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Bird sightings


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I know different areas of the UK holds different types of birds than others. But which do you like seeing, ones that brighten up your day.

Here's my top 5 in reverse order :-

peregrine

nuthatch 

barn owl 

bullfinch 

and my all time favourite, lapwing ( green plover ).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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1) Swift. I love the fact that it's so dedicated to utter airborne perfection that it's given up doing anything on land - to the point where it can't do anything on land!

2) Peregrine - the first bird that made me excited by birds and bird life when I was about 5 on the North Yorks Moors

3) Black-throated diver - just exquisite birds, and a joy to watch feeding

4) Golden Eagle. insert majestic cliché here

5) A duck. Of any type. I love a good duck. Fun to watch, fun to say.

Although all of these would be beaten if I'm able to get an owl in my home made owl box...

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In no particular order:

Curlew.

Oyster Catcher

Peewits

Wren

Owls

I love to hear Curlews, and the return of Oyster Catchers heralds spring for me, although I don’t see too many now I’m nearer the Fell bottoms. 

I enjoy the alarmed chirrup of startled Blackbirds in hedgerows, and although there are many becks and streams I haven’t seen a Kingfisher for years. 

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I think from a memory jump then the call of Lapwings when courting takes me back 70yrs or maybe a bit more, when it was legal to take eggs. My grandfather loved them for breakfast and would watch lapwings set their nest and he would then put a stick in the ground alongside so he could go straight to it. My job was to lie in the hedgebottom and watch. They never landed right by the nest but would walk across, have a look before settling down to lay, then fly off.  He always put a cross on two of them so he knew which where fresh. He only took four or five before letting the lapwing lay four and settle to raise young. Back then we had hundreds and they where probably one of the commonest birds.  We had a boggy wet field at the bottom of the farm and each year we would get curlews come in and their call to this day reminds me of wandering over about 500acres as a 6-7-8yrs old egg collecting.

Today I just enjoy them all, maybe the old tawny who hoots in the wood alongside my bedroom window most nights, is favorite,

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41 minutes ago, islandgun said:

Whooper swans flying... brilliant white against a background of snow clouds

Geese.. high skeins talking

Curlew. warbling call on marsh and moor

Long tailed tit. queueing at the bird table

Starlings.. evening spectacular ! 

 

Now your making me change my mind:lol:

Honestly how can you possibily choose one, they are all fantastic, even watching a bunch of magpies. 

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1 hour ago, Walker570 said:

Now your making me change my mind:lol:

Honestly how can you possibily choose one, they are all fantastic, even watching a bunch of magpies. 

Agreed..impossible..You could list all our birds in no particular order, one thing for sure is how much they bring to our lives

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At one time i would have given my right nut to see a peregrine... but for years i have had a nesting pair about 30 yards from my desk on leicester cathedral spire and the row that they make is enough to drive you insane! 

Magnificent birds though.

The few occasions when I've seen a barn owl took my breath away.

At my last house i used to get flocks of goldfinches feeding on seed heads in my garden. Loved those.

I love seeing kingfishers streaking past like a bolt of blue lightning!

Being surrounded by a flock of long tailed tits flitting about.

I know they are as bad as magpies, but jays are the most stunning looking bird and i always feel privileged to see one. I won't raise the gun to one even though i should.

I've got a soft spot for coots... the jack russell of the bird world, they will fight anything!

 

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We frequently get skeins of geese flying over. I always have to stop what I am doing and just go and watch them. They stir the blood! I am also fortunate in that I have marsh harriers nearby that I like to go and watch. In between the harriers doing their thing it is amusing to watch the coots and ducks on the old gravel pits.

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For me its the humble blackbird. Why ? I hear you ask. Well there is nothing like a summer night when i go out with the dog and climb up a small brae near me. I sit there with the gorse bush around about me and listen to the blackbird sing. Nature might have not given him the best looking overcoat but he is blessed with a absolutely stunning vocabulary, Infact i would put my head on the block and say he is Number 1.  ( Tin hat on ).

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13 hours ago, JTaylor91 said:moved to north lincs and didn’t see one in 2 years until this week.

Pop down to Horkstow bridge over the river Ancholme, always a few down there 😉

My favourites in no particular order - 

Little Awk - blown inland by a storm back in 2003 - was almost tame 

Nuthatch

Goldcrest

Waxwing

Red kite 

 

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42 minutes ago, billytheghillie said:

For me its the humble blackbird. Why ? I hear you ask. Well there is nothing like a summer night when i go out with the dog and climb up a small brae near me. I sit there with the gorse bush around about me and listen to the blackbird sing. Nature might have not given him the best looking overcoat but he is blessed with a absolutely stunning vocabulary, Infact i would put my head on the block and say he is Number 1.  ( Tin hat on ).

If you have been close to Blackbirds singing you may have heard their secondary song. It is a very gentle and almost inaudible sound like a gurgle. 

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1 hour ago, billytheghillie said:

For me its the humble blackbird. Why ? I hear you ask. Well there is nothing like a summer night when i go out with the dog and climb up a small brae near me. I sit there with the gorse bush around about me and listen to the blackbird sing. Nature might have not given him the best looking overcoat but he is blessed with a absolutely stunning vocabulary, Infact i would put my head on the block and say he is Number 1.  ( Tin hat on ).

Indeed, it was the first bird to get my attention as a young lad and still charms 60yrs on

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Blackbird for me - I think it was the first bird I ever noticed and recognised, probably because one nested in a tree in our garden every year.

I had a much wider variety of birds to watch when I lived further south - paricularly liked dippers, the tit family (especially long-tails), and at one time a capercaillie was a regular visitor to our hens.

Nowadays I content myself watching buzzards, owls and hen harriers in the countryside and sparrows, robins and wrens around the house.

Yesterday a female Eurasian blackcap was feeding in a tree six feet from the front window. I don't think it should be this far north!

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