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Stanley Stewart
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« Reply #330 on: 19:00:34, 15-08-2008 » |
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Chirpy here, too, Mary!  |
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MabelJane
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« Reply #331 on: 00:15:52, 16-08-2008 » |
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I can see both young starlings, Mary. The first one's so cuddly!
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Merely corroborative detail, intended to give artistic verisimilitude to an otherwise bald and unconvincing narrative.
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Eruanto
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« Reply #332 on: 12:41:58, 16-08-2008 » |
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I hear that a sparrowhawk (or some such) landed in the garden earlier this week. I was promming at the time so missed it, and co-inhabitants couldn't manage to get the camera working in time before it had flown off. Typical  |
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"It is not our part to master all the tides of the world, but to do what is in us for the succour of those years wherein we are set"
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Janthefan
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« Reply #333 on: 18:31:26, 17-08-2008 » |
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We've been having loads of fun with a baby Buzzard, nicknamed "Junior" who has spent the past 2 weeks shrieking its head off in the branches of various ash trees around the house.
"Feed me Mummy! Daddy! ANYONE!!!! " He cries at high pitch from 5.30 am until 9.30 pm....what a racket.
He looks huge, but has an almost white face and breast. Obviously he is in that in-between state of leaving the nest but not quite able to hunt enough for himself....I've never known anything like this despite having Buzzards around here ever since I came 16 yrs ago.
It will be a pleasant relief once he is self catering and the screams stop!
x Jan x
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Live simply that all may simply live
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BobbyZ
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« Reply #334 on: 21:02:59, 20-08-2008 » |
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I was waiting to catch a train today at Staines, it happened to be an interlude when it wasn't raining and I was disproportionately uplifted by the presence of a healthy colony of sparrows inhabiting the hedges which line both platforms. As has been noted, their decline in numbers has been steep but this colony indicates that their needs are small if they can just find a few bits of suitable vegetation.
Has anyone been listening to Book of the Week on Radio 4 ? I haven't but just noticed the write up and it looks interesting. Corvus : a Life with Birds.
Corvus: A Life With Birds
By Esther Woolfsonm, abridged by Jane Marshall, read by Maureen Beattie
Esther Woolfson was an unlikely candidate to become a bird lover until her husband’s grandmother asked her to look after some doves. They became the first of a long line of birds to become an integral part of her household.
Producer Jane Marshall.
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Dreams, schemes and themes
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Milly Jones
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« Reply #335 on: 10:00:43, 21-08-2008 » |
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I've been listening! It's wonderful. There was also an article in the Telegraph about Spike, her magpie. As I also have a magpie, it was lovely to read.
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We pass this way but once. This is not a rehearsal!
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Ron Dough
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« Reply #337 on: 10:56:31, 01-09-2008 » |
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This is the garden this morning: I noticed her from the kitchen window over an hour ago, and went to get a camera: she was still there when I returned. An immature female sparrowhawk, if I'm not mistaken, and stunned or possibly injured, since she has shown no sign of wanting to move. |
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Andy D
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« Reply #338 on: 11:20:13, 01-09-2008 » |
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Hope she survives Ron. When there was a similarly unmoving pigeon in my garden recently, it was dead by late evening.
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Ron Dough
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« Reply #339 on: 12:22:21, 01-09-2008 » |
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She'd started moving around a little, Andy, by the time you'd posted. Whilst I was phoning the SSPCA about sending someone out to collect her, it started to rain: when I went back into the kitchen, she was gone. A later photograph suggests some sort of injury to the lower chest - and apparently only one leg.... |
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Janthefan
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« Reply #340 on: 15:26:08, 01-09-2008 » |
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Oh dear, she looks doomed, difficult to hunt with only 1 leg.
Lots of bird excitement here today...
1) the four Swallow chicks in my woodshed all flew today safely for the first time ! Hurrah! I just hope they'll be mature enough to set off in a couple of weeks, I usually find the Swallows leave about 14th Sept.
2) Woody Woodpecker came to the peanut feeder today - haven't seen him for MONTHS!
3) "Junior" the Buzzard grows ever larger, and is making far less noise now...still incredibly white! He looks really spooky at dusk.
x Jan x
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Live simply that all may simply live
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Ron Dough
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« Reply #341 on: 18:54:18, 01-09-2008 » |
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More news on the sparrowhawk front - about ten minutes ago, I heard a kee - kee - keek call in the garden and went out to find this; |
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Morticia
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« Reply #342 on: 19:01:29, 01-09-2008 » |
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Is it too late to call the SSPCA again, Ron? Maybe she's come back somewhere that feels sheltered and safe? The other birds are likely to duff her up if she's the 'weakling'. Although you know that, of course.
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Ron Dough
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« Reply #343 on: 19:16:33, 01-09-2008 » |
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She's not able to fly very much, but she's hopped into a couple of the neighbour's gardens and back again, and one of them is calling the SSPCA at the moment. The big surprise is this .... there are two legs after all, but she perches on one, and withdraws the other inside her feathers. I've watched her do this a couple of times. |
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Morticia
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« Reply #344 on: 19:24:37, 01-09-2008 » |
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Ron, I do hope they can get hold of her and sort her out. She's a wee one and I've kept thinking of that look on her face this morning. Ok, so I'm just soft Townie ... |
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