What have you seen

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  • RedKite
    RedKite Club Member Posts: 1,717 ✭✭
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    edited December 2021 #3662

    Now at Obterre and the owners Mike and Cath if we go up the road about half a mile there hundreds of cranes feeding in the fields so a trip up there tomorrow with bins and camera and hope to see some of them. they have go bird feeders here and will need topping up so that will keep me busy.

    Pliers we had a Brambling on our window feeder the other week but not seen it recently.

  • ADP1963
    ADP1963 Forum Participant Posts: 1,280
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    edited December 2021 #3663

    RedKite....I frequent both those places at all different times of the year and so far have not managed that spectacle........I live in anticipation .

  • RedKite
    RedKite Club Member Posts: 1,717 ✭✭
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    edited December 2021 #3664

    Well had to out late morning and thought will look at this field for the Cranes saw about 40 feeding so got OH to park a little way from them and I got my camera  and got myself behind a tree and had a good view of them just about to take some photos and a b....y great lorry came by and made so much noise they all flew off westwards no not a happy bunny but will try again sometime and will listen for them calling around here and may go to Brenne and  one of the hides where we have been told huge numbers have been seen there, but at least I did see some also a lot of small birds about in large numbers could not see them enough to identify them.

  • Pliers
    Pliers Forum Participant Posts: 1,864
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    edited December 2021 #3665

    Very good view of a stoat today, running across our local moors. Pure white, so really couldn’t miss it. 
    Would have been very well camouflaged a couple of weeks ago, but not today!
    🙂

  • moulesy
    moulesy Forum Participant Posts: 9,402 ✭✭✭✭✭
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    edited December 2021 #3666

    Just back from a walk across Penhale Dunes with the dogs and delighted to catch a close up of a pair of choughs. Only the second time in all the years we've been walking these parts that we've seen them close up like that and it was only their distinctive call that alerted me to the fact that they weren't common or garden rooks! smile

  • nelliethehooker
    nelliethehooker Club Member Posts: 13,644 ✭✭✭
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    edited December 2021 #3667

    Not what we've seen but we heard a Tawny Owl calling outside the van at 15:45 this afternoon. Just goes to show how dark it was today.

  • mickysf
    mickysf Forum Participant Posts: 6,474 ✭✭✭
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    edited December 2021 #3668

    Last time I saw a Chough was a few years back in the most unusual of settings. We were headed north from Cherry Hinton and had stopped for fuel and breakfast at Cambridge Services. There on the grass beside our motorhome was a chough pecking worms out of the grass. Could hardly believe our eyes but when a Belted Kingfisher turns up near Preston today all you need is to be in the ‘right’ place and quite a bit of luck. Wish I could see that bird! It’s been around a few days now apparently,  

  • Unknown
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    edited December 2021 #3669
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  • mickysf
    mickysf Forum Participant Posts: 6,474 ✭✭✭
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    edited December 2021 #3670

    Did the ones you see there have red or yellow bills, David?

    Often wondered why there haven’t been reintroduction attempts on the East Coast of Yorkshire. High sea cliffs with lots of worm rich grass land behind. 

  • Unknown
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    edited December 2021 #3671
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  • nelliethehooker
    nelliethehooker Club Member Posts: 13,644 ✭✭✭
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    edited December 2021 #3672

    What controversial thing have you been saying now WN, that your post had been removed?wink Never seen that in this section before.

  • Wherenext
    Wherenext Club Member Posts: 10,607 ✭✭✭
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    edited December 2021 #3673

    I removed it myself Nellie! I had a spare 2 minutes break from being Cinders and hadn't read the posts from Micky and David properly and decided I was talking rubbish!

    The Yellow billed ones are usually found high in the mountains but there are high enough places around Ronda to possibly see them is what I should have said but didn't. We've only seen those in the Alps and High Pyrenees. The red billed ones tend to be local ones but at a much lower level. I have no idea which ones AD saw near Ronda. Could be either.

  • Unknown
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    edited December 2021 #3674
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  • nelliethehooker
    nelliethehooker Club Member Posts: 13,644 ✭✭✭
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    edited December 2021 #3675

    I thought that might have been the case, but when checking listing it was showing OP's original post as the last one, so I thought I'd just give it a kick start, as it were.

  • greylag
    greylag Club Member Posts: 585
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    edited December 2021 #3676

    Yellow bills are Alpine Choughs.

