Yesterday we sat in the garden and saw 3 or perhaps 4 birds of prey soaring over the field at the back and landing in the trees at the side.
This morning Mrs B next door, had lost a couple of fish from her new pond ( I think this may be connected)
They have broad wings with alternate long feathers at the tip, slightly upturned. Medium length fan tail and this afternoon one came and perched on a post at the end of the garden. Coulour is fairly dark brown with a hooked beak and slightly larger than a pidgeon.
It's not a Kestrel because it's bigger and darker. It's not a Heron either but I do suspect that's where Mrs B's fish went as it was sat on the post eyeing up our pond.
Sparrow Hawk? I don't think so.
Red kite? similar but too dark colour, I think.
Pat
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The red kite is far bigger than a pigeon, and they rarely get further east than Stamford as there are no thermals further east, YOu wil know one if you see it close, they are huge.
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They have a distinctive inverted V shaped tail - that designates them as of the family Raptor...brilliant name.
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>> This morning Mrs B next door, had lost a couple of fish from her new
>> pond ( I think this may be connected)
Surely they couldn'tve been ospreys, or fish eagles... ;)
>> They have broad wings with alternate long feathers at the tip, slightly upturned.
>> Medium length fan tail and this afternoon one came and perched on a post at the end
>> of the garden. Coulour is fairly dark brown with a hooked beak and slightly larger
>> than a pidgeon.
Um. Try and get a snap.
>> It's not a Kestrel because it's bigger and darker. It's not a Heron either
I should blinkin' hope not, a heron's comaparatively huge!!
>> Sparrow Hawk? I don't think so.
>> Red kite? similar but too dark colour, I think.
Need rather more ID details. Birds of brey don't normally hang about in gangs. I'm somewhat intrigued.
If these are Bs of P, then Mrs. B's fish problems are probably unrelated (as you say, it could be due to herons, or possibly Poles).
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Ospreys are grey and look pale in most light, so that seems unlikely. I've seen buzzards pass over our garden in groups of up to nine; that would be my guess at what Pat saw.
>...(or possibly Poles)
Fishing Poles, FT?
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>> Ospreys are grey and look pale in most light, so that seems unlikely.
I was joking! A gang of ospreys diving into Mrs. B's pond, that'd get the twitchers going...
>> I've seen
>> buzzards pass over our garden in groups of up to nine; that would be my
>> guess at what Pat saw.
Sort orf a match, but "slightly bigger than a pigeon"? Um.
>> >...(or possibly Poles)
>> Fishing Poles, FT?
Poles with a P. They're snarfing fings wot swims, flys, or runs, all over the place. It's a bad do.
Now I must go to bed until all this red disperses a bit. 'Night.
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Morning All.
I've got the curtains open early this morning and I'm on bird watch!
They are roosting in the row of trees that runs down the side of the field as I've just seen one of them as dawn was breaking.
I used to see Buzzards every year in the lorry between Penzance and Lands End and these look a bit smaller than that, but they are the same colour, same flight pattern and very much the same outline when in flight.
The camera is ready:)
The Heron remark was tongue in cheek because we have so many around here but they don't seem to be able to get at our pond!
When I likened them to a bit bigger than a pigeon, I meant a dirty great big wood pigeon not a slender dove.
Poles, plenty of those around here FT :)
Pat
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When you see a dead Heron you realise just how small they are.
I've counted sixteen Buzzards together on the ground.
MD
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Wednesday and Thursday even more arrived and at times, usually early morning and 5pm (ish) they were very active.
I sat outside with the camera at the ready, but I'm not technical and it is a basic digital camera that even I thought I understood!
Wednesday I took 61 photo's of the sky, with not one bird in them:(
Thursday Ian had shown where the zoom button was and I took 83 photos of the sky and only about 6 of these had bits of bird in them.
How can you see the screen in the sun?
The village people all seem to think they are Buzzards and are quite excited by the amount that had gathered.
Yesterday, they had gone. Not one seen at all and I can't understand why?
Anyway, to provide you with some merriment at my inability to do technical here is the best shot I got:)
i100.photobucket.com/albums/m34/Veeeight/047.jpg
Pat
Mods, can you use your magic wand to make the first [img] go blue please?
Last edited by: VxFan on Sat 22 May 10 at 13:46
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Your link isn't working, Pat.
