Sally

Is it a Goldcrest? Looks too colourful for a Wren...

Correct ccu it's a Goldcrest, Britains smallest bird ( many think the Wren is)

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I spent a weekend in Cornwall last year and saw lots of them.

Tit.

Goldcrest - however I believe that the Firecrest is smaller folks.

Had one crawl all over the apple tree a few times so I had a good chance to observe it.

Adam Campbell

Yea firecrest is smaller however that's a visitor the goldcrest is resident

Nice spot btw lovely little bird only ever seen a couple myself

Yea firecrest is smaller however that's a visitor the goldcrest is resident

Nice spot btw lovely little bird only ever seen a couple myself

Being a sad twitcher myself I have sat around in bird hides for hours in the past looking for rare birds.

You don't see too may Jays about anymore, my favourite bird is the Bullfinch - the red and black is striking on the male with a touch of white, beautiful.

That's why our garden is a haven of berries and items that would attract any hungry birds - the list I have of visitors that have actually landed in the garden is pretty impressive and includes the Goldcrest, my photos I took however at the time were on my phone and you couldn't even see it.

It looked like I had taken a photo of the ultra rare Hoodwink

Well munchy we agree on one thing at least lol...bullies are my favourite bird always have been used to get dozens in back garden as kid used to come after fruit buds on our Apple and pear trees we used to have a massive netted area for raspberries and I can't tell you how many got in and I had to let out

Get a pair of jays come in my garden for only a couple weeks a year late summer use bird bath and hang around then bugger off till next year something must attract them but I don't know what

Fantastic, a twitcher thread!! I've loved birdwatching since I was a kid, not been greatly active for some years but still enjoy looking out for rarer species. Favourite bird? Hmmm? Bit of an owl fan but, we used to get Waxwings in the back garden years ago. Rarest I've ever seen, a rare visitor to these shores, Great grey shrike. Me and my mate couldn't believe it, watched it in a copse of birch for about half an hour before it got dark. My god! That was at least forty years ago!!

My ex of about twenty five years ago lives up the road and I still refer to her as Baby Magpie behind her back as she worked at Burger King off London Road and there was loads of Pied Wagtails hopping around and she said 'ooh look baby Magpies' and it still makes me chortle to this day (probably only a birdwatcher would get the joke).

We still talk and it was ace as I used to go into the shop and buy the cheapest item and end up with one or two bags of goodies that would last about three days, she used to dive round to mine afterwards to tuck in.

Thing was that after three days I didn't want to look at another Burger King item in my life, took at least three months till I could look at them again.

Fantastic, a twitcher thread!! I've loved birdwatching since I was a kid, not been greatly active for some years but still enjoy looking out for rarer species. Favourite bird? Hmmm? Bit of an owl fan but, we used to get Waxwings in the back garden years ago. Rarest I've ever seen, a rare visitor to these shores, Great grey shrike. Me and my mate couldn't believe it, watched it in a copse of birch for about half an hour before it got dark. My god! That was at least forty years ago!!

Being a birdwatcher you look for shapes in the sky at times and I once spotted a Hobby - I was outside on the phone at work and it flew over low, like a massive Swift it was.

Swifts are a pretty damn awesome bird! I love watching them on a summers evening.

It's cool seeing the odd rarity however over as much pleasure seeing a hedge full of spoggies or hearing a blackie belting his lungs out at 4 in morning

Deffinatly a goldcrest seen quite a few around wreay and southwaite

Back in the day this was normally a trick question, unless you knew of course as of what is the smallest bird as man assume it is the Wren.

The Wren is a lovely friendly bird that often visits here as is the Robin.

I do like a goldcrest although I haven’t seen many.
Almost a year since I moved house and now have a small area of woodland to one side of us, great for a bit of bird-spotting.
So far:
Blue tit, coal tit, great tit, robin, magpie, chaffinch, bullfinch, goldfinch, tawny owl, greenfinch, collared dove, greater spotted woodpecker, goldcrest, pied wagtail, wren, dunnock, jay, rook, wood pigeon, thrush, sparrowhawk, long tailed tit and tree sparrow.
Real privilege to have them living “next door”!

Lucky you Alan, I've only seen one in my garden once and it was a few years ago. I took a photo of it (which I can't find right now) that was very surreal. My late husband grew bonsai trees and the goldcrest was sitting on one, giving a novel prospective on the garden. They like pines and that sort of tree best it seems.

I've only got a tiny garden but usually have plenty of different species, not so much at the moment though. Too many visits by this chap.

