Back yard birding thread... (Corona virus restrictions)

[Game Warden]

With many of us going into isolation/quarantine, birding opportunities are going to be very restricted. BUT...

 

Let's upload our back yard birding photos in this topic, starting from today inc., details as when and where taken, species etc.

 

So get cracking: fill this with photos of birds in our gardens, porches, balconies and so on. And see how different the birds are where you live to where I live...

 

Matt

[egilio]

No photo but I heard a chiffchaff from my backyard this morning, I heard my first one last week, spring is coming!!!

[wilddog]

I think bird call should count,

as @egiliohas done. It will help us all learn the sounds, if we do not already know them. 

 

There are a lot of online resources for bird song. 

 

Glad the chiffchaff is doing it's stuff. Spring will help us cope with all this. 

[Game Warden]

Any cuckoos yet in SE England?

[Whyone?]

Nothing yet on the Sussex High Weald....well, perhaps  I should clarify....nothing I have heard!!!!

 

Recent weather hasn't been conducive to sitting and listening, though today is lovely (and I am in a spookily quiet City of London, so cant listen!)

 

Very good idea for a thread though Matt.

Edited March 16, 2020 by Whyone?

[egilio]

No cuckoos here yet either. https://www.xeno-canto.org/ is a good (the best?) source for bird sounds from all over the world.

[Pamshelton3932]

This is all I have from my back porch in East Tennessee.  American Robin. Turdus migratorius. 
 

I heard lots of birds but this was the only one if two I actually saw 

[Game Warden]

Nicely framed shot @Pamshelton3932.

[Towlersonsafari]

This morning I heard a green woodpecker "laughing" and for the first time ever (from our garden) a great spotted woodpecker  drumming

[janzin]

Downy Woodpecker on my fire escape...photo taken with my phone.  There was a Red-bellied Woodpecker too, but I didn't catch him for a photo. Maybe tomorrow.

 

 

[Caracal]

10 hours ago, Towlersonsafari said:

This morning I heard a green woodpecker "laughing"

 

Does it think it's a Kookaburra?!

[SSF556]

Not bird specific but I was cutting down a dead tree Sunday and I found these small brothers tucked away in the tree.   We saved them and have handed them over to a Wildlife Rehab facility....

 

The Rehab facility assured us that within 6 weeks they will be back in the wild!

 

 

Edited March 17, 2020 by SSF556

[janzin]

The Red-bellied Woodpecker came back today. Sorry for the appalling quality--taken through the screen with my phone. In the rain.  But this thread isn't for artistic quality--I hope!

 

 

This is actually the last of my suet cakes and I've already stopped putting out bird seed; usually I stop feeding them around mid-March unless the weather is cold (and its been unseasonably warm all winter.) All I'm getting now is House Sparrows and now the Starlings, who I'm continually chasing away. But I do love when the woodpeckers come visit.

 

 

[Bush dog]

Usually I stop feeding the birds end of March.  So , I'm now finishing the grain reserve.  Here are pictures of goldfinches and a wood nuthatch.

 

 

 

 

But other species are stil there and seen regularly like coal and blue tits, greenfinches, green and great spotted woodpeckers, alder tarins, chaffinches, to name a few.

[pomkiwi]

Not quite my backyard but within walking distance is a natural burial ground and nature reserve.  My retirement from medicine last year (shortly to be reversed due to Covid-19) and recent travel restrictions have meant I've spent much more time searching for local wildlife. I only discovered this reserve close to home last month and have no idea why I didn't know about it before. It has wild hares and is wonderful terrain for owls with undisturbed grassland and hedges.

 

Having spent a lot of time this winter in cold twilight waiting for the very local barn owl without success I took my brand new Nikon PF500 to the reserve and photographed the hares. As the sunset a blur of white appeared over the hedge beside me, startling us both. The bird screeched and veered off and my spirits fell, I was still to get photos  of a wild owl flying.

 

However as I walked across the field the barn owl reappeared and proceeded to fly around the field hunting:

 

 

The owl then settled on one of the memorial posts and studied me:

 

After 10 minutes or so it flew off across farmland.

 

A lovely encounter with a moving postscript. The uncropped version of the image above includes some of the memorial tablets for those buried at the reserve. I forwarded that version to the  reserve manager who passed it on the families concerned. I have had some lovely messages from them which has left me quite moved.

[TonyQ]

Beautiful Barn Owl photos, and very thoughtful of you to pass on the photos 

[pomkiwi]

3 minutes ago, TonyQ said:

Beautiful Barn Owl photos, and very thoughtful of you to pass on the photos 

 

Nah - I'll do anything for an audience 

[Caracal]

Rainbow Lorikeets in the back garden taken through the glass of my kitchen window this afternoon

 

 

 

[Kitsafari]

The male olive-backed sunbird came calling again to the bottlebrush tree in our garden. He likes to show off to his gal pals who are shyer. pity the light wasn't that good on him as the blue throat is iridescent in the right light.

March 17, 2020 

 

[Bush dog]

Some more pictures taken yesterday

 

Magpie

 

 

House sparrow

 

 

Greenfinch and goldfinch

 

 

Goldfinch again

 

 

Great tit

 

[mvecht]

Our new house has a very small garden and we have not done any feeding, so not too many species on the ground. This Fieldfare was feeding in sight from the (dirty) window. Hoping for some migration in the afternoon

 

A short walk from the house we have nesting Tawny Owls. So far 4 Owlets

 

 

Edited March 22, 2020 by mvecht
added text

[pomkiwi]

A robin in the garden.

 

[Bush dog]

Pictures taken the day before yesterday, always in my garden

 

Dunnock

 

 

 

 

Chaffinch

 

 

 

Hawfinch

 

 

[Game Warden]

That last shot is at a great angle and great study of the hawfinch @Bush dog.

 

Matt

[Bush dog]

@Game Warden

 

Thanks a lot, Matt!