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    Originally posted by Sits View Post
    Good work VA. I’m always slightly biased towards the Serin since (the then future) Mrs. S and I were enchanted by one which sang next to our tent in Frejus on our first camping holiday together. Don’t get them in England AFAIK, or didn’t back then (1984). I’ve also just learned that a Canary is a type of Serin.
    Now that is fascinating, and not just because I'm a metaphorical Canary. I swear I didn't know that!

    Serins are still only very occasional visitors to England now. My new bird book says "Very rare migrant from Europe: 30–40 per year"; "Mostly woods and villages near S. coast".

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      Originally posted by Reality Checkpoint View Post
      I'm currently in Burnham Market, snowed in.
      Ah thanks RC, apologies for the delay in seeing this as I hadn't looked back in on OTF in the last day apparently. My grandad is near Holt, and so perhaps 10 miles inland.

      He's not the only one whose garden in that immediate area I can see images of, mind. Have you come across this live camera streaming on YouTube from Gresham?

      Last edited by Various Artist; 29-05-2022, 13:29.

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        I've also just become aware of that with canaries and serins. They share a page in the Slovak bird book I have.

        The siskin was around yesterday when I went to the woods, as was another of my favourites, the nuthatch. I love the way they run down tree-trunks. They bully the tits off the bird-table as well though.

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          That webcam is wonderful VA.

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            Originally posted by jameswba View Post
            I've also just become aware of that with canaries and serins. They share a page in the Slovak bird book I have.

            The siskin was around yesterday when I went to the woods, as was another of my favourites, the nuthatch. I love the way they run down tree-trunks. They bully the tits off the bird-table as well though.

            I thought that the last line was slang when I first read it but then realised that it was literal!

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              I saw some goldfinch in the little park today. It's a bit blurred because I had to use full zoom and it was hand-held.

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                That's a good pic. Small birds in trees are dead tricky to capture from my limited experience. It looks decently fed anyway.

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                  I saw this Jay this afternoon. Just managed to get a snap before it hopped off.

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                    The birds in my garden that might be dunnocks* seem to love soil baths. They love an area under a conifer where they flap about in holes in the loose earth.

                    Is that dunnock activity or just something that small birds do?

                    * My thanks for all the advice above. I'm still not sure whether they're sparrows, dunnocks or both. The activity seems more sparrow-like but I'm hopeless at this lark.

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                      Does this help?

                      https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped....480p.vp9.webm

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                        Ah, excellent. So they are sparrows then.

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                          That's a male. The female looks more like a dunnock.

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                            Not being able to piss money away on sports watching, I shelled out for a new zoom lens last week. Will be trialling it on garden birds as Martin Mere will be closed for a while yet. Any acceptable results will be shared here.

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                              Originally posted by Nocturnal Submission View Post
                              Ah, excellent. So they are sparrows then.
                              I saw dunnocks in the park just now, but couldn't get a decent picture.

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                                Identification assistance, please. I saw this on the Thames yesterday and I can't see anything like it in any of the books. It was hanging out with a Canada Goose so I'm wondering if it's the product of a cross-species liaison. I occasionally see the odd Greylag Goose on the river.

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                                  Looks like a feral hybrid of Bar Headed Goose and something else, probably a Greylag.

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                                    Yep, I think you are correct.

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                                      Is avian interbreeding a common thing?

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                                        Meanwhile, starling activity under the eves and behind the soffit by my bedroom window is driving me to distraction. Any suggestions to discourage their activity?

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                                          Hanging little metal chains seemed to stop birds from trying to nest in the eaves.

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                                            Originally posted by Antepli Ejderha View Post
                                            Hanging little metal chains seemed to stop birds from trying to nest in the eaves.
                                            Ah, OK. I think I might have read something along those lines. I might give it a whirl if I can find somewhere that sells such things.

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                                              Alternatively, if you can possibly stomach it NS would it be worth investing in something like earplugs to preserve your sanity/sleep but allow the starlings to go about their nesting untrammelled? Not to diminish the annoyance you're currently feeling, but looking at the bigger picture the species has suffered such a collapse in numbers over recent decades – probably largely thanks to loss of feeding and nesting sites – it seems a great pity to kick them out when they've found somewhere. They nest under the eaves (and quite probably behind the soffit) over my bedroom window too, but I welcome the sounds of their return as it's reassuring to me to know that they've got somewhere here that they can come back to year in and year out.
                                              Last edited by Various Artist; 07-03-2021, 23:25.

