Birds (the feathered variety)

Although the weather's not so good today, our little feathered friends were out in force this morning and how lovely it was to see (and hear) them! I saw:

Parakeet, Robin, Great Tit, a pair of Magpies, Wren, Wood Pigeon and heard a Skylark. Not bad in 20 mins I thought!

So what have you seen? (Any wildlife - not just birds).

Hi Peter

I've got a lane down the back of my house bordering on some woods and when I was walking along it t'other night a bager shot out of a garden, ran along the path in front of me and then into the woods.  It was a smallish one but a solid little lump.  Glad it didn't hit my legs!

This morning: great tit, blue tits, hedge sparrow (trying to get on my Vision feeder), the usual assortment of wood pigeons, tits, and magpies waiting out the front for my neighbour Bill to put the food out.  I often see great spotted woodpeckers in my downstairs neighbour's garden which I overlook.

Peter Everitt wrote (see)

Although the weather's not so good today, our little feathered friends were out in force this morning and how lovely it was to see (and hear) them! I saw:

Parakeet, Robin, Great Tit, a pair of Magpies, Wren, Wood Pigeon and heard a Skylark. Not bad in 20 mins I thought!

So what have you seen? (Any wildlife - not just birds).

Your knowledge of birds is obviously better than mine.  Out of that lot I think I'd recognise a robin and a parakeet.  As for the skylark, I'd only know one of those by sound if it went "'scuse me, skylark coming through" or something.

There are some incredible green parakeets flying around Greenwich Park, although I didn't notice any this morning.

I've not really been looking in the garden today but have noticed a wren, collared dove, blackbirds and various tits (probably great, blue and long-tailed but they didn't stop for long enough for me to be sure).

Yesterday I had a pair of mallards.  Every year at around this time they come to the pond (read puddle) looking for nesting sites.  I have to chase them off every morning for about a week and eventually they get the hint.  I'm not being cruel - there really isn't enough water and food for two ducks and the chicks would suffer.

Seeing badgers is great isn't it, Red.   There's a very large hole in a hedge bank in one of the lanes around us and OH and I were coming back from a lsr in the dusk on Sunday. I did wonder if we'd see who lives in a hole like that.

Today I have seen; robins, blue tits, great tits, sparrows, magpies, herring gulls, wood pigeons, blackbirds and crows. I can hear buzzards and woodpeckers and on Monday afternoon, insomniac owls

PhilPub wrote (see)

Your knowledge of birds is obviously better than mine. 

This is a brief but invaluable educational resource.  A bit dated (ie it predates the introduction of parakeets to south london), but otherwise it's informative

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfvEgWINUFc 

Morning Red Squirrel - I'd love to see a Badger running around I only ever get to see the squashed variety! And I'm afraid I've given up with the bird feeders as the local squirrels just rip them apart within minutes (and they seem fat enough already!). Often see green woodpeckers but not today.

Hi Philpub - I'm no expert, but used to be interested before the lesser feathered varieties became more interesting! I've no idea what a Skylark looks like, I only ever see them as a hovering dot but I know what they sound like.

Pheasants.

Just seen one, I'm not being rude, honestly...

I love the sound of the sky lark.

A Sparrowhawk Red Squirrel? Very interesting. I had one in my back garden a few years back (and my garden is the size of a postage stamp!) busy plucking a Collared Dove. I never realised we had such birds round my way (outskirts of West London) and never seen or heard one since. We get Kestrels regularly enough and I have heard a Tawny owl (but not recently).

Keep them coming!

Red Squirrel. wrote (see)

I get tits on my fat balls ... and I'm a woman

Until a couple of years ago, we were visited every night by a badger. We used to put peanuts out for her and she would come right up to the patio doors

We live on the outskirts of a town, but in a rural area so get quite a good variety of visiting birds. A couple of years ago, a pair of buzzards appeared....and now there are 4 of them. We usually hear them before we see them. We also seem to have rather a lot of noisy owls.

Today on my way to the station - great tits, blue tits, robins, blackbirds, starlings, collared doves and wood pigeons.

I also hear a green woodpecker's alarm call often, and hear woodpeckers drumming.

When I'm more out of town, running, I see badgers occasionally (mostly dead, though), foxes, and last summer nearly trod on an adder.

I saw a weasel once, and a slow worm, and usually hear cuckoos in the woods in the summer.