Different beaks. But damn it you were close enough!
― Ned Trifle II, Monday, 11 May 2009 21:45 (fifteen years ago) link
xp
now all you gotta do is pronouce em correctly
― sorry for british (country matters), Monday, 11 May 2009 23:30 (fifteen years ago) link
crows are bastards
― chip dumstorf, Monday, 11 May 2009 23:38 (fifteen years ago) link
Featherstonehaugh-Cholmondeley
― Ned Trifle II, Tuesday, 12 May 2009 08:23 (fifteen years ago) link
crows and gulls are the kings of birds imo, theyre just harder, cleverer, more resourceful and more straight-up aware of their surroundings than the sweet innocents of the avian world
and crows, on top of this, are passeridae, the more advanced and sophisticated half of the phylum...it's everything in one package: brilliant flying skills, advanced social interaction, improvised eating routines, fearless predation
― sorry for british (country matters), Tuesday, 12 May 2009 13:17 (fifteen years ago) link
Dunno if you've seen them in the wild LJ, but choughs in particular are amazingly agile flyers and so at home too in the windiest and wildest of places. Awesome critters.
― Enemy Insects (NickB), Tuesday, 12 May 2009 13:29 (fifteen years ago) link
you dare doubt the lengths this not-quite-recovered ornithologist would go to to see a chough? pfah!
anyway, yeah, when we went to Wales and scouted out Skomer Island that one time, choughs aplenty cavorted by the cliffs. this was approximately 2 weeks before the sea empress disaster fwiw
― sorry for british (country matters), Tuesday, 12 May 2009 13:32 (fifteen years ago) link
Ooooh, never been to Skomer. Gonna wait till the kids are a bit older and then take them birding up there to see da puffinks. This year's plan is to show them OWLS. Failed miserably to manage this last year though.
― Enemy Insects (NickB), Tuesday, 12 May 2009 13:39 (fifteen years ago) link
was a grey wagtail in the park this morning - i see him about twice a year
― koogs, Tuesday, 12 May 2009 13:47 (fifteen years ago) link
I think grey wagtails ought to lobby parliament for a name change. They've definitely been short-changed there.
― Enemy Insects (NickB), Tuesday, 12 May 2009 13:49 (fifteen years ago) link
probably the yellow and pied wagtails got named 1st, then someone saw the grey one and was all bollocks gotta keep up this colour + wagtail thing we got going on.
― Jarlrmai, Tuesday, 12 May 2009 14:00 (fifteen years ago) link
wagtails are more or less my favourite birds
the misnomer of "grey wagtail" and the manner in which its colourful hues reveal themselves at closer inspection (along with th fact that it incorporates the colours of the other two, gaudier wagtails) forms an intrinsic part of a section of a long poem i wrote
― sorry for british (country matters), Tuesday, 12 May 2009 14:34 (fifteen years ago) link
songs for ornithologists:
CD-R80: Songs for ornithologists
― djh, Wednesday, 13 May 2009 19:32 (fifteen years ago) link
the grey wagtail landed on the path in front of me today and i got within 10ft of him as he was hopping along and doing the sinusoidal flight thing they do. great tail feathers.
in other bird-related news, the swifts are back which is always a joy. why they fly back from south africa to W12 every year is beyond me but i'm glad they do. we get flocks of 20 or 30 of them at times, dogfighting amongst themselves. and the overcast weather means they were flying quite low this morning when i was out. they fly past level with my 3rd storey windows on occasion, screaming as they go. nature's stukkas.
― koogs, Friday, 15 May 2009 20:08 (fifteen years ago) link
omg you totally read me, we had the first swifts of summer last weekend, they rock the skyline like nothing else
― sorry for british (country matters), Friday, 15 May 2009 22:25 (fifteen years ago) link
http://markthog.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/turkey-vulture1.jpg
These guys are everywhere in the Appalachians. In the summertime I love watching them ride the thermals, so beautiful and graceful. Of all the birds, Vultures and condors are the most metal.
― leavethecapital, Saturday, 16 May 2009 00:24 (fifteen years ago) link
imo the raven is more metal
― sorry for british (country matters), Saturday, 16 May 2009 00:26 (fifteen years ago) link
we are having a frenzy of birds in our back yard these days, and just this week i saw a pine grosbeak and a indigo bunting.
birds are so cool.
― moved to the Home of Rest For Horses at Speen (jjjusten), Saturday, 16 May 2009 00:28 (fifteen years ago) link
The raven is not metal; wtf. They start out as wee ravens listening to TMBG and the oldies station and grow up o listen to sorta artsy shit like Kate Bush & Kronos Quartet, claiming they like modern composers & that Stockhausen is 'amazing' but it's all kind of a front.
