fluffyfeet Posted March 18, 2009 Share Posted March 18, 2009 Has anyone else had any unusual birds visiting their garden? We've had a pair of fieldfares that are frequent visitors, a long tailed tit, and best of all, a greater spotted woodpecker! I've come over all Bill Oddie!! Dawn x Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SAB Posted March 18, 2009 Share Posted March 18, 2009 We have had 2 long tailed tits zooming around our garden the past couple of days - mesmerising! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chillicat Posted March 18, 2009 Share Posted March 18, 2009 Hi - we have a pair of Mistle thrushes (sp ? ) that we haven't seen before............AND we have three mallard ducks, two guys and a gal, who for some reason like our pond! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cordelia Posted March 18, 2009 Share Posted March 18, 2009 we too have lots of lovely wild birds visitiing, though not a fieldfare... but we live in the country... the newest were some really red Bullfinches.....gorgeous...all three of them !! the most exciting bird seen last year...at a local river was a kingfisher....absolutley beautifull....and we saw it on successive days too.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Speckled Hen Posted March 18, 2009 Share Posted March 18, 2009 We see Rooks, Jackdaws, Crows, Magpies, Blackbirds, Thrushes, Pheasants, Bullfinches, Greenfinches, Goldfinches, Goldcrests, Wrens, Great Tits, Long-tailed Tits, Blue tits (have a web cam on a nesting pair) Dunnocks, House Sparrows (again another web cam) and Robins. We are visited occasionally by a Spotted Woodpecker who is partial to the fat balls. On the river we see Dippers, Herons, Mallards and we have a resident pair of Kingfishers and a pair of Goosanders. In the neighbouring fields we see Oystercatchers and Curlew. At night time I hear a Tawny Owl though I have never seen him. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snowy Posted March 18, 2009 Share Posted March 18, 2009 The most unusual bird spotted in our garden is a sparrowhawk! He sat on teh shed roof for a full 5 minutes before flying off, neer to be seen again Everything else we get is fairly bog standard Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cinnamon Posted March 18, 2009 Share Posted March 18, 2009 I don't know enough about bids to know what is unusual & what isn't, but we get spotted & green woodpeckers, Wrens (teeny little things!),Long tailed, coal & blue tits, & Nuthatches too, as well as your usual Robins,Magpies & more darn Pheasants than you can shake a stick at. I guess the Red Kites are unusual, & we have a nice selection of Owls too Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blackrocksrock Posted March 18, 2009 Share Posted March 18, 2009 We also had fieldfares and about half a dozen when there were little apples left on the tree which were very badly marked and we leave them for the birds - they make such a noise too. We have the usual ones and a woopecker and we had a brambling last spring but not this year. We have a sparrow hawk which regularly makes a visit and sometimes ends up lucky and the not so lucky small bird which he gets hold of!!. There is a cock pheasant who likes to feed under the bird feeders with the girls and roosts in the garden in the larch tree sometimes Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ali-s Posted March 18, 2009 Share Posted March 18, 2009 The most unusual birds I have in the garden are Herons which wander about in the dusk, Buzzards which like to sit on my bird feeder, Pheasants who harrass the chickens and Barn Owls which sit in the Plum tree right outside my bedroom window. One night a Barn Owl was twittoowhooing for 3 hours in the tree and OH was snoring, I didn't get much sleep. In the summer we had Corn Buntings by the dozen visiting the bird feeders, it was hard work keeping the feeders topped up with black sunflower seeds for them. One bird we do not have visiting anymore are Seagulls At our previous house by the sea we had two nesting pairs on the roof every year. No matter what we did they would return and what a mess they made. On more than one occassion we had them come in the house Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SAB Posted March 18, 2009 Share Posted March 18, 2009 Not a bird, but we just found a large frog sitting in a cat carrier (that we had left outside the other day) - the frog was holding a stick in one hand/flipper . Unfortunately it hopped off before I could get an amusing photo . I love frogs Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seagazer Posted March 18, 2009 Share Posted March 18, 2009 Years ago we had a woodpecker in the garden, it was beautiful. I have seen them in the local park. I've also seen a wren (quite apt as I live in Wren Road), parakeets and a heron that gets abused by the rooks and magpies Its such a graceful looking thing flying around. We used to have loads of starlings especially in spring time but for the last few years I hardly see any. Not sure its Cookie and Dave's fault as I've always had a dog and cats at this house. I know they're not unusual but I just wondered where they've all gone. Perhaps they're like the poor sparrow..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charlottechicken Posted March 18, 2009 Share Posted March 18, 2009 I had a female blackcap visit the garden in February, took ages to find out exactly what she was too! Poor, pretty little thing looked like she had a ginger wig on Around here there has obviously been a good hatching of long tailed tits, about a dozen of them I think. The area is teeming with wildlife despite being really industrial/urban Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sheilaz Posted March 18, 2009 Share Posted March 18, 2009 Yes, we've had long tailed tits collecting nesting materials &, although we have lots of bluetits, coaltits & sparrows, it's the first time I've noticed longtail tits being so active in our garden. Lovely to see something different, and an interesting topic to read, thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Valkyrie Posted March 19, 2009 Share Posted March 19, 2009 We get a fair few wild birds, occasionally we get blackcaps, but not this winter. The kite hasn't been back, but the buzzards were around yesterday. The most unusual birds I have seen was not in the garden, but just down the road there was an egret (I used to see it when I took DS to work) and when we went to look for chicken breeders we saw lots of rock thrushes I think it was over Cannock Chase. Love the frog - Obe frog ko"Ooops, word censored!"e or Froga? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bassett Posted March 19, 2009 Share Posted March 19, 2009 We are often visited by green and spotted woodpeckers, (and we hear them in the woods most mornings on our walk to school), I find them really fascinating and love watching them. The heron is a regular visitor, hence our fish-less pond!!! Just as Seagazer's heron, ours is also often hottly persued by rooks!! Parakeets have become common-pace round here in recent years. They never fail to amaze me, as their bright colours seem quite exotic. But the children are so used to seeing them that they find them very ordinary ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seagazer Posted March 20, 2009 Share Posted March 20, 2009 We are often visited by green and spotted woodpeckers, (and we hear them in the woods most mornings on our walk to school), I find them really fascinating and love watching them. The heron is a regular visitor, hence our fish-less pond!!! Just as Seagazer's heron, ours is also often hottly persued by rooks!! Parakeets have become common-pace round here in recent years. They never fail to amaze me, as their bright colours seem quite exotic. But the children are so used to seeing them that they find them very ordinary ! I wonder if its the same one? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 21, 2009 Share Posted March 21, 2009 What a lovely thread. Being quite rural we have, and have had various visitors over the years, and i've found that since keeping hens, more birds seem to be attracted. We often have the green and lesser spotted woodpecker. Also various finches, Jays, Kestrels, and owls. Also a partridge, and recently a male cock pheasant who regularly comes to the patio door and looks in, so we leave him some grain to eat. I like to put up nest boxes and also bat boxes. We have bats living under the wooden fascia of our front porch. My next project is to put up an owl box. We have an unused telegraph pole on the perimeter of the garden and have often seen an owl sitting on top of it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
