daily delight, lymm UK, garden and nearby reports (1 Viewer)

jape · Feb 28, 2018

the dark lurker is now identified over two days. it is certainly the blackcap male who is quite dark grey in plumage and sits in shadow in the leylandii or oleander and pops out to check the feeders but startles quickly and does not feed. it may be due to weather as i have not seen him or others except an infrequent longtailed tit in the tops of the trees as before. too cold and windy even in sunlight maybe. i hope he is finding food somewhere.

add: wood pigeons both have frozen ice balls on toes. i have seen pigeons with missing toes, this may be why, i hope they have sense and opportunity to remove them as temperature falls further.

more: i understand how a quick glimpse of a bird can lead to a 'sighting'. i just saw a deer!
well not really. i have a paling fence that in one angle allows a half dozen vertical inch wide slices over each metre. i can see movement and recognise for example: skinny male, medium height, blue hoody, small dog, no threat. then i continue reading.
i was remembering deer earlier and jyst saw one flickering past those slats ... in fact it was a great dane which my brain only realused when exoecting the head and got instead an owner with a red hat. so with birds i may surmise from a backlit glimpse but to identify i make myself wait. a minute or two with the hawfinch for comparison with a pic, days for the blackcap to finally come down and perch. the fox was a definite, the wood moyse was even a photo as were the gawks. the deer, well i shall wait patiently.
blizzard again as i write. longtailed tits and a thrush still out, everyone else under cover.

jape · Feb 28, 2018

i have a probable on a treecreeper today, can't find the darn thing in the photo i took so need to confirm but it wasnt the nuthatch. fast mover up old sycamore trunk, brown back, white underparts. it didnt seem as deeply marked as some pics i checked, more of a drab sparrow brown but the white under head was bright

Sancho · Feb 28, 2018

If it had bright white 'chin' and it was crawling up a trunk, it was a Treecreeper!

jape · Mar 1, 2018

Now i have to step up a gear. My first gull actually in yard. I need a camera with instant click, that is on my April birthday present to self list if i am still on this earth. £23 on eBay, it will do me and save me knocking tablet and cuppa to floor while attempting to stand up and call up phone camera app at same time.

To my huge surprise, although it only had some small black blotches across crown of head and a streak of black spots behind where i guess might be an ear'ole, just like it was wearing headphones lol, it was a blackheaded gull apparently. No black head. Hence the surprise. Reddish pink legs not orangey and I am sure the beak was dark not yellow but that is why i need a camera.

Ordered some recommended books for a massive £12 the lot thanks to eBay. Secret lives and the jizz one. and the collins guide. thats my cigars money for the month gone instead on 3 books. Bloody birds.

edit: ordered the cheapo cam. i can do without biscuits. hmmm probably daft of me.
jackdaw and magpie, cold bringing them in from park to next doors white bread fir a quick snatch and grab but they pop in here to swallow it!

Nutcracker · Mar 1, 2018

jape said:
To my huge surprise, although it only had some small black blotches across crown of head and a streak of black spots behind where i guess might be an ear'ole, just like it was wearing headphones lol, it was a blackheaded gull apparently. No black head. Hence the surprise. Reddish pink legs not orangey and I am sure the beak was dark not yellow but that is why i need a camera.

Winter plumage - they lose most of the 'black' (dark brown, actually!) from July to March roughly

jape said:
thats my cigars money for the month gone instead on 3 books. Bloody birds.

Excellent! That'll also get you another month's extra life & health :t:

jape · Mar 1, 2018

Nutcracker said:
Excellent! That'll also get you another month's extra life & health :t:

yeah but .... yeah but ..... hmmmph. you are as bad as my dear departed ex. i dont drink, dont do porn, dont eat takeaways .... dont chew my nails or pick my nose ... allow a man a bit of pleasure! they're only little tiny cigars!

Troubador · Mar 1, 2018

jape said:
yeah but .... yeah but ..... hmmmph. you are as bad as my dear departed ex. i dont drink, dont do porn, dont eat takeaways .... dont chew my nails or pick my nose ... allow a man a bit of pleasure! they're only little tiny cigars!

Your bit of pleasure is visiting us here on Bird Forum, surely?

We have had half a dozen gorgeous Siskins coming to our feeders this morning. They are just so cute.
Lee

jape · Mar 1, 2018

Troubador said:
Your bit of pleasure is visiting us here on Bird Forum, surely?

We have had half a dozen gorgeous Siskins coming to our feeders this morning. They are just so cute.
Lee

well it is a growing and obsessive habit but may be a vice!
never seen a siskin, looking forward to it.
i always thought robins were cute but mine are the nastiest bullies!

Troubador · Mar 1, 2018

jape said:
well it is a growing and obsessive habit but may be a vice!
never seen a siskin, looking forward to it.
i always thought robins were cute but mine are the nastiest bullies!

'Nastiest' implies you have done objective measuring of the bullying and Robins came out on top :-O. You must have different Robins from ours which are easily scared off by Greenfinches (which we call Greedfinches) or Bullfinches which gape their beaks at the Robins and the Robins head for cover.

Robin males and females hold separate territories in winter and will defend their territory from other Robins until the steady growth of hormones changes aggression to thoughts of reproduction. Our Robins have been paired for a while now but the deep snow on the ground has brought back some territoriality to their behaviour.

What have your Robins been bullying Jape?

