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Post by Deleted on Mar 2, 2018 20:07:16 GMT
Re Kingfishers. There are plenty of the little buggers between the Nene and the Great Ouse and it's tributaries. Stunning little bird! We have a resident common pied oystercatcher at Titchmarsh. It's doing its best to reduce the fresh water mussel population seemingly single handedly - I've never seen more than one. The dwarf likes it too and goes round picking up the empty mussel shells. I think its a cool looking little bird. Pic from Wikipedia
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Post by Deleted on Mar 2, 2018 22:14:37 GMT
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Post by thebfg on Mar 3, 2018 9:16:38 GMT
It is not as zoomed in as quaysider but it is there.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 3, 2018 10:13:59 GMT
I love the way that in flight, you see a flash of turquoise blue
but at rest they are so orange predominantly.
And yet even with the two extremes of colour, they blend in so well.
Nice photo.
Rog
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Post by thebfg on Mar 3, 2018 10:29:31 GMT
Like this rog,
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Post by Deleted on Mar 3, 2018 11:16:24 GMT
That's the usual view isn't it. Playing leapfrog with a kingfisher.
Forgot to mention we were in the arm at Saltisford a couple of years ago and saw waxwings feeding on the berries.
Beautiful birds, and the only time I've seen them thus far.
Rog
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Post by thebfg on Mar 3, 2018 12:46:48 GMT
I was so close to catching a heron catch a fish.
I was watching it from afar and it never moved so as we got closer I grabbed the phone and presses the video record button as the phone died.
Five seconds later it dived in, caught a fish and returned to where it was. I was three metres away.
Mighty annoyed. Would of been a great slow motion shot.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 3, 2018 12:55:28 GMT
Jane was very upset the day we saw a heron take a duckling as it passed by in line following its Mum.
We could see the duckling struggling all the way down it's throat.
Upto that day I didn't realise they would take small birds.
Rog
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Post by lollygagger on Mar 3, 2018 13:08:52 GMT
There were magpies where I used to work. They smashed their ways into several buildings to nest.They are nasty nest raiding buggers, the only reason they don't take over is they kill each other defending their territory and don't/can't breed without it.
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Post by patty on Mar 3, 2018 14:40:49 GMT
There were magpies where I used to work. They smashed their ways into several buildings to nest.They are nasty nest raiding buggers, the only reason they don't take over is they kill each other defending their territory and don't/can't breed without it. My dad hated magpies..he'd destroy any nest they started to build because they took the little birds
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Post by Deleted on Mar 3, 2018 14:48:37 GMT
With all the snow and food being in short supply I've cleared a path to the shed so they have a chance to get to any worms along with putting out a tray with bread and seeds on the slide platform. Only a single solitary Thrush has visited so far. We have open fields and an ancient wood behind us so the birds are usually well fed and don't bother much with anything put out for them, you'd think the little buggers would appreciate the effort in this weather!
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Post by Jim on Mar 3, 2018 14:59:06 GMT
One of my bird tables has been destroyed by the wind. Time to make another. The remaining one is laden with seeds, grain and fatballs. Sparrows, dunnocks, tits- great , coal and blue, robins, blackbirds (including a couple of black beaked Scandinavian immigrants whose beaks don't yellow up till this year, Tess May didn't mention them in her speech, theiving EU incomers), sparrowhawk, nuthatch, bullfinch. Saw a Greater Spotted Woodpecker on an adjacent tree the other day too.
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Post by bodger on Mar 3, 2018 17:41:00 GMT
There were magpies where I used to work. They smashed their ways into several buildings to nest.They are nasty nest raiding buggers, the only reason they don't take over is they kill each other defending their territory and don't/can't breed without it. they pick on other birds' fledglings and peck their brains out just because they can. horrible things - flying rats. we had a particularly nasty one roosting near us and a neighbour arranged a trap with a 'calling bird' (another magpie) in one half; it attracts and catches the target bird (as a result of its inquisitive nature) in the second half of the trap. I believe calling birds are in great demand because they are quite uncommon.
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Post by patty on Mar 3, 2018 18:33:32 GMT
I made an amazing bird table out of bits of this n that held together by lots of nails and other bits of this n that..its for the jackdaws
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Post by IainS on Mar 3, 2018 20:14:29 GMT
they pick on other birds' fledglings and peck their brains out just because they can. horrible things - flying rats. we had a particularly nasty one roosting near us and a neighbour arranged a trap with a 'calling bird' (another magpie) in one half; it attracts and catches the target bird (as a result of its inquisitive nature) in the second half of the trap. I believe calling birds are in great demand because they are quite uncommon. We have a Larsen trap in the shed, although it hasn't been in use for a few years. Calling birds are usually distributed among magpie trappers quite early in the season: after one is caught with an egg or similar, it becomes the calling bird and the next few caught get employment as call birds in other traps.
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