Garden bird watching

Tue 12 May 2020, 20:48 (last edited on Wed 13 May 2020, 19:36)

Heard the cuckoo on Saturday morning for the first time for several years.  It was somewhere in the woodland around Dean and sounded quite close to us at one time.  As if that wasn't excitment enough, we also saw the egret when we returned to Charlbury after our daily walk.

Sun 10 May 2020, 12:19

I've been enjoying listening to a Song Thrush protecting its territory.  They are on the red endangered list now.  I was wondering how to look after it carefully?

Sun 10 May 2020, 08:22

On Google it says A Box 

Sat 9 May 2020, 20:15

What is the collective noun for a group of swifts?

Amazing to hear them screeching again and watch them wheeling above us.

They may well have been in other parts of the town, but today they were out in force over nine acres close. Welcome back.

Sorry this isn’t really a “garden birds” post!

Fri 8 May 2020, 20:51 (last edited on Fri 8 May 2020, 20:53)

I've noticed plenty of greedy rooks

Thu 7 May 2020, 09:54

A very lively woodpecker was performing to a background of pigeon coos early this morning!

Thu 7 May 2020, 09:15

Dunlin? Wading in the shallows of the Evenlode underneath, and then down river of Cornbury bridge on Sunday. Take binoculars to confirm sighting!

Wed 6 May 2020, 23:09

Heard our first cuckoo this evening about 7.30 around the cricket club somewhere: magic.

Sat 2 May 2020, 10:50

We have an albino robin visits our garden ( red breast but pale cream plumage),  it is very shy not like the other robin which comes right up.

Sat 2 May 2020, 10:11

Thanks Sandy.

I think you must be right as we have lots of rooks in the pines behind our cottage.

Sat 2 May 2020, 09:15

Rook I imagine Hannen.

It’s usually their shaggy “trouser” legs that are the give away. Their head shape is a bit pointed at the top. Being very sociable birds, they’re frequently hanging out with a friend.

Sat 2 May 2020, 08:06

Just seen a big black bird at Fiveways (opposite Cornbury Park) eating from our bird feeder.  Had a sort of black "hood".  Raven or crow please?

Fri 1 May 2020, 16:59

I hope I am not confusing the issue. I had heard about the IOW sea eagle, but also yesterday there was an appeal on Facebook from the owner of an Eagle Owl that had escaped from near Dudley, West Midlands. Could the sighted bird possibly be that?

Fri 1 May 2020, 12:31

Well, that's very interesting Andrew & Christine. Yesterday mid-afternoon I saw a large bird flying above Dancers Hill/Woodfield Drive and I thought then that it was neither Buzzard nor Kite but as it was 200 yds off, and flying away from me, I gave up watching to continue wondering. 

Fri 1 May 2020, 12:16

Sounds exciting, but didn't see it. The movements of the Isle of Wight sea eagle (G393) which was roosting with the red kites in Oxfordshire are recorded here, plus also the various other Isle of Wight sea eagles: http://www.roydennis.org/category/sea-eagle/isle-of-wight-sea-eagles/

The last recorded date is April 23rd, when the Oxfordshire eagle was in the peak district; but he does not seem to stay long in one place. And the other other eagles are also travelling -- sometimes hundreds of miles each day -- so it seems that it is by no means impossible that this is what you saw, Andrew.

It might be clearer when the GPS tracking of the eagles is next updated.

Fri 1 May 2020, 10:37

Did anyone see a massive bird of prey over Charlbury this morning? Much bigger than the familiar buzzards and red kites. and with broad rounded wings.  I went on-line and found that a sea eagle had been released in Oxfordshire in January.  Could it still be here? Anyone see it?

Sun 26 Apr 2020, 07:13

A plea on behalf of our garden birds (though anyone interested enough in birds to be reading this thread would probably already know this!)- please don't be tempted by... boredom/an urge to tidy your garden/inactive garden machinery etc to cut hedges or large shrubs at this time of year. Many birds will have nests in hedges & shrubs, with either eggs, nestlings or fledglings in them. The disturbance, even if the nest is not physically damaged, can be enough to drive the adults away permanently.

From the sounds around Charlbury in recent days, the whole armoury of garden machinery is out & about!