Lee

string boozel · Mar 1, 2018

I've been watching the Robins on and off at a country park near me. During the winter various individuals would visit the same set of well stocked feeders and they seemed to just about tolerate each other in what must have been an uneasy truce. Fast forward to this week and the hormones must have kicked in as little squabbles and fights broke out all over the place! Plenty of song and also some threat posturing as the gloves well and truly came off. No doubt as or rather if Spring progresses the aggression levels will get even higher.

James.

jape · Mar 1, 2018

Lee, the blackbirds, eight regulars, sorry seven since the mutant grey got hawked, all chase one another off and females seem to be boss of all. they dont bother any others except the female will have a go at starlings.

the robins are up to four with, differently to what you say, a bright male dominant. he chases any bird smaller than starling as soon as he sees them.

the dunnocks are very quiet but most resistant to robin, they just hop away and return.

the greenfinch i have only seen a few times and not in conflict.

the starlings squabble amongst themselves but ignore the others except they push in even on the pigeons.

the woodies push off the collared doves and have an order among them and i believe are pairing off but im not skilled enough to tell with whom. they are not aggressive just strut a bit and whomp down where ever and whenever they choose and assert by mass.

the longtailed tits seem to just squabble from time to time and dont affect others.

the blue tits are usually shy but will sometimes chase off closeby birds including a solitary goldfinch.

the blackcap is very shy, hangs around with other birds in tree tops i have not yet identified but just fades away into cover at any other movements when down lower.

thats it for aggression observation so far.

Troubador · Mar 1, 2018

Great observations Jape and very different from our back garden goings-on where I don't think we have seen a Robin chase anything except another Robin in over 30 years.

Have you been feeding them black pudding or lighting up cigars for them?

Lee

jape · Mar 1, 2018

Lee, the boss robin was noticably aggressive toward other small birds from the first day i sat here last September! Before i got to control my anthropomorphism or whatever it is called, i even started to dislike him. now, i just leave 'em to it. he often goes round to the front of the house and that is when everyone else sneaks in.

no cigars but he may get a whiff of whacky backy from the teenagers who hang around the park for various nefarious purposes.

Sancho · Mar 1, 2018

jape said:
no cigars but he may get a whiff of whacky backy from the teenagers who hang around the park for various nefarious purposes.

Wouldn't that make him chill and hum Bob Marley tunes to himself? The most aggressive bird we ever have in our back yard is Blackcap. They get fiercely possessive of the feeders about February, after a winter of shy skulking.

jape · Mar 1, 2018

ive tried to fit in but am not very good at it
already met some, one in particular, decent souls
i object to being censored in one case where i suggested that calling lion victims families to be plated up for dessert was objectionable but i got an explanation i was going for the person. yeah, they said it.
then an ozzy got upset when he actually misunderstood my post. well that happens
but having a post removed when i said someone shouldnt interfere with natural behaviour trying to save a robin from seagulls with no explanation is too far for me.
leaving the forum unless that gets restored in 24 hrs
thankyou to the supportive friendly souls. it has been a daily delight

jape · Mar 1, 2018

string boozel said:
No doubt as or rather if Spring progresses the aggression levels will get even higher.

James.

i love those photos, mine isnt as bright yet but i have no doubt that as spring progresses, if he gets even more aggressive, he will end up as featherweight champeen of the world!

jape · Mar 2, 2018

first fieldfare, definite, on fence alone

the wind gusts are very strong today, humans with high surface area are stalled against the worst
yet i watch crows and jackdaws balance the wind forces that are direct against their path, so the lift of the gale and gravity are tuned and they 'fall' into it in level passage and cover a hundred metres in its face with just a few wing beats, then it swirls and they are tossed upwards, sideways ten metres but again, dive into it with a wing curl and progress onwards using little energy. they are not tacking across to and fro like a sail boat, angled, it is straight forward progress turning the power of wind into an opposing energy using the curve of gravity -marvellous to watch.

then i watched a blackbird with wind behind him get an extra burst of assist just as he stalled to land on a horizontal pole, tail over head and somersaulted onto his back! some are better flyers than others it seems ...

jape · Mar 3, 2018

not much action but two blackbirds gathering dry grass, nesting so soon or what? do they play?

what i thought was a dunnock top of tree, head back singing, maybe a warbler. backlit and i couldnt hear it because of deafness to high notes!

the new binos are a marvel, absolute pleasure watching longtails in the trees and crows in the distance. i am trying to work out how they fly! seems daft because they all do it naturally but the economy is amazing, how they use wind.

collins bird guide arrived! a well spent couple of quid on eBay. 1991 version from frank to margaret lol. i hope she loved it. the photos are low res compared to what we see now but colours seem more accurate than most online.

Julie50 · Mar 3, 2018

Hi jape

Will not be a warbler yet, only Cettis are here over the winter and you will not find one in your garden. Dunnock is much more likely. I am glad you like your binos - I love mine

Not much in snowy Brum today - but I did see a grey heron over head and a lovely flock of long tailed tits.

DavidC · Mar 3, 2018

Have to say another one jealous of the hawfinch.....49 coming up 50 and been a birder all my life, visited some fantastic countries and seen some fantastic birds...But the only time I seen hawfinch is at the Aboretum New Forest coming into roost on two occasions...... Most of the time they are high in the trees and Cornwall being as good as it is for birding is not that good for hawfinches.

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