spuggies and jackdaws and hedgehogs and frogs

[Ullman]

Stoat with a vole in its mouth ran across the road in front of me this morning on the way up to High Hunsley, not unusual in itself but this one was the first I'd seen that had begun turning ermine. They start with the tail and this one had turned white about half its length.

[bobbruce]

On my way out of St Helens town centre I saw a sparrow hawk eating a pigeon. What was unusual it was in a built up area and I only spotted it as I drove off because a man walking past it stopped to look which caught my attention. This man was less than a metre away from it and it didn’t flinch just carried on eating. 

[DavidM]

14 hours ago, bobbruce said:

On my way out of St Helens town centre I saw a sparrow hawk eating a pigeon. What was unusual it was in a built up area and I only spotted it as I drove off because a man walking past it stopped to look which caught my attention. This man was less than a metre away from it and it didn’t flinch just carried on eating. 

A sparrow hawk ate a pigeon on my front lawn and left a bit which he came back for later . And left feathers over my artificial lawn . He roams the territory and I see him in the garden now and again . Not the biggest but a lethal killing machine . 

[Bearman]

On 20/01/2024 at 22:14, bobbruce said:

On my way out of St Helens town centre I saw a sparrow hawk eating a pigeon. What was unusual it was in a built up area and I only spotted it as I drove off because a man walking past it stopped to look which caught my attention. This man was less than a metre away from it and it didn’t flinch just carried on eating. 

I came home one lunchtime to see a sparrowhawk sitting on and eating a pigeon. I took about half an hour to eat it and for most of that time the poor thing was still struggling.

Nature in the red and raw

[Bearman]

I have just visited my local hospital. Whilst turning in and waiting for the traffic lights to change I was amazed to see a magpie crossing the pelican crossing. It had walked across the south bound carriage. It crossed the island in time for the lights to stop me ( I was turning right in a two lane section). THEN, with another island on the North bound road to cross it waited. At that point our two lanes had a green to go. The last I saw of it, it was patiently waiting to cross another two lane North bound section!

[Wiltshire Warrior Dragon]

4 hours ago, Bearman said:

I have just visited my local hospital. Whilst turning in and waiting for the traffic lights to change I was amazed to see a magpie crossing the pelican crossing. It had walked across the south bound carriage. It crossed the island in time for the lights to stop me ( I was turning right in a two lane section). THEN, with another island on the North bound road to cross it waited. At that point our two lanes had a green to go. The last I saw of it, it was patiently waiting to cross another two lane North bound section!

I sense you might have been even more amazed had it been a pelican on the pelican crossing, Bearman.

[Futtocks]

4 hours ago, Bearman said:

I have just visited my local hospital. Whilst turning in and waiting for the traffic lights to change I was amazed to see a magpie crossing the pelican crossing. It had walked across the south bound carriage. It crossed the island in time for the lights to stop me ( I was turning right in a two lane section). THEN, with another island on the North bound road to cross it waited. At that point our two lanes had a green to go. The last I saw of it, it was patiently waiting to cross another two lane North bound section!

It's like when you're on the London Underground and a pigeon gets on the train, waits patiently despite all the humans in the carriage, then gets off at the next stop. Quite a common occurrence.

Edited January 24 by Futtocks

[Ullman]

51 minutes ago, Futtocks said:

It's like when you're on the London Underground and a pigeon gets on the train, waits patiently despite all the humans in the carriage, then gets off at the next stop. Quite a common occurrence.

It's one way of giving Dastardly and Muttley the slip.

[Wiltshire Warrior Dragon]

Bird species of the heron and egret variety seem to have done well in expanding their European range north to now include Britain.  In my lifetime, the little egret has gonje from being a vagrant visitor to become commonplace and a breeding species in England and, by all accounts, continues to expand up the country,  The great white egret appears to be the next to be doing so.

Storks are now breeding again, but it might be argued with a bit of artificial help, as they are at the site of a rewilding project in Sussex.

