Nice Surprise

This morning I saw a Willow Warbler, perched on the silver birch it then explored the shrubs before hovering in front of the window and then flying away. A great weekend tick and a first sighting for the garden. What a super little bird, so inquisitve, flitting around shifting its head into awkward positions. Hopefully it will return, possibly make use of ther nestbox on my shed. Would be such an honour. Also i'm hoping to hear some of its song over the summer.

Three Swallows Don't Make Summer

last week, on the 7th April
i saw the first three Swallows of the year
I could hardly believe my eyes,
these three african visitors
sat neatly on a telegraph wire
nice :)

Cycling To Work Bird List

I cycle just over 1 mile to work every morning. Through the town, past the racecourse and into open countryside. A very rural setting of fields, hedgerows and mature trees here and there. I also pass over a small river..the Cod Beck.

So far, since I started to remember what i'd seen, I have sighted the following species...

Grey Heron (feeding in flooded field)

Mute Swan

Greylag Goose

Canada Goose

Mallard

Sparrowhawk (being mobbed by jackdaws and chaffinch)

Pheasant

Grey Partridge

Moorhen

Lapwing

Herring Gull

Common Gull

Black Headed Gull

Wood Pigeon

Collared Dove

Skylark (performing it's classic display song...towering until invisible before dropping like a stone whilst singing loudly)

Pied Wagtail

Wren

Dunnock

Robin

Song Thrush (rescued juv' from main road)

Redwing

Fieldfare

Blackbird

Great Tit

Blue Tit

Long Tailed Tit (highlighting the reported excellent breeding season of this bird...notable, roving flocks appear abundant)

Magpie

Jay (first one i've ever seen in Thirsk)

Jackdaw

Rook

Carrion Crow

Starling

House Sparrow

Tree Sparrow (good numbers of this declining bird)

Tree Sparrow (Passar montanus)

Chaffinch

Linnet

Goldfinch

Greenfinch

Bullfinch

Yellowhammer (abundant a-top hedgerows all the way along the Sand Hutton road)

Eurasian Jay (Garrulus glandarius)...another acorn for the buried winter stash.

It is estimated that a pair of Jays will bury upto 10,000 acorns in any one year. I wonder what percentage of these are eventualy eaten, if the ratio is higher in harsher winters and if the Jay can recall it's burial sites, accounting for every 'larder'?

Disgrace

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) - PGA Tour player Tripp Isenhour faces charges for hitting a hawk with a golf shot because it was making noise as he videotaped a TV show.
Isenhour was with a film crew for "Shoot Like A Pro" on Dec. 12 at the Grand Cypress Golf course. The 39-year-old player, whose real name is John Henry Isenhour III, was charged Wednesday with cruelty to animals and killing a migratory bird. The charges carry a maximum penalty of 14 months in jail and $1,500 in fines.


Isenhour apologized in a statement released Thursday and said he was only trying to scare the hawk away.
According to court documents, Isenhour got upset when a red-shouldered hawk began making noise, forcing another take. He began hitting balls at the bird, then 300 yards away, but gave up. Isenhour started again when the hawk moved within about 75 yards, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officer Brian Baine indicated in a report.
Isenhour allegedly said, "I'll get him now," and aimed for the hawk.
"About the sixth ball came very near the bird's head, and (Isenhour) was very excited that it was so close," Baine wrote.
A few shots later, witnesses said he hit the hawk. The bird, protected as a migratory species, fell to the ground bleeding from both nostrils.
"As soon as this happened, I was mortified and extremely upset and continue to be upset," Isenhour said in a statement issued through his management company, SFX Golf. "I want to let everyone know there was neither any malice nor deliberate intent whatsoever to hit or harm the hawk. I was trying to simply scare it into flying away."
Isenhour said his family has adopted three cats from a local shelter.
"I am an animal lover," he said. "We ask that everyone accept my sincerest apology, and please be respectful of my family's privacy."
Humane Society executive vice president Michael Markarian said Isenhour should face charges.
"Americans have no tolerance for cruelty to animals. Such a petty, mean spirited act against a wild bird is inexcusable and prosecutors are right to hold Isenhour accountable to the law," he said in a statement released Thursday.
Isenhour has spent two full years on the PGA Tour, both times failing to keep his card. He has won four times on the Nationwide Tour, including twice in 2006.
"He just kept saying how he didn't think he could have hit it, which I think is a stupid thing for a PGA Tour golfer to say," said Jethro Senger, a sound engineer at the shoot. "He can put a ball in a hole from hundreds of yards away, and here he is hitting line drives at something that's, I don't know, a couple hundred feet away?"
Senger said it was "basically like a joke to (Isenhour)." He said no one in the roughly 15-person crew intervened, and many later regretted it.
"It was one of those cases where there's some trepidation on whether or not they should speak up and do something," Senger said.
Senger said the killing was not captured on video. The bird was buried at the golf course and later dug up by Florida investigators.

Taxidermy Turntable

Reminds me of something from The Flintstones. DJ Jackdaw.

