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spuggies and jackdaws and hedgehogs and frogs


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After going missing for a couple of years found a couple of Wood Warbler nests in the wood by Crummock water , both successfully fledged , going tonight to Loweswater a male has been singing there but no sign of a female and time is running out .The time of year for Spotted Flycatchers to nest as well .

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Three juvenile grey wagtails flitting around the banks of Meanwood Beck in north Leeds this afternoon, moving in unison presumably as recently fledged siblings (anyone know?).

We have resident pied wagtails on the field of our cricket club too, but I never wondered they whey wag until today.

https://www.discoverwildlife.com/animal-facts/birds/why-do-wagtails-wag/

It's also made me realise that it's probably another wildlife misnomer, as they don't actually wag but bob up and down.

 

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For birds, this is always a quiet time of year - literally.  Not much singing and calling going on, for a mix of reasons.

However, a couple of times in recent days I have heard one of the more endearing sounds of mid to late summer in the New Forest.

I can recognise an adult buzzard's 'mewing' call.  These last couple of times, it has been accompanied by what sounds like one calling, but with a bit of a sore throat - very squeaky and uneven!  It is in fact a fledged youngster being shown the arts of drifting, thermal riding and diving by one or both parents, and keeping in touch by calling out regularly.

As I say, very characteristic of this point in the calendar.

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I’ve got a baby blackbird I’ve named Cuthbert to eat sultanas out of my hand. Bold as brass it is . It started off by standing on my back doorstep and wouldn’t move when I wanted in , then a day later he was being hand fed 

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22 hours ago, Futtocks said:

 

I believe I am right in saying that the inventor of subbuteo table football was a keen birdwatcher; he hoped his invention would become a popular hobby and hence called it that - 'subbuteo' as in 'falco subbuteo', a hobby!

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3 minutes ago, Wiltshire Warrior Dragon said:

I believe I am right in saying that the inventor of subbuteo table football was a keen birdwatcher; he hoped his invention would become a popular hobby and hence called it that - 'subbuteo' as in 'falco subbuteo', a hobby!

Almost; the inventor Peter Adolph wanted to call the game "Hobby" but it was considered too generic a name to be trademarked. So, being an ornithologiist, he came up with the name we know today.

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Let me never fall into the vulgar mistake of dreaming that I am persecuted whenever I am contradicted.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

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I've only seen a hobby once, when one rocked up at Worsbrough Dam in Barnsley, which was my local patch. There is, or at least was, a swallow roost in the reedbeds there and the hobby was filling its boots. Spectacular to watch.

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Mrs WWD each year plants up some pots just outside the back door; the flowers are vivid and colourful, and always attract bees.  In the last few days we have had visits from one of these, which are a joy and fascinating to watch:

Hummingbird hawk-moth | The Wildlife Trusts

We get one or two around these pots most years, but I think this one is this year's first.

 

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After several months of hearing the raucous little sods, but (with a severely limited view out of the back of the house) no visual confirmation 'til today, I can confirm that my neighbourhood has parakeets.

Let me never fall into the vulgar mistake of dreaming that I am persecuted whenever I am contradicted.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

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9 hours ago, Futtocks said:

 

That's stunning.

And there was I getting excited about a close encounter with a sparrowhawk at Tunstall this morning.

"I'm from a fishing family. Trawlermen are like pirates with biscuits." - Lucy Beaumont.

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3 minutes ago, Ullman said:

That's stunning.

And there was I getting excited about a close encounter with a sparrowhawk at Tunstall this morning.

It looks almost heraldic and formal.

Let me never fall into the vulgar mistake of dreaming that I am persecuted whenever I am contradicted.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

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On 22/11/2022 at 09:35, Futtocks said:

I just found out there's a bird conservation society called https://ingloriousbustards.com :kolobok_biggrin:

The great bustard is, of course, our county bird down here in Wiltshire.  

The bad news is that they were hunted to extinction on Salisbury Plain by our gun-toting Victorian predecessors.

The good news is that there is a well established, slowly-but-surely, programme to reintroduce them on the plain.  Here is the link

 Home - Great Bustard Group

It seems counterintuitive, but the presence of the army on extensive parts of the plain given over to military exercises, probably helps the bustards (and other wildlife) by keeping people away!  On the webcam compilation on that website, you can see them cheerfully relaxing just yards from a 'keep out' red flag.

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I've just spent a minute or two browsing in the bustard group's online shop.  I like the T-shirt options, namely 'clever bustard', 'stupid bustard', 'angry bustard' and 'fat bustard'!

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Somebody has reported seeing a swallow today feeding in flight over a lagoon on the Hampshire coast.  Now that really is late in the year!  I wish it well as it heads south.

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Fieldfares have arrived in numbers if the last week is anything to go by. Seen a few flocks of them. Lots of kestrels and sparrowhawks around in the East Yorkshire countryside too.

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"I'm from a fishing family. Trawlermen are like pirates with biscuits." - Lucy Beaumont.

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33 minutes ago, Ullman said:

Fieldfares have arrived in numbers if the last week is anything to go by. Seen a few flocks of them. Lots of kestrels and sparrowhawks around in the East Yorkshire countryside too.

Flock of Fieldfares came over the allotment last week - thought it was pigeons at first with the speed as they approached

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1 hour ago, Ullman said:

Fieldfares have arrived in numbers if the last week is anything to go by. Seen a few flocks of them. Lots of kestrels and sparrowhawks around in the East Yorkshire countryside too.

 

55 minutes ago, Les Tonks Sidestep said:

Flock of Fieldfares came over the allotment last week - thought it was pigeons at first with the speed as they approached

That distinctive, soft "chu-chu-chu" call of fieldfares in flight is one of my favourite bird calls, and very evocative of this time of year.

Do you think your filedfare flocks were just filedfares, or were there redwings mixed in with them?

I haven't seen many of either yet.  A fieldfare flock of about 40 in the New Forest was the most noticeable.

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