HeartsOfficialMoaner Posted May 27, 2020 Share Posted May 27, 2020 Never got a photo but saw a young crow with a cross bill. I take it they don't live long. They must find it hard to pick up food. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melanius Mullarkey Posted May 27, 2020 Share Posted May 27, 2020 Counted 10 magpies in the bit next to the hoose earlier. A few young ones in amongst them. What a racket. On the plus side they set about one of the squirrels which was nice. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hillonearth Posted May 27, 2020 Share Posted May 27, 2020 A dozen greylag geese over the house earlier on - heard them honking before we saw them! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Herman Hessian Posted May 27, 2020 Share Posted May 27, 2020 22 minutes ago, HeartsOfficialMoaner said: Never got a photo but saw a young crow with a cross bill. I take it they don't live long. They must find it hard to pick up food. not massively uncommon, as it happens - and it doesn't spell an early death sentence either; it's believed to be an inherited condition, so chances are that herbert will at least live long enough to breed, if not last to a ripe old age (some 'normal' crows can reach 15 !); i didn't realise until recently that bird's beaks 'wear out' at the pointy end with normal use and grow constantly, so if it has to eat in a peculiar manner chances are the deformity will get worse and - because it cannot then preen itself properly - it'll get mite infestations which won't increase its chances of living to any reasonable sort of age 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HeartsOfficialMoaner Posted May 27, 2020 Share Posted May 27, 2020 23 minutes ago, Herman Hessian said: not massively uncommon, as it happens - and it doesn't spell an early death sentence either; it's believed to be an inherited condition, so chances are that herbert will at least live long enough to breed, if not last to a ripe old age (some 'normal' crows can reach 15 !); i didn't realise until recently that bird's beaks 'wear out' at the pointy end with normal use and grow constantly, so if it has to eat in a peculiar manner chances are the deformity will get worse and - because it cannot then preen itself properly - it'll get mite infestations which won't increase its chances of living to any reasonable sort of age I never knew that. First time I'e seen one. Looked like there was an old bird looking over it but maybe not, I might have just been putting 2 and 2 together. I was in a wooded area and they were the only 2 around. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Genuine Hibs Fan Posted May 27, 2020 Share Posted May 27, 2020 Saw a couple of seagulls chasing a kite which had taken some poor wee rodent when I was on the way home from a walk this evening. Was like a dog fight with a lot of swooping, thermal rising and dodging. Tremendous entertainment 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deanburn Dave Posted June 2, 2020 Share Posted June 2, 2020 Out for a walk this evening and found a Green Woodpeckers nest. Chicks were making some racket when a parent arrived with food. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rizzo Posted June 3, 2020 Share Posted June 3, 2020 This wee guy smacked into our front window this morning but seems to be coming round. Thinking it's a juvenile greenfinch? Will give it a wee while before punting back outside as the resident magpie family are hanging about. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PWL Posted June 3, 2020 Share Posted June 3, 2020 We're now getting multiple goldfinches on our sunflower heart feeder. I'd go as far as to say they are now the most common small garden bird I'm getting at the moment. We moved house 6 years ago but only went half a mile or so from old place. We used to get loads of greenfinches and siskins in previous garden but not a single one here. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melanius Mullarkey Posted June 6, 2020 Share Posted June 6, 2020 Swannie ponds have cracking cygnets just now. Getting quite big. Plus some duck things (black with a white bit on the head) have built a mid-pond nest. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nkomo-A-Gogo Posted June 6, 2020 Share Posted June 6, 2020 Was a busy day for birds out our back. First a young starling came down and stayed for hours picking aphids off the sweet pea. Then a wren stopped by. A wood pigeon some blue tits and a load of sparrows. There are jackdaws nesting in the neighbours chimneys but anytime they try to land on my bird feeder magpies come out of nowhere and chase them off. p***ks 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fife Saint Posted June 7, 2020 Share Posted June 7, 2020 I've spent a lot of time in the country in my life and last week was the first time I had seen a Tree-creeper! 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Mantis Posted June 8, 2020 Share Posted June 8, 2020 Was out the other night as I was told there was a fox that hung about the park & ride. Saw this Kestrel instead. 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tamthebam Posted June 8, 2020 Share Posted June 8, 2020 An old name for the kestrel is the "windfucker". Should have kept that- "Windfucker Lager" has a certain ring to it! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hillonearth Posted June 9, 2020 Share Posted June 9, 2020 On 07/06/2020 at 11:39, Fife Saint said: I've spent a lot of time in the country in my life and last week was the first time I had seen a Tree-creeper! They're wee buggers to see - they're so well camouflaged sometimes all you'll see is a bit of movement on a tree trunk that helps you zero in on it. I remember sitting at a pub table under a canopy of trees in central Amsterdam when I saw one no more than six or seven feet away from me...thing must have been there the whole time and I hadn't noticed. Brucie bonus armchair tick when I got home and realised what I'd seen had been a short-toed treecreeper, an almost indistinguishable separate species...the distribution of the common treecreeper we get in the UK stops short of the Channel for some reason, so any you see in the low countries are stick-ons for short-toed. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Herman Hessian Posted June 14, 2020 Share Posted June 14, 2020 (edited) been a dull summer so far at ours on the bird front; sat out for a couple of hours yesterday just watching what was on the feeders, and the best i can manage is a delinquent family of starlings who descend en masse and cause a scene, and a whole pile of young blue tits (collectively referred to 'the fledgetits' by someone juvenile); random great tit has gatecrashed the party too all this activity, for the most part, is observed with malicious intent by the murderous beast from her lair in the fuhrer bunker (have dug out the footings for a new porch that'll be built at some point, which has provided the cover) Edited June 14, 2020 by Herman Hessian 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melanius Mullarkey Posted June 16, 2020 Share Posted June 16, 2020 Is this some kind of goose? Quite a big b*****d. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snobot Posted June 16, 2020 Share Posted June 16, 2020 32 minutes ago, Melanius Mullarkey said: Is this some kind of goose? Quite a big b*****d. Maybe a juvenile shell duck according to the bird book 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melanius Mullarkey Posted June 16, 2020 Share Posted June 16, 2020 1 minute ago, Snobot said: Maybe a juvenile shell duck according to the bird book Ah cool. Saw it last week hanging about with the other ducks. Was back again today. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hillonearth Posted June 16, 2020 Share Posted June 16, 2020 2 hours ago, Melanius Mullarkey said: Is this some kind of goose? Quite a big b*****d. It's got a blue speculum like the rest of them so looks like there's mallard genetics in there - my guess is a feral or escaped domestic duck which are all descended from mallards anyway and generally are a bit bigger with that upright stance. You'll quite often see the odd one in parks that gravitate towards wild mallards...there are a few of them in Maxwell Park in Glasgow for instance just now. Not too up on them, but I think it might be a breed called the Khaki Campbell. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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