h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Today is fairly sunny and calm in my garden so generally a good day to see lots of birds. A pair of Greenfinches normally regulars but around 30 feet up the oak tree were straight infront of my window only around 10 feet up in the small tree pinching the blossom.
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I thought I saw 2 new birds with very long upright tails and creamish coloured bums so grabed binos quickly. Far from being new it was 2 Robins facing away but holding their tails up near vertically like I had not noticed before, loving of fighting, I wasn't sure but they looked really differant. It has gone quiet now as tyhe bright ginger cat has decided ton sunbath in full view on garden shed next door!
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It is funny talking of commonish birds doing differant things as I read yeasterday in a magazine of their writer stopping at a field and and asking several birwatchers if they had seen anything. One said nothing it wasn't good, another on the same field said it was fantastic as their was a 1,000 Lapwings and other birds. The differance was that one was a Twitcher and only interested in getting another tick in book and the other was interested in birds as bird and thought the lovely Lapwings were fantastic!
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Ginger cat has now had a poo and gone so the birds are singing again and may see more!

SS. very sad about the Canada goose. I am relieved that it does sound like a natural event, if access is only with a code. It is the sort of thing vandals do here unfortunately. I also find it strange that the goose was upright. I would have thought it would have been tipped over, whether rigor mortis had set in or not.

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Scorp, Operation Migration teeters on a tightrope. Do they keep us all informed and risk this stupid behaviour, or not tell us? I am inclined to think they should not publicise whereabouts of birds until after they have moved on, but of course the word gets out among local people, who may well be ignorant of the damage they do. Very sad.

Back later....

Websailor

Oops, I will try to write this post in english!
Yes it was strange it was upright still but perhaps just died while asleep. I did think that someone might have removed head/neck for analysis but I think they only do that on rarer birds of prey type birds and would have thought they would have dumped rest of body not left it there. There were no feathers spread around, except where head was removed, so didn't look like it had been attacked. It is strange as never see many smaller birds that have died but suspect that animals would eat them pretty quickly as so small. A Canada Goose is a differant situation entirely!
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A wren just arrived on tree and a lovely sight to see. I am listening to bird song with window open a little and it is great , even the clicks and pops of snarlings.

The robins were either courting or it was two males, each trying to gain supremacy over the other. I wonder if there was a third watching from nearby? They look like large wrens with their tails up don't they? Their behaviour in the breeding season is fascinating if you get a chance to watch for long.

There is a huge difference between twitchers and birdwatchers. I am of the latter persuasion, as I think it is a privilege to have birds come to me and all are welcome. The addiction of twitchers, and it is that, is not my idea of fun, and it has been known to destroy families. I do keep a list of birds I have recognised, but even if I could, I wouldn't go charging round the world to catch a fleeting glimpse of a new bird, which might not even be there on arrival!

You know I am still worrying about that goose, it seems such an odd thing to happen!

Websailor

As far as I could tell nothing untoward happend as no footprints around Canada Goose, no signs of a struggle or evidence of damage except head and neck missing of course. It could just have been old age or it swallowed something harmful like fishing line. There is a massive steel fence around perimeter as most reservoirs have these days so extremely difficult to get in and the river has hundreds if not thousands of Canada geese so if someone wanted to harm one there are easier ways to get one. And to be honest a a goose fighting back would be heck of a thing if it even let you get near to it. I suspect if it was ill or dieing and knew it then the quieter small pond where they don't usually is where it would go.
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Many years ago I saw a really sick swan on a bank and the RSPCA came and said it had TB if I remember correctly, it was a long time ago. They took it away but don't think it survived as in a near total state of collapse.

Interesting to hear this morning about the garden bird survey and that bramblings are more common, especially as I'd never even heard of them before this year. I have not heard so many song thrushes around here yet, so I hope it is because they haven't started singing full tilt yet. I don't know anything about a siskin apart from what was said today, so I'm going to look it up and listen to the song.

I expect you did the survey WebSailor? Did you post your results here somewhere?

I think they said there were a lot of finches in gardens SD due to lack of food in wild, perhaps due to floods?

