Great Tits

[Sits]

In 23 years living in this area of northern Sydney, I’ve never seen a bird smaller than a noisy miner in a garden. They’re the size of a starling and their aggression may well be the main reason smaller birds stick to the bush.

Anyway this afternoon I’d been hearing high pitched trilling down the side of the house and late this afternoon spotted a female or juvenile fairy wren popping up from the top of the Camelia hedge. I’ve seen them down near the creek less than a mile away but never in the garden.

[slackster]

It was a (rare) lovely dry day down in West Wales yesterday, and we had more than a dozen Red Kites soaring over our place just before dusk. No decent pics for you, sadly, but it was a beautiful sight.

[Antepli Ejderha]

Antepli Ejderha nice Robin, and if I’m not mistaken a Monkey Puzzle tree?

Yes, in the garden of our local church.

[Sits]

Antepli Ejderha nice Robin, and if I’m not mistaken a Monkey Puzzle tree?

[Antepli Ejderha]

[Sits]

Capybara that’s great, and shows how things have changed for Kites since my childhood when seeing one in Maidenhead would be a dream.

Good to focus on that rather than the result.

[Capybara]

This isn't a great picture, but I thought Sits might be interested. At Maidenhead United today there were red kites to be seen. This is one.

[Gangster Octopus]

Is there a raptor living in King's Cross station?

[Felicity, I guess so]

He's a real predator in the penalty area (football pitch on the Annan flood plain)

[Sits]

They got the urge for going.

[Amor de Cosmos]

Snow Geese heading south

[Sits]

That's an Australian Raven.

[Sits]

[Third rate Leszno]

Really good sized flock of lapwings on the freshly ploughed fields near my village today - probably 150-200.

[Reality Checkpoint]

A Cheeky young starling checking me out yesterday

[Sits]

I’m tempted by the kookaburra, frogmouth and brush turkey but I think the Aussie magpie gets my vote:

[Felicity, I guess so]

Peeweeps in Elgin.

We still get decent sized groups, sometimes hundreds, on Northumberland coast

[Sits]

That’s a shame, lapwings (or peewits as my grandad used to call them) were a common sight in many open areas when I was young.

It will surprise nobody to hear that their Australian equivalent, the masked lapwing, sometimes dive bombs people and has sharp spurs on its wings.

[Artificial Hipster]

I saw a large group a few days ago too (probably somewhere on my way to Chorley) and remarked to myself that I hadn't seen such numbers for a long time. Hopefully it's an encouraging sign but I'd be more inclined to think this is the time of year for large gatherings for whatever reason that might be.

[Third rate Leszno]

No pictures but I saw some Lapwings at the weekend, near Hammerton from the train between Harrogate and York. It's not that long (or seems that way - it's probably 20-30 years) since you'd see hundreds of them regularly but they have been in decline and are on the UK Red List. These were the first I'd seen in ages.

We get the odd one (or more usually a pair) on the fields out the back of our house, but I saw a small flock of 30 or so flying beside the M6 just outside Penrith on Saturday and thought then that I'd not seen so many in a group for some time.

[tee rex]

You know those flights that run into difficulty and the pilot has to turn around and go back? Well, they've got nothing on the godwit ...

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/...to-turn-around

Sets out to fly from Alaska to New Zealand. After 33 hours runs into turbulence. Decides to return to base. Touches down after 57 hours in the air.

It's amazing that this happens, and even more amazing that we know about it. Now all we need is a brain implant to track the decision-making process ("Hmmm, this is a right old buffeting, I'll give it another half hour ... no, abort, abort!").

[Capybara]

No pictures but I saw some Lapwings at the weekend, near Hammerton from the train between Harrogate and York. It's not that long (or seems that way - it's probably 20-30 years) since you'd see hundreds of them regularly but they have been in decline and are on the UK Red List. These were the first I'd seen in ages.

[S. aureus]

From the fluffiness, I think this is a young jay. Seems to spend a lot of time in my yard, so maybe the offspring of the pair that were/are nesting in my hedge.

[Capybara]

A Red Kite over Harrogate earlier:

[ad hoc]

A siege of herons, apparently