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    #376
    Great Tits

    Ta. I've actually posted forgettably and very sporadically before as Hobgoblin but forgot my password and the verification code they sent me didn't work.

    A thread that stares hopefully at the skies seemed an appropriate place to return to on a day like today.

    Comment

      #377
      Great Tits

      Artificial Hipster wrote:
      Originally posted by Kevin S
      Couple of terns (not sure which species) and a cormorant flew overhead on a walk yesterday.

      The thing is, we were a good 35 miles inland.
      On a similar theme I've just watched a black-backed gull (I'm not expert enough to distinguish lesser from great) swoop down from a rooftop to return with a rodent of sorts in its beak which it proceeded to swing around by the head a couple of times before swallowing whole.

      I was standing in a carpark in Hulme (Manchester) at the time.
      Those two are always a tricky challenge unless you can get close - the lesser has paler wings but this can so often be hard to tell depending on the light.

      Today was a good day - a Song Thrush that obligingly sat and posed for a few minutes (pic below), a family of Coal Tits, a two second, two-dip view of a Dipper before it saw me and flew off. Then, best of all, a male Grey Wagtail that literally flew across my eye-line and landed so close that I had a good view with the naked eye* - an absolute beauty. Like the Song Thrush it was willing to just sit there and sing while I watched and listened. Wonderful.



      * So close that I was loathe to reach for my camera in case the movement frightened him off.

      Comment

        #378
        Great Tits

        Lovely pic of the thrush, SdR.

        I've never appreciated Grey Wagtail properly until very recently, but I saw one the other day while crossing a brook and then they've been featured a fair bit on Springwatch this week, and I'm a full convert now. Gorgeous birds.

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          #379
          Great Tits

          Yes, the name sets completely the wrong expectation. Oh, and thanks!

          Comment

            #380
            Great Tits

            SouthdownRebel wrote: Yes, the name [Grey Wagtail] sets completely the wrong expectation.
            Yes, that's it – they're sorely undersold by their name, which pulled the wool over my eyes for the longest time. Grey Wagtail In A Rather Awesome Lemon-Yellow Waistcoat would be a better billing.

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              #381
              Great Tits

              Sort-of welcome Artificial Hipster, and I remember Hobgoblin.

              I don't know about Hulme but when I was in Brum in December I saw a pair of Lesser Black-Backed Gulls in a park. I have a crappy photo somewhere on the phone I will try and dig out over the weekend.

              I've only ever seen Greater Black-Backs on the coast, both in Cornwall and on the Zuider Zee (Ijsselmeer?). Much bigger, and the back is pitch black rather than dark grey. Magnificent and quite scary-looking beasts.

              Nice thrush.

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                #382
                Great Tits

                Told you:

                Comment

                  #383
                  I'll probably regret this*, but...it looks to me that those gulls have pinkish legs, which would make it more likely that they're Herring Gull. Lesser Black Backed have yellow legs, which is probably the easiest way to separate them from Great Black Backed. The wings do look darker than a typical Herring though. Alternatively, they might be a variant of either species that's typically found elsewhere in Europe. Or, a hybrid of the two, or...** <head explodes>

                  * What am I saying? We'll all regret this.
                  ** Looking at this blog's about page, the writer has been studying Gull variations since 2008. He must be an insane, gibbering wreck by now

                  Comment

                    #384
                    I was just in the UK and had glorious views of a beautiful yellow bird near the river in Sheffield - after trawling through my field guide, I couldn't believe that it had been given such an uninspiring name.


                    Last edited by gyp; 16-06-2017, 05:32.

                    Comment

                      #385
                      That's the one, gyp, they are splendid. I suspect the name was to distinguish it from the Yellow Wagtail which has fuller yellow plumage.

                      Comment

                        #386
                        Interesting SDR about the gulls. I bow to your judgement although their backs are definitely on the dark side, so to speak. Elsewhere in Brum (Harbourne to be precise) there was a pair of Herring Gulls we saw every day standing together in a muddy park much like that one. We noticed they had a habit of stamping rapidly on the grass - getting worms up to the surface?

                        Comment

                          #387
                          Oh, my judgement could be entirely wrong Sits, I have no claim to being a gull expert.