Sat 25 Apr 2020, 22:56

We watched the little egret for a long time from the bridge at Cornbury today. Have not seen swallows, house martins or swifts yet though. 

Sat 25 Apr 2020, 18:03

Got Great Tits nesting in a rather tall narrow pot by the pond - not sure how fledglings will get out! Blue Tits in nesting box and two white doves seem to be setting up home under the solar panels! 

Sat 25 Apr 2020, 17:28

Got house martins back in our nests again this week. 

Sat 25 Apr 2020, 15:54

Anyone spotted any swifts yet? Rumoured to be on their way here this weekend. 

Sat 25 Apr 2020, 14:57

Oh, they can't help being pigeons any more than we can help being people! I had a lovely couple in my tree last year and the other birds didn't seem to mind. 

Sat 25 Apr 2020, 11:28 (last edited on Sat 25 Apr 2020, 11:29)

Yes, someone - you know who you are! (a joke but happy to supply car registration number ;) - told me to smash the eggs and shoot and eat the pigeons. 

One thing I have noticed is that no small birds come to our garden anymore which is sad. Are pigeons territorial?

Anyway, Steve, feel free to come and eat these pigeons anytime. We may all be doing it soon...

Sat 25 Apr 2020, 10:37

As your near neighbor, who has just spent most of yesterday afternoon netting the veg seedlings in the front garden next to the road, BAD.

Fri 24 Apr 2020, 19:49

Pigeons nesting in a small garden. Good or bad?

Fri 24 Apr 2020, 11:08 (last edited on Fri 24 Apr 2020, 11:09)

Yesterday saw a confrontation at the bird bath between a robin and a blue tit. The robin had just started its ablutions when a blue tit joined it. After a brief argument the robin flew to a nearby shrub and waited whilst the blue tit had its bath. When the blue tit flew off the robin then went back and finished its wash. I was always told that robins were really aggressive birds, but perhaps that's just with other robins...

Fri 24 Apr 2020, 08:10

Heard a cuckoo 07.30 - is it the first?

Wed 22 Apr 2020, 21:26

We watched a single swallow putting on a fantastic aeronautical display at the Cornbury lakes at Southill on Thursday 16th. 

Wed 22 Apr 2020, 09:33

The swallows arrived 4 days late this year, a few house martins and swallows turned up on Sunday 19th and stayed around through Monday practicing aeronautics over the river, but by yesterday it looks as if most of them had moved on; maybe Charlbury is too hot for them this year? Or perhaps it's just not summer yet..

Wed 22 Apr 2020, 09:30

Nick I thought I had just seen a very similar thing: a blackbird feeding another adult blackbird: but when I looked closely I realised that the feeder was female and the other was in fact its fledgling, although full-size already to my surprise. So possibly your second adult robin was just a large baby!

Wed 22 Apr 2020, 08:46

Just watched an egret perched on top of a tall conifer in a back garden on Pooles Lane.

Sun 19 Apr 2020, 08:07

Saw a pair of swallows on tues 15th as I travelled to work just before I entered Spelsbury, plus saw 3 more going to oxford yesterday: I always look out for the first sightings of swallows/swifts and house martens this time of year.  It would be great to hear the cuckoo,haven’t heard him for years. 

Sun 19 Apr 2020, 07:26

A raven has been visiting us at the Enstone X Roads over the past 3 years. As you say very distinctive call and appearance.

Sun 19 Apr 2020, 06:34

There are plenty of Ravens in these parts, I first became aware of them near Kingswood a few years ago when one flew overhead. The call it made caused me to lift my head, as you say, it is very distinctive. I've seen them mobbed by smaller corvids, it's only when flying alongside the likes of a jackdaw that you get a true picture of the size of these majestic birds.

Sat 18 Apr 2020, 23:05

Not garden bird watching but we were amazed to see a Raven yesterday over Cornbury. Anyone else seen them? And it wasn’t just a big crow - we heard it’s call and it’s very distinctive. 

Tue 31 Mar 2020, 23:06

Yes it is.

 First time I saw it, I couldn’t understand why the one being fed was so enormous!

Mon 30 Mar 2020, 10:57

Just seen one robin feeding another (adult) robin from my bird table. Is this courtship behaviour? Never noticed it before.