I always find subjects of taxidermy macabre and morbid, however

I can also appreciate the scientific value in preservation and documentation of species.

This is increasingly important in an age when more and more species are endangered worldwide.

Things That Go Bump In The Night

It's 2am, I cant really sleep. However I have heard in the last hour
2 Tawny Owls calling to each other, one of which must have been sat on my roof.
Superb Tawny Owl

Several Redwing and Fieldfare, their calls like bat squeeks high in the night air.
Redwing by Esther Tyson

These two scandinavian species will soon be leaving these shores, having exhusted the berry supplies of hedgerows nationwide. I haven't seen too many Waxwing this winter though, despite good numbers being reported elsewhere.
Solitary Fieldfare

Also there is a Robin singing, strange time to sing, however i've noticed before how underneath streetlights Robin, Blackbird and Song Thrush sing in the night. Not forgeting the springtime breeding race and competition for mates..so perhaps it's little surprise such songbirds feel it vital to mark their territory.

Football Badge Birds

As both a birder and a fantatical football supporter i've always been intrested in the associations between clubs and the birds upon their emblems.
Here is a collection from mainly english clubs, each one featuring a bird within the badges design. The south London side Crystal Palace (the eagles, below, far right) have a very distinctive and proud eagle mantalling their badge. Palace were the nearest football club to me growing up and I often went to watch them whenever Fulham were playing away.

Another club I have an affinity with is Sheffield Wednesday as when I moved to Yorkshire I played two years in their academy, unfortunatly not making the grade! oh well. The Owls once sported the traditional design (above, left)before redesigning the architectural style owl in the 1970's. Personally I prefer the old design.

Oldham Athletic also bear an owl upon their badge, this one a nice realistic looking Long-eared Owl. While the Magpies adorning Notts County's badge symbolise the clubs black and white shirts, incidently this is the club that inspired italian giants Juventus in the choice of their strip.

Brighton's seaside location accounts for their obligatry seagull nickname, actually I think a better job could have been made of this sad, childish looking gull...but it seems content enough.

Two welsh clubs that play in the english league, Cardiff City (the bluebirds), which is infact more of a stylised swallow. Swansea City also adopt a stylistic type bird with their swan.




Wycombe Wanderers display their royal Buckinghamshire
connections with their chained swan. Norwich City (the canneries)
so named for their yellow shirts have a very simple but memorable
emblem as do West Bromwich Albion with thier Thrush on Hawthorn.
Tottenham Hotspur's Cockerel has become a very iconic symbol to the
club and is well known across Europe.

Elsewhere around the footballing globe, birds become less frequent
upon badges, for example extensive research of brasilian teams only
produced two bird bearing sides, namely Uniao Sao Joao E.C with their Macaw
and Paysandu Para with an eagle type raptor.


Italian teams also produce few bird inspired emblems, however eagles
do feature, such as the nazi-esque S.S Lazio and striking art deco eagle of Sicillian side Palermo (above).
Watch this space for more bird related sports badges, not just football, when and as I find them :)

Although it doesnt feature a bird, I have always liked the Bat crested badge of Valencia. Class.

Reflections

LtoR: Redstart, Blackcap and Song Thrush

Flocking Starling Video

Here is a video link to a clip of Bill Oddie's Springwatch programme
featuring the amazing Starling displays.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuY9hJ6gKeI&feature=related

Common Starling (sturnus vulgaris)

Very much in the media spotlight recently, thanks in part to the Carling TV commercial, is the roosting behaviour of Starling.

The U.K population is swelled during the winter pre-breeding season with visitors from across North-eastern Europe. The massive population influx creates spectacular dusk air-shows, twisting, contorting thousand strong masses moving as one erratic body as the Starlings settle into their roost.
Starlings over farmland, England 08


Famously Brighton Beach and London Bridge are prime locations to witness such events but practically anywhere across lowland Britian has the potential for these dramatic, awe inspiring displays.

Amazingly however the Starling is a bird in steady decline, it's hazardous migrations, human eridication, agricultural intensification and breeding habitat destruction all contributing factors to the decline.
A survey conducted by the British Trust Of Ornithology (BTO) concluded that the U.K resident Starling population has fallen 15% in the last 6 years.
It was also found that Starlings carry inter flock diseases including TGE (transmissible gastroenteritis - a disease of swine), blastomycosis, and samonella.
One BTO study found that European Starling droppings contained C. jejuni, L. monocytogenes and C. psittaci, all human bacterial pathogens. The study concluded however, that starling droppings were not a significant source of human infection.

All too often overlooked by birdwatchers the Starling is a bird of intricate glossy colour, boldness and intelligent social behaviour. It's population range spans every continent, testament to the birds ability to adapt to the ever changing environment. Originally introduced from Europe to the Americas, Asia and Australia the bird has thrived and is now breeding as far south as southern Argentina.

The Starling is a surprisingly accurate mimic of human sounds such as whistles and hammering and has a repertoire of birds such as Curlew, Lapwing and Coot.

Massive 250,000 strong flock, North America 06