Swallows and swifts for me.
Life can be bleak and hard at times but their reappearance each year gives me a lift.
Swooping and sweeping low over fields and hedgerows on Summer evenings can make your heart sing.

NCF you wouldn't be so keen on swifts if they a built a nest under your eaves. Damn noisy birds but I can imagine something worse moving in - green parakeets which have colonised the whole of North London.

Yes, where I grew up in Lincolnshire we had house martins and swifts nesting under our eaves.
That was in the 70s though and my mum and dad loved them despite the mess!
Maybe times have changed a bit as most people I know now who have them around tend to put large plastic owls or shopping bags on the windows to scare them away.

I always think we do quite well for birds living fairly close to the centre of Huddersfield, although it is a town with a lot of woods and trees.

Seen a sparrowhawk, jay, goldfinches and an owl in the garden as well as the more familiar visitors including a large local population of magpies and collared doves, the latter often calling down the chimney.

Growing up in Cumbria my grandparents were keen birdwatchers and had an elaborate home made bird table arrangement in their garden which was on the edge of Kirkoswald next to open fields and woods. They also used to open a back window and feed some tamer birds on the sill.

They used to get very excited if they saw a goldfinch (rather than a goldcrest) but they seem to be more common garden visitors these days.

On the other hand "those great dirty doves" were the bane of my grandmother's life as she blamed them for copiously crapping all over the windows.

https://youtu.be/zqtS9xyl0f4

Swallows and swifts for me.
Life can be bleak and hard at times but their reappearance each year gives me a lift.
Swooping and sweeping low over fields and hedgerows on Summer evenings can make your heart sing.

I like swallows for the same reasons ncf. My dad was a farmer but also a naturlist and he used to ring birds for the BTO. One swallow he rang as a chick at the farm, it came back every year (found out by checking the number on the ring on it's leg), to the same building at the farm for 10 years. I find it totally incredible that it journeyed between Cumbria and South Africa twice a year for so long, wonderful creatures.

I' not going to get my favourite bird in the garden, I've got to go to them. I just love puffins. Fabulous faces, rediculous calls (if you haven't heard one look it up). Such a determined little bird who seem so clumsy on land but so effective underwater.

Bumble your "chap"is a chapess

Bumble your "chap"is a chapess

Ha, yes, sorry, she's definitely a killing machine, although it's nice to see how often the birds get away from her. I have a little patch of brambles in the corner so they have somewhere to hide.

Yea very important if you feed birds to have some shrubbery very close to feeding site so birds can escape from birds of prey,
You might not think you have hawks however they do a lot of hunting very early in morning most sightings in my garden been between 4.30-6.30 in morning when I've been having my morning brew before work

We used to live next to the Bear Mountain Park just outside NY. It is a sanctuary for Bald Eagles. You knew when they flying because it went really quiet. The shadow on the ground was like a Cessna. They would sit in one of our trees, wings about 7ft across. Amazing to watch

Is it just me or are there a lot more magpies and starlings around this year?
I remember as a kid the starlings being a right nuisance on the bird table hogging the food but over the years I've seen less and less of them.
Today all I could hear this afternoon in the garden was the starlings with their infinite variety of song and the chatter of magpies.

Thankfully, we don't get magpies in the garden, we did one year but they've gone again.

Magpies are marching North at a few miles a year. When I was a kid, you never saw them in the Eden Valley, they didn't seem to come North of Scotch corner. Now you see them in Southern Scotland, strange how species can take over.

As some one else mentioned as a kid I hardly ever saw a goldfinch, now I have at least half a dozen regulars in the garden.

Starlings seem to vary wildly in different years, this year very few, last year a lot. A very underated bird and good mimics.

Just spent the afternoon at the father-in-laws at Plumpton, couldn't believe the amount of goldfinches/chaffinches and various tits round his feeders, not a starling in sight

Yes, funny, isn't it? Lots here in Bedfordshire, well certainly near me.
We also have, literally, dozens and dozens of Red Kites here.
I'd never seen one until a few years ago.
Now, all along the A1 going North from Bedford up until Peterborough sort of area you see them.
Sometimes, upwards of 20 or 30 in a group circling above.
I think they must like the refuse tips along that stretch of road or something.
A huge bird and stunning to see them. More dramatic and eagle like than a buzzard and quite a sight with its very striking tale.

Where my son lives near Oxford, there are loads of red kites. If some one has a bbq they circle overhead, it makes you think of the plains of Africa!

