Bird of the day!

[Deer Stalker]

Watched a couple of Hobbies fighting this morning on the Forest. Aslo saw Ravens, Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, couple of young Buzzards calling & Dartford Warbler.

[pressld2]

For me it was the common terns fishing in the Thames at Crossness today...



One or two juveniles amongst them...



Such dainty birds and such accomplished flyers!

Dave P.

[blacknest]

Aren't woodpigeons wonderful at this time of year?

They're everywhere, mainly in pairs still, in the stubble fields, by the sides of the lanes, up in the oaks looking for acorns, on the pasture looking for seeds .
They're very sleek and well marked now and I love watching all their different attitudes and flight modes.

It used to be a standing joke that Mrs would get quite excited by catching sight of some unfamiliar bird and say what's that and I'd say "pigeon" because they can look so differenet depending on what they're doing, or how they're flying.

[Sherlock]

A pair of Black Redstarts between Hartland Quay and Hartland Lighthouse North Devon (Yesterday)

[christina]

My bird of the day has to be the nuthatch which has decided to start visiting our feeder. We used to put peanuts in a feeder but Mr Squirrel would take the top off and eat all the peanuts so I decided to fill it with suet pellets with insects...and after a few days a beautiful nuthatch decided to use it. I have taken a couple of pics but they are not good (feeder was swinging in the wind) but am hoping to get a good one today. Not only is the nuthatch my bird of the day but its also the first one I've ever laid eyes on!

[blacknest]

2 young buzzards wheeling and mewing over my garden this morning

[blacknest]

I shouldn't add it because it was Wednesday ....
but Minsmere in Suffolk was lovely. Really not much to see at first except sand martins swooping low over the ground. The "scrape" was mainly dry: but as late afternoon fell lots came in to settle in the wetter area in front of the West Hide:
Six lovely avocets, 2 greenshank, several spotted redshank, lots of black-tailed godwit, lovely flock of dunlin, 2 ringed plover, many lapwing, some gadwall and juvenile shelduck, yellow wagtail, barnacle geese, 3 herons...all-in-all a very nice time just sitting in comfort and enjoying watching things one doesn't see every day at fairly close range in the lovely bright, strong afternoon sunlight. Thanks to the RSPB...my fiver was well worth it!

[Deer Stalker]

My birds of the day for yesterday were a Goshawk calling in the woods, Raven & juvenile Hobby calling to its parents for food.

[JAYS]

I don't know whether my birds of the day were rooks or crows. My bird identification is lacking somewhat, and the distance didn't help me much. Near the River Trent, Gunthorpe, there were several hundred of these birds riding a thermal, gradually getting higher and further downstream. Then, suddenly they all individually spiralled quickly down to the ground ( or at least out of my sight). They must have had near closed wings, so quickly did they come down. I have no idea why they did it .
And upstream on the far bank of the river, there were a couple of white, heron like birds in the shallows: egrets?

[Kenyatta1993]

Kingfishers at the local stream!
Beautiful Birds to watch.