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Birding / nature / photography ~ Older Asexuals for light walking and hiking nature adventures ~


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The craze for glass buildings takes out many birds.  There are things that can be done to mitigate the problem, but there need to be stricter regulations.

 

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/11/141113-bird-safe-glass-window-collision-animals-science/

 

Even having  a system of low lighting for night time in office blocks can help.   Smaller birds migrate at night to avoid predation and fly  into our buildings.  No one wants to see empty buildings with all the lights on all night, but just a few lights on each floor can keep the birds safe. 

 

Birds started flying into my shed window when a new one was installed - I solved that by putting a blind at the window.  I hate it when a bird gets hit by my car windscreen.  I detoured miles to take a blackbird that had been struck by the car in front of me on a country road to the vets.  It was sitting up looking stunned, came round and was very lively, but had a broken wing.  I hope the vets sent it on to a wildlife centre and it survived. 

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Back in the late 60s, when I was maybe 10 or 11, I was with my dad when he was visiting friends in Lake George, New York. The couple owned a house on the lake and had a sliding glass door. I still remember the Kingfisher that flew into it and broke its neck. It was such a beautiful bird and I still remember how sad I was and my dad being somewhat annoyed at me for crying when I found it.

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That's a shame. @teatree  I think my dad would have shed a tear with you.  He could be a difficult man but I remember him writing a poem when one of the garden robins was killed by a cat one year.  I inherit all my concern for nature and wildlife from my parents and my dad's was a lone voice crying in the wilderness, in his time, for the environment and the value of encouraging kids to  garden and keep animals responsibly.

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The town I used to live in had a mountain lion crash through someone's living room window once. The incident was posted on the local access channel.

 

When @faraday☘ was visiting last year we were driving down the highway when a couple of crows chased a large hawk right down in front of my moving car. I braked, but heard some sounds like some of the birds hit the car (below where I could see). But as far as I could tell they all flew back up and off. The person driving the car behind me wasn't happy with me. :P 

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Well, @communityabed, that rather depends.  If you saw it in autumn or winter, after birds would definitely have stopped breeding, then yes, probably.  They might still use it to roost in though.  There can be mites in old nests which is another consideration. 

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communityabed
2 minutes ago, Mz Terry said:

Well, @communityabed, that rather depends.  If you saw it in autumn or winter, after birds would definitely have stopped breeding, then yes, probably.  They might still use it to roost in though.  There can be mites in old nests which is another consideration. 

So overall not a good idea eh? It would have been nice to study it. I tried making a nest at home once out of the hair found at the end of corn cobs. It was a sorry looking affair.

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Some bird species re-use old nests year after year, too, and often add to them. I believe eagles do that. Not sure if any smaller birds do.

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3 hours ago, daveb said:

Some bird species re-use old nests year after year, too, and often add to them. I believe eagles do that. Not sure if any smaller birds do.

American robins will often reuse nests. 

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2 hours ago, LVG said:

American robins will often reuse nests. 

Yes, I can attest to that! Had an old nest in our yard when I was a kid, and then one spring there was a robin  family in residence. 😊

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I am very lucky to have a large kitchen window that overlooks a river valley surrounded by a little wood.  I can sit at my kitchen table and see birds flying by, or landing in the trees across the river.  Today there was a sparrowhawk circling round and some very panicky pigeons darting about.  After the pigeons had landed in the trees, some crows appeared, also quite agitated, until the raptor flew off.  I often look out to see the sparrowhawk and she sometimes comes over and scares the birds in the garden.

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February 5th is very early for my first bee sighting of the year 

 

@Mz Terry, a yellow tailed bumblebee, not certain exactly which species, and it was sniffing around the heather in my front garden 

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  • 2 weeks later...

The weather has been too stormy to see bees lately. :(

 

I did see a blue tit and a wren in a patch of ivy, bramble and shrub in a back garden I walked past into town.  Thank goodness for people who don't turn gardens into barren places.  I am so sad to see two front gardens along this road that have been turned into stark concrete and stone yards with nothing living, not even a pot of flowers.

 

See the source imageThis is what will be missing from those desolate spaces too.  We cannot live without nature.

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It was an awesome day for nature sightings today! 

 

I went for my morning walk at the nature park and saw some mule deer up quite close. One was browsing right at the edge of the trail. I approached slowly and got within a few yards/meters before it finally bounded across the path into the vegetation on the other side.

At another point I was walking along a path a noticed a small flying insect hovering in a sunbeam crossing the path. I was looking at it as I walked towards it when a small bird swooped in and snatched the insect right out of the air.

 

And the highlight of my walk was when I heard some rustling right next to the trail at another spot. At first I thought it was a squirrel, but then I saw the critter. It was a mink! It looked back at me and rustled around a bit, but disappeared before I could get my cell phone out and get the camera started. :D 

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I came home from trivia to discover two rather sizable bucks in my backyard. They still had their antlers, which is odd for this time of year. By now, they've typically shed them. 

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The deer keep their antlers until April around here.   Today, I saw mule deer and pronghorn antelope grazing together in someone's yard.  They usually segregate themselves.  Species equality is a good thing.

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I saw two cormorants down at the river today. I've never seen cormorants here before. That's a good sign, meaning the water quality is improving. 

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There is a robin "attacking" my living room window. It keeps flying at the window repeatedly. I don't know why. Never saw that before.

 

edited to add: Oh, I guess it was seeing its reflection and trying to chase it away from its territory.

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Finally, some blue sky and  no rain and I took advantage of it with a walk along the Medway estuary. Most of the waders and divers have already cleared off to their breeding grounds and the tide was in so there weren't too many birds feeding on the mud flats. I did see a kingfisher, though -  a dart of blue near an outflow, the colour caught by the sun - and watched a flock of black tailed godwits react to something that spooked them. They were all snoozing (I think) and then they suddenly took off and did that whirling around thing that flocks do. There were dozens of them; I don't know how they don't all crash. There were also some curlews. I love to hear their bubbly curlew cry . It always makes me think I'm  surrounded by miles of space. It's a wonderful sound. I am so glad I live within easy reach of the estuary. 

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1 hour ago, Tunhope said:

did that whirling around thing that flocks do. There were dozens of them; I don't know how they don't all crash.

I have seen it being modeled digitally. Only takes 2 or 3 very simple rules (like maintaining the right distance from each other). It is pretty remarkable how it looks in practice though, especially when it looks like a dense flock of many creatures.

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The birds are starting to sing a dawn chorus now - though nothing like the April/ May one.  They are also inspecting nest sites. There are two possibles for the great tits - a woodcrete nestbox on an apple tree, and a terracotta garden ornament.  There was a great tit perched on the latter just now and I think it went inside.  They are so cautious and seem aware of being watched even from a distance.  The garden ornament is a statue of a rooster, and at some point the tail was knocked off.  The great tits access the hollow interior via the broken tail and have nested there at least once before.

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And today I saw my first queen bumblebee of the year.  A garden bumblebee I believe. 

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The birds are also starting to sing here. I haven't seen any bees yet. 

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Robins attacking my windows again. :P 

They come at the windows pretty hard and it startles me. :lol: 

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A first here too- three in fact and all at one : a peacock butterfly, a white one and a brimstone. Warming up

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