nature notes II

[Nearly Sane]

I was following a discussion elsewhere and even with a picture of the bird a couple of keen birders were struggling to identify between a juvenile robin and juvenile redstart. It's certainly sounds as if this was a game bird. How big was it, Floo?

[wigginhall]

Yes, good point.  'Don't know' is often the endpoint in discussions about a difficult bird.    Or a 'possible' or 'probable' X. 

https://tinyurl.com/ycxe4bnv

[floo]

One of the problems at this time of year is that you get a lot of young birds wandering around, and they can look very different from  pictures in bird guides.  This is notorious with robins, for example, a fat speckly thing on your lawn might be a young robin, with no red breast. 

If floo's bird is a game bird (pheasant etc.), they can also look peculiar when they are young.   But some guides will have pictures of the young.   Grey partridge is possible, but I don't know what the young look like.

The bird I saw definitely wasn't a pheasant with which I am very familiar having lived next to a meadow used as a pheasant shoot for 20 years. The bird I saw looked like an adult to me.

[Nearly Sane]

The bird I saw definitely wasn't a pheasant with which I am very familiar having lived next to a meadow used as a pheasant shoot for 20 years. The bird I saw looked like an adult to me.

wigginhall didn't suggest it was a pheasant, he was using that as an example of a game bird. Rather he was suggesting grey partridge as a possibility, which he has kindly put up a link to in later post.

[Enki]

On my daily walk this morning I can across a strange looking bird, which was walking around the drive in a close. It is possible it is a ptarmigan or guinea fowl, but I am not sure. It is a pity I didn't have my camera with me.

I don't think it was a ptarmigan, Floo, unless you live at the top of a Scottish mountain. A helmeted guinea fowl might fit, but have you thought about red legged partridge, which are now far more common than grey partridge. They have small heads with a lot of white, with black through the eye, and red bills. Just a thought.

[floo]

I don't think it was a ptarmigan, Floo, unless you live at the top of a Scottish mountain. A helmeted guinea fowl might fit, but have you thought about red legged partridge, which are now far more common than grey partridge. They have small heads with a lot of white, with black through the eye, and red bills. Just a thought.

That is a possibility, I suppose, but it doesn't quite fit what I saw. I am beginning to wonder if I dreamt it! I shall walk that way tomorrow and see if I can spot it again.

[floo]

Wow a few minutes ago there were some starlings on our bird table, one had what resembled a white skull cap on the top of its head. I had to pinch myself to ensure I wasn't seeing things.

[floo]

I managed to take a photo of that bird this morning, it is a pity I can't post it on here. I think it is a guinea fowl.

[Enki]

Wow a few minutes ago there were some starlings on our bird table, one had what resembled a white skull cap on the top of its head. I had to pinch myself to ensure I wasn't seeing things.

You can sometimes get albino starlings, which really stand out in a flock. I have seen several, also seen an albino swallow, an albino dunlin and an albino black necked grebe. More commmon are leucistic birds, which have part of their feathers white. I suspect that your starling, Floo, was a leucistic one.

[floo]

You can sometimes get albino starlings, which really stand out in a flock. I have seen several, also seen an albino swallow, an albino dunlin and an albino black necked grebe. More commmon are leucistic birds, which have part of their feathers white. I suspect that your starling, Floo, was a leucistic one.

Possibly.

[Sebastian Toe]

I managed to take a photo of that bird this morning, it is a pity I can't post it on here. I think it is a guinea fowl.

You could try posting it on a public photo site then give the link here?

[floo]

You could try posting it on a public photo site then give the link here?

I don't put any of my photos or artwork on those  public sites after some of it was stolen some years ago.

[Sebastian Toe]

I don't put any of my photos or artwork on those  public sites after some of it was stolen some years ago.

I don't understand.
You were going to post it on here. Which is a public site!!!

[floo]

Actually even if I could post the photo, I wouldn't, seeing I took the photo of the bird on someone's property without their consent, so it would be wrong to make it public.

[Sebastian Toe]

Actually even if I could post the photo, I wouldn't, seeing I took the photo of the bird on someone's property without their consent, so it would be wrong to make it public.

If you can see the bird from a public area, then there is nothing wrong in publishing a photo taken from that viewpoint.
Otherwise you would hardly be able to post any photos!!

[Sebastian Toe]

I think it would be wrong to post a photo of someone's home and car, which are in the picture, without permission.

Tell that to Google Street!
And all the newspapers both local and national.
And TV stations.

[Shaker]

Tell that to Google Street!
And all the newspapers both local and national.
And TV stations.

Google Streetview blurs out car registration plates and house numbers, though.

[Sebastian Toe]

Google Streetview blurs out car registration plates and house numbers, though.

Number plates and people's faces, yes. House numbers, no.

[Shaker]

Number plates and people's faces, yes. House numbers, no.

I've seen house numbers obscured.

[Rhiannon]

Getting back to the topic of the thread, I didn't realise until fairly recently that birds relish apple peelings and the core. We always peel our eating apples and quarter them, it is good not to waste the rest.

That's strange. I've noticed birds eating old apples I put out and they usually peck the flesh out of the peel.

Just found nine oak seedlings growing at the bottom of my garden. No idea what to do with them.

[Enki]

In Autumn, old orchards with fallen fruit are a veritable mecca for birds, especially thrushes.

[Sebastian Toe]

I've seen house numbers obscured.

I have yet to see that.
If they were all obscured it would remove one of the main benefits which is to put in an address and then let GS show you where it is!

[wigginhall]

4 kestrels hovering on the common near us in London, I think they often catch crickets and moths.   I am guessing that 3 of them are young ones.   They often breed there, and it's great to see them in a fairly built-up part of London.   I guess they will disperse in autumn, to take their chances, so hoping for a fair wind for them. 

[wigginhall]

Hots new from the botanical frontiers.   I finally tracked down clumps of marsh mallow in Suffolk!  Yay!  Formerly used to make the pudding, of course, and I think used in the Middle East as food formerly, it is now marginal in the UK, ploughed out, I guess.  Anyway, hotfoot it down to the Minsmere nature reserve, and there are great chunks of it growing.  Then I went home and checked it on my botanical atlas - who says I don't have an exciting life?

Also saw antlion pits, so I can die happy now.

[Enki]

There seems to be a large influx of red admiral butterflies at the moment. When cycling today, I must have seen at least 20 of them.