For the birds

[Bruce Rioja]

Nick one before the Queen finds out about them.

[Lost Leopard Spot]

Nick one before the Queen finds out about them.

They're mine already. The Queen can bog off.

[Dujon]

Great stuff, LLS. Ta.

[Lost Leopard Spot]

Down to just four cygnets within two days of them hatching, then just the one by Friday, which managed to make it all over the weekend, but is now gone. No cygnets left alive. Life truly is a bitch at times.

[malcd1]

Down to just four cygnets within two days of them hatching, then just the one by Friday, which managed to make it all over the weekend, but is now gone. No cygnets left alive. Life truly is a bitch at times.

Sorry about that LLS. Nature can be hard to take at times.

[Gary the Enfield]

Down to just four cygnets within two days of them hatching, then just the one by Friday, which managed to make it all over the weekend, but is now gone. No cygnets left alive. Life truly is a bitch at times.

Has your neighbour had a barbecue?

[thebish]

Down to just four cygnets within two days of them hatching, then just the one by Friday, which managed to make it all over the weekend, but is now gone. No cygnets left alive. Life truly is a bitch at times.

total bummer

[Bruce Rioja]

Has something had them do you think, Spotty?

[Lost Leopard Spot]

Has something had them do you think, Spotty?

We don't know. No bodies discovered, so probably. The pair of them look so forlorn now.

[Lost Leopard Spot]

Just seen three teeny weeny tiny wren chicks flitting about an ivy clad wall chittering away to each other. Excellent.

[mummywhycantieatcrayons]

http://hotbarristerbirds.tumblr.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Lost Leopard Spot]

http://hotbarristerbirds.tumblr.com/

Ver cool hot chicks. I like it.

[malcd1]

Yesterday a young female blackbird crashed into my front window and was stunned on the floor gasping for breath. After leaving it for a while I was worried that one of the three cats that use my garden as a cut-through would be along for easy pickings. I went out hoping it would see me and fly off 'tout suite'. It just sat there unmoved and unworried.

I picked it up as I thought it had injured itself. It sat in my hand for about 5 minutes and went to sleep as I stroked it. When it woke up I placed it on the ground and it sat there next to me for a few more minutes before it hopped off under a tree. Eventually it flew off apparently uninjured.

I know birds like Robins are quite tame but I didn't expect it to be so relaxed.

[Lost Leopard Spot]

Relaxed? It was comatose! Stunned, incapacitated, not well.

Well done, by the way.

[malcd1]

Relaxed? It was comatose! Stunned, incapacitated, not well.

Well done, by the way.

I put it down to being young. You may be right though.

[Lost Leopard Spot]

Just seen three teeny weeny tiny wren chicks flitting about an ivy clad wall chittering away to each other. Excellent.

Apparently not. I've just ticked off another bird from my fifty year old I-Spy* book of birds - GOLDCREST.
The landlord of the Temple told me I'd probably seen this year's goldcrest chicks, and we went down to check - and yes they were there again, this time with one of the parents. They are fecking tiny.

* I-Spy is, for the youngsters amongst us, an ancient series of books* that listed things you looked out for and ticked off when you'd seen it, and not some private detective app from Apple.
* a book was an old developmental version of kindle, made out of paper with thousands of screens fixed together by glue.

[Gary the Enfield]

Last Sunday our cat brought a youngish pigeon home and deposited it on the lawn.

Seeing it was still alive I rescued it by shooing the cat away and putting it in a shoe box. It was in a pretty poor way as it had what looked to be a tumourous growth under it's neck (along with a couple of wounds inflicted by the cat). I tried both the RSPCA and the RSPB to get some advice. No chance on a Sunday afternoon so I 'phoned the local medivet, took it down and handed it over to be humanely destroyed.

They recorded the find, location and condition of the bird as part of a 'National Survey'. Anyone else heard of this?

[Lost Leopard Spot]

Last Sunday our cat brought a youngish pigeon home and deposited it on the lawn.

Seeing it was still alive I rescued it by shooing the cat away and putting it in a shoe box. It was in a pretty poor way as it had what looked to be a tumourous growth under it's neck (along with a couple of wounds inflicted by the cat). I tried both the RSPCA and the RSPB to get some advice. No chance on a Sunday afternoon so I 'phoned the local medivet, took it down and handed it over to be humanely destroyed.

They recorded the find, location and condition of the bird as part of a 'National Survey'. Anyone else heard of this?

Well I know the RSPB collects statistics. They have different target birds some years, and there's a phone number you can call. Might even be online too. Sounds like the vets were participating in that. But it might be something separate.

[Burnden Paddock]

Doesn't the RSPB ask members of the public to record the number and types of birds in their garden on one day each year? I'm certain that Mrs BP does this and then uploads the details to their website. Maybe this corresponded with your 'discovery' GTE.

[Gary the Enfield]

I was driving up Chorley Old Road yesterday and spotted a load of Twitchers leaning on the wall looking into a field just past Bob's Smithy.

I pulled over and asked them what they were looking at. In the field were four of these:



Lovely little things about the size of a large hen.

Wonder what they taste like....................