We don't have one.
you vote for it here
www.votenationalbird.com
Whats your choice?
My vote goes for the Robin
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I've not looked at the site guvnor, too busy looking at a 5 week old black Labradoodle in Falmouth but, I've always had a preference for the Robin red breast. I seem to always have one as a permanent fixture wherever I've lived. I see the Woodpecker, Jays, Collared Doves, various Finches, and some lovely Tits on a daily basis, but yes, Mr Robin is the one for me.
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Dodo? Ostrich?
I don't really see why we need a national bird. We've got other ancient national animal symbols - lion, unicorn, leopard, and some plants - rose, leek, thistle.
That's enough, isn't it?
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I'm with Cliff here, but if we had to have one then it'd be a cuckoo. I love the sound of them, and I don't think I've ever heard them anywhere else.
But since you can't vote for that, then the Kite.
Last edited by: No FM2R on Mon 16 Mar 15 at 14:06
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Chicken. In the form of nuggets if you want to appeal to the masses.
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>if we had to have one then it'd be a
>> cuckoo.
>>
Rather appropriate given our record.
We've planted our culture around the world, and left the cuckolded parents to struggle to bring it up as if it were their own.
:)
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What's wrong with that fine old British avian the sh***hawk? He gets my vote. Wren comes second, used to be on the back of farthings.
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See lots of red kites here, but hardly a UK national bird to me - and I think the current repopulation came from Spain. And they are soft as brushes, our chicken saw one off the other day :)
I've gone for troglodytes troglodytes goo.gl/kgYAEb
I liked them on farthings.
I expect the Robin will win.
EDIT: crossed with AC. Good man.
Last edited by: Manatee on Mon 16 Mar 15 at 14:48
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...came from Spain.
Foreign origins seem to have done St George's reputation no harm. And given the number of ancient Britons returning from overseas retirement to the free comfort of the NHS, it might be an appropriate symbol.
Wren or mute swan for me, though - partly because either could be depicted on, say, a coin and still be recognizable; lose the colour from a robin and it's just another little brown bird.
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Thought St George came from Palestine?
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Is that Palestine, East Sussex? Point is, he ain't from round 'ere, boy.
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>> Is that Palestine, East Sussex? Point is, he ain't from round 'ere, boy.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestine,_Hampshire
As it happens, St George is the root of all the Islam Christianity agro.
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Even more to the point, he is from where it is all now kicking off! Not to mention that the area continued Christians like George well before the Islamic colonial expansion in the 7th century. Upstarts.
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>>My vote goes for the Robin
Described as a pair of flying gonads, as I believe they have the largest (relative to body size) in the animal kingdom.
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I like the idea of the Ostrich - it suits us.
BBD will be along shortly to suggest the Shag.
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Wrens built St Pauls : hardworking birds.
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did you know there's fourty fousand fevvers on a frush?
www.youtube.com/watch?v=np9EO2Qehxc
Last edited by: Zero on Mon 16 Mar 15 at 16:13
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>> Wow. How many on a Rhea?
Blimey we don't git birds wiv feffers on their ears dahn ear in london
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regrettably, I vote for my old Allotment Nemisis the Blackie. Often I could wring it's neck when i find he has "ratched out" all my newly sown seeds and bulbs, then as I set about repairing his damage and start weeding, he perches on the shed and sings his heart out. All is well in my English Country Garden.
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>> My vote goes for the Robin
>>
Joanna Lumley.
Last edited by: VxFan on Mon 16 Mar 15 at 21:15
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Another vote for troglodytes troglodytes. Lots of them trilling away on the Staffs Moorlands this weekend.
Fact he has regional variations only makes him more suitable:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Kilda_wren
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Linked suspiciously to the general election. I've racked my brain, but I can't think of a sensible reason yet. Might be something to do with Hawks and Doves.
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We had a Hoopoe in our garden last year, yes really. Stayed for just over a day.
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>>How about a gannet?
How is the missus lately Dodger?
:}
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>> >>How about a gannet?
>>
>> How is the missus lately Dodger?
>>
>> :}
She's a parakeet!
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>> We had a Hoopoe in our garden last year, yes really. Stayed for just over a day.
