Month: February 2013

Another very quiet day in the garden, where have all the birds gone!?

Another very quiet day in the garden, but I did see 21 Carrion crows flying overhead, there was also a flock of what looked like starlings, 9 birds however I could just make out silhouettes and at a distance, so not 100% sure, also 5 gulls flew over, but once again not 100% sure what type they were. So I’ve left it as my garden list and the crows:

  1. Blackbird x 3
  2. Carrion crow x 21 – flying over
  3. Coal Tit x 1
  4. Dunnock x 1
  5. Magpie x 2
  6. Woodpigeon x 2

Young Starling begging for food in my old garden, so far not had any starlings at my new place: 

Feed Me - Starling Chick - feeding time

Feed Me – Starling Chick – feeding time
Pretty sure this was taken with a Canon 20D and Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM

Dunnocks showing mating behaviour, my garden bird list.

Yesterday I’d forgotten to add a Robin to my list, it wasn’t in my garden and i hadn’t written it down when I saw it, so edited the post and all up to date now.  Today all seen in the garden or flying over, first time there’s been a great tit for a while and the dunnocks are displaying a lot of mating behaviour.  Here’s the list of birds I saw today:

  1. Blackbird x 3
  2. Blue Tit x 1
  3. Coal Tit x 1
  4. Dunnock x 3
  5. Great Tit x 1
  6. House Sparrow x 7
  7. Lesser black-backed gull x 3 fly overs – a new one for this year, although probably seen them at a distance they’d never been close enough to ID.
  8. Magpie x 1 – heard only
  9. Woodpigeon x 3

A new first for the year – Greater Spotted Woodpecker

That’s right I saw a Greater Spotted Woodpecker, not in my garden but a tree opposite my house, so very pleased with that one!  The rest of the list is from my garden today:

  1. Blackbird x 1
  2. Black-headed Gull x 1 – flyover.
  3. Blue Tit x 1
  4. Coal Tit x 1
  5. Dunnock x 1
  6. Greater Spotted Woodpecker x 1
  7. House Sparrow x 3
  8. Robin x 1 – not in my garden on the street nearby.
  9. Woodpigeon x 2

Heard a Tawny Owl & saw very few other birds!

It was another very quiet day in the garden today, a few carrion crows flying overhead and the tawny owl was out and about last night but very little else so I’ve added some photos from the balcony of my old flat in Sydney Australia:

  1. Blackbird x 1
  2. Carrion crow x 4 – flyovers
  3. Coal Tit x 1
  4. Dunnock x 2
  5. Tawny Owl x 1 – heard only
Rainbow Lorikeet

Rainbow Lorikeet at the flat in Sydney.

Rainbow Lorikeet takes a bath

Rainbow Lorikeet takes a bath

Rainbow Lorikeet shakes after a bath.

Rainbow Lorikeet shakes after a bath.

Our flock of Rainbow Lorikeets

Our flock of Rainbow Lorikeets

Robin in Corstorphine Tesco Bakery section, plus Oystercatchers on playing fields.

Another very quiet day in my garden, just 3 types of birds, I added a robin to yesterday’s list as I saw it just before midnight in Tescos Corstorphine hanging out in the bakery section of the store, photo, sorry poor quality from a camera phone:

Robin in Tesco bakery section, enjoying the croissants.

Robin in Tesco bakery section, enjoying the croissants.

 

As well as my garden bird list:

  1. Blackbird x 1
  2. Blue Tit x 1
  3. Dunnock x 2

I managed to take a walk down to Saint Margaret’s Park in Corstorphine and saw:

  1. Carrion Crow x 3
  2. Oystercatchers x 2
  3. Black-headed Gulls x 5
  4. Gulls – others, distance was too great to make out but looked to be lesser black-backed or herring.  They were paddling in a pretty deep puddle, didn’t want to get closer as we had our dog with us.
  5. Woodpigeons x 10

Very few birds around, but we had a guest dog Scooby.

Wow it was incredibly quiet in the garden today, very little moving at all, we did have a dog that isn’t ours (the birds are used to Chewie and generally ignore him) that was found walking the street, so while waiting to find the owner Scooby was running around our garden and I think this maybe why so few birds, as only 2 species and 9 birds in total:

  1. Dunnock x 2
  2. House Sparrows x 7

The sparrows did look like they were mating though.

As usual my bird list was seen in the garden today:

Grey Heron and Tawny Owl show up on my list for first time this year.

Just after midnight last night I heard a Tawny Owl, first I’ve heard since moving into my new place a bit further down Corstorphine Hill than I used to live, a bit of a surprise as there’s a lot less trees around here.  Thanks to Edinburgh Hawkwatch for their page on – Tawny Owl – Edinburgh for a little more detail about Tawny Owls in the area.  Whilst watching the Rugby I noticed a very large bird arrive on the horizon I thought that’s too big to be a gull it has to be something else, it continued to fly straight towards me and it was a heron, another first for the year, here’s the garden bird list I’ve seen today:

  1. Blackbird x 3
  2. Blue Tit x 2
  3. Chaffinch x 4
  4. Coal Tit x 1
  5. Grey Heron x 1 – fly over
  6. House Sparrow x 6
  7. Tawny Owl x 1 – heard only
  8. Woodpigeon x 1
  9. Wren x 1

Laurie Campbell photo exhibition and talk at the SOC.

Had a very quiet day in the garden today, however an hour before sunset about 60 carrion crows flew overhead, a great sight!  Tonight I got to see the talk by Laurie Campbell about his photos over the years and his new ones from the Isle of Harris, thanks so much to Jane at the SOC – follow on twitter: ScottishBirding for arranging the tickets for me after I missed out on the sales!  For more info about the photo exhibition head to: Laurie Campbell SOC – now onto my garden bird list for today:

  1. Blackbird x 1
  2. Blue Tit x 1
  3. Carrion crow x 60+ flying overhead.
  4. Coal Tit x 1
  5. Woodpigeon x 1