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      I see what you mean. Characters.

      What’s this?

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        Originally posted by Sits View Post
        I see what you mean. Characters.

        What’s this?

        I wondered the same. At a guess it's diving, and its feet are upper left and right.

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          Yes, that or some sort of two headed mutant curlew, out of its depth.

          So probably the duck diving, then.

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            Ducking and diving

            They have similar shaped heads to the eider

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              I've tried for ages to get a decent snap of a bird in flight and failed every time. On the way back from my walk this afternoon a gull flew over and perched atop a lamp post. I thought it looked quite nice there so pointed the camera at it and clicked, at which point it decided to go elsewhere.

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                They’re the best, when they’re unintended. Nice shot.

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                  I have a terrible camera on my phone, but I've been enjoying photographing our local little egret (there are possibly two of them but I've never seen them both at the same time).

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                    I even managed to catch it in flight.

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                      Lovely!

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                        Yeah that’s great, especially considering I didn’t even think they lived in England.

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                          According to the RSPB, "It first appeared in the UK in significant numbers in 1989 and first bred in Dorset in 1996. Its colonization followed naturally from a range expansion into western and northern France in previous decades. It is now at home on numerous south coast sites, both as a breeding species and as a winter visitor."

                          Not just south coast I would say, I saw one at a distance on the marshes at Southport yesterday and they're regulars at Martin Mere in West Lancs.

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                            I hadn't seen a Jay around these parts for several years then yesterday three of them turned up in the garden (/London buses)

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                              We also get egrets up north these days, they're regulars on RSPB Old Moor (the place featured on Autumnwatch) and one flew over my house a few weeks back.

                              Lot of winter ducks around now, on my wet walk yesterday I got to see loads of wigeon, plus a couple of goosander and a male goldeneye.

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                                Little Egrets are also found all the way over in North Queensland.

                                Jays - now those I really miss.

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                                  The birds I see most often round here are:

                                  Mallards / ducks around the local small river, and this little egret. On very rare occasions I've seen a larger white stork in the same area.

                                  Robins, pigeons, doves, sparrows, and occasional other little birds such as bluetits in the back garden.

                                  Crows and / or other corvids and magpies on the common.

                                  Red kites hovering overhead. Occasionally swallows flying somewhere else.

                                  Swans and geese on the river in the town centre.

                                  It's not a bad mix. The green parrots we used to see in Clapham don't seem to have ventured this far North.

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                                    I remember something Bill Oddie wrote about a non-birdwatcher excitedly describing a bird they’d seen.

                                    NBW: I saw an amazing bird in my garden!
                                    BO: It was a Jay.
                                    NBW: It was pink.
                                    BO: It was a Jay.
                                    NBW: And blue.
                                    BO: It was a Jay.
                                    NBW: And white.
                                    BO: It was a Jay.
                                    NBW: And black.
                                    BO: It was a Jay.

                                    Or something along those lines.

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                                      A kookaburra has taken to using our tomato fortress as a perch for hunting. As still as a statue.

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                                        Originally posted by Sits View Post
                                        I remember something Bill Oddie wrote about a non-birdwatcher excitedly describing a bird they’d seen.

                                        NBW: I saw an amazing bird in my garden!
                                        BO: It was a Jay.
                                        NBW: It was pink.
                                        BO: It was a Jay.
                                        NBW: And blue.
                                        BO: It was a Jay.
                                        NBW: And white.
                                        BO: It was a Jay.
                                        NBW: And black.
                                        BO: It was a Jay.

                                        Or something along those lines.
                                        I think the NBW is claiming to have seen a hoopoe. Its a routine he's done on Springwatch.

                                        I stood for, oh it must have been minutes the other day pointing my phone at some trees where a gang of parakeets were having a party. Unfortunately none of the resulting photos are worth posting.

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                                          Originally posted by Sits View Post
                                          A kookaburra has taken to using our tomato fortress as a perch for hunting. As still as a statue.
                                          Excellent. I wasn't going to post this but I've changed my mind. It's not great because I had to use full zoom. But here's a gull, just after the tide had turned, surfing down the Thames yesterday. The cheeky little get.


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                                            Originally posted by longeared View Post
                                            We also get egrets up north these days, they're regulars on RSPB Old Moor (the place featured on Autumnwatch) and one flew over my house a few weeks back.

                                            Lot of winter ducks around now, on my wet walk yesterday I got to see loads of wigeon, plus a couple of goosander and a male goldeneye.
                                            How many egrets? I guess a few (clearly not too few to mention).

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                                              Originally posted by Artificial Hipster View Post

                                              I think the NBW is claiming to have seen a hoopoe. Its a routine he's done on Springwatch.

                                              I stood for, oh it must have been minutes the other day pointing my phone at some trees where a gang of parakeets were having a party. Unfortunately none of the resulting photos are worth posting.
                                              I saw a hoopoe once, on holiday in the Dordogne. Saw my only golden oriole (a pair actually) less than 500m from the same spot.


                                              caja-dglh GROOOOOAAAN

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                                                Egrets, I've seen a few...even in Northumberland.

                                                Or indeed, now I think about it, even in Wallsend

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                                                  Originally posted by Sits View Post
                                                  I remember something Bill Oddie wrote about a non-birdwatcher excitedly describing a bird they’d seen.

                                                  NBW: I saw an amazing bird in my garden!
                                                  BO: It was a Jay.
                                                  NBW: It was pink.
                                                  BO: It was a Jay.
                                                  NBW: And blue.
                                                  BO: It was a Jay.
                                                  NBW: And white.
                                                  BO: It was a Jay.
                                                  NBW: And black.
                                                  BO: It was a Jay.

                                                  Or something along those lines.
                                                  Originally posted by Artificial Hipster View Post
                                                  I think the NBW is claiming to have seen a hoopoe. Its a routine he's done on Springwatch.
                                                  A bit late in finding this exchange, but I can give you chapter and verse for you gents since I have Bill Oddie's Little Black Bird Book in front of me, in which this comes up on p.120 at the start of the chapter 'Listening To The Layman'. I took the book out of my local library in March, and I still have it, thanks to the place having been closed during the pandemic:

                                                  Comment


                                                    That’s the book where he goes to Out Skerries isn’t it VA? I think I had that from the library at some point. He’s good at writing, if rather dour in person.

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