Watch The Birdie! - Update

We've been bird watching for just about six weeks now so it's time for an update! We've learned many things about birds in this last six weeks. There have been many ups and downs!

It's really hard to identify birds when you only see them briefly. And you will only see them briefly as they flit about chirping loudly. We've heard so many birds on walks but haven't seen them enough to identify even half of them. My first visitor to the garden was a classic LBJ (Little Brown Job). I've no idea what it is. Sally got a visitor to her feeder too but only saw it's brown arse sticking out. Haha :D

My LBJ

Sally's LBJ

You'd think that if you put up bird feeders that birds would come. Not always true. The only bird I've seen on my fancy bird feeder is a stupid big pigeon that comes and is probably scaring away the tiny cute birds.

Binoculars are your best friend. I've got a lot of use out my binocs so far. Staring at seagulls at Redcar. I saw a Herring Gull and sadly an uncountable European Herring Gull too (it's not in the book).

I had a good trip to Staveley Nature reserve and saw some great birds. A Little Egret, Grey Heron, Cormorant and Avocet. All good point scores. Their hides are great for spotting birds in comfort.

Sal's been making use of her commute to work spotting birds along the way. She even managed to spot a female Moorhen and it's chicks close to where she works. A difficult spot because the female looks nothing like the distictive male moorhen.

Sally is quite determined to spot a family of Peregrines that nest on York Minster. They've been spotted a lot by other people and she found out they even have their own Twitter page with sighting updates. We hung out for a while in the gardens nearby hoping for a spot but they've been elusive so far.

I do generally feel more knowledgable about birds now. I was out walking with Leigh last week and I was able to point out a Pied Wagtail strutting about on the grass nearby wagging it's tail. I felt like a proper parent right then.

We've had a lot of walks near rivers and lakes recently. I find myself sructinising the ducks for any different kinds of ducks but no luck yet. Just your regular Mallards everywhere!

How magestic!

 

 

Some expectant ducks at Swinsty reservoir.

So far we've enjoyed bird watching. It's difficult but satisfying when you spot something and realise you know what it is. It takes a lot of detective work to identify a bird, plenty of page-turning in your bird book and sometimes a bit of googling too. Then still you're not certain half the time.

Sal and I have realised that this is going to be a longer project than we realised. But we've made a start!