― test drives at ur own risk i cant go with you too many bees (Abbott), Saturday, 16 May 2009 00:38 (fifteen years ago) link
If they like anything metal it is like Kayo Dot & shit tho they have a guilty soft spot for female-fronted Eurometal lite.
― test drives at ur own risk i cant go with you too many bees (Abbott), Saturday, 16 May 2009 00:40 (fifteen years ago) link
Ravens or Vultures! I think we need a poll!!
What would Varg chose? http://gfx.dagbladet.no/pub/artikkel/5/54/540/540102/varg1_320_1215331211.jpg
― leavethecapital, Saturday, 16 May 2009 00:42 (fifteen years ago) link
ABout which bird is superior or which is more metal?
― test drives at ur own risk i cant go with you too many bees (Abbott), Saturday, 16 May 2009 00:49 (fifteen years ago) link
varg choose eagle owl lolz
― sorry for british (country matters), Saturday, 16 May 2009 00:51 (fifteen years ago) link
Which is more metal. I think Vultures are more metal while Ravens are more goth. But if you're talking in terms of birds, IHMO it's the raven.
So does this mean goths better than metal? I don't think Varg would approve. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_-M5PyYHH2kk/SBbHQ0n4rzI/AAAAAAAAAk8/FpBCx2i9Q3Q/s320/varg_vikernes_story.jpg
― leavethecapital, Saturday, 16 May 2009 01:10 (fifteen years ago) link
next door neighbor's cat killed a rainbow lorikeet in my backyard this morning. sad affair. such handsome little guys.
http://geoffhill.com.au/uploads/images/birds/rainbow%20lorikeet.jpg
― sonderborg, Saturday, 16 May 2009 01:16 (fifteen years ago) link
so, flock of great tits in the park this morning so i stopped and had a look (because often there are long-tailed tits in the mix too and we don't have those back home). then i noticed a jay on the ground pecking a young great tit into unconsciousness and flying off with it in its beak (closely followed by a mob of other great tits). do jays do that, eat smaller birds?
i did later see a mixed flock of great and long-tailed tits by the hospital (which is now solely used for filming tv dramas) but they looked very bedraggled in the rain.
― koogs, Tuesday, 26 May 2009 08:46 (fifteen years ago) link
apparently so:
http://www.garden-birds.co.uk/birds/jay.htm
"Jays feed on acorns, beech mast, fruits, insects, small rodents, bats, newts, birds' eggs and young birds."
― koogs, Tuesday, 26 May 2009 08:47 (fifteen years ago) link
Just like the other crows I suppose - they'll eat whatever's going. Must be easy pickings for them when the young first leave their nests. 'Our' blue tits are yet to fledge, I think it'll be in the next couple of days. Has been pissing it down here which won't help them, but it has kept all the cats away.
On my ride in this morning there was a young blackbird in the gutter at a really busy junction in town. Luckily it was a red light so I could jump off to pick the little guy up and move him to safety. So bedraggled though, poor feller.
― Enemy Insects (NickB), Tuesday, 26 May 2009 09:18 (fifteen years ago) link
A bird used her body as a dam to stop overflowing drainpipe water from soaking her chicks
Not as depressing as it sounds (the bird didn't die).
― cant go with u too many alfbrees (Abbott), Friday, 29 May 2009 03:16 (fifteen years ago) link
omg <3
mistle thrushes are the best thrushes fwiw
― sad blue nose hybrid with shit football crew (country matters), Friday, 29 May 2009 03:22 (fifteen years ago) link
Which is more metal. I think Vultures are more metal while Ravens are more goth.
http://www.myspace.com/vvltvre
― 鬼の手 (Edward III), Friday, 29 May 2009 03:30 (fifteen years ago) link
Hey, good walk today, not birding or anything but took the bins and saw a firecrest, a peregrine, a water rail, two kingfishers and a half a dozen snipe. Also grey wagtail, buzzard, nuthatch, green woodpecker, reed bunting, kestrel and heron. Guess the cold, calm weather helped a lot. Didn't see any owls though, which I was really hoping to see as it got dusky.
― We should have called Suzie and Bobby (NickB), Monday, 28 December 2009 19:43 (fourteen years ago) link
where the hell do you live and can i live there too
― HELLO MY NAME IS TWILIGHT AND I AM A DRACULA (acoleuthic), Monday, 28 December 2009 19:45 (fourteen years ago) link
This was deepest Sussex - banks of the river just north of Arundel. Lots of ducks too.
