Twitchers! - anyone want to talk birds?

[Ingles2]

I'm hoping I'm not alone here with my obsession and constant watching of garden birds..
I got a bird box with a camera for Xmas (best present ever) and I'm watching constantly.. I'm lucky in that I have a large Rural garden and have plenty of visitors..
Any else checking their bird table or box constantly? what do you see regularly?

For the first time in more years than I can remember, I saw greenfinches yesterday afternoon. Beautiful birds.

Lovely.. we don’t have greenfiches at all, not sure I’ve ever seen one.. will add to list of ones to look out for

Ah yay my kind of thread. I'm bird obsessed. Like you op I have a camera box my dh bought me for christmas a few years ago best thing ever! Weve had blue tits in, last year two tree sparrows kicked the blue tits out and then built the nest up so high it covered the camera. The tree sparrows are still in now but since I cleared it out in the autumn I can see what's going on, for now. It's been such a good experience for my dc to. I've asked dh for an owl one next, we live on a farm so plenty of shed space, just a case of getting electricity high up in a box.

We get a bit of everything here, my "Big Garden Bird Watch" sheet was full. One I really want in the garden is a yellow hammer. I see them when out for walks and checking sheep but never in the garden. My faves in the garden are Pied Wagtails. They next in our dog kennel sheds, they're so friendly and inquisitive. They often fight with their reflection in my kitchen window which I love watching

*best in the dog kennels

**NEST ffs 🤣

I have no idea about birds but my dad had a bird take up home in a nest box last year and it was lovely.

I've out up a nest box and robin box in my garden this week. my garden is really small, only about 4m x 4m, I did try feeding the birds a few years ago but I'm sure I saw a mouse so it put me off.

Placemarking. Our garden never attracts much, probably presence of evil black moggie puts them off. But Dh is a keen birder. Will pilfer photos after work.

Currently eating my breakfast with the garden doors wide open, listening to a Robin singing his head off and a pair of Great Tits (back for the 2nd year) flying back and forth to the feeder. Lovely!

A blackbird sings in my Ash tree at dawn and dusk and (potentially!) Mrs Blackbird took a bath in the birdbath yesterday. I spooked her later by accident - she was in my conifer (hadn’t seen her) and SQUAWKED when I went under it to put a fat filled coconut shell in it for her. I saw her fly in much earlier - hoping beyond hope she nests in it (there’s an old one in there) and I didn’t scare her off. Operation #pissoffcats begins...

I also get a pair of fat Wood Pigeons, a couple of Jays, Magpies, a wren (occasional visitor) and a Red Kite flies high overhead.

Town centre garden but back to back / low footfall.

Oh, and the occasional visit from Goldfinches - they sit HIGH up in the Ash and have yet to discover the Niger seeds below...

I’m in the concrete jungle in the city centre but I run by the river regularly. I see the usual, swans ducks magpies blackbirds moorhens cormorants pigeons turtle doves parakeets Herons tree creepers kingfishers. Once or twice I’ve seen a white throated dipper. And the occasional coypu.

I see robins, jays, thrushes, starlings, tits, wrens etc too. The dippers and kingfishers are by far the highlights. It’s amazing how many species flourish in the concrete jungle.

Ooooo hello Twitchers .... anyone tell me what the hell this bird is beside my canal???

Doesn't look like a British Bird to me?

Can I offer a pheasant, free to a good home? I love birds and often watch them in the garden but we have a pheasant in the trees opposite who seems to have lost his body clock and is now shouting at all hours of the day and night. The pheasant, along with the owls, are making sleep difficult!

In the garden we get nuthatches, tree creepers (I think they are a pair who are nesting in an ash tree in the garden), blue tits, great tits, blackcaps, coal tits, greater spotted woodpeckers and their young in the summer, a green woodpecker, goldfinches, greenfinches, chaffinches, robins, blackbirds, dunnocks, a wren, and sometimes a house sparrow (he's a recent visitor). We also have pheasants and, now that spring is here, a pair of red legged partridges.

@BrizzleGirl

Ooooo hello Twitchers .... anyone tell me what the hell this bird is beside my canal???

Doesn't look like a British Bird to me?

I can't see the photo too clearly but Muscovy duck?

@BrizzleGirl

Ooooo hello Twitchers .... anyone tell me what the hell this bird is beside my canal???

Doesn't look like a British Bird to me?

Looks like some kind of guinea fowl?

I thought chonky guinea fowl, but I'm no expert.

Oooo yes it is a Guinea Fowl!!!

Must have escaped from somewhere!

Thanks :)

Good morning. I live semi rural and have a large garden - the birds give me so much pleasure. My visitors include: bullfinches (3 pairs), lots of blue tits, great tits, greenfinches, chaffinches, Siskin, blackbirds, robins, dunnocks, wood pigeons, murderous magpies.

A friend bought me a lovely green bird house a couple of years ago and, for the second year running, blue tits have started using it. I have seen it recommended that you buy the houses with a metal ring around the hole, which will deter woodpeckers from enlarging the entrance.

Whilst I do put out mixed bird seed, it was using sunflower hearts in feeders which gave me a bigger variety of birds. I did read somewhere that bullfinches can smell them from a mile away. Not a bird, but I also have occasional visits from a red squirrel. And we used to have a visiting peacock until a fox caught him.