Tag: Herring Gull

Sparrowhawk in the garden a new bird for the year list.

Another new bird for the year list, a Sparrowhawk almost hit me in the face, okay it was about 60 centimetres away, but for something moving at such speed it seemed very close.

How I got to the point of having a sparrowhawk 2 feet away from me; there were few birds in the garden, just 1 blackbird so I thought better take the dog out and check if there’s a cat lurking in the back undergrowth as there often is.  The dog went crazy sniffing the ground and it was obvious to him that a cat had just been there, but I didn’t see it, about half a minute passed and the tinkle of the cat’s bell over a neighbours fence gave it away (good on the owner for putting a bell on it) and the dog went into a quick barking fit, then all fell very silent, still no birds and the cat was away.  I bent over to pick-up some litter that had blown into the garden and as I stood up there in my face was a sparrowhawk coming straight at me, it changed just before collision.  Well what seemed like a collision point to me, to it I’m sure it felt it had hours to divert it’s course.

This is only the second time I’ve seen a sparrowhawk in the garden, first for this year, last time it was hunting and not in a way I’d seen sparrowhawks hunt before it was actually going to ground then entering the dogwood shrub that is next to one of the feeders and flushing birds out that way, instead of circling the shrub or hedge and getting the birds to fly out.  I was surprised at how well it went into the hedge, I got some video footage but it was on a small digital camera and rather rubbish as due to my cerebral palsy I shake so much.  The other thing I noticed that day was how different the small birds alarm call was to when they see a cat, they obviously have a different call for sparrowhawk than they do cat predators.

Here’s a list of the 9 different species I’ve seen today, the Magpies are back in decent numbers, not as many as on Christmas day but they’re being just as noisy:

  1. Blackbird x 2
  2. Blue Tit x 2
  3. Bullfinch x 1 (male)
  4. Chaffinch x 1
  5. Coal Tit x 2
  6. Dunnock x 1
  7. Herring Gull x 1 (flying over)
  8. Magpie x 11
  9. Sparrowhawk x 1

12 different species of birds in my garden today, plus a photo of a Coal Tit.

I was hoping to get out and see the waxwings that were near Murrayfield today, however due to the tyre blowout on Christmas Eve and not been able to get it repaired during the last week over Christmas/New Years as everything is closed, my wife can’t drive me anywhere (I can’t drive at the moment due to my ankle tendons popping out when I press the accelerator) so once again my what birds I’ve seen today comes from the garden, I’ve added a photo of a coal tit I shot a while back, hope you like it. This maybe the longest list of species for one record so far:

  1. Blackbird x 3
  2. Blue Tit x 2
  3. Bullfinch x 1 (female)
  4. Chaffinch x 1
  5. Coal Tit x 3
  6. Dunnock x 1
  7. Great Tit x 1
  8. Greenfinch x 5
  9. Herring Gull x 1
  10. House Sparrow x 3
  11. Magpie x 4
  12. Woodpigeon x 4

The photo of the coal tit on a bird seed feeder:

Coal tit

Coal tit on Garden bird feeder.

Seed and feeder supplied by the RSPB.

Added Carrion Crow to the year list, and a great new blog!

Hi all, hope the new year has been treating you well.  Ian from Riding the Waves to Eternity has joined in the fun of bird watching and is very close by to me, so be interesting to see what he sees in his garden, not just birds he’s listing he’s putting all his wildlife on a new blog called In a Corstorphine Garden – a great list of wildlife especially for a suburban area very cool!  You can also follow Ian on twitter: Cosmic_Serf.

This morning started off very windy but has calmed down, the herring gulls that were flying over were really enjoying the gusts as were the 3 Carrion Crow that hovered by, a new addition to my year species list, once again from my garden (or flying over):

  1. Blackbird x 1
  2. Blue Tit x 3
  3. Carrion crow x 3 fly over
  4. Chaffinch x 1
  5. Coal Tit x 3
  6. Dunnock x 2
  7. Herring Gull x 3 fly over
  8. Magpie x 2
  9. Robin x 1
  10. Woodpigeon x 3

Birds singing by full moon light and another windy day!

Hi all a very quiet day in the garden, still very strong winds, however last night at 1am the full moon was so bright I could here a Robin singing, was rather surprised!  Here’s today’s list, only 7 species of birds and only 10 birds!

  1. Blackbird x 1
  2. Blue Tit x 1
  3. Chaffinch x 1
  4. Coal Tit x 1
  5. Herring Gull x 3 fly overs
  6. Robin x 1
  7. Woodpigeon x 2

Very very windy here in Edinburgh

Looks like the wind has scared off a lot of the birds today, I waited and did a second count this afternoon and it was worse than this list from this morning, although was nice to see a Great Tit, they’re not a regular to my garden, the coal tits we can get up 10 at once and blue tits about 5, I think record for my garden for Long-tailed tits was 16!

  1. Blackbird x 2
  2. Blue Tit x 1
  3. Chaffinch x 1
  4. Coal Tit x 2
  5. Dunnock x 1
  6. Great Tit x 1
  7. Greenfinch x 2
  8. Herring Gull x 2 fly overs
  9. House Sparrow x 3

Here’s one of my Coal tit photos:

Coal Tit launching into flight – Gavin Hamilton

Coal Tit launching into flight – Gavin Hamilton

Snow’s on the Pentland Hills south of Edinburgh & Blue Tits back!

A few more blackbirds today, but not as many as 10 – the most I’ve seen in the garden at one time – and great to see a few Blue Tits as well I’d started to wonder where they’d got to, maybe the cold has brought them out , looking across the hills I can see the Pentlands are white with snow.  Another day of 9 different species and 31 different birds:

  • Blackbird x 6
  • Blue Tit x 3
  • Chaffinch x 3
  • Coal Tit x 2
  • Dunnock x 1
  • Greenfinch x 3
  • Herring Gull x 2 – fly overs
  • House Sparrow x 10
  • Magpie x 1

Boxing Day Garden bird list – very still and quiet!

It’s been a very quiet morning in the garden today, everything’s so still and a lot of insects flying around so guess the garden birds don’t need to use the feeders, also one of the feeders is currently down for cleaning, I rotate which ones come down on different days so there’s always at least one up.  Here’s my garden list for today:

  • Blackbird x 1
  • Chaffinch x 1
  • Coal Tit x 2
  • Dunnock x 1
  • Greenfinch x 2
  • Herring Gull x 1 flying over
  • House Sparrow x 3
  • Woodpigeon x 1

Update 13.00, not as many as Christmas day but 16 magpies have just shown up all being very raucous and chasing one another around from tree to tree, to roof to antenna.

  • Magpie x 16