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What bird are you most proud of having in your garden? (1 Viewer)

At my old house in Essex, pride of place went to a cracking Firecrest which visited for a day one April. Mealy Redpoll in the invasion year, fly over Hobby and Kingfisher get honourable mentions.

In Elgin the pair of overwintering Blackcaps were nice, and fiercely defended from the local cats which seemed to be eyeing them up! 6 Waxwings last October in the garden seemed rather insignificant compared to the 1300+ I had in Forres the following week, but still gave a sense of satisfaction

Andy J
 
Almost exaclty a year ago a Yellow Browed Warbler appeared in my garden, it stayed around for more than a month. Other favourites include Lesser Whitethroat and four or five Firecrests.
I'd like to have a merlin on the fence...I'd have to rearrange my list of favourites then.
 
Gold finches, occasional parties of Long tailed Tits but most
importantly in the last couple of weeks the return of house sparrows

Steve
 
Garden birding is better than birding out and about through the winter in this country.

Dozens of highlights, where to start?

Summer In the garden: breeding Redstarts and Pied Flycatchers, Golden Orioles singing, Hawfinches and Thrush Nightingale, one singing Greenish Warbler last year. Overhead: Lesser Spotted Eagle, Crane, Hobby, etc. Can hear Bitterns booming at night.

Winter Regular Waxwings. At the feeders: Middle Spotted Woodpecker, Crested Tit, Yellowhammer, Great Grey Shrike several times. Plus fly-over Black Woodpecker and Nutcrackers sometimes.

Not quite in a garden, but started a feeding station in woodland this year - seen White-tailed and Lesser Spotted Eagle there, plus have five species of woodpecker (four on the feeders, including Lesser Spotted and Grey-headed Woodpecker ). For the last week, a Treecreeper has started to use the feeders - does go on the feeders themselves but runs around the stumps below the feeders and picks up dropped food scraps (watched with binocullars today and was taking peanut fragments).
 
I guess I ought to say that the Kestrel which comes into the garden from the neighbours owl box, but I hate the fact that it uses my garden as a 'takeaway'. It caught a blackbird yesterday, and if there was anyway to prevent it coming into the garden I would. But I love the robins that follow me around while I am gardening. And they will sit there while I take photos.
 
A few months ago a Chestnut-backed chickadee spent several weeks roosting nightly on a plant hook beneath the roof of our front porch. It finally moved on, but to encourage other roosting birds I put up a couple of those commercially made roosting pockets, the ones that look very much like nests.

Well, predictably, nothing happened with these pockets for quite a while, and I'd all but forgotten about them. A few days ago, however, I heard scolding and manic singing from one of them, and lo and behold, there was a Bewick's wren's face sticking out from the hole in the roosting pocket!

Even better, it turns out there are two wrens living there, and I saw one of them this morning carrying nesting material. Bewick's wren is a common bird here in coastal California, but in the middle of an older urban neighborhood here in south Berkeley, it's something special to have a pair nesting outside my bedroom window.
 
kajrowe said:
Hello everyone,

Including fly-overs what bird are you most proud of haveing in your garden? For me it was an avocet fly-over low, 1 day after I saw my very first one! sod's law!

Kristian

P.S. Add photos if possible, please.

Well, counting fly-overs it would have to be a pair of Red-tailed Hawks. As for actual visitors to my feeders I would say the trio of Fox Sparrows that visited only once so far. It's hard to make a decision since I think they're all great in their own way. :flowers:
 

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I saw the second Dutch Black Vulture over my garden when it travelled up and down the Dutch coast and en flock of 18(!!) Griffons after a report of 'more then one bird' near my place. It gave me a bit of a shock.

other birds over my house: Black Stork and Dotterel
 
Having a lie in this weekend I was forced to get up by a cacophony of noise from outside.
Looked out the window and was surprised to see our solitary tree covered in Redwings (50-60).
This is in a tiny communal garden at a small block of flats in urban North London!
Also get regular visits from a goldrest.

Dave
 
hi folks
i have big problem when it comes to what i get IN my garden as it is literally only about the length of the house and extends out around four feet, to be honest i very rarely get anything but jackdaws,but i did get a mistle thrush a short while ago. but from it i commonly get ravens and buzzard seen one red kite and occasionally a peregrine but apart from that flying over, not much else
 
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For me, three GSWs at once on the table (adult male and 2 juveniles). Oh, and also a tit that has baffled BF members (suggestions have included: diseased blue tit, blue tit x great tit, blue tit x coal tit, melanistic blue tit). See attached!
 

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Neil Grubb said:
Oh, and also a tit that has baffled BF members (suggestions have included: diseased blue tit, blue tit x great tit, blue tit x coal tit, melanistic blue tit). See attached!

Something out of the Roslin Research Institute?

Isn't that where Dolly the Sheep lived?
 
Nutcracker said:
Something out of the Roslin Research Institute?

Isn't that where Dolly the Sheep lived?


I can see loads of Great tit in there structurally and loads of Blue tit plumage, though there is no reason for hybrids necessarily to look like a meld between it parents, the fact that this one does makes me think its Great x Blue! It seems the gene for Great tits black belly line got out of control though!
 
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I've had Ring Ouzel (in), Jack Snipe (in), Black Grouse (from), Dipper (in), Grey Wags (in), Common Sandpiper (from), Grey Partridge (from).

Rob
 
Fly-overs : Red Kites, Buzzards, Peregrines, Kestrels, Green Woodpeckers.
Feeding : Ravens, Meadow Pipits, Goldfinches, Lesser Black-backs, several semi-albino Jackdaws, Linnets.

The Red Kites are my favourite, though I love the Ravens also - and there's a pair nesting nearby.
 
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