Birds & Fowl

As Easter weekend is upon us and Spring burst forth, our garden birds are in ecstasy. This Great Tit (Parus major) stood on one of our stone moles, was dancing up and down whilst flapping its wings rapidly, not to fly but clearly to impress. Ah, just found out that my wife saw this and another doing what the birds and bees do naturally, just moments before it landed on here. Enjoy too, the more frontal pose in the PiP. As usual, nice full size.

This beautiful little bird, a resident of Northern Scotland, was one of a trio seen at Duncansby Head, Britain's most North Easterly point.

Silves in Portugal is the setting for this pair of Storks, famously returning as a pair, year after year to rebuild their nest and raise young. Hope you enjoy this silhouette.

Adult mature Gannent (genus Morus, in the family Sulidae,) seen over the Bempton Cliffs on our Yorkshire Coast. More info on Bempton Cliffs: www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/bird-and-wildlife-guides/bird-a-z/g/gannet

A friendly local Robin gives me an opportunity to wish all my friends and viewers here on Ipernity, A Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, Herb

Maybe common, but not to me. I heard this first by its plaintive mewing call that could be mistaken for a cat. I believe there are a few of these in Britain but as I said, not where I live. Seen near the village of Alternun in Cornwall.

Mother and young common starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) take a break for a meal whilst practising for tonight's high wire performance. Seen on our garden feeder.

Seen on a pond near the place our caravan was sighted in the Rhineland of Germany.

New life is always good to see. Here we have an adult Canadian Goose and its goslings next to the Hudderfield canal here in Uppermill Saddleworth.

Two days in my garden, with an opportunity to snap our birds. Of course without the feeder, this would be a different story. This robin is a local character and along with at least one other, has been a frequent visitor all year. This capture is quite unusual because robins are more known to be ground feeders and indeed this is the case for ours too, but on occasion it has a go at getting the seeds as we see here. Enjoy PiPs too.

Two days in my garden, with an opportunity to snap our birds. Here we see (I think) one of our very young blackbirds, shortly to flee after a call from its parent. Birds often scavenge this area just below our seed and fat-ball feeders. Its as if the feeders themselves are the rich kids throwing scraps to the poor!

Two days in my garden, with an opportunity to snap our birds. Of course without the feeder, this would be a different story. Here we see some of the frequent visitors here, our Green finches (Carduelis chloris). However this is the first time that I have caught an obvious juvenile still with its chick-looks and feathers but well able to feed itself. Above, mummy is obviously the guide.

A rare bird in our garden and possibly the first occasion that I have caught it so sharp. We saw it first time during the heavy frost, looking for something to eat and it seems to have hung around since. Its quite unusual to see these in our gardens as they are normally woodland or farm residents. They are in fact protected in our country. Scientific name: Pyrrhula pyrrhula ps, I have yet to see a female here.

A regular visitor to our garden, here we see a very young bird but normally we see lots of adults. In fact we see quite a lot of tits, including great tits, long-tailed tits and coal tits but not on these two days.

Starlings come and go in our garden. they must have nested near here as we have seen the young ones too. These are the fat-miners, akin to our wood-peckers with their long beaks. They drill into the fat-balls sending cascades of fat to the ground, to the delight of our resident ground feeders of pigeons and blackbirds along with the robins and sparrows. Scientific name: Sturnus vulgaris

The star of this weeks catch the very rare to us 'Goldfinch'. Like the 'Bullfinch' this has only become a regular visitor this Winter and Spring. Normally their habitat is near thistles, a plant that their beak has been especially adapted to get at the sun-flower seed for. Maybe our seeds are just too much for it to resist. Scientific name: Carduelis carduelis

Motacilla alba: Seen in County Kerry, Ireland last Autumn but I do see these often by our local big rivers and small streams over here on the British mainland too. A rather nice bird to watch and listen to too, with their bobbing tails and often seen with a fly or small fish in its beak.

Seen at a local canal basin. The first goose here was being chased away by the second one after swimming too close to a nest. I was not sure if the attacker was the female or male but it seemed to mean business here. During this canal side stroll we saw several more nests (see pip) all having a parent sat in them so presumably on eggs. Enjoy