What have you seen

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  • Pliers
    Pliers Forum Participant Posts: 1,864
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    edited February 2020 #2672

    Saw and heard our first curlews of the year on our local moors this morning. A few days earlier than usual, and very welcome. They breed there every year and I absolutely love hearing them call as them fly over.

    🙂

  • Wherenext
    Wherenext Club Member Posts: 10,607 ✭✭✭
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    edited February 2020 #2673

    How lovely Pliers. We stopped on a CL near Bishop Auckland last June for a few nights as a last minute decision. It had a few horses in a paddock or two but best of all it had breeding curlews in the adjoining arable field and we heard the male returning on a regular basis. All of it unexpected as we were not that far from civilisation.

    On a separate note we were lucky enough to be visited by both a Barn and a Tawny Owl at almost the same time around 10 o'clock last night. We heard the Barny hissing right next to the van so switched off all of the lights and had a peek. He was sitting on a hedge post but wasn't fooled by our subterfuge and immediately flew off. About a minute later the Tawny was hooting away.

    Quite a few paired up Goldeneyes and a couple of female Goosanders on the meres today.

  • nelliethehooker
    nelliethehooker Club Member Posts: 13,647 ✭✭✭
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    edited February 2020 #2674

    There were plenty around the Skegness area last week. I heard them each morning when I was out with Flyte, and then we saw a large flock of then on one of the scrapes behind the dunes at Anderby Creek a couple of days ago.

  • Rocky 2 buckets
    Rocky 2 buckets Forum Participant Posts: 7,101
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    edited February 2020 #2675

    I was greeted by 3 Robins in separate trees having a 3 way sing off this morning, the sun had just broken the horizon to bathe them in sunlight. It was very welcoming. The fact we were crunching thru hoar frost didn’t seem to bother them👍🏻😊. They may not be looking for mates fully yet but Spring is on its way.

  • Wherenext
    Wherenext Club Member Posts: 10,607 ✭✭✭
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    edited February 2020 #2676

    The garden Robins are already paired up Rocky.

    Have to say it is lovely to hear birdsong again.

  • RedKite
    RedKite Club Member Posts: 1,717 ✭✭
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    edited February 2020 #2677

    Had a short walk down the road and spotted 6 long tailed tits, 1 Large Tortoiseshell butterfly and then on the way back 1 Firecrest in a tree right next to the wall where I was standing did the same walk yesterday only a bit longer and did not see any birds although heard a woodcock fly through some trees and 3 small lizards sunning themselves on the local stone walls. Have got 2 local robins here singing in the hedge or trees and did have 1 redstart about as well.

  • Oneputt
    Oneputt Club Member Posts: 9,145 ✭✭✭
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    edited February 2020 #2678

    We have 1 Robin here all year but this morning another turned up and they’ve been chasing around the garden all day.  

  • Rocky 2 buckets
    Rocky 2 buckets Forum Participant Posts: 7,101
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    edited February 2020 #2679

    We’re obviously slow around here WN👍🏻😊

  • Wherenext
    Wherenext Club Member Posts: 10,607 ✭✭✭
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    edited February 2020 #2680

    Saw a fast moving Male Merlin today.

    Rocky - Maybe not slow but a bit more discerning.smile

  • JVB66
    JVB66 Forum Participant Posts: 22,892
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    edited February 2020 #2681

    Spring moves from south to north at about 6 inches day according to "experts"wink and our robins were in full song as other birds when we came home  from further north on Sunday surprised and there seems to be more parakeets this year

  • Tinwheeler
    Tinwheeler Forum Participant Posts: 23,149 ✭✭✭
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    edited February 2020 #2682

    The grass verges are crowded with fully bloomed daffodils here in Cornwall. Lovely to see.

  • Freddy55
    Freddy55 Club Member Posts: 1,810
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    edited February 2020 #2683

    Before you know it, it’ll be pasty season 🙂

  • Tinwheeler
    Tinwheeler Forum Participant Posts: 23,149 ✭✭✭
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    edited February 2020 #2684

    It’s always pasty season down here. We don’t need a special time of year to enjoy their moist juicy tastiness 👍🏻😄

  • Wherenext
    Wherenext Club Member Posts: 10,607 ✭✭✭
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    edited February 2020 #2685

    At that rate Spring would be over before it had had chance to start. Mid and North Kent would never see it! 45 feet for Spring to reach its zenith? 

  • Rocky 2 buckets
    Rocky 2 buckets Forum Participant Posts: 7,101
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    edited February 2020 #2686

    Mmmmm, I’ll just watch the Robins, this is messing with my napper🤯😂

  • Oneputt
    Oneputt Club Member Posts: 9,145 ✭✭✭
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    edited February 2020 #2687

    For the last 2 weeks we have had snowdrops, crocus, daffs, violets, primroses and geraniums in bloom.  Next week could be a shock to their system

  • JVB66
    JVB66 Forum Participant Posts: 22,892
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    edited February 2020 #2688

    With the mild winter we have had i would quite expect everything to be well advanced, we also have crocus and daffs in flower and the tulips in our garden are well up

    Ps Out walking with Rosa this morning ,i saw some thing not seen before ,several of our now it seems, growing  parakeet population mobbing a Buzzardsurprised

  • nelliethehooker
    nelliethehooker Club Member Posts: 13,647 ✭✭✭
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    edited February 2020 #2689

    The last couple of mornings there have been a large flock of Fieldfares and Redwings in the paddock behind our caravan. 

