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:

A good list for just looking during breakfast & lunch.

Once again my listing’s a bit later than normal today, a lot on at the moment.  Still had a chance to check at breakfast & lunch for a few birds and came up with a decent list, including just one fieldfare today:

  1. Blackbird x 2
  2. Blue Tit x 1
  3. Carrion crow x 6
  4. Coal Tit x 2
  5. Dunnock x 1
  6. Fieldfare x 1
  7. Greenfinch x 2
  8. House Sparrow x 4
  9. Robin x 1
  10. Woodpigeon x 1

Hopefully have a few more photos for the site soon.

The birds I saw today were in my garden:

2 fieldfare show up, another first for the year!

Sorry my post is so late, sadly it’s not because I was out birding it was due to working from 6am till 8pm with a short break to see some birds which my dog had alerted me to due to the different calls they were making; he gets worried when there’s different noises from the garden birds as it usually means a cat or sparrowhawk is about.  Today it wasn’t due to any predatory birds or cats but instead a pair of fieldfare making a fair bit of noise, another first for the year.  Here’s the birds I’ve seen today:

  1. Blackbird x 2
  2. Blue Tit x 1
  3. Carrion crow x 2
  4. Coal Tit x 2
  5. Dunnock x 3
  6. Fieldfare x 2
  7. Greenfinch x 1
  8. House Sparrow x 2
  9. Woodpigeon x 3

I tried to get shots of the Fieldfares but they were far away in bad light, I did get some record shots which I hope to add soon.

Once again it was in my garden.

Snow clearing and more birds starting to show.

I hope everyone’s had a good day, if you’ve been out birding feel free to join the site and add your bird lists to the website and share the joy of birding with the world!  My garden was a little busier than yesterday and almost all the snow has melted here in Edinburgh, although the Pentlands still look fantastic with their white covering.  Here’s my garden bird list for today:

  1. Blackbird x 2
  2. Blue Tit x 1
  3. Coal Tit x 1
  4. Dunnock x 1
  5. Greenfinch x 5
  6. House Sparrow x 2
  7. Magpie x 2
  8. Woodpigeon x 4

My location as ever in my garden.

The SOC Laurie Campbell nature photography exhibition and snow!

Managed to get out to Aberlady to the SOC Waterston House to see the new Laurie Campbell nature photography exhibition – find out more as with all of Laurie’s work it was fantastic! The crowd was very small, by the time it was closing only 1 other person was there, however we didn’t get there until quite late due to work and slow going on the roads due to snow.

With the snow I thought there’d be a lot more birds in the garden, especially as I was outside filling the feeders at about midnight so I knew they’d be full for the morning, hardly anything’s been touched, here’s my list so far, hopefully update later in the day:

  1. Blackbird x 4
  2. Black-headed Gull x 2 – fly overs
  3. Blue Tit x 2
  4. Bullfinch x 3
  5. Carrion crow x 1 – fly over
  6. Coal Tit x 2
  7. Dunnock x 3
  8. Greenfinch x 1
  9. House Sparrow x 9
  10. Robin x 1
  11. Woodpigeon x 3

Ground frozen solid and the garden birds not staying around.

The ground has frozen solid in my garden and the birds seem very busy flying around but not settling long enough to see what they are, they don’t seem that interested in the feeders today, I had noticed a fair few insects in the air yesterday which surprised me for such a cold winters day. Off to watch BBC Winterwatch on the iplayer and see if Chris Packham’s added any more Madness song titles to his list, here’s my very cold morning’s garden bird count:

  1. Blackbird x 4
  2. Blue Tit x 2
  3. Carrion crow x 1
  4. Chaffinch x 1
  5. Coal Tit x 2
  6. Dunnock x 1 added 11.34
  7. House Sparrow x 11 updated 11.34
  8. Magpie x 1 added 11.34
  9. Robin x 1 added 11.34
  10. Woodpigeon x 3

BBC’s Winterwatch great footage of Long-tailed Tits, Garden bird list.

The snow is still lying on the ground but there seems to be very few birds around in my garden.  I’ve just been watching BBC’s Winterwatch episode 2; if you’re a fan of Long-tailed Tits there’s a great piece about 9 or 10 minutes in: BBC iplayer Winterwatch I’ve only seen them roosting once before, but not nestling down, just a pure accident.  Here’s my garden bird list so far, hope to update later in the day.

  1. Blackbird x 2
  2. Black-headed x 2, One of them didn’t have a tail, it seemed to be doing very well though!
  3. Blue Tit x 3
  4. Bullfinch x 3  – updated 11.13
  5. Carrion crow x 2
  6. Dunnock x 1
  7. Herring Gull x 1
  8. House Sparrows x 5 – updated 11.13
  9. Magpie x 1
  10. Woodpigeon x 3

Out for a gentle stroll to the park.

As many regular viewers of the site would know I’ve had 3 torn ankle tendons in the past 4 years and major screw ups from the NHS causing long lasting pain but I was a landscape photographer (can’t currently work at that) and really NEED to walk!  It’s my hobby, my job, my passion!  So when I feel I can do some I get out for gentle strolls with a walking stick, whilst at Saint Margaret’s Park I saw my first Pied Wagtail for the year, plus a few other birds:

  1. Carrion Crow x 5
  2. Pied Wagtail
  3. Woodpigeon x 2