― We should have called Suzie and Bobby (NickB), Monday, 28 December 2009 19:50 (fourteen years ago) link
sweet
wonder if there were any smew. good time of year for merganser and shoveler iirc
hang on a WATER RAIL - those things are IMPOSSIBLE to see
have also never seen nuthatch...jeez
― HELLO MY NAME IS TWILIGHT AND I AM A DRACULA (acoleuthic), Monday, 28 December 2009 20:22 (fourteen years ago) link
Smew like deep water iirc, so go to old gravel pits and reservoirs for those guys. For nuthatch you want some good broadleaved woodland, oak or something like that. If they're in yr area though they'll normally come to feeders and start bossing everything else around.
Lucked out with the water rail, it was that cold and icy that one of them was just hanging around in plain view. Didn't register it at first cos it was just this brown blob hanging around with the moorhens, so I assumed it was something equally boring.
― We should have called Suzie and Bobby (NickB), Monday, 28 December 2009 21:05 (fourteen years ago) link
Maybe I'll try and make 2010 the year I finally see a hawfinch.
― We should have called Suzie and Bobby (NickB), Monday, 28 December 2009 21:09 (fourteen years ago) link
have never seen hawfinch either! wonder if they are as delightful as goldfinch and bullfinch
there's a neat li'l gravel pit reserve in sevenoaks i used to go to all the time...got good waders and ducks there, mad good. should visit again soon! nuthatch and treecreepers remain beyond me
seeing a water rail like that is insane. i've heard them (at the aforementioned reserve) but not seen iirc *roots out checklist* oh wait i have! awesome.
ah, misspent youth
last night i was in a pub with upto11 and upto11's friends whom i'd never met before and i found myself describing the habitat and physiology of the duck preserved in a box on the pub wall. from the angle i sat i could not tell if it was an adult female red-breasted merganser or an adult female goosander (in retrospect it was almost certainly a goosander) so i gave both as options and said it was at least a merganser of some sort. a 'goose-like duck'. i believe the words 'freshwater' and 'maritime' left my lips at this point. i am a world-class conversationalist
― HELLO MY NAME IS TWILIGHT AND I AM A DRACULA (acoleuthic), Tuesday, 29 December 2009 09:35 (fourteen years ago) link
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/hampshire/8434907.stm
RIP feathered one
― everybody hauritz (acoleuthic), Wednesday, 30 December 2009 16:24 (fourteen years ago) link
Died of an incurable mallardy.
― We should have called Suzie and Bobby (NickB), Wednesday, 30 December 2009 21:33 (fourteen years ago) link
http://www.naturepics.co.uk/p7ssm_img_1/fullsize/Fieldfare_fs_fs.jpg
^ flock of these beautiful things on the one tree in our back garden today. Also redwing and blackcap.
― We should have called Suzie and Bobby (NickB), Friday, 8 January 2010 11:22 (fourteen years ago) link
We've had loads of redwing! I posted about them here: ITT: revealin' some mystic thruths l8r, stay tuned!!!
Fieldfare are scarcer. Tough call as to who's better looking.
― Electric Universe (wherever that is) (acoleuthic), Friday, 8 January 2010 14:57 (fourteen years ago) link
Shagging hell, a woodcock has just flown over our garden wtf. I've never even seen a woodcock before, let alone in the 'burbs. Pretty unmistakable outline though. Also there's a big mixed flock of fieldfare/redwing out there right now. Maybe 40-50 birds? Bonkers.
― We should have called Suzie and Bobby (NickB), Saturday, 9 January 2010 13:07 (fourteen years ago) link
!!!! that is insane!
― Electric Universe (wherever that is) (acoleuthic), Saturday, 9 January 2010 15:09 (fourteen years ago) link
Correction - I have seen woodcocks before, but only stuffed ones in country pubs.
Constant cascade of different birds into the garden today. Food and water keep getting covered up by the snow though. Blackcap still knocking around, love their Hitler haircuts.
― We should have called Suzie and Bobby (NickB), Saturday, 9 January 2010 15:54 (fourteen years ago) link
my new year's resolution should have been to put food out for the birds
maybe it can still be done
― Electric Universe (wherever that is) (acoleuthic), Saturday, 9 January 2010 16:00 (fourteen years ago) link
Maybe 40-50 birds? Bonkers.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/8457214.stm?ls
― Do the english boil pizza? (acoleuthic), Thursday, 14 January 2010 00:00 (fourteen years ago) link
Remember this? HI DERE WAHT IS AWESOME
Well, I done blogged it: http://cvpc.org.uk/2010/03/barbican-gig-review-a-journey-into-avant-finch/
― its sad he was a blogger (acoleuthic), Wednesday, 10 March 2010 19:36 (fourteen years ago) link
Good news today, one more reason Pinnacles National Monument is so awesome.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/03/10/BAV01CD6K6.DTL&tsp=1
― WARS OF ARMAGEDDON (Karaoke Version) (Sparkle Motion), Wednesday, 10 March 2010 20:23 (fourteen years ago) link