What birds or bird have you seen today – communal thread, I hope!

Feel very fortunate in these strange times, to live close enough to a few remote moorland reservoirs we can still visit.

Yesterday evening it was at its best, light breeze, a few white fluffy clouds, lovely warm setting sunshine, buzzing with waders and not another soul about :)

Common sandpiper

Common sand.jpg

Redshank

Redshank.jpg

Dunlin

Dunlin.jpg

And about my best so far of a drumming Snipe

Drumming snipe 1.jpg
 
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In the last couple of (very sunny) days this Blackbird has appeared to have been sunbathing in our flower border.
He just puffs himself up and spreads himself out, and then remains absolutely motionless for at least 10 minutes.
I've attached an image of the same bird under normal circumstances.
The bird is not wet - I cannot remember seeing this before - does anyone have any explanation?


P1034039 - 2020-05-09 at 15-16-01 by Malcolm Fisher, on Flickr

P1034031 - 2020-05-09 at 14-15-26 by Malcolm Fisher, on Flickr

P1034043 - 2020-05-09 at 15-31-41 by Malcolm Fisher, on Flickr

P1034041 - 2020-05-09 at 15-30-47 by Malcolm Fisher, on Flickr
 
Malfis said:
In the last couple of (very sunny) days this Blackbird has appeared to have been sunbathing in our flower border.
He just puffs himself up and spreads himself out, and then remains absolutely motionless for at least 10 minutes.
I've attached an image of the same bird under normal circumstances.
The bird is not wet - I cannot remember seeing this before - does anyone have any explanation?
Click to expand...

I've had them doing that in my garden too. Have a look at 'sunbathing birds' on the BTO web site.
 
Malfis said:
Thank you - the article absolutely matches the behaviour of my Blackbird.
Click to expand...
Common behaviour particularly in Blackbirds


blackbird by Roger, on Flickr

Some suggestion that it might be discouraging mites but I'm not sure that there is any definitive answer. :)
 
Jannyfox said:
Seen on today's walk. Not that great because I had the 105mm macro on but hey, it's a grey wagtail. The car is on the driveway of a house which is next to a stream. I have seen grey wagtails on the stream near the village before but very rarely. It's a male, and just before this shot it was hovering in front of the mirror having a bit of a go at its 'rival'. After this shot it flew towards the stream and didn't come back. Talk about right place right time..... :)

View attachment 276228
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For the past couple of years there's been a male pied waggy who keeps attacking his reflection in the club house windows up at the golf centre, almost to exclusion of eating (although he must be to have the energy for the attacks!) Lots of others flying about over the course so it's not loneliness.

Seen a few Red Kites over the past 2-3 years but today was the first time we've spotted them from near home. We were trying to see what was flying about 1/2 mile away (probably a buzzard) when Mrs Nod looked up and spotted a pair of red kites. Made our day!
 
Nod said:
For the past couple of years there's been a male pied waggy who keeps attacking his reflection in the club house windows up at the golf centre, almost to exclusion of eating (although he must be to have the energy for the attacks!) Lots of others flying about over the course so it's not loneliness.
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Last year my partner had a dunnock that would regularly attack its reflection in the glass of his kitchen door. It took him a few days to work out what kept cr**ping on the door handle :LOL:
 
Last year, I suggested that they could put some sticky backed plastic over the areas he attacked but they said it would spoil the view for the members - I wonder if they did it during the lockdown to break the cycle?
 
Grab shot of one of our juvenile Robins ... I think the parents are now on a 2nd clutch.
1st bird shot since lockdown began and all the wrong settings and a lens that I left a converter on since last using it ... I'm getting out of sync! :LOL:


Robin.jpg
 
Got bored yesterday, so found some old scrap and knocked up a small 'reflection' pool in just 10 minutes. With the aid of some seeds, the birds soon found it........

DSC_3470 by Glynn Hobbs, on Flickr

DSC_3479 by Glynn Hobbs, on Flickr

DSC_3484 by Glynn Hobbs, on Flickr

.......... an old rear parcel shelf, a supermarket crate and some bits of wood = improvisation!
IMG_9172 by Glynn Hobbs, on Flickr

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Rustydon said:
- Hi Phil- I didn't see the actual kill - but I suspect a neighbour's cat!

Russ
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Right (y), I thought it seemed a tad big for the Maggie to take out.

For an animal lover I'm not a cat fan, at least 3 trip our security cameras most nights then sh!t in the flowerbeds............ if I had my way......machine-gun.gif
 
Robins second brood just about to fledge, will be this weekend I'm sure of it. I don't know how they're all fitting into the nest, it's inside my garage on top of the brickwork. Every year since we've lived here the robins, wrens and blackbirds all have nested inside the garage!

The robins had three lots last year so I'm expecting another pile of poo all over the car.

 
49928542748_721dd329b6_o.jpg
 
Going stir-crazy so had to pop out for a couple of hours yesterday morning, very conspicuous in my facemask as 99% of others were unmasked but just felt not worth the risk at my age. Little walk around the Bristol Harbourside (at one point being the subject of a rather clumsy street/candid shot - no doubt the facemask!) and came across this pair of Greylag Geese that obviously feek quite at home in the busy 'docks' area (near the SS Great Britain).

D750 +28-70


Geese.jpg
 
Just wonderful Phil-D
 
Nothing terribly exciting,
A youngster food begging

008.jpg

And being scolded it seems

009.jpg
 
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