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Some feathered visitors yesterday :)   

...even with freezing rain 😕 

 

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Black Capped Chickadee

 

 

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White Breasted Nuthatch

 

 

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Cardinal

 

 

 

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Cool little birds and nice photos!

 

I saw my first cardinal in Oct. when I was in New Orleans. :) 

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It just says "forbidden" when I click on the link, @Muledeer

 

A grey heron took off from the valley the little stream runs through and flew over the bridge wall right by me, as I walked through the park with Little Dog.

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@Mizzletoe it's interesting how certain links will only work in certain places or on certain computers.  I remember there was a BBC link issue a while back.  The link above was to one of our local TV stations.  You didn't miss much😉

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It basically says wild turkeys are getting everywhere, into the city/town, messing up the place and people's gardens and such. And they are trying out issuing more hunting permits as a way to try to address the situation. Of course, people can't hunt inside the city limits, so it might not help much there. They also tagging and tracking the birds to get a better idea of their movements and population and habits. Sounds like the jury is still out on whether the hunting is reducing the turkey population much.

 

I think the issue of wildlife population is a tricky one. People spread out into areas already populated by other critters. Then do a too good job of getting rid of bigger predators. Then the prey animals breed unchecked and become a nuisance in the context of human habitation. Without human involvement if predators become too few prey species tend to over-populate an area until they over-compete with themselves and other prey species, maybe causing a crash in their food sources (by eating all the vegetation for example), and then succumb to starvation and disease. But in areas with lots of humans there might be a better supply of food for those animals that are able to forage in the human-occupied spaces, thus allowing their numbers to increase and sustain the "nuisance". 

 

Since having large numbers of big predators around areas with large numbers of humans isn't a great option either, maybe they can try tactics that are used to control things like large populations of feral cats or dogs? Such as capturing and neutering/spaying as many of the animals as possible? They can't get all of them (but neither can hunting). So, I think, at best the populations are rarely eradicated, but maybe barely just kept within manageable limits.

 

Of course, I am no expert on the subject, so I could easily be wrong.

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I was so happy to go out with Dog at dusk and hear a tawny owl calling.  I have always thought there might be a resident pair in the little wood, but it is the first I have heard.  It was quite near, I think, as the call was quite loud and repeated several times.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Went for a nice walk today with Little Dog and the mist was rising off the water as the sun came up.  I love the bare branches silhouetted against the sky and the heron in the reeds.

 

20181216-100105-resized-3.jpg

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57 minutes ago, Mizzletoe said:

Went for a nice walk today with Little Dog and the mist was rising off the water as the sun came up.  I love the bare branches silhouetted against the sky and the heron in the reeds.

 

20181216-100105-resized-3.jpg

Absolutely gorgeous! 

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Guest Jetsun Milarepa

I started to feed the birds after my cat died and from 4-8 visiting Starlings there are now over 20 visiting to feed in the morning and evening. Today I also saw Chaffinch, Blue tit and Wood pigeon as well as Magpies and a Collared dove.

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Yes, absolutely gorgeous. (Edit: Chandrakirti was typing as I was. I was referring to the photo.)

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Hello, 

 

Thought I would drop in and say hi!

 

I've just moved to a new house, surrounded by the woods so I'm seeing a lot more birds than I did in the city.

 

Love watching them, just seen a bunch of blue tits on the feeder this afternoon and a couple of chaffinch. Also have a resident robin who comes by a various times, a blackbird and a pair of wood pigeons. Also the occasional magpie or two pop in. There is no doubt a load more but thats all I've managed to see so far, I usually don't get in till it's dark so probably missing loads.  

 

Did catch what I'm certain was a woodpecker fly by a couple of weeks ago, hopefully get to see him again! 

 

Think word is spreading that there is a hot new feeding spot! 😆

 

Looking forward to the spring to see what else is around.

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I checked to see if you were in the UK @C.30 as those are the same garden birds I see. I hope you get some redwings in over winter. I do  and I love them.

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Yep im up in Scotland. 

 

Not seen any of those yet but I live in hope!  Even bought myself a book and dug out my binoculars  😁

 

Hope I can get some good pictures soon!

 

 

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I saw an albino squirrel this morning in Tonbridge. I hope it lasts as long as the previous one, which became a local celebrity. This one is fully grown, although that it isn't hibernating is a cause for concern. 

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@Skycaptain How Cool!  They must be incredibly rare -  I've never seen a wild albino anything.

 

The only "gift" I got for Christmas was a birding identification guide entitled simply "The Birds of Utah"  It is a nice fold-out plastic coated chart with pictures of birds along with their names and habitat, grouped by type.   Not sure how many species are listed, but I thought there more birds than could fit on a fold up chart.

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There was a locally famous white deer where I lived when I was a kid. It was in a suburban area that had wild spaces mixed in (canyons and such that weren't suitable for housing developments). My fuzzy recollection is that it lived there a good long time (years).

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Thinking about Daveb's white deer brings to mind the number of pubs called The White Hart. White deer must have been very rare. There used to be a white squirrel in a local area of woodland called Ashenbank Woods but I don't think it lasted more than one season. I get lots of squirrels in my garden but they're all grey.

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I've never seen a white/albino squirrel. However, there were a ton of black squirrels running about. Black squirrels are just gray squirrels with a genetic mutation that causes their coats to become darker than normal. They're pretty cool. 

 

However, the local fox squirrel is pissing me off with its voracious appetite for my bird seed. My aunt bought us this really nice seed ring for Christmas. Yesterday, the ring was entirely intact. As of this morning, there was nothing but a small chunk, and the little porker sitting in the tree. I should have realized tying it to a tree would only welcome such gluttony. Oh well. At least I didn't pay for it. 

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I've seen three roadkill deer in three days :(

 

On a brighter note, driving through the cabbage fields of Thanet an owl flew over the road ahead of me (at a safe height) 

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Lovely walk at a coastal nature reserve today.  Through the gloom I saw hundreds of golden plovers and lapwings, which rose up and made patterns in the sky from time to time.  An enchanting pair of little stonechats were on the fence close to me along one path.  There were lots of wigeon too and shelducks.

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I was out yesterday and when I went back to my car to drive back home I saw a huge number of crows all flying off in the same direction, cawing. It wasn't just a murder of crows; it was a massacre!

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I hadn't heard of 'a murder of crows' @daveb That's smashing! I think magpies have parliament's and I imagine there are some brilliant collectives out there for other things. Right now I'm too knackered to come up with any though. And I love the idea of @LVGs visitors being patrons. @Mz Terry do you think that winter is the best time to walk along the coast? I really like the mud flats along the Medway at this time of year. They're full of over -wintering  birds. Shellduck and wigeon ,as you saw, and teal, pintails, lots of things. 

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@Tunhope - yes, for the sheer impact of numbers, winter seems the best time.  It is lovely when chicks are about in late spring and summer though.

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Dublin Airport today 0350, a hare was running down the road to the car rental return area. I haven't seen one for years 

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8 minutes ago, LVG said:

I often wonder what distinguishes a hare from a rabbit?

Hares are bigger and do not burrow. There ears stick up more

Rabbits are smaller and burrow.

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20 minutes ago, Tintinfan said:

Hares are bigger and do not burrow. There ears stick up more

Rabbits are smaller and burrow.

Cool. Never knew this. Thanks, TinTin! 

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