My tip for the next bird of this broad type to get established here - without any human help - would, I think, be the glossy ibis.  This link doesn't go as far as that prediction, but sort of hints at it:

Glossy ibis | The Wildlife Trusts

I struggle to think of a week this winter when some (typically, maybe, two or three) haven't been reported from one or more locations in Hampshire.  If I am right, no doubt breeding and, in due course, progression up the country would follow.  

It is good to be able to report bird successes like this, even if there is a hint of climate change in the explanation.  I find so much wildlife TV programming nowadays to be very doom-and-gloom oriented, so, I confess, I tend not to watch much!

[Red Willow]

Went for a walk and saw a goldcrest completely uninterested in us humans so close

[Leeds Wire]

1 hour ago, Red Willow said:

Went for a walk and saw a goldcrest completely uninterested in us humans so close

They're busy little things aren't they? Apparently hard to photograph as they're never still. 

[Wiltshire Warrior Dragon]

1 hour ago, Red Willow said:

Went for a walk and saw a goldcrest completely uninterested in us humans so close

Sat at my computer, as now, I always tell myself that the thing to do when you think you have seen a goldcrest is double-check that it isn't a firecrest.  The trouble is, whenever I see a goldcrest, I always forget how to tell the difference between it and a firecrest!  As far as I know, I have never seen a firecrest.

These links explain the difference between the two species:

Firecrest Bird Facts | Regulus Ignicapillus (rspb.org.uk)

Goldcrest Bird Facts | Regulus Regulus (rspb.org.uk)

Looking at the distribution map for firecrests, it looks as though locally resident Widnes Vikings and Warrington Wolves fans should maybe look out for them in winter, with Hull FC and KR followers keeping a watchful eye for them in times of passage.

[Ullman]

On 04/02/2024 at 20:10, Wiltshire Warrior Dragon said:

Sat at my computer, as now, I always tell myself that the thing to do when you think you have seen a goldcrest is double-check that it isn't a firecrest.  The trouble is, whenever I see a goldcrest, I always forget how to tell the difference between it and a firecrest!  As far as I know, I have never seen a firecrest.

These links explain the difference between the two species:

Firecrest Bird Facts | Regulus Ignicapillus (rspb.org.uk)

Goldcrest Bird Facts | Regulus Regulus (rspb.org.uk)

Looking at the distribution map for firecrests, it looks as though locally resident Widnes Vikings and Warrington Wolves fans should maybe look out for them in winter, with Hull FC and KR followers keeping a watchful eye for them in times of passage.

I'd always assumed our garden's annual visitors were goldcrests but from what you say they could be passage migrant firecrests.

[Wiltshire Warrior Dragon]

On 08/02/2024 at 16:21, Ullman said:

I'd always assumed our garden's annual visitors were goldcrests but from what you say they could be passage migrant firecrests.

To be honest, Ullman, they almost certainly will be goldcrests, but one might just be...!

[tiffers]

To my amazement, I saw two pairs of Cornish Choughs on the headland by our house today.

Thought to be gone from Cornwall up to very recently, there are still only around a hundred breeding pairs known.

We see a fair amount of sea fairing birds as you'd expect, but that was quite special today!

https://www.cornwallwildlifetrust.org.uk/wildlife-explorer/birds/crows-and-shrikes/chough#:~:text=It was once so prevalent,has recently returned to nest.

Edited February 9 by tiffers

[Futtocks]

10 minutes ago, tiffers said:

To my amazement, I saw two pairs of Cornish Choughs on the headland by our house today.

Thought to be gone from Cornwall up to very recently, there are still only around a hundred breeding pairs known.

We see a fair amount of sea fairing birds as you'd expect, but that was quite special today!

https://www.cornwallwildlifetrust.org.uk/wildlife-explorer/birds/crows-and-shrikes/chough#:~:text=It was once so prevalent,has recently returned to nest.

