Fieldfares already?
Moderators: KG Steve, Chantal, Tigger, peter
Somebody has just told me that they think they saw a flock of fieldfares this morning - we don't usually get them until mid or late October. Has anybody else seen any or might it have been a flock of chattering mistle thrushes?
Hi Monika,
Haven't seen any Fieldfares yet but had half a dozen Redwing in the Hawthorn yesterday.
I am now down to one pair of Swallows and their four offspring who fledged on Saturday and are lingering. This is unusual because they normally fledge and fly off straight away as they have for many years past.
JB.
Haven't seen any Fieldfares yet but had half a dozen Redwing in the Hawthorn yesterday.
I am now down to one pair of Swallows and their four offspring who fledged on Saturday and are lingering. This is unusual because they normally fledge and fly off straight away as they have for many years past.
JB.
Hello Johnboy, yes we still have a few swallows around and on Saturday we saw lots of housemartins along the Leeds-Liverpool Canal, probably on migration. Our main garden visitors at the moment are small mixed flocks of blue, great, coal and long-tailed tits with, occasionally, a willow warbler. When they work through a bird cherry or birch, the whole tree quivers!
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Elderflower
- KG Regular
- Posts: 216
- Joined: Wed Aug 16, 2006 8:19 pm
- Location: Derbyshire
I saw a flash of a bird of prey winging over my plot with a collared dove in its talons. Would a sparrowhawk be big enough to take a dove? I`ve only seen them take small birds.
If not, what?
If not, what?
Hi Elderflower,
Certainly a Sparrow Hawk can take a Collared Dove as they quite regularly have a go at the Wood Pigeons here and occasionally are successful.
We also have Goshawks in the area and Peregrines at this time of the year. A few years back I saw a Peregrine knock a Mallard out of the air. It hit it once and the Mallard span out of control and just as it regained its poseur the Peregrine hit it again a took it into the ground. Very dramatic.
I have a Buzzards nesting on my plot and for years they have managed to raise four chicks which means there is plenty of food here abouts. I have got masses of Owl activity at present and even as I write there are umpteem outside making a hell of a racket between themselves. I rather think that they are this years young and they are just finding their voices so to speak.
On a sadder note there has been a Dog Fox with an injured front leg around for ages and I was out going to shoot it a few weeks ago but it laid up somewhere and I couldn't find it. Now would you believe it has actually bitten the useless leg off and yesterday morning I saw it going lickety-spit on three legs. I dread to think the pain that that poor thing went through. I have an estate behind me which raises god knows how many Pheasants and the game keepers shoot a great many foxes each year and although I am at loggerheads with the keepers I think they have shot over twenty foxes this year so far. I do not believe in shooting for sport and some Friday evenings just after dusk, and the night before a shoot, I walk their covert nearest my plot and frighten the birds onto my land and they know that I will shoot their dogs if they send them in to reclaim the birds. Actually there is no way I would shoot their dogs but I would, and do, shoot to scare them off.
JB.
Certainly a Sparrow Hawk can take a Collared Dove as they quite regularly have a go at the Wood Pigeons here and occasionally are successful.
We also have Goshawks in the area and Peregrines at this time of the year. A few years back I saw a Peregrine knock a Mallard out of the air. It hit it once and the Mallard span out of control and just as it regained its poseur the Peregrine hit it again a took it into the ground. Very dramatic.
I have a Buzzards nesting on my plot and for years they have managed to raise four chicks which means there is plenty of food here abouts. I have got masses of Owl activity at present and even as I write there are umpteem outside making a hell of a racket between themselves. I rather think that they are this years young and they are just finding their voices so to speak.
On a sadder note there has been a Dog Fox with an injured front leg around for ages and I was out going to shoot it a few weeks ago but it laid up somewhere and I couldn't find it. Now would you believe it has actually bitten the useless leg off and yesterday morning I saw it going lickety-spit on three legs. I dread to think the pain that that poor thing went through. I have an estate behind me which raises god knows how many Pheasants and the game keepers shoot a great many foxes each year and although I am at loggerheads with the keepers I think they have shot over twenty foxes this year so far. I do not believe in shooting for sport and some Friday evenings just after dusk, and the night before a shoot, I walk their covert nearest my plot and frighten the birds onto my land and they know that I will shoot their dogs if they send them in to reclaim the birds. Actually there is no way I would shoot their dogs but I would, and do, shoot to scare them off.
JB.
My goodness, such bucolic tales. It's not like this in South Liverpool - but for 15 years I lived in Shropshire and it's making me all nostalgic.
You country folk may be interested to know just what we do have in Toxteth (yes as in "riot-torn-Toxteth" in the '80s)- loads of foxes, stoats, hedgehogs, toads and frogs, very varied birdlife indeed including many waterfowl on the park lakes, (I'm listening to young owls every night too unless it's raining, they don't seem to like the rain) this year lots of greenfinches and I just love the way robins return to nest in my shed every spring. We have peregrines too, have done for years, they nest at the top of the Cathedral tower and pick of pigeons at will.
I'm rather fond of my old sort of pet rat on the compost heap too. How can you resist the little chap when you've watched him sniffing your pinks? (even if he does pinch the strawberries).
You country folk may be interested to know just what we do have in Toxteth (yes as in "riot-torn-Toxteth" in the '80s)- loads of foxes, stoats, hedgehogs, toads and frogs, very varied birdlife indeed including many waterfowl on the park lakes, (I'm listening to young owls every night too unless it's raining, they don't seem to like the rain) this year lots of greenfinches and I just love the way robins return to nest in my shed every spring. We have peregrines too, have done for years, they nest at the top of the Cathedral tower and pick of pigeons at will.
I'm rather fond of my old sort of pet rat on the compost heap too. How can you resist the little chap when you've watched him sniffing your pinks? (even if he does pinch the strawberries).