Bird Story

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MISSING PIGEONS - lost and found

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BIRD NEWS:27

May 15th 2012 15:40

What a lot of baby birds! Today, I met a young pigeon - not from the nest built last week, obviously. He stared up at me from my vegetable patch, then flew up onto dad's poly tunnel roof to observe me - unsure. This is one of many young birds now present in the garden - alas, I did not have my camera handy for this one. However, there are many more birds that I have caught on film.

Mother and father starling A had 4 babies. Mother and father starling B had 3. The A family came around a week before the B family - and we currently have both visiting theyard. Here is a taste of what's to come, as I introduce you to these two starling families...

Another recent and regular visitor are our friendly robins. There seem to be a pair of adults, who have two habits - the first is to sit on posts in the front of the kitchen window, or beyond, and stare at me, while the second is to take mouthfuls of food into the ivy, where I assume they have a youngster. I am hoping to meet the baby robin soon - maybe next week? Here are a couple of pictures of one of the adults.

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BIRD NEWS:26

May 12th 2012 16:39

I am thinking I should rename this post 'more pigeons' perhaps? I do have a lot of other photos coming along soon, though. Last week, I took about 3 dozen snaps of some baby starlings. Today, I took a dozen of some small birds, which I have yet to ID 'for sure', but am convinced are long-tail tits. But for today, the last of my loaded-so-far pigon pictures!

Newswise, we have baby starlings - two families, baby robin(s) -well, a parnt bird stuffing their beak and dissappearing, baby blackbirds - 1 or 2, and baby sparrows - at least 4!

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BIRD NEWS:25

May 8th 2012 11:34

As promised, more photographs of wood pigeons! The first two are of Red-Beak on the bird table. This is a favored spot for pigeons to rest for a short time - either before slide-flying inside to peck at seed or flying off to their nesting spot with a twig.

Much of the latter has been going on since the weekend, with Red-Beak collecting a variety of twigs, sticks, and almost-branches of various shapes, twists and sizes. The favored spot appears to currently be the laurel tree, behind the big tree outside my window.

The last photo is of our resident wood pigeon on the water bowl.

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BIRD NEWS:24

May 5th 2012 14:45

I had a friend sitting in the tree meditating while I read a book last night - a starling. I am uncertain as to whether it was a youngster being lazy or an adult enjoying a moment of time-out. It definitely wanted to sit, tuck its beak into its feathers, and stay put, though.

& now for a taster of what is to come this month - yes, it is my old buddy the wood pigeon. I recently took a half dozen shots from various back-of-house windows to try to get the best camera angle... this is a close up of one of the 6 shots I caught of my freind on the bird table and bird bath! More coming soon!

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BIRD NEWS:23

May 1st 2012 12:40

I have just emptied my camera for April, ready to roll for the new month ahead. I found another pair of picturs to share from the past month. Although neither shot is perfected, you can see my father's bird table in use.

In both shots are a pair of starlings - although only the second may allow you to spot them both! Attracting them to the table is the daily feed mixture. I put one scoop mixed wild bird seed together with one scoop suet pellets with mealworms, then I add some cubed cheese and a lump of home baked organic stoneground wholemeal bread - usually with sultanas, millet, dates... some treat baked in. While we used to split this into a morning and lunchtime feed, I now put it all out first thing - and simply put a few crumbs/seeds/suet pellets on my windowsill later on for the smaller birds.

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BIRD NEWS:22

April 30th 2012 14:34

As April draws to a wet and windy close, I reflected a little on the birds I saw while visiting my father in the local hospital. Only 45 minutes walk away, are a family of - can you guess? - yep, PIGEONS!!!! Not just any pigeons either, but white show pigeons.

Now, any long term readers will recall that when I lived in NSW, Australia, I had a family of 3 white and one gray shoiw pigeons born on next doors' roof that livd in our yard daytimes, and that this lovely family mixed with other 'let lose' show pigeons from the breeder on the block behind us and the city flock and hung out in our neighborhood - making my life very happy

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BIRD NEWS:21

April 26th 2012 12:37

Having come to the end of my Highdown Hike photos, it is perhaps time to get back into sharing news from Dad's back yard. I have a couple of adorable pigeon - yes, sorry, pigeons again! - pictures to share. There are usually pigeons somewhere around here - in fact, as I post this, there is one sitting in the tree outside my window...

I spotted a greenfinch in the holly tree two days ago - going into its depths - and am wondering if there may be a nest going on in there! Greenfinches are not unknown, but I have only seen one a couple of times in the 2.5 years that I have been back in England

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BIRD NEWS:20

April 21st 2012 17:29

Today, I want to share three photos of 'big black birds'. Coming from the rook-raven-crow family, these photographs were taken on my 2 recent trips up Highdown.

This is one of those 'is it a crow? is it a jackdaw? Is it a rook/raven...?' shots. One thing I can say is that they seem to be bigger than the jackdaws and not have the whitish beak area of the rook - so it is almost certainly either a crow or raven. Here is another shot....

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BIRD NEWS:19

April 17th 2012 18:33

One more post about skylarks - for which I have saved the best photographs! Despite my father not having seen or heard any skylark activity on his last few hikes up Highdown Hill - circa 6-7 years ago -
on the two recent occasions that I myself took the trip, I found plenty of skylarks

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BIRD NEWS:18

April 14th 2012 16:36

The skylark is like an Aussie magpie, in that it runs along the ground, rather than hops as some birds do. Coming from the family 'Alaudidae', it hangs out in open countryside, fields and meadows. Their nest is created upon the ground - so if you are trying to get closer for a photo - try to make sure you do NOT tread on the nest! It is made of dried grass and often blends in well with surrounding land.

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May 2012

5 Posts

April 2012

9 Posts

March 2012

8 Posts