Wow, you must have been chuffed to see that!

[Ullman]

23 hours ago, Wiltshire Warrior Dragon said:

To be honest, Ullman, they almost certainly will be goldcrests, but one might just be...!

I'll keep my eyes peeled!

[The Hallucinating Goose]

I heard an owl outside this morning when I got up for work in the early hours. Definitely a male. Always love the sound of an owl breaking into the complete silence of the early morning. 

[Lowdesert]

Strange thing yesterday, not too dissimilar to the sparrow hawk/pigeon incidents.  A Crow dropped down on a pigeon near our house.  Feathers and flapping everywhere and when I got closer the Crow had his neck.  Another Crow then followed and between them killed it.  Me and a neighbour about 2 metres away.  Never seen or heard of that.

[Red Willow]

Heron standing on the neighbours roof.

[longboard]

2 hours ago, Red Willow said:

Heron standing on the neighbours roof.

That's one of my favourite  Incredible String Band tracks. 

[Ullman]

Watched a barn owl gliding along Holderness Drain near Meaux in broad daylight earlier on today. Stayed in view for ages, fantastic sight.

[Wiltshire Warrior Dragon]

I have seen the first reports of calling chiffchaffs in Hampshire this year.  The reporters of them seem to think they will be birds that have just migrated here, but why they conclude that I have no idea.  Apparently, nowadays, an increasing number of this species never bother migrating south in the autumn.

Talking of chiffchaffs, I wonder how many other birds have a common, or local dialect, name based on their call.  I can think of curlew, kittiwake and the various informal names for lapwings. Peewits is quite widespread, I think, but I have also seen reference to (but never heard in use) tewits (in the East Riding) and tuets (in Airedale), while my Aberdonian mum called them teuchits, the 'ch' being pronounced in the soft, gutteral way as in the more well known Scots word 'loch'.  Teuchit appears in the text of the 'bothy ballad' MacGinty's meal-and-ale, 

MacGinty's Meal-And-Ale (mysongbook.de)

Any more examples of avian name onomatopoeia?

[Kayakman]

4 minutes ago, Wiltshire Warrior Dragon said:

I have seen the first reports of calling chiffchaffs in Hampshire this year.  The reporters of them seem to think they will be birds that have just migrated here, but why they conclude that I have no idea.  Apparently, nowadays, an increasing number of this species never bother migrating south in the autumn.

Talking of chiffchaffs, I wonder how many other birds have a common, or local dialect, name based on their call.  I can think of curlew, kittiwake and the various informal names for lapwings. Peewits is quite widespread, I think, but I have also seen reference to (but never heard in use) tewits (in the East Riding) and tuets (in Airedale), while my Aberdonian mum called them teuchits, the 'ch' being pronounced in the soft, gutteral way as in the more well known Scots word 'loch'.  Teuchit appears in the text of the 'bothy ballad' MacGinty's meal-and-ale, 

MacGinty's Meal-And-Ale (mysongbook.de)

Any more examples of avian name onomatopoeia?

Towhees, which sound just like their name when they sing...I don't know if you have them over there.

I'm not sure if you have the grey catbird over there but it does, indeed, sound exactly like a meowing cat....fun to listen to.

[Wiltshire Warrior Dragon]

12 minutes ago, Kayakman said:

Towhees, which sound just like their name when they sing...I don't know if you have them over there.

I'm not sure if you have the grey catbird over there but it does, indeed, sound exactly like a meowing cat....fun to listen to.

Interesting post, Kayakman, for which thanks.

No, we don't have either over here.  Looking at pictures of towhees, they look like the type of bird we would call a bunting, with specific species including the corn bunting, snow bunting and very rare cirl bunting.

We do, however, have one bird that can sound like a distant cat and that is one of our larger birds of prey, the buzzard.  As they circle overhead, they often call to each other.  Indeed, birdwatchers tend to describe their call as 'mewing'.