The bird has flown

There has been no sign of the Collared Dove on her nest for a couple of days now and there is no sign of any eggs as far as I can tell. In fact I havn't seen any Collared Doves for some days, just Wood Pigeons and a Magpie, along with the the usual small garden birds.

I will give it a few more days before I get the aerial man in to reset the satellite dish though! As long as I can watch Bill Oddie.

Categories: Birds, Birdwatching

Sky Dove 2

She's still there. No sight of any eggs or chicks yet but we will keep watching. The weather has been unseasonably wet and windy for the last week, but the nest is well sheltered from just about anything, even our cats.

The rain has caused an explosion of growth in the garden with the trees bursting into blossom, even out pink flowered May tree that is usually very late to bloom. Bird listening has taken over from birdwatching for most of the species.

Categories: Birds, Birdwatching

Sky Dove

There are some TV channels that we are having trouble receiving at the moment because something seems to have moved our satellite dish.

This Collared Dove seems prepared to ignore a camera emerging from a window only inches away from her nest. Fortunately we can still receive all the wildlife TV so she can stay there until the nesting season is over!

I can't see if there are any eggs in the nest, but I will keep watching and keep you posted.

Categories: Birds, Birdwatching

Holidays coming

Not long now before we board the ferry for Bilbao and head off into the Pyrenees. The last time we took this ferry, September 2005, we were accompanied for much of the trip by a succesion of juvenile gannets. These are definately my favourite sea-bird, the mature birds look some some kind of art-deco illustration.

This juvenile was only a few feet from the railings of the Pride of Bilbao, and was almost close enough to touch.

This year we are going in June so the gannets will be nesting but I'm sure there will be much more to see. We are going to try to get closer to the Griffon Vultures that we only saw in the distance on our last trip. Impressive birds, even from a distance.

Categories: Birds, Birdwatching

London Peregrines

We went to London for the weekend (more about this in my other blog) and while we were in the Tottenham Court Road we bought a new pair of binoculars, Konica Minolta 7x42, from one of the technology outlets that are clustered in that street.

A little further up the street there is a great view of the BT Tower which is a known haunt of Peregrine Falcons. The new binoculars came out of the packaging and I examined every ledge and cranny that I could see, but didn't spot any birds.

We stayed at our daughter's flat on Saturday night and before we left there on Sunday I checked out a bell tower that is visible across the rooftops and was rewarded by a brief sighting of a falcon, probably a Peregrine. I will have to check it out the next time we visit.

Categories: Birds, Birdwatching

Mother of 13

Just spent the the day at WWT Slimbridge in fine weather. We visited some hides we have not previously tried and saw some species that we hadn't seen before including a Black-Tailed Godwit and a wild Redhead Duck. (there are captive Redheads, but this one is a visitor).

Amongst all the rare waterfowl the star of the day had to be this very common Mallard with 13 ducklings. There were quite a few Mallards with ducklings as well as Moorhens and Coots with chicks and we did see one pair of Canada Geese with 5 goslings. Seriously cute!

Breeding is a little late this year because of the continued cold weather so we were treated to many displays of mating behaviour and preactically everything was in full mating plumage. No need to worry about eclipse plumage. In some case sun glasses would have been a good idea, the feathers were so bright.
Categories: Birds, Birdwatching