SD,

If you are talking about the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch in January, yes I did do it, and I think I posted the results on here somewhere, possibly way back in this thread.

Out of interest blackbird 7, blue tit 2, chaffinch 6, collared ove 2, dunnock 2 great tit 4, long tailed tit 4, magpie 8, robin 1, starling 5, wood pigeon 9, bullfinch 4, woodpecker 1, jay 1, siskin 1, brambling 3, nuthatch2 and that was in the space of an hour. All numbers are those seen at one time, so there were many more birds, and one or two others outside my allotted hour which was frustrating

It is certainly true that wood pigeons and collared doves have increased in numbers, but in our area greenfinches have all but disappeared, and so have house sparrows. I am convinced the disappearance of the latter is because everyone has taken out hedges and put fencing in.

Websailor

Very much so the removal of hedges has reduced numbers of sparrows. There are a lot of dense hedges here by roads and get literally hundreds of sparrows in them. In fact I walked to post box earlier and several were literally only a foot inside hedge and only 2 feet from me singing away loudly. A front garden has peanut bird feeders and gets only sparrows, and lots of them. Bizzarely my back garden only 50 feet from road has only had one sparrow over last year, my garden doesn't have the privit type hedge they seem to love.

Wed. 26th Mar. 08
Weather: Rain, sleet, hailstorms and sunny spells

At 9.40pm the badger was at the dish having opened it with apparent ease. Whilst munching away it kept looking down the garden, nose in the air sniffing So we knew that something else was around, it was just a question of waiting to see what

At 9.52pm the badger jumped round, and we could see a ly shape hovering at the bottom of the garden, which proved to be a fox. He was very wary of the badger’s presence and sidled up the garden a few steps at a time before dashing off in to the other garden at the bottom. Whether he had spied a r-a-t I don’t know but something kept him occupied for a while. He reappeared and skulked for a while before disappearing stage left.

The badger finished eating and trotted off, exiting centre at 9.59pm. Seconds later the fox appeared stage left and galloped up the garden to the dish . He stayed a while to munch, but was very jumpy and eventually his nerves got the better of him and he raced off left shortly after 10.02pm. There were no further sightings.

The morning dawned damp and dull and the birds were down early. Two blue , one robin, two blackbirds, two starlings, two dunnocks, one great tit, one bullfinch. One coal tit, two long tailed tits, two magpies and one wood pigeon followed. Black clouds followed by heavy rain and hailstorms broke up the party throughout the day, and a bedraggled squirrel or two, and Ginger made brief visits. Most of the birds returned several times, eventually paddling in soggy food The female woodpecker turned up at 4pm but was soon chased off the peanut cake by a couple of ‘snarlings’

That’s it folks, see you tomorrow, weather permitting.
Take care


Websailor

Logie, the Osprey, is waiting on weather on the South coast of the Bay of Biscay. On her way down to Africa she crossed the Bay in about 8 hours so she'll need some fair winds to do the same coming North. Go Logie.

Aha! You're behind the wall with Nigel, Prof and me, Sal

I am watching Logie the osprey's progress with interest. I hope the weather improves for her as she nears the UK. If you missed the link, here it is again:

http://www.roydennis.org/Female%20osprey%20migration%202007.htm

Similarly the Whooping Cranes are on their way back North from Florida to Wisconsin here:

http://www.operationmigration.org/Field_Journal.html

Migration is a fascinating phenomenon and leaves me in awe of nature. Enjoy.

Websailor

Frenchbeen, I didn't see you there Hope all's well with you.

Websailor

Well you have been here haven't you Frenchbean!!

WS

I'm here under wraps, incommunicado, behind the wall

*Popping my head up over the parapet for a wee while*
The issue about people disrupting migration because it's so well publicised is a huge issue It tends to suggest that the awareness raising that's going on alongside the "aaah" factor, isn't very good. I'm sure that most people who want to know about the migratory birds and who flock to see them would think twice if they really understood how their involvement jeopardises the birds. There needs to be some better information/education provided by the sounds of it.

Fb

It's too cold to come out Fb