Lucky ole you! - I remember seeing a photo of a Hoopoe in a wildlife book many years ago, but I've never seen the bird on my travels, unfortunately.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoopoe#/media/File:Botbotik.jpg
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My mother has reported them as occasional visitors to her South Coast garden but I've only seen them in France. Spectacular sight, though; quite unmistakable.
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Saw a couple of them in Spain last year.
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We had a Hoopoe up here a few years ago when I did a spot of National Trust estate warden volunteering.
I vote for the Skylark...just to be awkward.
Memories of lying on my back in the warm grass in the field by our house as a kid trying to spot him singing away high up in the sky. Plus Ralph Vaughan-Williams' Lark Ascending !
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Couple of Jays around me nuts 'as we speak'. The missus calls 'em punk rockers :+)
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>> Couple of Jays around me nuts 'as we speak'. The missus calls 'em punk rockers
>> :+)
Whatever the bird, it shouldn't be a roger type bird that roggers off to the sun then comes back to take advantage of better times or climate.
It should be a british bird that lives here all the time, all the year round, without complaining.
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Dare I say it?
The Blackbird.
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>> Dare I say it?
>> The Blackbird.
You have a point Rastaman, he's a top contender. Blackbird is present throughout the country and is the best singer, better in my opinion than the song-thrush.
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>> Dare I say it?
>>
>> The Blackbird.
Why on earth did you think nominating the Blackbird was in the least bit daring?
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>>Whatever the bird, it shouldn't be a roger type bird that roggers off to the sun then comes back to take advantage of better times or climate.
Jays don't roger off abroad come winter, they can be found across most of the UK. They don't like Jockland though for some strange reason.
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>> >>Whatever the bird, it shouldn't be a roger type bird that roggers off to the
>> sun then comes back to take advantage of better times or climate.
>>
>> Jays don't roger off abroad come winter, they can be found across most of the
>> UK. They don't like Jockland though for some strange reason.
The English national bird then. The jocks can have a grouse. Very appropriate.
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>> Linked suspiciously to the general election. I've racked my brain, but I can't think of
>> a sensible reason yet. Might be something to do with Hawks and Doves.
>>
More likely AC's suggestion of a hawk species. Or a turkey.
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National bird?
What for? What's the point and what is it trying to prove?
You can't summarise the character of a whole nation by a flipping feathered creature no matter how pretty it looks and once a bird has been chosen (via social media) then what? How would the image be used and when?
Stupid idea and a waste of server space.
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>> Stupid idea and a waste of server space
It's my strong impression that 'server space' is more or less monopolised by stupid ideas. One more won't make a blind bit of difference.
I'd forgotten that the skylark competes with the blackbird for top musician slot. When he's in the mood a lark can sing pure bebop, fabulous stuff. You have to listen, and it helps to be in the right mood yourself.
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Long before I became deaf, I was cycling back home at silly o'clock in the morning. From what I remember, must have been about 4 in the morning in June. A skylark flew up, and in the utter quiet, sang its heart out. I stopped and listened for what must have been 10 minutes; twas utterly enchanting and I've never heard its like again.
But on topic, the question has to be answered with another question, why? The rich variety of birds in these islands sums up the character of the UK, not any individual species.
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Yeah, get rid of the immigrant birds and narrow the choice down a bit.
;-)
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>> why? The rich variety of birds in these islands sums up the character of the UK, not any individual species.
Yes, but there's no harm in electing one as the most British bird, surely?
It should obviously be found everywhere to be a contender. The robin is aggressive, the wren tiny and cute, and there are other contenders in the small bird category including the blue tit.
Herself likes small birds and hangs food containers for them from an apple tree outside. The food costs a lot of money and I grumble when she makes me buy it. There are a lot of blue tits and coal tits, and occasional finches, green, gold and bull. The biggest usual visitor is a woodpecker - there's a pair 100 yards away. Every now and then a jay turns up.
The smaller birds don't touch the food when something bigger is eating, they wait their turn. It all happens very fast, little birds flitting in and out in half a second. They have racing metabolisms, like mice. An ornithologist could use slowed-down video to assess the patterns of dominance or cooperation, but you can't make any sense of it with the naked eye.
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>> Herself likes small birds and hangs food containers for them from an apple tree outside.
>> The food costs a lot of money and I grumble when she makes me buy
>> it.
