What's buzzing or flying near you 2025 ?

Re those pink footed geese @Sheal - they reported on our local news yesterday that over 70,000 had just arrived in Montrose.
I'd like to know how they count them...

Gorgeous photos @strongylodon

 

You are all taking such lovely photos. I admire the professionalism of some of them. Very cheering, especially as autumn is now in full swing.

As an aside, has anybody else noticed a sharp decline in the number of blackbirds in their garden? In the spring, we had six regular visitors, three male and three female, and a couple of interlopers who would pop in now and again for the food on offer. In past years, we would see youngsters being fed by mum and dad and the garden would be full of clucks and chirrups as this went on.

This year, no young were raised. We saw adults collecting food in the late spring but never saw a young bird. Then the adults all disappeared during the summer. We thought perhaps they were moulting. Not one to be seen during August and September. Not a song to be heard. Not an alarm cry. Nothing. The moult silence never stopped.

This morning, I saw one female blackbird in the plum tree and when she saw me she flew off low into some shrubs. This would never have happened before. They all knew us and would come down to beg for tit bits.

Are we alone in this dramatic decline in our resident blackbird population? The other species seem unaffected.

 

Here, i've been saying for the last few years that numbers are falling and the last 2 years i'm seeing the biggish drop

 

Recently I heard a thud outside my front door so I looked out of the window to see what it was. There was a Sparrowhawk struggling with its prey, which I could not identify at first. I grabbed my camera and got a few shots before the Sparrowhawk flew away, presumably it had seen me. The prey turned out to be a juvenile Wood Pigeon, which survived with little obvious injury apart from some lost feathers.

 

That's a lot of birds @fairygirl! They probably photographed them and then took a guess.

There are lots of geese in flight here now, in fact I've never seen the sky as busy as I have this autumn. Last evening Mr S and I abandoned home and took ourselves off for a chippy which we sat and ate in the car, in a quiet spot, on the edge of the Cromarty Firth. To our right, just yards away, were 50-60 Brent geese on the shore. Typically, I didn't have my camera with me.

 

There's a joke re how Quantity Surveyors count @Sheal , which involves a stand off between someone like Custer and the approaching First Nations who are mostly hiding, and waiting. I can't remember it exactly, but it's something like - his next in command says 'how many do you think are out there?' and Custer says '708'. The other chap says 'Woah -how can you be so exact?' and Custer points and says - 'well there's 2 behind that rock there, 3 behind the trees over there, and another 3 up on the cliffs'.
Then he waves his hand vaguely into the distance and says ' plus about 700 out there....'
You never have your camera just when you need it do you?

We don't tend to get blackbirds in the garden through summer, as there's a lot of suitable habitat nearby for them. We mainly see them winter and spring, and should see them soon as they look for other food once weather gets colder and ground's frosted/frozen. It's so mild here for the time of year though, that there's still loads of available food around.

Great pic @Aljo , although I expect some people will find it a bit disturbing! Nature as it really is though. I had to help a young sparrowhawk some years ago as it got stuck in the blackthorn hedging. It was the sparrows going bonkers that alerted me. They were in no danger though, because it couldn't get free...until I helped it out of course!

 

There seems to be a sparrow hawk around here, occasionally see lots of pigeon or dove feathers after its made a kill.
I did get a few seconds of seeing it on the fence, but it never hangs around.

 

I was sitting having a cuppa one day @pete, and a sparrowhawk came in over the right hand boundary hedging, flew past between me and the washing [less than ten feet] circled round to the right and flew back out the same way. It can't have had time to even notice any birds in teh pond or elsewhere, and neither did they!
A blink and you miss it moment
It was almost surpassed by the dunnock flying into the shed when I was working just outside it one day with the door open. Fortunately, it stopped before hitting the back of it, turned, and went back out. It was possibly confused by the framed pic of Ben Lomond I have on the back wall and thought it could go straight through

 

Stone Curlew resting before crossing the Channel on migration, rarely see these on the South Coast, in fact rarely see them at all. It was having an altercation with a crow who objected to it's arrival. It was 200m away.

 

Bar Tailed Godwit.


Golden Plovers.

 

Outside for a couple of minutes one bite on my leg and one on my bum. Incidentally, I did have my trousers on!

 

Taken through glass. Female Blackbird enjoying a windfall apple in amongst the ivy.

 

Fuzzy pics of a female sparrowhawk in our garden yesterday. She managed to catch and eat two pigeons. It wasn’t a pretty sight

 

Nature as it is eh @Bluejayway ? I've not had one in yet this year.
I buy bags of cheap apples for the blackbirds through winter @Sheal, as I don't have any apple trees in the garden . They love them don't they? I spear them on old skewers and push them into the ground. Makes it easy for them to eat as they stay put
I was just thinking that I've not bought any for them yet - too much available food all around this month, and mild weather, but I might get some today when I do the shopping.

 

There was a third murder yesterday afternoon @fairygirl , she must think she's onto a winner here!