What's buzzing or flying near you 2025 ?

I've not heard buzzards since earlier this spring. The crows sometimes mob them here too @cactus_girl, especially if they've pinched one of the youngsters or similar, but the buzzards are usually too swift for them.
Interesting re 'your' pigeons @Sheal. We have gazillions of them round here, but they're generally quite well behaved. Plenty of differing habitat for all sorts of birds though, so a fairly good balance. The current one [Rodney] has a companion now and again who's quite brazen and comes up the back steps if I'm not quick enough with the food. Rodney is more discreet.
It's that old thing of 'who's training who' though

We have a good radio prog. here on Saturday mornings [half 6 till 8am] called Out of Doors. They do a mystery sound that folk have to guess - it can be mechanical or animal - almost anything. This week's was a Nuthatch. When I was outside yesterday, they were calling quite a lot. Lovely wee things.

 

Let's hope the pigeons don't take more liberties @fairygirl. Pheasants became a problem for me at my previous home. Having fed both a male and female from my hand the female always wandered off after. The male however, would stay behind and became so demanding he started stripping the bottom edge of the wood frame of my patio doors. I had to put small plant troughs in front of them to stop him. He snipped flowers off plants and pulled up my lawn around the bird feeding station. I laid slabs at the base of it but it made no difference, he tore the lawn up around the edges of those.

 

We had pheasants at the last house too @Sheal - they nested in the garden across the road, but they weren't too problematic, as they spent most of their time over there and in the adjacent garden. Perhaps if I'd lived there longer, they might have been more of a nuisance! The 'who's training who' certainly seems to have been the case for 'your' male. It's always a balance, but it doesn't take much to get a bit one sided!

We have a NT garden about 100 yards away, and lots of farmland close by, so I think that makes a big difference - birds/wildlife generally have plenty of options.

 

Living rurally I was surrounded by fields @fairygirl but it didn't seem to make a lot of difference to that particular male. I think he chose the easy option, they are more intelligent than we think. He (Cedric) was a nuisance but I missed him when he disappeared. I had no idea of his age so I assume he'd come to the end of his days, they only live a few years in the wild apparently.

 

An awful commotion in the garden yesterday morning. The poor old tawny owl, who roosts here, was wakened from his/her/its sleep by four adult blackbirds objecting to it being too close to their youngsters. The fact that their youngsters had chosen to sit right beside the poor owl was irrelevant…

 

I'd agree with that @Sheal - both the intelligence and the easy option! Not daft are they. If you're ever in Glen Clova, it's pheasant central.
Nice pic @Tidemark. He/she does look a bit sleepy!
Birds eh? They make us laugh so often. I can regularly be heard telling the sparrows they're noisy little b*ggers. They just look at me and chirp even more loudly.
...and as for Rodney.....


Likes to make himself comfy.

 

No wonder canes don't last long

 

@Jiffy lovely photo of a juvenile GSW. We have had the male and female coming to the feeders for some weeks now but no sign of any young. Also the green woodpecker/s have been around the garden/orchard for months...and I do mean months. Very unusual to have them around for so long.
This morning a wren wanted a meal and took on a moth that was nearly the same size (sorry no idea ID). Moth was having none of it and a great battle took place but we didn't see the outcome as they moved the battle into another flower bed and we couldn't see them anymore.
Went to a local reserve for a walk and actually saw very little but a bittern and Great White Egret flew over. Good though to get out for a short while. The wind though was strong and biting.

 

The Poole Peregrines are having a good year, 4 young which will be soon fledging. The nest box was installed earlier in the year and is at the top of the Asda tower block and can be seen from the car park. Unfortunately they have a habit of dropping their prey remains down below mainly Pigeons and Terns, not something you want in your trolley!!!!!
Two of the juveniles.

 

Baby blue tit this morning. I had quite an influx of tits all at once - great, blue, coal and long-tailed.

 

I almost deleted couple of quick shots of a brown bird in a tree yesterday until I lightened them and found it was a Cirl Bunting, they are only just starting to be seen in Dorset rather than just Devon.

 

It's a real treat when an unusual bird turns up @strongylodon.

 

Could do without this at quarter to eight on a Sunday morning!


The gulls don't normally visit my garden - it's not an ideal environment for a huge bird with webbed feet. But they have mouths to feed at the moment, and the calci worms I put out on the ground are too tempting.

They are nesting behind a neighbour's chimney. They don't seem at all bothered by the spikes, which presumably were put there to deter them. Maybe they see them as extra protection for the nest.

 

Fascinating to watch the greater spotted woodpeckers. Male came to the feeder, took a peanut and went to the post that has our weather vane. Over the years the peckers have pecked at the peanuts and produced a hole in the post. Male duly puts the peanut in the hole and then juvenile comes onto the pole underneath the male, he then gives some of the peanut to youngster and then flies off. Juv then moves up to where father had been and carries on eating the rest of the peanut left in the hole. Amazing. This happened quite a few times today, but always the male working with the juvenile. Interesting. Was the female sitting on eggs/youngsters elsewhere?

 

Dad is feeding the youngster here, too. No missus to be seen.