Wildlife

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Bunnylump
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Re: Wildlife

#41 Post by Bunnylump » Sat Jan 09, 2010 6:42 pm

I don't have a spare area outside my back door to try this out. It's covered in about 7 inches of snow still. :roll:

So go on, tell me what should have happened and why then...
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clvrlad
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Re: Wildlife

#42 Post by clvrlad » Sun Jan 10, 2010 8:16 am

the easiest way to explain......
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRwlrFimnZk
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Laura
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Re: Wildlife

#43 Post by Laura » Sun Jan 10, 2010 12:20 pm

We currently have a flock of about 30 birds in our garden. I've never seen them before this week, but from the bird books and internet pictures, I believe they may be Fieldfare. They're really quite pretty, and about the size of a thrush. They appear and sit on the cherry tree for a couple of hours, and then disappear off somewhere, and then reappear later the same day for another couple of hours.

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kathlyn
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Re: Wildlife

#44 Post by kathlyn » Sun Jan 10, 2010 1:42 pm

Laura, they are probably redwings as they usually appear in flock at this time of year.
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Cenwulf
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Re: Wildlife

#45 Post by Cenwulf » Sun Jan 10, 2010 9:15 pm

I had a fieldfare in my garden this morning. Looks like a thrush, but it has a grey head.
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Laura
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Re: Wildlife

#46 Post by Laura » Sun Jan 10, 2010 9:39 pm

Yeah, I looked at redwings too, but these seemed to have much greyer heads. I tried to take a picture but its no good through the window, and they're far to scared and fly off if I go outside.

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Re: Wildlife

#47 Post by kathlyn » Wed Jan 13, 2010 10:02 am

Redwings are easy to recognise as you'll see the flash of red on there wings as they fly off.
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Re: Wildlife

#48 Post by Cenwulf » Thu Jun 24, 2010 11:08 pm

There was a redwing in my garden yesterday. I think the cold weather up north has pushed them southwards.
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Re: Wildlife

#49 Post by Bunnylump » Thu Jun 24, 2010 11:17 pm

Thank you CW - he found the thread for me!!

I've been sitting in my garden, and the swifts are back! They nest every year in a hole in next door's fascia. It's so lovely to watch them swooping and screaming as they dive past my head to catch insects. Just lovely. We'll be hearing the squeaky babies soon. I know they're not rare or anything, but they are just unbelievably agile and rapid! When they go into the hole, they hurtle towards it at full speed, and then fold their wings up right at the last minute. How they don't crash when they go in is beyond me!!
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Re: Wildlife

#50 Post by Bunnylump » Fri Jun 25, 2010 12:38 pm

OK now this is just weird. I just heard the most dreadful squawking noise. I ran into the garden and saw a crow (there are lots of crows who live on the green opposite) flying whilst CARRYING a live starling - who was flapping and trying to escape!! :shock: Eventually, the crow did let go, and the starling got away!! I was gobsmacked, because I always thought that crows only eat carrion! Has anyone else ever come across anything like that?
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Laura
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Re: Wildlife

#51 Post by Laura » Fri Jun 25, 2010 2:59 pm

No, but if the starlings around here would like to gang up and do something similar to the crow that started cawing outside my bedroom window at 5.00am yesterday, then I'd be very grateful... :x

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Re: Wildlife

#52 Post by Bunnylump » Tue Oct 19, 2010 10:56 pm

On Sunday, when I was round at my Mum's house sorting stuff, I was surprised to see that there was a fox, in broad daylight, sunning himself on the step on the verandah - RIGHT outside the living room door! He saw me through the window and just looked at me and yawned!! :shock:

We do have a lot of foxes around here (the cubs often chase each other round the parked cars in the street at about 1am) but I've never seen one being that brazen in the middle of the day before!
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Re: Wildlife

#53 Post by giraffe » Thu Nov 04, 2010 3:03 pm

Lunchtime I saw what at first looked like a pink pigeon in the garden, but a bit of googling tells me it was probably a Jay. (A bit like a chaffinch but three times the size) I've never seen anything like it before. And this morning there were some little black and white birds (wagtails?) chasing each other round and round. There were about twelve of them in our fairly small garden whizzing round. It was like watching the red arrows.

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clvrlad
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Re: Wildlife

#54 Post by clvrlad » Thu Nov 04, 2010 6:16 pm

i heard something on the radio about some birds coming over from Norway that were pink....
cant remember the name of them though ;-)
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Laura
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Re: Wildlife

#55 Post by Laura » Thu Nov 04, 2010 7:09 pm

Well, I must have seen at least a hundred pheasants today. We went to Fountains Abbey, and they were just everywhere, in groups of up to about ten, walking right by the paths. Brother-in-law chose to have Game Pie for lunch though, so maybe there are a few less than there were!!!

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gill216
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Re: Wildlife

#56 Post by gill216 » Thu Nov 04, 2010 8:18 pm

Lunchtime I saw what at first looked like a pink pigeon in the garden
Was it a pink footed goose- have a look on the rspb site. They arrive from Norway around October.
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giraffe
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Re: Wildlife

#57 Post by giraffe » Thu Nov 04, 2010 8:20 pm

No definitely not one of those. This is what I think it was. http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdgui ... index.aspx

It says they like oak trees in Autumn. I think there are some Oak trees in the surrounding gardens and around the cricket pitch which backs onto the gardens .

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Re: Wildlife

#58 Post by Bunnylump » Thu Nov 04, 2010 8:44 pm

Clvrlad were you thinking of Waxwings?
http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdgui ... index.aspx
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Re: Wildlife

#59 Post by giraffe » Thu Nov 04, 2010 8:57 pm

Those look seriously overweight and rather grumpy! :lol: :lol:

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Bunnylump
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Re: Wildlife

#60 Post by Bunnylump » Thu Nov 04, 2010 9:09 pm

So do I. 8-)
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