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I know, that's why I've edited to ask the mods to do it:)
While I was writing the post above I looked up and saw this.
i100.photobucket.com/albums/m34/Veeeight/003.jpg
He tried all around the edge of the pond but the fish are spawning at the edge which made him wary, so he chose the bird bath for a drink!
Pat
Edit: Same problem with this link! Must get a rota system to get the mods up early:)
Last edited by: VxFan on Sat 22 May 10 at 13:46
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But It's been removed / deleted.
I don't see how the mods can help - could be wrong, though!
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Both images are certainly there but if you look at the links the first part isn't blue and so makes the link unclickable.
This happened a couple of weeks ago on another thread and the mods were able to correct it.
It's posting correctly from my end and has been checked, checked and rechecked!
We just need and early shift on duty and I nominate PU for the position:)
Pat
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>>We just need and early shift on duty and I nominate PU for the position:)
But he's no early bird! I reckon L'escargot's the man for that job.
IMG - sorry, I was a bit slow there.
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Presumably, when the My Drive section opens we will be able to put pics direct on there, which will save faffing about with third party sites.
I'm sure the management won't mind the occasional bird pic, we'll just call that section Above My Drive. :)
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I do hope you mean the feathered variety IIH :)
Pat
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i100.photobucket.com/albums/m34/Veeeight/047.jpg
It might as well nto be working, Its so blurred it could be a vulcan bomber.
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i100.photobucket.com/albums/m34/Veeeight/003.jpg
and you squirrel looks like its perfroming a deviant sex act with a garden gnome.
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...so blurred it could be a Vulcan bomber...deviant sex act....
Thank you, Zero, for those kind words of encouragement to a fellow forum member.
Last edited by: ifithelps on Sat 22 May 10 at 09:17
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Pat and I are both fluent in Spade, with a blunt dialect.
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Ignore him Iffy, he's only jealous because he can't take photo's as good as I can:)
At least give me some brownie points for staying power.
Taking fish wasn't established and her pond is now netted with colour co-ordinated netting!
We sat on the patio discussing this last night and came to the conclusion that the two fish jumped ship to avoid having to stand to attention for roll call everyday!
Pat
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>> Mods, can you use your magic wand to make the first [img] go blue please?
Pat, I've sorted your links for you. What stopped them from working was the [IMG] command. That only works for vbulletin type forums which allow pictures to be posted within the forum.
In short, just post the url link without the [IMG] commands.
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Thanks VX, I used the same link as I use for our forums so that explains what I was doing wrong.
I still think you need to get up earlier though:)
Pat
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And had the cheek to take credit for the fact I fixed them first.
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I can't tell what it was from that. Have you any from different angles?
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Hobby?
goo.gl/4Qvw
Not aware that they take fish, but that bit wasn't established was it?
>>so blurred it could be a Vulcan bomber
...could be a Blackbird?
goo.gl/0BCH
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That's the best I could do I'm afraid FT.
Pat
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Saw a dogfight between some crows and a Buzzard today, suspect the crows were protecting their nests - impressive bit of swooping and attempts to tip the Buzzard over from underneath. Class act.
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Crows or rooks?
Rooks tend to act in a combined manner near rookeries. Used to dive at our cat in a concerted mock attack.
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Buzzards?
They often hover around in groups. They look brown when the wings are folded, but grey from underneath when soaring.
The most noticeable characteristic is a mewing noise when floating around in the sky.
They get used to people, and often sit on posts by the roadside unconcerned by the traffic. They have V-shaped tails with a straight edge. Red kites are darker, larger, with a characteristic V-shaped split tail.
Last edited by: Cliff Pope on Tue 25 May 10 at 11:32
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That settles it Cliff, they were certainly buzzards then but they do seem to have vanished.
Pat
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We've been hearing a different bird call in our garden, but when SWMBO compared it to a rusty gate hinge it stirred something in my ole grey cells. It's high-pitched, lasting less than a second and sounds like a rusty gate hinge.
I've caught sight of it a couple of times, outlined against the sky so I can't see any colours. I'd describe it as blackbird size, but with a distinctive, downward curve of it's beak towards the tip.
My research suggests it's a chough, but I think it's too small and would I expect to find one in mid-Bedfordshire at this time of year?
Any twitchers?
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Bird Identification Please. - Zero