They were bred and released in the area quite a few years ago and seem to have established well but I don't really understand how so many can live in the same area. Up here, where buzzards are the biggest raptor you would never see a dozen circling round like that.

They released some in Grisdale Forest a few years ago but, if they survived, they don't seem to have expanded out very far yet.

They released 5 Red Kites in the Chilterns 25 years ago. There are now over a thousand across the Chilters/ Oxfordshie & Buckingshire ( & spreading ) they were close to extinction, they will eat small birds etc, but also scavenage on human waste food too.
When we travel around the Buckingham areaon the supporters coach, we usually spot over 30.

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Re Magpies, I agree Bumble, never saw one in the eden valley until a few years ago, they gradually crept oover from the lakes I reckon.
Re Red Kites, in my childhood they were, as someone else said, on the verge of extinction in the UK , only a few pairs surviving in Wales. Furthest north I think I've seen one was Harrogate near the showground.

As a child, the Osprey was the one you wanted to see. A trip to Loch Garten was something I always wanted to do and whinged about to my parents frequently! Thre were occasional sightings on the Eden but strangely never any footage/pics?

They'll have spotted the crispy cake Tommy

We’ve a bird feeder at work and the variety that use it amazes me...

Yeah true Waltero, they will eat anything

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In Bassenthwaite last year I was watching the Osprey flying around high above the lake and was so excited to have finally seen it.
After a while an old man walked by and we got chatting about the usual stuff and then I mentioned how thrilled I was to have finally seen one after years of just seeing them in books.
I pointed out where it was and we both followed it for a while high in the sky above us.
He looked at me after a few minutes and said, "that's a seagull."

Thankfully, we don't get magpies in the garden, we did one year but they've gone again.

Magpies are marching North at a few miles a year. When I was a kid, you ever saw them in the Eden Valley, they didn't seem to come North of Scotch corner. Now you see them in Southern Scotland, strange how species can take over.

As some one else mentioned as a kid I hardly ever saw a goldfinch, now I have at least half a dozen regulars in the garden.

Starlings seem to vary wildly in different years, this year very few, last year a lot. A very underated bird and good mimics.

Brilliant mimics are Starlings used to have one that sat on chimney pot and sounded like a Curlew .beautiful birds close up like you say underated I remember saving a few fledglings from a drain at work that I can only assume fell down guttering/downpipe could hear them in distress but took a while to figure out where sound came from was 3 down there if I remember

I was once working in a factory on top of a machine during a shutdown. The place was full of pigeons and starlings. I was quite high up in the building and could hear a bird coming towards me sqwacking loudly, I ducked, it shot past me at a rate of knots!..............................Followed closely by a Sparrowhawk! Lads in the factory told me it made a right mess of the birdlife in there! They showed me! A ring of feathers with head, tail, feet and wings left in the middle! Killing machine

We’ve a bird feeder at work and the variety that use it amazes me...

You’d think they’d be put off by the smell of McDonalds.

Enjoying this thread. .

Went out Saturday hunting for a local eagle. Just over the border in Hampshire, in the New forest we have a visiting white tailed Eagle. Been around almost a month. I didn't see it, but it was lovely walk! Loads of twitchers out looking.

We have goldcrest regularly in our front garden, although they don't come down to the feeder. They love the little bush right by the window. Lots of regular visitors. Blue, coal, great, long tailed tits dunnock, gold finch, greenfinch, even nuthatch and gswoodpecker.

It's a great thread! No doubt some gonk will come along and corrupt it with something, Perhaps NS will come on and suggest that all migratory birds will be put onto boats back to where they came from! It'll save them swifts, swallows and martins a good old flap mind!

What's the oddest thing you've seen in the garden? We have a beck running though ours and one afternoon a Dipper was hopping around.

Another favourite spot of mine is the wonderful Kingfisher! Gotta be quick to see 'em mind! Spent lots of time fishing the eden and love seeing that speeding flash of blue.

It's a great thread! No doubt some gonk will come along and corrupt it with something, Perhaps NS will come on and suggest that all migratory birds will be put onto boats back to where they came from! It'll save them swifts, swallows and martins a good old flap mind!

I wouldn't mind getting rid of grey squirrel mind

A beck running through your garden? You're just showing off now! How lucky you are.

It's a great thread! No doubt some gonk will come along and corrupt it with something, Perhaps NS will come on and suggest that all migratory birds will be put onto boats back to where they came from! It'll save them swifts, swallows and martins a good old flap mind!

I wouldn't mind getting rid of grey squirrel mind

they're just vermin!