nightingales are creatures of deciduous woodland
Read this first as "delicious woodland."
― children with wasting diseases (Phil D.), Wednesday, 5 January 2011 19:40 (2 years ago) Permalink
Us bird massacre due to fireworks (apparently) Happy new murdering birds eve (maybe) you lot >:(
Now happening in Sweden...http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-12118839
― not_goodwin, Thursday, 6 January 2011 02:20 (2 years ago) Permalink
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/12170571
Fancy that!
― not_goodwin, Thursday, 13 January 2011 15:07 (2 years ago) Permalink
they know
they know it's time
― legerndrymayne (acoleuthic), Thursday, 13 January 2011 15:13 (2 years ago) Permalink
I've heard of birds getting drunk on fermented berries before (waxwings iirc). Never heard of them dying from it though. RIP starlings
― seminal fuiud (NickB), Thursday, 13 January 2011 15:18 (2 years ago) Permalink
fuckers be optin' outta the foodchain
rip starlings, sorry i called you shit birds upthread
― legerndrymayne (acoleuthic), Thursday, 13 January 2011 15:24 (2 years ago) Permalink
I've heard of birds getting drunk on fermented berries before (waxwings iirc). Never heard of them dying from it though
In the version of this nth-hand anecdote that I heard, they did die
was going to chatter idly about my own bird-spotting news but will keep it off this doomed thread of bird deaths for fear of jinxing my new feathery palz
― agrarian gamekeeper (a passing spacecadet), Thursday, 13 January 2011 15:31 (2 years ago) Permalink
DO IT
(red kites again? lol)
― legerndrymayne (acoleuthic), Thursday, 13 January 2011 15:34 (2 years ago) Permalink
Lots of recorded instances of it, so maybe they sometimes do :(
― seminal fuiud (NickB), Thursday, 13 January 2011 15:39 (2 years ago) Permalink
Oh, did I talk about red kites on here already? I do not remember. The other half's father (who takes birds v seriously) is coming to visit soon and is most insistent on being taken to east Oxfordshire to see them, though. Hope they put on a good show.
No, this week's bird news is that there's been a leucistic Egyptian goose hanging around my walk to work all week. I had never seen the like before. Fed some ducks this lunchbreak and had it eating birdseed out of my hand. Wait, real birder types wouldn't approve of that at all, would you? Ahem.
― agrarian gamekeeper (a passing spacecadet), Thursday, 13 January 2011 15:49 (2 years ago) Permalink
I was the shadow of the waxwing slainBy vinous pomace and fermented grain
― nanoflymo (ledge), Thursday, 13 January 2011 15:52 (2 years ago) Permalink
Egyptian goose
FAKE GOOSE
― nanoflymo (ledge), Thursday, 13 January 2011 15:53 (2 years ago) Permalink
Wasn't familiar with that Nabakov couplet, thanks ledge!
Last leucistic bird I saw was a snow white blackbird.
― seminal fuiud (NickB), Thursday, 13 January 2011 16:02 (2 years ago) Permalink
Oh, did I talk about red kites on here already? I do not remember.
think it was you who affirmed my claims of their chiltern ubiquity!
also, handfeeding migrant rarities is some sort of heady fever-dream of twitching which could only happen to a casual birdwatcher
― legerndrymayne (acoleuthic), Thursday, 13 January 2011 16:09 (2 years ago) Permalink
Apparently Norfolk has a lot of Egyptian geese. Don't think I've seen a full-colour one outside a WWT centre, never mind the small patchy pale brown + white thing (with bright yellow eyes!) tagging along with the greylags who are winter regulars on the path to work has been making me happy all week. Thank you, little guy.
The bigger, hissier geese don't quite seem to know what to make of it, but it's never far from them, so it seems to have half-joined the gaggle.
I hate collective nouns, so I don't know why I used that one. But yeah, did wonder if its readiness to hand-feed means it came from one of those WWT places (don't know if they all do hand-feeding but the one near Belfast does). It's not ringed or anything is all I know.
And yes, no red kites here in Oxford itself but almost as soon as you leave the city to the east you start to see them. At least, that's been the case so far. Probably when we take the in-laws to see them we will be stood on a windswept hill for a week staring into empty skies.
― agrarian gamekeeper (a passing spacecadet), Thursday, 13 January 2011 16:17 (2 years ago) Permalink
God that was long. Do some work, spacecadet!
a passing of spacecadets
― legerndrymayne (acoleuthic), Thursday, 13 January 2011 16:23 (2 years ago) Permalink
LJ you need to rank the finches, buntings, sparrows, tits and larks.
― seminal fuiud (NickB), Thursday, 13 January 2011 16:25 (2 years ago) Permalink
imo
― seminal fuiud (NickB), Thursday, 13 January 2011 16:26 (2 years ago) Permalink
broadly,
pipits > buntings > tits > finches > larks > sparrows, and I *like* sparrows
will rank individual birds at some point
― legerndrymayne (acoleuthic), Thursday, 13 January 2011 16:30 (2 years ago) Permalink
that'll take some time.
― nanoflymo (ledge), Thursday, 13 January 2011 16:32 (2 years ago) Permalink
Audible chuckles
― seminal fuiud (NickB), Thursday, 13 January 2011 16:43 (2 years ago) Permalink
I do love Otmoor but see more starlings over Kidlington Sainsburys ...
― djh, Thursday, 27 January 2011 19:25 (2 years ago) Permalink
My wife took this one through her office window today. It's a red-tailed hawk eating a pigeon.
― Mr. Fart Pop Bass (Phil D.), Thursday, 27 January 2011 19:47 (2 years ago) Permalink
That hawk looks so sad, like he feels bad for the pigeon or something.