  • ADP1963
    ADP1963 Forum Participant Posts: 1,280
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    edited December 2021 #3677

    Love Ronda, what a drive!, especially if a bus is coming the other way. Looked out and marvelled at the gorge and scenery many times but never seen Chough's.

  • Unknown
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    edited December 2021 #3678
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  • ADP1963
    ADP1963 Forum Participant Posts: 1,280
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    edited December 2021 #3679

    A.D we always used Hotels and hired a car . Probably been to Ronda 5 times and could never get fed up with it. We were going to see Bullfighting once just for the experience but couldn't bring ourselves to see what we believed to be wrong. May and September would be our visiting times, but did not see Chough's but often saw Black Kites. Mijas was another place we loved and visited often, but now so commercialised to earlier days. We stayed at The Hotel Hacienda Puerto del Sol fabulous hotel. Boy did it hurt our bank balance I can tell you, but fabulous memories. Looking back now worth every penny.

  • Wherenext
    Wherenext Club Member Posts: 10,607 ✭✭✭
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    edited December 2021 #3680

    ADP, if ever in the Camargue area again try the Course Camaguaise where the bulls are never killed and the Razeteurs have to be brave to pinch a token hanging from a piece of wire between the horns of the bulls. The bulls are revered and have league positions in the local newspapers.

    We went to one in Maussane one year and the bulls truly were venerated and applauded. The Razeteurs enter as a group and try to distract the bull whilst one of their colleagues, no swords in hand, tries his hand at taking the token. The Razeteurs are usually the ones fearing for their lives.

    Like you we wouldn't entertain going to a Corrida bullfight.

  • mickysf
    mickysf Forum Participant Posts: 6,474 ✭✭✭
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    edited December 2021 #3681

    Yes, when travelling in the Alps I’ve seen both subspecies fairly close in proximity but always separated by altitude. 

  • Unknown
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    edited December 2021 #3682
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  • ADP1963
    ADP1963 Forum Participant Posts: 1,280
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    edited December 2021 #3683

    Wherenext, thanks for the info and have got to admit the Camargue is an area that has always appealed to us because of the wildlife and in particular the White Horses.

     A,D we did poke our noses through the gates of the arena in Ronda, but that only served to fill my wife with even more revulsion. Yes as you say we will never understand it!, 

  • mickysf
    mickysf Forum Participant Posts: 6,474 ✭✭✭
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    edited December 2021 #3684

    When out on yesterdays Christmas coastal walk at first glance, beyond the surf, I thought I was looking at an immature cormorant (whitish front), too far away for a half decent photo but I reckon it was actually one of the divers. Trouble is at this time of year it’s difficult to tell them apart. Did see some scoters and a few auks mind.

  • Wherenext
    Wherenext Club Member Posts: 10,607 ✭✭✭
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    edited December 2021 #3685

    Out for a stroll in a bit of sunshine today with a brisk westerly blowing when we noticed a large bird in the sky sailing towards us over farmers fields. We thought by the size of it that it might be a Buzzard but it gradually floated closer and passed directly overhead where we could see its proper size and markings underneath. It was a magnificent Goshawk, effortlessly sailing, not flying, into the wind. 

    We think it had been disturbed from its normal wooded area by shooting on the estate. Our good fortune.

  • nelliethehooker
    nelliethehooker Club Member Posts: 13,644 ✭✭✭
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    edited December 2021 #3686

    AD, I know that you have great interest in seeing Cranes so this news will be upsetting for you in particular, but also for other wild bird lovers all over:

    Due to avian flu "More than 5,000 migratory cranes have already died at the Hula Nature Reserve, which Environment Minister Tamar Zandberg called "the worst blow to wildlife" in Israel's history"

    Here's the link to the whole article.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-59808888

     

  • Unknown
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    edited December 2021 #3687
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  • nelliethehooker
    nelliethehooker Club Member Posts: 13,644 ✭✭✭
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    edited December 2021 #3688

    Sorry, AD, if I mistook you for another on here. Please accept my humblest apologise.laughing

  • Wherenext
    Wherenext Club Member Posts: 10,607 ✭✭✭
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    edited December 2021 #3689

    I read that story Nellie and also the one about the Swans having to be put down. Sad news indeed. It's not just us humans suffering from contagious diseases.

  • Unknown
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    edited December 2021 #3690
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  • nelliethehooker
    nelliethehooker Club Member Posts: 13,644 ✭✭✭
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    edited December 2021 #3691

    I guess I was confusing the two, AD.