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                                                Originally posted by Various Artist View Post
                                                Alternatively, if you can possibly stomach it NS would it be worth investing in something like earplugs to preserve your sanity/sleep but allow the starlings to go about their nesting untrammelled? Not to diminish the annoyance you're currently feeling, but looking at the bigger picture the species has suffered such a collapse in numbers over recent decades – probably largely thanks to loss of feeding and nesting sites – it seems a great pity to kick them out when they've found somewhere. They nest under the eaves (and quite probably behind the soffit) over my bedroom window too, but I welcome the sounds of their return as it's reassuring to me to know that they've got somewhere here that they can come back to year in and year out.

                                                I've got to be honest and say that I'm really not sure that I could put up with it, VA, even with sleeping aids and the knowledge that I'm helping a struggling avian population. I'm a pretty sound sleeper but they are very loud and I'm not sure that I could cope with earplugs. There's also Mrs. NS to consider and she's finding the disruption hard to put up with. Thirdly, they do seem to be causing a bit of damage to the soffit and I think that they might be having a go at the telephone wire too. But trumping all of that, we're expecting to be tearing the roof off as part of a proposed loft conversion in the near future so any nests they built would be temporary affairs.

                                                I'm surprised to hear that starling numbers are declining though. They seem in rude health in my neck of the woods.

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                                                  Fair enough, if there's such a combination of extenuating circumstances. And this isn't 'having a go' at you in any way, of course. I just thought it was worth flagging up because I know it's not obvious how much the species is in trouble these days unless one digs into the numbers a little bit.
                                                  Originally posted by Nocturnal Submission View Post
                                                  I'm surprised to hear that starling numbers are declining though. They seem in rude health in my neck of the woods.
                                                  ...which is rather borne out by your last comment here! Yeah, they're still common by the standards of most birds, undoubtedly – but according to data from the RSPB etc. the population has crashed by about two-thirds since 1980:

                                                  Declining numbers
                                                  Starling numbers have declined markedly across much of northern Europe and the UK. The decline in the UK started during the early 1980s and has continued ever since. Recent data from the Breeding Bird Survey suggest continuing population declines affecting starlings in England and Wales since 1995. The cause of the starling decline in the UK is unknown.
                                                  Long-term monitoring by the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) shows that starling numbers have fallen by 66 per cent in Britain since the mid-1970s. Because of this decline in numbers, the starling is red listed as a bird of high conservation concern.
                                                  Originally posted by Birdguides.com
                                                  26/07/2019
                                                  The decline of British starlings
                                                  It's winter and the sun is setting over the waving reeds in front you. A few small, black dots begin to fly in: Common Starlings. They're joined by more and more coming from left, right and centre, until thousands of starlings come together as one, and suddenly you're watching a breathtaking murmuration. With so many thousands of birds dancing through the winter sky above you, it's easy to be fooled into thinking the species is doing rather well. Sadly, this couldn't be further from the truth.
                                                  The stark facts are that between 1995 and 2016, Britain's breeding population of Common Starling crashed by a staggering 51 per cent. Just let that sink in. It means that there are now only half as many starlings in Britain than when I started watching birds with my dad during the mid-1990s. The situation in England is even worse: we saw an 87 per cent decline between 1967 and 2015. Starlings no longer nest in large parts of Wales and southern England.
                                                  Back to that murmuration – many of the starlings you're watching above your head will have travelled here to escape the winter freeze in countries to the north and east. In those places too, numbers are falling, and we're seeing fewer of these birds arriving each year. It means that the large winter gatherings we're used to seeing are becoming smaller. Are the days of starling murmurations numbered?
                                                  House sparrows, to take the other obvious example of a really 'common' bird, have suffered in similar proportion – so while you'll still see a fair amount of them about, there's vastly fewer than there were only a few decades ago. But because both species seem so ubiquitous, it's arguably harder for most people to get a mental grip on the idea that we've lost so many of each than it is with less widely-seen birds.
                                                  The RSPB, again:
                                                  Monitoring suggests a severe decline in the UK house sparrow population, recently estimated as dropping by 71 per cent between 1977 and 2008 with substantial declines in both rural and urban populations. While the decline in England continues, Breeding Bird Survey data indicate recent population increases in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
                                                  Sparrows appear to be staging something of a revival over the last decade, at least, though I don't believe starlings have managed the equivalent unfortunately.

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                                                    Starlings also in decline in North America, where they're an invasive species, though they're still a million times more populous than the original 80 introduced to New York in the 19th century.

                                                    https://www.pennlive.com/life/2021/0...e-answers.html

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