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
Not an expert, but some poking around in Google suggests that the lack of strong dimorphism is related to the fact that most pigeon species share parenting duties--kind of makes sense, any heavy-duty male plumage or w/e would probably attract too much attention to the nest?
PS would like to cosign pyrrhuloxia love upthread.
― bentelec, Saturday, 28 May 2011 17:53 (1 year ago) Permalink
Did read the recommendation somewhere that upturned bin lids are left in the garden with wet mud in them, as swifts/martins are struggling to make nests.
― djh, Saturday, 28 May 2011 19:47 (1 year ago) Permalink
omg this morning at 7am there was a bird cycling through about 6 different calls... like a car alarm that cycles through different sounds. it was CRAZY. i have no idea how to figure out what it was.
― tehresa, Thursday, 9 June 2011 20:11 (1 year ago) Permalink
shazam for birdcalls can't come fast enough
― brotherlovesdub, Thursday, 9 June 2011 20:16 (1 year ago) Permalink
If it was all clicks and whistles and crazy things, it might have been a starling:
― NickB, Thursday, 9 June 2011 20:31 (1 year ago) Permalink
it was much more lyrical than that
― tehresa, Thursday, 9 June 2011 20:33 (1 year ago) Permalink
Probably some sort of thrush then - American robin?
― NickB, Thursday, 9 June 2011 20:39 (1 year ago) Permalink
i am starting to think it was maybe a mocking bird singing through several different calls/sounds?
http://www.birdjam.com/birdsong.php?id=4&osCsid=ddunch423ggjr7q0ei58jcmia7
― tehresa, Saturday, 11 June 2011 15:53 (1 year ago) Permalink
I have a robin friend
― owenf, Saturday, 25 February 2012 12:51 (1 year ago) Permalink
> swifts are back over W12, have been a week or so.> koogs, Friday, 13 May 2011 09:33 (11 months ago)
saw one, friday 27th april. although now he's probably flying around soaking wet wondering why he bothered.
― koogs, Sunday, 29 April 2012 14:08 (1 year ago) Permalink
Seeing Gambel's quails – always a treat! They're so charming. I saw three today.
― Dale, dale, dale (Abbbottt), Wednesday, 9 May 2012 01:44 (1 year ago) Permalink
Photo and caption by Mark Bridger/National Geographic Photo Contest. This is Gandalf the Great Grey Owl and he gets scared flying out in the open so his owners have built his aviary inside a brick shed. He now loves spending his days watching the world go by out of his window.
― koogs, Friday, 30 November 2012 09:42 (5 months ago) Permalink
That's a sad state for an owl to be in. Come out and play, big feller!
― Albert Crampus (NickB), Friday, 30 November 2012 09:48 (5 months ago) Permalink
How Does An Owl Hide?
― Zen Jet Era (doo dah), Friday, 30 November 2012 12:24 (5 months ago) Permalink
Is it a good time of year to go to Slimbridge Wetlands Centre?
― djh, Saturday, 29 December 2012 18:45 (4 months ago) Permalink
nice weather for ducks. (don't know)
we had 10 (count them) goldfinches on our tiny tree over christmas.
― koogs, Saturday, 29 December 2012 20:04 (4 months ago) Permalink
Niger seed?
― djh, Saturday, 29 December 2012 20:05 (4 months ago) Permalink
re SWC : from the website it appears that more stuff will be happening at the end of jan.
also, it hasn't stopped raining here for days now (i live quite near), and cant imagine it being overly pleasant there.
― mark e, Saturday, 29 December 2012 20:23 (4 months ago) Permalink
Would be better if it was much colder and frozen, I reckon that with the relatively mild weather and all the rain, then all the native wildfowl and waders will be distributed over the surrounding countryside. Never been but I think Slimbridge has a collection of captive birds so there will be all of them and they probably have feeding stations and managed habitat for wild songbirds so there might be good numbers of those. Might be a chance of all the other birds pulling in some raptors too, so I think you've got as good a chance of seeing stuff there as you would have anywhere else.
― Albert Crampus (NickB), Saturday, 29 December 2012 20:32 (4 months ago) Permalink
i enjoy birds but there's something undeniably sinister about them as well
― packt like phoebe cates's dad in a chimney (strongo hulkington's ghost dad), Saturday, 29 December 2012 20:49 (4 months ago) Permalink
Just refilled the feeder outside my office window. Birds get happy, and it's a home entertainment system for the cats and me.
― WilliamC, Saturday, 29 December 2012 21:06 (4 months ago) Permalink
Thing I love about birds is the sense that they're so at one with their environment. You watch them doing their birdy things and going about their birdy business and you get this sense that at one birdy level they know so many secret things about how life works in the local area... funny little rhythms of life that we're not privy to, when and where it is that all the bugs start hatching out, whose garden to visit for frostbitten rosehips when the winter takes hold, what bush you can safely shelter in on a cold, wet night, stuff like that. Also the sense of vulnerability you get from them - most birds are living on a knife-edge when it comes to finding enough edible calories especially in competition with everything else out there, or when they're dodging hazards like cats and hawks and humans and whatnot. You know you're cushioned from a lot of that stuff as a human, you don't have the same vital day to day struggles, but at the same time you do get some inkling of the fragility and specialness of life.
― Albert Crampus (NickB), Saturday, 29 December 2012 21:10 (4 months ago) Permalink
birds are more it's true
― things that are jokes pretty much (Nilmar Honorato da Silva), Saturday, 29 December 2012 21:13 (4 months ago) Permalink
more REAL damn
i've grown to enjoy parakeets in winter, for their incoongruity and resilience, even if i still tire of them in summer
― things that are jokes pretty much (Nilmar Honorato da Silva), Saturday, 29 December 2012 21:14 (4 months ago) Permalink
Ha well they're the other end of things, they just tough it out in a big unruly mob and don't give a flying fuck for local sensibilities. Hanging out at the local rugby club, shitting fruity shits on flash motors, I'm all for it.
― Albert Crampus (NickB), Saturday, 29 December 2012 21:51 (4 months ago) Permalink
that is an excellent description of why birds are interestingthey have to be observant if they want to survivepeople sure don't
― passion it person (La Lechera), Saturday, 29 December 2012 22:06 (4 months ago) Permalink
Otmoor supposed to be good for starlings/murmuration at the moment - apparently from 1530 onwards - if any of you are Oxford-based or thereabouts.
― djh, Monday, 31 December 2012 17:11 (4 months ago) Permalink
^ One of these snazzy little fellows has taken up residence by the puddle on the flat roof right outside my office window.
― a la recherche du tempbans perdu (NickB), Tuesday, 22 January 2013 12:38 (4 months ago) Permalink
waxwings.
i had never seen a waxwing until this afternoon. saw one on the floor, wondered what it was. then noticed another dozen in the bush next to it. hid around the corner whilst i got the camera out only to find i was stood under a tree with another dozen in the branches...
they aren't native to uk, but there were some stories of flocks of them visiting a couple of years ago, feeding on berries (which these were)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/3396938/Waxwing-leads-Russian-invasion.html
(my photos sucked)
― koogs, Thursday, 28 February 2013 19:03 (2 months ago) Permalink
oh man, waxwing envy here. good spot koogs!
― acid in the style of tenpole tudor (NickB), Thursday, 28 February 2013 19:39 (2 months ago) Permalink
Yes, nice spot. Have never seen a waxwing.
Some good pics here: http://fair-isle.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/henry-waxwings-hand-feeding-again.html
― djh, Thursday, 28 February 2013 19:48 (2 months ago) Permalink
Am amazed how much a starling murmuration cheers me up - was sat in a traffic jam on the way home, watching a thousand or so starlings swooping over the local Harvester. Fucking beautiful.
― djh, Thursday, 28 February 2013 19:50 (2 months ago) Permalink
acquainted the mrs with a long-tailed tit today, she was most enthused. mad love for that grey wagtail, dippy li'l chap I'm sure
― c'est magnifique, mais ce n'est pas le beurre (imago), Thursday, 28 February 2013 20:10 (2 months ago) Permalink
<3 long tailed tits. we get them in the park
there's a waxwing sightings tweet feed here: https://twitter.com/WaxwingsUK lot of them about by the look.
― koogs, Thursday, 28 February 2013 20:31 (2 months ago) Permalink
We had two groups of long tailed tits at one point, of seven and eight birds. But I never see more than three at a time now. Wondering if they've dispersed or died.
― djh, Thursday, 28 February 2013 22:23 (2 months ago) Permalink
i see mixed flocks containing long tailed tits and great tits. i think flock size varies with time of year (fledging? food?) have seen largish flocks in the last year.
― koogs, Thursday, 28 February 2013 22:33 (2 months ago) Permalink
There was great footage on Winter Watch of long tailed tits roosting: the first two to sit on the branch remained on the outside (ie. the coldest bit) and the rest would squeeze themselves in the middle. There didn't seem to be any shift or rotation in this to keep the outside birds warm.
― djh, Thursday, 28 February 2013 22:38 (2 months ago) Permalink
really want to start a band and call it Mixed Tit Flock
― c'est magnifique, mais ce n'est pas le beurre (imago), Thursday, 28 February 2013 22:46 (2 months ago) Permalink
thought i saw a bullfinch this morning but it was high enough up that it cd've been a waxwing
― a phenomenological description of The Eagles (Noodle Vague), Friday, 1 March 2013 00:07 (2 months ago) Permalink
nah it was a bullfinch, just checked the calls
― a phenomenological description of The Eagles (Noodle Vague), Friday, 1 March 2013 00:08 (2 months ago) Permalink
Today's posts itt dear to my heart. One of 2012's highlights for me was finally seeing Cedar Waxwings. And we have a pet starling who is my special buddy.
― multi instru mentat list (Jon Lewis), Friday, 1 March 2013 02:49 (2 months ago) Permalink
Anyone been up to Otmoor recently? We're starting to get starlings gathering about five miles away. Wondering how it's looking on the reserve?
― djh, Sunday, 3 March 2013 17:41 (2 months ago) Permalink
Fairly good murmuration over the Harvester in Kidlington, this evening, around 1745.
I realise this is quite specific and not much use to most people ...
― djh, Monday, 11 March 2013 18:27 (2 months ago) Permalink
I wish ppl here in the US admired starlings like you guys do. They're v hated here.
― multi instru mentat list (Jon Lewis), Monday, 11 March 2013 18:33 (2 months ago) Permalink
this is interesting, about the way they were introduced into america
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Starling#North_America
― koogs, Monday, 11 March 2013 19:30 (2 months ago) Permalink
Help needed!
― have a nice Blog (imago), Sunday, 5 May 2013 22:00 (2 weeks ago) Permalink
could be wrong but i reckon that's a song thrush there myself. very short phrases that are sometimes repeated once or twice with a definite pause before moving on to the next phrase. sung from up in a tree too - i've got a hunch that nightingales sing from lower down in cover, plus their song has got lots of weird alien clicks and laser gun trills.
― dschinghis kraan (NickB), Sunday, 5 May 2013 22:15 (2 weeks ago) Permalink