The RSPB website is excellent for identifying birdsong. Last week I heard a very distinctive call that sounded like laughing. For some reason I thought it was a jay but having just listened to the jay on the RSPB site I realise it wasn't. Some vague recollection in my confused brain has made me think of listening to the woodpeckers' calls and I'm pretty sure it's the Lesser Spotted I heard.
http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdguide/name/l/lesserspottedwoodpecker/index.asp

I saw a grey wagtail whilst in the North of England last week. Not very common I think , I have only seen a few over the years... a pretty thing 

Great prog on R4 today: A Guide to Woodland Birds, available on Listen Again

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/guidewoodlandbirds/pip/n9odk/

Never heard a Nuthatch (down) or Tree-creeper (up)? - you will have when you listen to this programme.

Tawny owl flies into record books 
 
The owl is said to "look terrific" for her age
A record-breaking tawny owl has astounded experts by becoming a mother again at the ripe old age of 21.

The bird, which is nesting in Kershope Forest, Cumbria, was ringed in 1987 and has reached four times the average life expectancy of a tawny in the wild.

Last year she entered the record books as the oldest breeding female of her kind in the wild in the UK.

The "born survivor" has now returned to a nest close to where she was born and hatched three eggs.

Her nest box is one of more than 200 specially built by the Forestry Commission as part of a tawny owl project which has been running in Kershope and the other woods of Kielder Forest since 1980.

 
The owl's three eggs have successfully hatched

Brian Little, a naturalist on the project, said that it was a "fantastic moment" when they found her.

"I had to choke back a tear. She looks terrific and her three new chicks looked very healthy," he said.

"Last year she had two youngsters, so she has gone one better this time.

"She is a born survivor and must be surrounded by an incredibly large extended family, as tawnies tend to stay put in the same area."

If the owl can survive until October, she will become the oldest tawny owl ever recorded in Britain.

The record is currently held by a male found freshly dead in North Yorkshire in 1988 aged 21 years, 5 months and 13 days.

 

There's a flock of them in Green Drive, Lytham, near the golf course.  So strange to see, but very nice.

We have a bearded tit nesting a few doors down who wages war with any child's football that lands in his territory.    He must have quite a collection by now. Perhaps he thinks they're eggs.   

We have some friends who have a beautiful garden overlooking the sea, and when they are away we often go over in our campervan and enjoy their view...

It was a load of fun watching their birds, they had a Magpie - my least fave bird (sorry Milly)- and it was feeding on the dropped food from the feeders. A pair of swallows kept on dive bombing it, flying round and round the house dive bombing on every circuit ! It was a hoot to watch...it went on whenever Magpie was there, although it didn't seem to mind !

...simple things...

x Jan x

I wasn't fond of magpies either till I adopted one.  I like to think I'm as hard as nails you know - but sometimes, just sometimes, it's possible for something weak and vulnerable to get round me.....

Mine (Malcolm) is such a character!  He hops sideways along my fencing, squawking, trying to see off every other bird that visits.  A thankless task.  They all ignore him.