World List - and see that Grey Cowled Wood-Rail is a synonym of Grey-necked - so I have seen that one!