                          Comment

                            #388
                            Whatever my gull was I've noticed over the past week or so that they aren't uncommon around these parts. I was watching one from our back yard yesterday evening hoping it would settle on a nearby rooftop but it didn't oblige.

                            Comment

                              #389
                              I wouldn't wish to question the motivations of those people who'll travel miles at the news of a sighting of some rare but nondescript bundle of brown but suffice it to say it's not something I'd do myself. An unfortunate Siberian chiffchaff had been blown on an ill wind to a water park by the M60 in south Manchester where I take regular strolls a few years ago and must have wondered what the chuff was going on as it soon found itself surrounded by a phalanx of telescopic lenses. Obviously I wouldn't have known it was a Siberian chiffchaff, I wouldn't actually be able to identify a regular Chiffchaff if it kept its beak shut.

                              If it was a little closer I might make the effort to go see these guys though http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england...shire-40428787

                              Comment

                                #390
                                A male Red Shafted Flicker — the most common woodpecker in these parts. They like tapping on the metal caps on hydro poles as the sound travels a fair distance. This particular one was having a conversation with a neighbour using a nail gun.

                                Comment

                                  #391
                                  I spent a good hour on Saturday watching Kestrels - first, a lone bird defending its territory against a Buzzard that eventually got tired of being dive-bombed from above and moved on. It's fascinating to watch a smaller bird successfully irritating one much larger in size. Later I happened to spot one perched on top of a tree and got a good view of it and its mate taking turns in visiting the nest - at which point, the squawks of their young erupted.

                                  On the subject of rarities, there was an Elegant Tern at Pagham Harbour a couple of weeks ago, triggering the usual influx of lenses. Due to work I didn't get the chance to see it despite it being only a few miles up the road, but apparently there have only been a handful of recorded sightings of these in the UK.

                                  Comment

                                    #392
                                    I love the name Elegant Tern though the use of the adjective could wrongly suggest the same couldn't be applied to all others of the species. We took a boat trip around Puffin Island off Anglesey recently, the highlights for me including three Sandwich Terns that crossed the bow of the boat. Of the birds for which the island is named we saw but two. Rats decimated the island's population a few decades ago leaving Cormorants as the dominant species.

                                    Comment

                                      #393
                                      Ahh, you obviously haven't come across the critically-endangered Clumsy Tern then AH. Regularly flies into cliffs, falls over its own feet when it tries to land, lays cylindrical eggs that roll straight into the sea almost every time.
                                      The closely related Comic Tern does much the same sort of thing, except deliberately.

                                      Comment

                                        #394
                                        And of course there's the Funny Tern who comes on all peculiar when perched on a cliff edge.

                                        Did I mention there were Shags on Puffin Island as well?
                                        Last edited by Artificial Hipster; 03-07-2017, 14:44.

                                        Comment

                                          #395
                                          And of course the Wrong Tern. But they've all gone missing.

                                          Comment

                                            #396
                                            "It's the Wrong Terns, Gromit, and they've gone wrong!"

                                            The world population of Good Terns has catastrophically collapsed in recent decades, such that it has been reduced to a single individual on Skokholm. Which is a great shame, because one Good Tern deserves another.

                                            Comment

                                              #397
                                              What this thread needs is an About Tern

                                              Comment

                                                #398
                                                I don't know. I think I'm due a Funny Tern.

                                                Comment

                                                  #399
                                                  Your basic Great Blue Heron surveying his/her domain.

                                                  I'm not sure where the local heronry is now. It used to be a couple miles down the road near the ferry, but they built a container port right next to it. Apparently the herons moved over the border to the US, but no one's advertising exactly where that is for obvious reasons.

                                                  Comment

                                                    #400
                                                    Having just moved to a more rural location in the Kentish High Weald, I've been delighted by the number of woodpeckers (both green & spotted) about. They seem very fond of the poles in the hop fields (also a much rarer sight than in past days, though slightly on the increase again with the craft beer craze). Plus plenty of buzzards about.

                                                    More annoyingly - particularly just after dawn when they start up their mass squawking - are the carrion crows. Bloody murder, you might say.

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