Birds in my garden

[foxy]

I have a self filling water bowl in the front garden, a possum must have come down for a drink and got caught by a fox. All that was left on the lawn was a little bit of fur and the guts of the possum.

 

[Richie_asg1]

We all make little sacrifices.

 

[Hoppyland]

Saw a bat last evening.
A frikkin Bat !

Well, maybe I'm lucky to be alive!!
When we bought our present house 4 yrs ago, the home report said "there is evidence of bats in the upstairs bedroom". When we moved in, there was more than "evidence" - in the first few evenings we had a number of bats flying around inside the house - even slowly emerging from behind the cooker hood, which was very creepy!
We found that there was a colony of about 300 adult soprano pipistrelles living in the dormer bedroom extension. In the summer, they had a "maternity roost" up there. We had to have a proper survey done, and they reckoned that the adults plus juveniles numbered about 650 by late summer. All emerging at dusk to feed, from a roofspace about 25' long! I have to say, it was an incredible sight. But also an incredible smell as they were roosting (and peeing) in the roofspace just above the plasterboard ceiling. I ended up with 14 large rubble sacks full of "bat guano" (plus dead bats!)
We do sort of miss the amazing sight of them flying out, then massing around nearby streetlights catching moths. We do not miss the smell!!

 

[foxy]

I am amazed at the energy the small bats have, the large fruit bats fly slow, but summer evenings the small bats dive over my water tanks collecting mosquito's, flying off about 30 meters wheeling around and coming in for another sortie. Just seems endless, one flew into a pole one night I walked over thinking it was dead, nudged with my foot up it got and rejoined the others.

 

[EVVO]

With being locked down I have been studying the birds visiting the garden rather than just counting them. Common birds like dunnocks and male house sparrows. Anybody else noticed that they are stunning looking.

 

[Cheshire Cat]

Goldfinch and Dunnock only birds around ATM

 

[Clint]

Hoppyland...sounds like an episode of Scooby Doo...

 

[An Ankoù]

Goldfinch and Dunnock only birds around ATM

You don't know you're born up there in Warrington. Trying to enjoy a glorious yesterday evening and a pint of Simmond;s Bitter and there's a bloody Cuckoo! Every three seconds it's "'uck you!", ....."'uck you!", ....."uck you", ..... without the slightest change of tone, hour in, hour out, ad nauseam... It's like Chinese water torture. And if it's not the cuckoo, it's the greenfinch: "eep", .........."eep", ........."eep"........... Bloody nature! Where's my shotgun?

 

[Tanglefoot]

I've been woken by the cuckoo last couple of days, it's amazing how it's call carries.
There is a Robin nesting just over my shed door which is totally unfazed by any of the work I'm doing in the garden and I've watched a Goldfinch pulling strands of the nylon rope on a tyre swing - perfect for nesting material it seems !
I can hear the fledglings in the eaves when I'm pottering inside my shed.

 

[EVVO]

Saw 2 swifts yesterday. First of the year. Not been out of the garden for 8 weeks so everything I see is from home.

 

[foxy]

A couple of Corellas on the front lawn, usually go around in a huge flock making a lot of noise and mess when the start chewing up the gum trees.

 

[Cheshire Cat]

My daughter who lives in Eltham SE London has green parrots in her garden. They've migrated from west London and the story is the escaped from a film studio.

 

[MmmBeer]

My daughter who lives in Eltham SE London has green parrots in her garden. They've migrated from west London and the story is the escaped from a film studio.

Those are parakeets, my Mum gets them in her garden in Enfield, noisy bleeders they are. I have heard that they escaped / were released from Pinewood Studios after filming The African Queen in the 50's, but I believe that story is apocrythal and they are escaped pets that adapted to the Home Counties environment.

I had a pair of Mallards on my front lawn a few days back.

 

[Cheshire Cat]

I first saw the parakeets in Richmond park in the 90's and people said they escaped from the Indiana Jones movie.

 

[foxy]

We have limited lock down restrictions we can legally travel to our holiday house.

A pair of Kookaburras, carnivores which eat snakes, lizards, mice and young birds.
Though a member of the Kingfisher family does not eat fish.

 

[Hagrid]

My wife has just become a volunteer wildlife ambulance.

This week we’ve had s pigeon, 3x fledgling swallows and a gull. She drew a line at the swan and the RSPCA went for that one.

 

[Edison]

The blue tits have been feeding their fledglings right in front of my hammock.
And the pigeons seem to think my water feature is a bidet.

 

[Clint]

Ha don't you just love tits....

 

[big yogi]

I'm glad I have read this post, I was telling my family that i saw a Robin in our garden, they all shot me down , laughing at me saying I was on the drink earlier than usual.
In my garden I have seen blue Tits,blackbirds, starlings and of course the ROBIN

 

[Clint]

Why would they not believe you saw a robin?