B&M and Home Bargains sell v good bird food for not much money...
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>> >> The robin is aggressive, the
>> wren tiny and cute,
>>
Not so cute when pushed:
"For the poor wren,
The most diminutive of birds, will fight,
Her young ones in her nest, against the owl.
All is the fear and nothing is the love,
As little is the wisdom, where the flight
So runs against all reason."
Lady Macduff
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>> occasional finches, green, gold and bull.
Another mistake. I am told that bullfinches are rare visitors, but chaffinches show up quite often. So that should have read 'green, gold and chaff'. Sorry.
They're all just cute little birds to me. Gotta buy another pound of peanuts for the little gannets tomorrrow.
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I don't mind silly things like national birds. I wouldn't mind being Chilean or Mexican and having the condor for example.
Bear in mind that we have a national animal, even if moaning minnies think the lion is too good for us these days and we should have a poodle instead.
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Got to be a deceased parrot...
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Coincidentally, I found on Netflix the other night Monty Python: and now for something completely different and thought the Beestlings might be interested. It is - I think - a re-shooting of bits from the TV series rather than a mere compilation; either way, some they found amusing, most not. I let the parrot sketch develop without comment, curious as to whether they'd heard of it. They hadn't, and it didn't raise a titter. Pity; I'd hoped it might have dated better.
Lesley Judd is in it, though. But the episode of Black Books we finally gave it up for was much funnier.
Last edited by: WillDeBeest on Tue 17 Mar 15 at 16:30
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Python has not aged well.
That and the fact that, even when it was current, it was moments of genius buried in quite a lot of dross.
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"That and the fact that, even when it was current, it was moments of genius buried in quite a lot of dross."
That's more or less what I commented last year in the Telegraph on the news of the reunion gigs.
"Some Monty Python stuff was very funny …………….. but a lot of it wasn't; we only tend to remember the good bits."
Another contributor congratulated me on summarising the whole of human existence in one sentence......
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>> I let the parrot sketch develop without comment, curious as
>> to whether they'd heard of it. They hadn't,
>>
Dead parrot has passed into the language - probably most people don't know where it came from.
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They finally managed to put all the good bits together with " life of Brian" tho made a good attempt with "holy grail"
With the TV shows if you got one genius piece in each show you were lucky
I say you were lucky
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Nice little bird the red Robin.You don't often see them in my garden but when I have it makes my day.
I'm easily pleased.
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Carol Vorderman gets my vote....
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White Dee from "Benefits Street".
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I like Great Tits....just saying.
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>> I like Great Tits....just saying.
And Doug speaks highly of you, also.
(Using Doug's name because he can take it).
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......or,of course, the "Oomygooley" bird
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>> (Using Doug's name because he can take it).
It may surprise you to learn I can be a bit of a tit myself occasionally.
(.)(.) Thanks Doc!
PS frownie not mine btw!
Last edited by: Dog on Wed 18 Mar 15 at 08:26
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I'm falling in love for the first time, this time I think it's for real
www.saradamergi.com/
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>> It's the Robin.
>>
>> theurbanbirder.com/#nationalbird
Good to see the Kite came 5th. What a marvellous story that has been. More or less extinct in the uk, and now spreading everywhere. We now have a pair breeding near us on Horsell Common, and one is now seen regularly over palace Zero. They don't appear yet to have made it to the Surrey Hills, North Downs or the South Downs, but they will and once in that locale they will rapidly expand - ideal country for them.
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>> Good to see the Kite came 5th.
We're about halfway between the Chiltern and Rockingham reintroduction zones. Still unusual enough locally to be commented on but no longer exceptional. Another five years perhaps and they'll be as common as Buzzards - themselves a rarity when we moved here 25yrs ago.
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>> What do Kites eat?
>>
UKIP supporters mainly
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>> >> What do Kites eat?
>> >>
>>
>> UKIP supporters mainly
A kite will most certainly gobble up a kipper.
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Mostly small mammals, or any form of road kill or carcasses. They will take small birds, and raid nests. They also scavenge, seen them brazenly raiding the waste bins at Princess Risborough station, they are really quite large at close quarters.
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>> they are really quite large at close quarters.
