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P&B Bird Watch


RedRob72

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14 minutes ago, Hillonearth said:

Aye, a lot of songbird chicks will leave the nest that bit early...it seems counterintuitive, but as long as there's sufficient cover and the parents are still on the scene I suppose for predation reasons it makes sense for a whole brood not to be in the one place for longer than it needs to be.

I had one a couple of years ago when the neighbours came round to ask me about a baby magpie that was in their garden looking lost and abandoned...I went round to check it out and the minute I went to pick it up both parents appeared from nowhere completely losing their shit at me.

Rule of thumb is if it's fully feathered and seems to have parents around leave well alone unless it looks injured or is in imminent danger.

Yeah they're fascinating wee creatures. As I said before I'm not someone that knows anything abouts birds but as a smoker i always enjoy seeing the different types in my garden and how they interact with each other. 

I was perhaps overreacting coz I've never seen a fledging, or at least noticed them, due to the feathers I thought it was a fully grown bird. 

Had a wee panic before because he got stuck behind the coal shed so I got him to jump into a box and put him back in the garden about 20 metres away and then 5 minutes later I saw the parent go to the coal shed with a worm. I'm gonna imagine they eventually reunited!

Edited by Albus Bulbasaur
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2 minutes ago, Albus Bulbasaur said:

Yeah they're fascinating wee creatures. As I said before I'm not someone that knows anything abouts birds but always enjoy seeing the different types in my garden and how they interact with each other. 

I was perhaps overreacting coz I've never seen a fledging, or at least noticed them, due to the feathers I thought it was a fully grown bird. 

You can normally tell the young ones by the stumpy wings and short tails - longer feathers take longer to grow in - and the egg tooth on their beak that they use to get out of the shell which actually shows pretty well in the photos you took...it's that yellowish band round the gape of their mouth.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Was watching, what looked like a magpie on a chimney pot when something flew in and attacked it, they then flew down just in front of my living room window, with the magpie looking like it was seconds from death with this small hawk right behind it (amazing sight when you're just sitting on your arse in the living room)

Would it have been a sparrowhawk? Is this usual behaviour? 

Thanks for any info.

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31 minutes ago, Bigmouth Strikes Again said:

Was watching, what looked like a magpie on a chimney pot when something flew in and attacked it, they then flew down just in front of my living room window, with the magpie looking like it was seconds from death with this small hawk right behind it (amazing sight when you're just sitting on your arse in the living room)

Would it have been a sparrowhawk? Is this usual behaviour? 

Thanks for any info.

Most likely a female sparrowhawk. Magpie maybe a bit big for a male to tackle. Female sparrowhawks take wood pigeons easy enough so I would say they would go for a magpie given a chance

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18 minutes ago, Wile E Coyote said:

Most likely a female sparrowhawk. Magpie maybe a bit big for a male to tackle. Female sparrowhawks take wood pigeons easy enough so I would say they would go for a magpie given a chance

Thanks, thought they only went for small birds, like I said, an amazing sight to see.

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3 minutes ago, Bigmouth Strikes Again said:

Thanks, thought they only went for small birds, like I said, an amazing sight to see.

There is quite a size difference between male and female sparrowhawks. Males generally go for birds up to about blackbird size while females go for much bigger birds. Its thought that they do this so they are not competing for food

Edited by Wile E Coyote
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Would love a sparrowhawk to take out the nesting Magpies at the back of our garden.

We have a feeder out and the Magpies bully anything that comes near. We had a couple of big Rooks at the feeder and the Magpies sent them packing.

Total bam birds.

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Anyone seen swallows yet ? Not one around Ayrshire (in my usual spots anyway) which is very odd.
None around our way (East Yorkshire), which is a wee bit odd, but I saw a couple of martins flitting around the admin building in the nick this morning. Hopefully they're just stuck in post-Brexit passport queues..

ETA: Yes, I know they don't winter in the EU..

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I read last month that there are a very small number of swallows in the South of England that over winter there. Global warming ......or lazy feckers !!??

If you feel dangerous you could google "swallows record" on your workplace PC but if you want to play safe there is a Scottish Ornithologists Club website (soc.org) which has a very good migration watch page showing records of sightings. Most areas reporting swallow sightings in April 2022 albeit in small numbers.

None spotted by me in Bo'ness but hopefully see some in next week.

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2 hours ago, Billy Jean King said:

Anyone seen swallows yet ? Not one around Ayrshire (in my usual spots anyway) which is very odd.

Couple spotted just outside Forfar on Wednesday. Good to see but not as exciting as the ospreys though.

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Might have been the work of our local sparrowhawk or a passing cat, but the grass at Bartender Towers was a mess of feathers first thing (for me) this morning - the body had been removed. Before I could consider tidying up, the homicide clean-up team were in. Sparrows removed the lot for nest lining (I presume) within a couple of hours. Natural re-cycling.

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9 hours ago, Billy Jean King said:

Anyone seen swallows yet ? Not one around Ayrshire (in my usual spots anyway) which is very odd.

The wee farm we holiday on in Mull has just posted last night that they've seen a few. 

The farm has a couple of holiday cottages. we don't go on holiday to have a go at being farmers for a week.

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Been watching a pair of bullfinches bringing back nest material to a conifer bush in our front garden all morning.

They're quite late starters - the great tits that nest every year in an old flue pipe at the back of the house have been hard at it for weeks now.

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I'd 'removed' lots of dead leaves off a couple of bamboos the the other day,

as i was going to cut the grass later that day I left them and within minutes, starlings descended and literally cleared the lot..

Saw a blue tit and a woodie at my feeders yesterday..

Been here two years and just the odd bird in the smallish garden..

hopefully things looking up now..

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On 29/04/2022 at 19:57, Billy Jean King said:

Anyone seen swallows yet ? Not one around Ayrshire (in my usual spots anyway) which is very odd.

Saw half-a-dozen at Harestanes (near Jedburgh) today.

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