― seminal fuiud (NickB), Thursday, 27 January 2011 23:43 (2 years ago) Permalink
Now I like gulls most of the time, but all morning there's been one herring gull who has been hanging around a rabbit hole on the grassy bank outside my window, and every time a baby rabbit pops up to have their first nibble of fresh spring grass, this fat fucking gull chases them and tries to eat them.
― ka£ka (NickB), Monday, 28 February 2011 11:21 (2 years ago) Permalink
fucking awesome
― acoleuthic, Monday, 28 February 2011 11:28 (2 years ago) Permalink
the birds in NZ are rad btw and I am going to buy a book and identify them all. there is a sort of blackbirdy one that is everywhere but it has gaudy white patches all over its wings and a very haughty supercilium. I think if I were a NZ bird I would much rather be it than a kiwi.
― acoleuthic, Monday, 28 February 2011 11:32 (2 years ago) Permalink
I'd never witnessed this behaviour before but it seems like it's definitely a thing...
picture linkified cos it's sad and gross
xp yeah, I would be a total noob with nz birds
― ka£ka (NickB), Monday, 28 February 2011 11:35 (2 years ago) Permalink
herring gulls bring out the Princess TamTam in me more than probably anything else in the world. that picture ownes.
― acoleuthic, Monday, 28 February 2011 11:38 (2 years ago) Permalink
Talking of NZ, I always remember seeing kea on Attenborough's Life Of Birds staking out shearwater burrows, listening intently for movement and then digging the chicks out with their bills once they knew they were inside. Evil bastards.
― ka£ka (NickB), Monday, 28 February 2011 11:40 (2 years ago) Permalink
Might not have been shearwater btw, but some burrowing bird anyway.
― ka£ka (NickB), Monday, 28 February 2011 11:41 (2 years ago) Permalink
Ooh, not sure I've seen a kea! I did see a fucken kickass hawk from the car tho. Gonna investigate our birds of prey pronto -
― acoleuthic, Monday, 28 February 2011 11:47 (2 years ago) Permalink
― ka£ka (NickB), Monday, 28 February 2011 11:59 (2 years ago) Permalink
Evil bastards, I tell you.
― ka£ka (NickB), Monday, 28 February 2011 12:00 (2 years ago) Permalink
― acoleuthic, Monday, 28 February 2011 11:32 (5 days ago)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_world%27s_100_worst_invasive_species
third one
:D
― acoleuthic, Saturday, 5 March 2011 23:03 (2 years ago) Permalink
The starlings over Kidlington are incredible at the moment, around 1730 in an evening.
― djh, Sunday, 6 March 2011 20:38 (2 years ago) Permalink
ninetieth one
― acoleuthic, Sunday, 6 March 2011 23:12 (2 years ago) Permalink
Birds Youtube Song
― it's so cool man because it's so hardcore (CaptainLorax), Sunday, 6 March 2011 23:26 (2 years ago) Permalink
I saw a pyrrhuloxia today!!
― if I hate the headline, I'll make up a headline (Abbbottt), Thursday, 17 March 2011 22:22 (2 years ago) Permalink
I did not take this pic but look at this dude
― if I hate the headline, I'll make up a headline (Abbbottt), Thursday, 17 March 2011 22:25 (2 years ago) Permalink
phyroloxia if I'm not mistaken...I've always wanted to see one.
― WARS OF ARMAGEDDON (Karaoke Version) (Sparkle Motion), Thursday, 17 March 2011 22:35 (2 years ago) Permalink
I saw one in Cruces, once, too.
― if I hate the headline, I'll make up a headline (Abbbottt), Thursday, 17 March 2011 22:52 (2 years ago) Permalink
swifts are back over W12, have been a week or so. which makes them nearly 3 weeks earlier than last year, i think.
saw a budgie in the park this morning, fighting with the blackbirds. and winning.
― koogs, Friday, 13 May 2011 09:33 (2 years ago) Permalink
Why is there so little sexual dimorphism in doves & pigeons compared to other types of birds?
― free inappropriate education (Abbbottt), Saturday, 28 May 2011 14:49 (1 year ago) Permalink
There is some, but mostly in what I think of as exotic species (like the jambu fruit dove above). Don't think any UK residents show it, so from that POV, that's a good question!
― immer wieder, ralf & günther (NickB), Saturday, 28 May 2011 17:24 (1 year ago) Permalink
I was thinking about it yesterday – how come these doves don't have much sexual dimporphism? The dove in question btw is the white-wing dove, which is all over the Southwest:
I thought, maybe I am just unobservant. But today I saw two doves have sex in a tree and I thought, nope, no way I could tell those two apart.
― free inappropriate education (Abbbottt), Saturday, 28 May 2011 17:27 (1 year ago) Permalink
Swifts are back here too btw koogs, and every year their screams make me wish I'd got round to fixing up some nest boxes for them. Maybe next time! xxxp
― immer wieder, ralf & günther (NickB), Saturday, 28 May 2011 17:28 (1 year ago) Permalink
whenever i see this thread title i think of this:
― a thong of ice and fire (Princess TamTam), Saturday, 28 May 2011 17:30 (1 year ago) Permalink
I'm guessing that any sexual dimorphism in pigeons and doves would be for sexual display or competition. Thinking about the species I'm familiar with that aren't obviously dimorphic, during courtship the males do tend to do a lot of that puffed-up neck, strutting about stuff instead, and that probably serves the same purpose without the evolutionary effort? Wondering too if bright colours might make them more obvious to predators, all our native species are really drab earth and rock colours (albeit with subtle flashes of irridescence).
― immer wieder, ralf & günther (NickB), Saturday, 28 May 2011 17:46 (1 year ago) Permalink