Wierd noises!

[k4t3]

Woke this morning, not to the usual racket of magpies but a wierd churring noise...looked out of the window to find what looked like a family of Grey Partridge in my back garden! There were definately 2 larger birds, one with a distinctive reddish tint to the head and tail borders and a darker mark low down on the breast, the other larger bird drab browns but with the dark smudge on the breast. The rest seemed like juveniles, following the parents around as they pottered happily around the gardens of my street

Is it usual to find groups of game birds like this, still foraging together after they have almost reached adulthood? And in a semi rural garden?

[thebeard]

not your typical garden visitor but i don't see why not!!! it'd be amazing to see in nottingham lol

[rossy]

no i dont think its unusual for partridge to still be together, but it must have been a nice sight for you, and a little unusual for them to roam the streets, but when we are in bed we dont know what comes in our gardens, i had noticed that the snails and slugs in my back garden had dissapeared only to find a hedgehog has got in, thing is its 7ft fence, ill have to release it , but will watch first to make sure it dosent have any little ones . rossy.

[k4t3]

Pole vaulting hedgehog!

[rossy]

maybe it had spikes on its feet rossy.

[thunder]

Hedgehogs are excellent climbers!

henrya

[RoyW]

Originally Posted by k4t3

Pole vaulting hedgehog!

They jump pretty well without a pole - has no one heard of Sonic?


Back to the partridges:
They tend to stay together until they want to breed again in the spring - and may join with others to form larger flocks.
As you may have suspected, the brighter of the larger birds would be the male, the duller one the female.

[k4t3]

Thx RoyW It just seemed like such a strange little collection of birds to see in a semi rural housing estate!