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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Garden/Yard List 2016 (1 Viewer)

Still birding on an ''Industrial Scale'', at 10.20 am not just a garden year tick...another garden lifer! A flyover (quite high c 500' going North-South with an accompanying tail wind). After a 2 hour stint with not a lot to show for my efforts, Wood Pigeon, Corvids, RNP's, a single Starling and Redwing etc.(with the Northerly wind, and wall to wall blue, always hoping for Lapwing or any other such irregular)....a Cattle Egret glided into view no.78. :eek!:
 
Cattle Egret not a bad one at all ;) Rarity of the Month?! (Had a flock of 30+ from the garden once, but that was in France).

Mistle Thrush from the bedroom window this morning flying over town - quite an unusual one for Falmouth.
 
KenM said:
....a Cattle Egret glided into view no.78. :eek!:
Click to expand...

That's pretty heard to beat! And you are way ahead of me Ken and I probably won't catch up but I will continue to try.

72) Black Redstart male stopped off for an afternoon!
 
Well done y'all. Now, I'm not the complaining sort, but it's three weeks since I put up feeders at our new place and not a single visit apart from a Black Redstart using one as a perch (at the previous garden the birds would come to feed from early September!). The snow arrived overnight, bringing two Hawfinches and 80 plus Brambling to nearby trees, but for now the view from the kitchen window is a bit birdless (see photo, I suppose I could 'scope a bit further up ;)..........)
 

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Help.
At this time of year my feeders would normally be packed from dawn until they were emptied. For the past month anything that dares to land on them is immediately and viciously chased off by a territorial Robin. I mean everything even Squirrels, Pheasant and Wood Mice -the Robin is to put it plainly a d*ck!
I've never experienced this before and am badly missing my Bullfinches, Brambling and Redpoll.
Anyone ever experienced this and is there anything I can do.
Luv from Dave
 
halftwo said:
Cattle Egret?!?!

A national rarity from your house & no capitals nor fanfare?!

Bloomin Ada, Ken - that's a topper!!
Click to expand...

Interestingly H....It's not a bird I follow on the birding media, and was blissfully unaware of it's status as far as "local" occurences were concerned i.e. Rainham London, Essex, where I discovered that a single bird has been recorded on several dates during late October. I think it just goes to show that if you have the patience and the time (here I'm fortunate in that respect) you can increase your luck by "bivouacking on the windowsill". :-O

FWIW there were nine individuals found on the day nationally, with two in Ireland.

Never say die Joanne!....mince pies to the skies, especially wall to wall blue ones...never had a Black Redstart though....:-C

Your "new view" Richard.....is...well I'm speechless! :eek!:

Dan...I think you should get up on your roof a bit more, and check your lenses for any untoward "material" ;)

Cheers
 
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davewalters said:
Help.
At this time of year my feeders would normally be packed from dawn until they were emptied. For the past month anything that dares to land on them is immediately and viciously chased off by a territorial Robin. I mean everything even Squirrels, Pheasant and Wood Mice -the Robin is to put it plainly a d*ck!
I've never experienced this before and am badly missing my Bullfinches, Brambling and Redpoll.
Anyone ever experienced this and is there anything I can do.
Luv from Dave
Click to expand...

Nurture it? We have an Attack Robin, but the most it does is steal your Sandwiches whilst your eating them if you're not careful.

I probably shouldn't say this but you could experiment with a small mirror - the Robin will see the other 'robin' and possibly when it doesn't fly off admit defeat (or physically attack it). Don't leave it unattended though.

Video footage of it chasing a Pheasant or Labrador could make you famous ... how does it respond to local cats?
 
... the other more mainstream suggestion is to have two feeding stations, as widely separated from each other as possible. Hopefully it will be unable to defend them both adequately at once - it will wear itself out going between the two, and other birds will get a chance to snatch something. Depends on your location of course, but if you can set up one in the front and one in the back garden it will find it really hard to defend both simultaneously.

(And it's hormones - not sure if the problem will slowly go away as the cold sets in/the birds physiology (too much testosterone?) changes.)
 
dantheman said:
.... to have two feeding stations, as widely separated from each other as possible. ...
Click to expand...
They don't have to be far apart; you could have two feeders right next to each other, with a board between them so when the Robin is on one, it can't see what's eating at the other ;)
 
It tends to sit on the garage watching everything. We do have feeders back and front but it's a small bit of woodland at the back so different species. I think really there's nothing we can do. Hopefully it'll wear itself out, die or eat so much it can't be bothered.
 
Steady on Dave, hoping a Robin will die? I don't think any of the other species you normally get visiting will starve as a result of its territorial behaviour :t:
 
KenM said:
Interestingly H....It's not a bird I follow on the birding media, and was blissfully unaware of it's status as far as "local" occurences were concerned i.e. Rainham London, Essex, where I discovered that a single bird has been recorded on several dates during late October. I think it just goes to show that if you have the patience and the time (here I'm fortunate in that respect) you can increase your luck by "bivouacking on the windowsill". :-O

FWIW there were nine individuals found on the day nationally, with two in Ireland.

Never say die Joanne!....mince pies to the skies, especially wall to wall blue ones...never had a Black Redstart though....:-C

Your "new view" Richard.....is...well I'm speechless! :eek!:

Dan...I think you should get up on your roof a bit more, and check your lenses for any untoward "material" ;)

Cheers
Click to expand...

Nice work with the Cattle Egret Ken! Sadly I missed the one (or two possibly) at Rainham Marshes by a couple of days when I was over last month! :C
Anyway I was out in the garden raking leaves this morning (20c here, apologies to those with or expecting snow!) and half a dozen Jackdaw flew over for no. 45.

Chris
 
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Scridifer said:
Nice work with the Cattle Egret Ken! Sadly I missed the one (or two possibly) at Rainham Marshes by a couple of days when I was over last month! :C
Anyway I was out in the garden raking leaves this morning (20c here, apologies to those with or expecting snow!) and half a dozen Jackdaw flew over for no. 45.

Chris
Click to expand...

Thanks Chris, fairly quiet today although!....a ''lifer'' in the sense that I have never had one in the bird bath before, a Goldcrest for about a minute, nonchalantly bathing to it's hearts delight!!

Cheers
 
KenM said:
Thanks Chris, fairly quiet today although!....a ''lifer'' in the sense that I have never had one in the bird bath before, a Goldcrest for about a minute, nonchalantly bathing to it's hearts delight!!

Cheers
Click to expand...

Nice one Ken! We've had our birdbath less than a year and I know how excited I was when we had our first 'customer' - a Great Tit!

Chris
 
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