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

[Towlersonsafari]

Yes @Zim Girl so had I but personally I am not that keen to go out at night to listen to migrating ducks!

[Peter Connan]

[Caracal]

A couple more regular garden visitors:-

                                                                                                                                          A Noisy Miner taken from the lounge window

 

A Magpie Lark also called Mudlark taken from the bedroom window. It builds a beautifully formed bowl shaped nest of mud which is difficult to see as it is camouflaged on a similarly coloured tree branch.

 

 

 

 

[TonyQ]

On Wednesday we put out a table and chairs in the Garden (unusually this action did not cause it to start raining!)

As we sat with a pot of coffee, this Goldfinch came to visit us

 

 

 

One of our most colourful birds, and always a pleasure to see

 

[Peter Connan]

Beautiful!

[michael-ibk]

That´s a visitor I´d like to have!

[Whyone?]

No photo's but like Tony we sat in the garden and managed not to  provoke rain here on the Sussex high Weald.

 

Notable 'spots' included our first Swallows of the year,  a pair of Red Kites - in recent years these had been occasional sightings, now daily, so I guess the spread of these lovely birds through the UK now definitely includes Sussex, lots of Buzzards, and several Meadow Blue butterflies.

 

No cuckoo yet though.

[kittykat23uk]

My friend found a family of tawny owls. By the time I got there only one adult was visible:

 

 

 

[mvecht]

Not exactly a bird but I guess anything counts these days?

Red Squirrel

[xelas]

Anything count, @mvecht, specially as lovely as your squirrel. I would think she is fresh out of a hair saloon ... but those are closed.

[janzin]

Went back to our local cemetery birding hot-spot today.  We had a huge windstorm yesterday which kept migration down, but there were a few new migrants. Notably, a few Blue-gray Gnatcatchers and tons of Northern Flickers.

 

 

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher in a flowering crabapple tree.

 

 

Northern Flicker, this woodpecker is often found on the ground.

 

 

[xelas]

The selection of birds is relatively limited, but @Galana has opened a door to a whole new world of flying objects: butterflies! These two must be a female and a male.

 

Gonepteryx rhamni (Linnaeus, 1758) - citronček

 

 

 

 

 

 

[xelas]

However, taking photos of birds is much easier.

 

Great Spotted Woodpecker

 

 

[michael-ibk]

Not a bird but a very special sighting yesterday - Stoat in summer coat. 

[TonyQ]

A stoat! What a brilliant sighting 

[Peter Connan]

Wow @xelas and @michael-ibk

[Towlersonsafari]

lovely stoat @michael-ibk what a lovely garden sighting. @xelas do you call those butterfleis Brimstone butterflys in Slovenia ? that is what they are known as in the Uk- after the yellow of sulpher crystals found near volcanic areas and adopted by "Hellfire" preachers as in "fire and Brimstone" and it is one of the eldest of butterfly names-its first mention in English was in 1699 (thanks too Emporers Admirals and chimney Sweepers by Peter Marren  a splendid book about the naming of moths and butterflies

[Towlersonsafari]

Have started to see butterflies in the garden like this male Orange tip and this comma 9in french it is called Robert le Diable after its reddish coulour and shape of the wings which are apparently devil like!

[Towlersonsafari]

and here is a jackdaw in our cherry tree

[Towlersonsafari]

Finally ladies and Gentlemen, an insect that in my ignorance, I never knew exsisted until last year, a bee-fly! There are 9 species in the uk and this is the most common the Dark-Edged bee fly. it is a parasite of solitary bees, as its larvae eats the bees larvae

Edited April 12, 2020 by Towlersonsafari

[michael-ibk]

2 hours ago, Towlersonsafari said:

lovely stoat @michael-ibk what a lovely garden sighting.

 

Well, I took some liberty with the "backyard" definition - this was about three km from home.

[mvecht]

Also not quite the backyard but nearby.

Quite early for Greylag goslings

 

[xelas]

5 hours ago, Towlersonsafari said:

@xelas do you call those butterfleis Brimstone butterflys in Slovenia ?

 

If I got the ID correctly (and I think so) the translation of the Slovenian name "citronček" would be something like "small citrus", which is related to its colour. 

[mvecht]

A trip to the "extended" backyard gave these.

Eurasian Nuthatch (Sitta Europaea europaea), which has a light coloured belly as opposed to the other subspecies I had at my old home in Western Denmark that has a more tawny belly.

 

I am not an expert in Mice but believe this is a Yellow-necked mouse?

 

 

[michael-ibk]

Nice - a very distinctive Nuthatch species!