Indeedy. I disturbed one feeding by the road while cycling in the Tring area a couple of years ago. Difficult to compare exactly but I'd say it was size of Black Back Gull.
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>> What do Kites eat?
Per RSPB:
Mainly carrion and worms, but opportunistic and will occasionally take small mammals.
Daughter and her chap saw them being fed at the Kite Centre in mid Wales butcher's waste.
Last edited by: Bromptonaut on Thu 11 Jun 15 at 17:22
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Just curious as to what impact it would should they increase to large numbers.
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>> Just curious as to what impact it would should they increase to large numbers.
If they spread around the country then fine, though if they take small birds they're going to fall foul of (a) gamekeepers and (b) those who blame wild predators for decline in song birds.
Zero's account of them scavenging from bins though is worrying. If they get too bold at hat sort of thing they become a nuisance and, like gulls, a danger to public health.
Last edited by: Bromptonaut on Thu 11 Jun 15 at 17:40
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>> If they spread around the country then fine, though if they take small birds they're
>> going to fall foul of (a) gamekeepers and (b) those who blame wild predators for
>> decline in song birds.
>>
As there is always a knock from one species increasing, just wondered what it is. How small is small though, unless it's small gamebirds like the chicks I don't think they'd be too bothered. Some round here buy them in anyway, by then they are too big I would think to get eaten by them. Although obvioiusly not all work that way.
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>> Just curious as to what impact it would should they increase to large numbers.
In very large numbers they can be a pest, tho in the middle ages they were useful "cleaner uppers"
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They still perform that function in many Indian cities. Shakespeare described London as a city of kites and crowes in Corialanus.
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Most of our birds of prey have made a comeback after the disastrous years of the seventies although some are still persecuted by gamekeepers living in the past.
I regularly see Marsh Harriers on the Broads and spent a while watching Hobbies chasing dragonflies at Upton Broad earlier this week. Buzzards not as common as further west. A number of Red Kites have been sighted as was an Osprey at Ranworth earlier this year. Good to see that the kestrel has made a bit of a comeback too after a few poor years and of course there's always the Peregrine on the cathedral!
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Saw a red kite just north of Basingstoke yesterday. Perhaps not unusual, but more used to seeing them in the Chilterns.
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>> Horsell Common
Was in the Cricketers pub there a few days ago having a cooling drink after a day's hard graft. If you take a stroll along the bank of the Basingstoke canal in the direction of Basingstoke from St Johns Lye, you'll see some canal bank repairs I helped carry out.
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>> >> Horsell Common
>>
>> Was in the Cricketers pub there a few days ago having a cooling drink after
>> a day's hard graft. If you take a stroll along the bank of the Basingstoke
>> canal in the direction of Basingstoke from St Johns Lye, you'll see some canal bank
>> repairs I helped carry out.
And some say sentencing doesn't work- Good old community service.
(not sure the hang em high brigade will approve of being allowed to have booze tho)
Last edited by: Zero on Thu 11 Jun 15 at 18:47
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It's OK. No booze. I had lemonade and lime, paid for it myself. And the burger it washed down. Had to drive the rest of the orange boiler-suited rapscallions back through the checkpoints to the People's Republic of Berkshire, see.
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Ah right - sorry. Didn't realise you were the screw.
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>> Good to see the Kite came 5th.
>> We now have a pair breeding near us on Horsell Common,
>> and one is now seen regularly over palace Zero.
There were 10 circling over the playing field and surrounding houses where I was walking the dog last Saturday (in Reading), and that's not unusual - I've seen up to 20 together. I wouldn't be surprised if they're reaching saturation point in the area.
Last edited by: Focusless on Thu 11 Jun 15 at 19:00
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>> There were 10 circling over the playing field and surrounding houses where I was walking
>> the dog last Saturday
About 15 today over someone's garden earlier down Loddon Bridge Road in Woodley; you can just about make out 13 or 14:
i969.photobucket.com/albums/ae173/focushj/20150627_103428_zpsz6vvm4ei.jpg
EDIT: BTW phone camera's wide angle lens makes them appear much further away than they actually were
Last edited by: Focusless on Sat 27 Jun 15 at 14:10
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Brief sighting of a single example this morning, idling around over farmland between here and M1.
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Our National Bird - Dog