    There were Fulmars pairing up and displaying on their nesting sites on the cliffs at Hunstanton as we walked along the beach there today. And this afternoon we saw thousands of (Brent?) Geese on the fields and wetlands at Snettisham Nature Reserve as well as a couple of Marsh Harriers and a pair of Red Legged Partridge. Numerous Buzzards and Kestral about too.

  • nelliethehooker
    nelliethehooker Club Member Posts: 13,647 ✭✭✭
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    edited February 2020 #2690

    We walked along the embankment from Peter Scott's lighthouse today. There were huge flocks of Geese out on the estuary but too far for me to identify although I suspect they were Brent Geese as there were  a couple  close in. Also saw a group of 7 Little Egrets together, what I took at first to be a Marsh Harrier however it had a forked tail so was perhaps a Red Kite, but the real surprise was to see a Barn Owl flying along the inshore dyke about 10 m away from us just as we were going to sit down for lunch. There were Skylarks singing and Curlew  calling and as we drove back I saw a Green Woodpecker....so another a good day 

  • Pliers
    Pliers Forum Participant Posts: 1,864
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    edited February 2020 #2691

    Sounds quite magical, Nellie.

    We walked from home today, over the moors, down to the Ribble, then over even more moors to Slaidburn. Lots of red grouse about, perched on the dry stone walls, calling.

    Used our bus passes to get back home!

  • nelliethehooker
    nelliethehooker Club Member Posts: 13,647 ✭✭✭
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    edited February 2020 #2692

    I just wish that I had an experienced birder with me as they would be able to spot and identify all the ones that I can't.

    Sounds like a good walk, was it very wet underfoot?

  • Pliers
    Pliers Forum Participant Posts: 1,864
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    edited February 2020 #2693

    Not too wet, just a few stretches that never dry out.

    Bet it’s pretty sodden today though......💦

  • greylag
    greylag Club Member Posts: 585
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    edited February 2020 #2694

    Geese were most likely Pink Footed Geese....especially in that part of Norfolk.   In flight they make a noise that sounds like Wink,Wink.Wink.

  • Bluemalaga
    Bluemalaga Forum Participant Posts: 936
    edited February 2020 #2695

    Hi NTH

    May I suggest you download an app for your phone. I have the Collins app that is about £15 but recently I was told about a free app from the Cornell laboratories called the Merlin bird ID. The app is free but requires you to provide an e-mail address. The photos are good and will be a great help, saves the cost of a guide or the weight of a book.

  • nelliethehooker
    nelliethehooker Club Member Posts: 13,647 ✭✭✭
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    edited February 2020 #2696

    Thanks both. I'll give that app a try BM.

  • mickysf
    mickysf Forum Participant Posts: 6,474 ✭✭✭
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    edited February 2020 #2697

    Try this Nellie,

    https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/wildlife-guides/identify-a-bird/

    it's free and very easy to use. The apps suggested mind are good when when out in the field with no wifi available.

  • nelliethehooker
    nelliethehooker Club Member Posts: 13,647 ✭✭✭
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    edited February 2020 #2698

     Thanks Mickey, I'll try that one too.

    Saw another beautiful Red Kite as we drove to Wallsingham today, and 3 males Bullfinches as we walked along the Pilgrims Way.

  • nelliethehooker
    nelliethehooker Club Member Posts: 13,647 ✭✭✭
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    edited February 2020 #2699

    Lots more interesting if not unusual sighting over the last couple of days. Tawny Owls calling the last 2 nights by the site, Woodpecker drumming in the morning, a couple of Red Kites flew over yesterday morning, and there was a hare in the field behind the site. During our walks we saw many more hares, Pink Footed Geese flying overhead and the feeding on the washes behind Broad Water, Yellowhammers along the field edges and many Wigeon, Pochard and Teal at Holkham Nature Reserve as well as a few Shoveller Ducks, and Gadwell and Egyptian Geese on the Estate lake.

  • brue
    brue Forum Participant Posts: 21,176 ✭✭✭✭✭
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    edited February 2020 #2700

    Sounds like a good visit Nellie, hope you enjoy the next CL stop. smile

  • JVB66
    JVB66 Forum Participant Posts: 22,892
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    edited February 2020 #2701

    We see several ring neck parakeets on our walks with Rosa most days,every month there is a magazine published by our local paper , ,,this month it has been mentioned in the monthly wildlife piece , that up to 500 are now roosting in the trees and bushes each night just off the A1 at Hatfield,  near the big Tesco storesurprised