Richard Prior
Halfway up an Alp
Wow, gotta be a first for the Barnsley area H, well done lad!
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Garden/Yard List 2019 (4 Viewers)
- Thread starter halftwo
- Start date
Wow, gotta be a first for the Barnsley area H, well done lad!
KenM
Well-known member
Well done H!....certainly one I won’t be getting, although it brought back memories of one seen from the banks of my local reservoir some 45 years ago.
Just goes to show...how time and scarce birds fly by. :eek!:
dantheman
Bah humbug
That will be contender for garden rarity of the year methinks for the whole thread ... Nice one :t:
How far from the coast are you btw?
halftwo
Wird Batcher
A hell of a way - almost exactly mid way between Liverpool and Spurn - c. 100kms - so a Gannet is amazing.
halftwo
Wird Batcher
Too far to see in the gloom. I just got the shape & distinctive flight, not any plumage details. But it's surprising, seeing a bird so out of context, how your brain makes the connection - and Gannets do have a characteristic flight which, when you watch them at sea, you just absorb almost subconsciously, and that almost immediately was apparent. Having watched loads of Brown Boobies recently, my tongue-in-cheek reference to that was only a hark back to recent Cornwall sightings!
It was weird, though, to see a couple of circling Buzzards in the same bin view.
This year has been pocked with surprises - which is what makes this garden watching so refreshing so often.
Richard Prior
Halfway up an Alp
Mind you H, the images of flood-hit Yorkshire recently suggest to me that the Gannet May have still felt it was at sea (instead of being ‘all at sea ´, boom boom)!
KenM
Well-known member
Your reference H to subconsciously IDing a bird before your “brain” kicks in..is so true, and even more so when one encounters a species out of context as with your Gannet.
Many years ago on a “still” warm Oct morning, I glanced up at the trees behind the house and noted (just nanoseconds) “Stone Curlew” then it was gone, so brief was the sighting, that it seemed not to “register” with my brain! Thus I felt just too brief to tick. :-C
Effectively without the “yoke” of competition our respective garden lists would be much poorer. :t:
Many years ago on a “still” warm Oct morning, I glanced up at the trees behind the house and noted (just nanoseconds) “Stone Curlew” then it was gone, so brief was the sighting, that it seemed not to “register” with my brain! Thus I felt just too brief to tick. :-C
Effectively without the “yoke” of competition our respective garden lists would be much poorer. :t:
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birdmeister
Well-known member
WOW, what a bird H!
This has to be garden/yard bird of the year!
This has to be garden/yard bird of the year!
Amazing garden tick.
Been a few records in the area but never managed to connect with one.
Close but no cigar once again this morning.
Walking home after doing the webs count on my local patch. Had a flock of 16 whoopers fly low over me from the direction of my house.
Got in and my good wife asked if I had seen the swans that had flown over the garden “whooping”. 😂😂😂
Richard Prior
Halfway up an Alp
I thought H's Gannet sighting was surely to be the Garden tick of the year but I reckon I've topped it today. I was in England yesterday for a funeral and got back home at lunchtime from Geneva airport. First job was to top up the feeders and also scatter the cheap birdseed that the Yellowhammers like(lots of millet in it) in front of the house and near the kitchen window. At 4.30 (it was getting dark by then) I got the shock of my birding life to see the Yellowhammers had brought one of their cousins with them!
85 Pine Bunting
Not only a Garden Tick but a lifer to boot! A bit rare in France with no records betwen 2014 and 2016 and just the one record of a wintering pair in the winter of 2017/8. The Italian speaking part of Switzerland has a regular wintering site in recent years and their first of the season turned up at the weekend, maybe this one overshot!
85 Pine Bunting
Not only a Garden Tick but a lifer to boot! A bit rare in France with no records betwen 2014 and 2016 and just the one record of a wintering pair in the winter of 2017/8. The Italian speaking part of Switzerland has a regular wintering site in recent years and their first of the season turned up at the weekend, maybe this one overshot!
Attachments
Paul Chapman
Well-known member
:clap:
KenM
Well-known member
....that must have been a sPINE tingling event Richard!...I've only ever seen one, and not in the garden...we now have parity.:eek!:
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Richard Prior
Halfway up an Alp
I’m definitely losing my marbles, today’s bird was of course my second ever P B, we probably saw the same one years ago Ken, Dagenham Chase was it (my kids found the roosting L e Owls more interesting I recall)?
KenM
Well-known member
Yes that was mine too!....Essex a great place for Sibes.:t:
Deb Burhinus
Used to be well known! 😎
Are you likely to get much more with a Pygmy loitering
Deb Burhinus
Used to be well known! 😎
Nice one Richard :t:
