Allotments 4 All
Produce => Wildlife forum => Topic started by: Carol on March 28, 2004, 19:45:25
-
;DI have had a pair of Mistle Thrush around since January and enjoy watching them scoffing the raisins I have been feeding them. At the start Male and female Mistleys turned up and they were so handsome sitting side by side on my fence. Now, they are nesting and after a bit of looking around I have found out they are installed down the road in a sycamore tree, which they have used for the past 2 years.
The Mistle Thrush is bigger than the Song Thrush and quite striking in appearance. Last year a Song Thrush had its nest in a conifer in my garden but unfortunately I have not seen a Song Thrush since then. Hoping they come back soon or I will :'( :'(
;D
-
Wow, I am so impressed by you's lots (bad bad English I know :-\) knowledge of our feathered friends. It is official, I am going to get me a little handbook jobbee so I can start to try and identify some of the birdies I see. Any advice on a good one? Pocket size would be preferable and simple...me is a simple fing ya know. ::)
-
I have a lovely Mistle Thrush too! EJ try the Collins Little Gem series of books, they have a lovely Bird one small enough to slip in your pocket ;D
-
Thanks SueT. Just tried Amazon and they don't appear to have it so I shall have to actually go into a book shop and look...shock horror! ;D
-
Hi EJ, WH Smiths should have it, or failing that any half decent bookshop :)
-
As Sue says EJ any good bookshop has one.
Sure you will have loads of birds worth looking at in your lottie and garden.
Byeee :D :D
-
We have had a pair of mistle thrushes visiting our garden for the past 2 years - but have never seen a song thrush :'(( strange,as I thought they were fairly commonplace).
Most 'exciting' are the sparrowhawks which visit to hunt for birds, and the bats which we had last summer..
What's the most exciting/unusual bird/creature anyone else has had as a visitor to their garden/allotment ??
Debs
-
I had a Grouse in my garden a few years ago, I was stunned to put it mildly, haven`t seen it since unfortunately :'(
-
The most exciting site I have had was late autumn last year when I had 23 Red Legged Partridges lined up on my garden wall. I still get the RL Partridges but not in such great numbers. I also have loads of Pheasants paying a call.
I will have to think about this a bit more, but certainly the quantity of 23 Red Legged partridges was a bit unusual.
:o ;D ;D
-
I would say a woodpecker or the sparrow hawk. The woodpecker was doing its pecking in our willow tree one day, fab site, and the sparrow hawk took down a starling directly over Ava's head and first landed in our garden, then swooped into our next door neighbours to devour it's feast. On the lottie....slow worms and smooth newt! ;D
-
Wow Carol ! Your garden sounds like a bird lover's paradise ! Do you take twitcher's in for B&B ?? ;D
Song thrush is scarce here, but see plenty of mistles.
EJ, just a thought, Collins do a Complete Guide to British Wildlife, covers all the birds, butterflies, beetles, spiders and snakes etc you're ever likely to come across in the lottie and garden!!!! ;D
-
Aha....thanks MagpiDi, Amazon have it. Me thinks I will be placing an order before I get to bed tonite. I shall be able to answer all of your wildlife questions in a week or two 8) hehehehehe.
-
Glad it is still in print ! Mine is a 1981 copy ::)
Now don't look up adder when you get it, you might get worried !! Hehe !! Are you sure those worms didn't have a dark zigzag stripe down their backs?? ;D ;) ;D
-
I am quietly confident there were no markings Di (she says worriedly!) A couple were much darker than the rest and it looked as tho they had their lippy on. They had very definate almost black lips! I shall take my camera tomorrow and very carefully have a little peek and see if they are still around and take some snaps. Might just wear my gloves to be on the safe side. :-\
-
I have had time to think about the unusual birds and here we go. I get the Heron almost daily standing atmy pond. I have had, Mallards, Dipper, grey wagtail and Coot visiting the pond too. In the garden I have the Kestrel quite a bit and as for the Sparrowhawk well both he and she seem to sit most days on a silver birch tree. I go outside if I see other small birds around and scare them off. I get a lot of kills and just hate it. They are very handsome birds but killers and I am afraid iits a case of not in my back yard. I have also had Fieldfare visiting and would love the Waxwings to come one day.
I am sure I will think of more unusual birds once I finish this. The Birds I am longing to see visit is a Nuthatch, greater spotted woodpecker and Long Tailed Tits. Maybe in 10 yrs when they are more widespread in this area. One thing I do not get and that is Magpie. they do not live in this part of Scotland. although handsome birds to look at, I don't think I would welcome them. Have not got squirrels either, which is a blessing I think, when I read about other folks problems with them.
Roll on april at the return of the Swallow. These birds are more than welcome to nest in my eaves again.
-
We have a flock of about 6 long-tailed tits visit our feeders nearly every day. They like the fat balls best. I had never seen them in Derbyshire where we used to live - we're in North Buckinghamshire now. It's quite amazing the difference in the species we see here compared to just 120 miles north. Loads of greenfinches and occasionally goldcrests too. One of the best birds I saw abroad was a road-runner and it was running up the road and moved just like in the cartoons. On the same day, we had also seen a cayote !
-
We are in the last line of houses of the West Midlands conurbation, a disused railway one side, a plantation and open fields across the road, so we do quite well for both woodland & open land birds. I've seen greater spotted & yaffle woodpeckers, chaffinch, bullfinch, green linnet, linnet, seven coloured linnet, blue tit, coal tit, great tit, buzzard, heron, mallard, nuthatch, tree creeper, goldcrest, kestrel, sparrowhawk, moorhen, feildfare, thricecock, waxwing, French partridge, yellow, grey & pied wagtails, pheasant (etc), but there again, that IS in 24 years, so the "new varieties" rate is now fairly low (although the buzzard only started soaring overhead about 18 months back).
-
First time I've been stumped - thricethingy? :)
All best, Gavin
-
That is some amount of birds Gilgamesh. My new birds for this year is a pair of peewits displaying above our garden, swooping and diving just above my kitchen. I can hardly get anywork done for watching. I have also had a new arrival for the year in a pair of Yellowhammers. He is a lovely bird with his bright yellow head. They eat together and then fly off towards the fields where hopefully they are starting to nest. Still no swallows, about a week to go I reckon.
-
Thricecock or stormcock - I think it Latinizes as turdus viscivorus - is the old Staffordshire country name for the mistle thrush.
I tend still to use the names my gradfather taught me half a century ago for the birds - hence seven-coloured linnet for goldfinch.
-
Aha! now I see the problem. ;) I've been censored. :P The "C" word used to indicate a bird of the male persuasion has been replaced by "THINGY". We used to have that problem at work. There's a town beginning "scun" and ending "thorpe" that used to bounce if used in emails - a problem when we had a depot there.
One reason we do well for birds is that we keep hens - and layers mash seems to be on the menu for almost everything in the winter (and so do the water fountains).
-
Gotcha! ROFL - and congratulations! :) First time I've seen the software so completely confused. Me? I'm always confused! :)
All best, Gavin
-
We had a lovely group of five waxwings on the allotment last week, bouncing around eating Rowan berries. It took me ages to figure out what they were - they had groovy punk rock hairdos!
Ten x
-
Ah Carol, come to sunny coventry, we have 2 regular long tailed tits to our garden, plus 3 others who pop in every now and then - occasionally all 5 together - its' such a thrill when they all come - they tend to come to the fat feeder we have - nothing else seems to entice them at all
we did have a song thrush pop in too - only realised what he was as he was standing next to blackbirds, so the comparision of size was easy. Not seem him for a while, so must have been just passing through. shame!
From January onwards we had one lonely grey wagtail - she's gone now but did stay for a few months - hope she found a soulmate