Great Tits

[Capybara]

Oyster Catchers

[Sits]

The local cockatoo gang are very keen on our big eucalyptus tree early evenings over the past few days. They are fantastic but bloody loud.

[Third rate Leszno]

Watched a barn owl hunting the dunes and scrub at the edge of our village yesterday - sun hadn't quite set either so the owl was out quite early.

[Felicity, I guess so]

Up and down the trunk of the leylandii, aye

[Gangster Octopus]

Was it creeping?

[Felicity, I guess so]

Saw a treecreeper on a tree in our very own back garden in Annan yesterday morning.

[elguapo4]

I was out for a walk in the park near my work today and the birds were in fine voice. Merlin picked up Jackdaw,Rook, Sparrow, Goldfinch, Starling and white headed Tit. There were also Magpies, Herring Gull and pigeons around.

[elguapo4]

Some wintering visitors not doing much for the pitch!

[Nocturnal Submission]

I've just done my last Merlin sweep of the back garden for 2023 and bagged a decent haul for the time of year.

Stats. since the summer, which was when I first heard about the app, show the Top 3 most common visitors to be wood pigeons & blackbirds in joint first place, with blue tits, jackdaws and robins in joint third place and magpies, goldfinches and great tits just missing out on the top slots.

There were 34 different species in all. Some of the rarer ones were the kingfisher, golden oriole, jay, pied flycatcher, goldcrest, little owl, mallard, white wagtail and a good old herring gull that must have been blown inland by a storm. I even got a few return visits from siskins and spotted flycatchers.

Great fun.

[jameswba]

Two pairs of bullfinches in a bush on our morning walk today. One of the males should be just visible here.

[Sits]

Meanwhile, lorikeets from below.

[Felicity, I guess so]

Mother in law used to get regular visits from green woodpeckers and despite the woody back garden they used to stride up and down the lawn, sticking their long tongues into the turf

[jameswba]

Sits Yes, they are brilliant to watch in flight. We had one flying just a few metres in front of us a while back. Yesterday, I was starting to think it wouldn't fly off before my train arrived but it finally did.

[Sits]

That’s very wintry and evocative jameswba

A green woodpecker used to visit our back garden when I was a youngster and I learned quite a lot from watching them and from what Dad told us. They don’t actually hammer/drum the way many other woodpeckers do. They also have a lovely undulating flight with lots of flapping from the bottom of the curve, to basically closing their wings at the top. Lovely birds.

[jameswba]

You may have to trust me on this, but this is a green woodpecker, sighted across railway lines today. A bit too far away for a half-decent picture.

[Sits]

It’s telling that my photo of swallow shit has more likes than my photos of swallows or pigeons.

[Nocturnal Submission]

I was surprised yesterday by about 20 pigeons flying out of one of the local mechanics' garages right in front of me. Glancing in on passing, there appeared to be a similar number still inside.

If you put this on the Mundane Thread you'd be in the running for POTD.

[S. aureus]

I was surprised yesterday by about 20 pigeons flying out of one of the local mechanics' garages right in front of me. Glancing in on passing, there appeared to be a similar number still inside.

[Artificial Hipster]

Forming an orderly coo.

Sorry.

[Sits]

Meanwhile inside the centre, the pigeons were waiting for the lift.

[Sits]

And you can map the grid of the pipes they perch on quite easily.

[Sits]

There are swallows which live wholly or mostly in our local multi storey car park. They seem fairly content, especially on a rainy day like today.

[Third rate Leszno]

Fucker of a big bat if it was.

[Gangster Octopus]

Not a bat sign?

[Third rate Leszno]

After 16 visits to Mull, I finally got to watch the White tailed sea eagles! They were a bloody long way above me though, this was on a 400mm zoom lens and the image has been cropped.