Weird effects of the CV - birds

[Casino218]

I live in the suburbs of Leeds. Yesterday I was sat in my garden and I looked up to see a red kite hovering above the neighbours garden. Then it swooped down and tried to go for the neighbours little dog. I ran to the fence and it flew away. The neighbour hadn't seen it happen.

I'm thinking that some of the red kites hover over the takeaway food shops in Leeds and that source of food has dried up.

Just another weird effect of CV.

Red kites are scavengers, they won’t be taking the dogs or pigeons. If you saw something that big with a pigeon it was probably a sparrow hawk- look them up, gorgeous birds with orange eyes.
Hovering birds in the uk will be a kestrel, it’s the only uk bird can can properly hover.

I live in the a small village anyway, but the bird song is definitely becoming more prominent, I presumed because there is less traffic around, but just goes to show how heavily humans walk in the world.

Oh and I've not heard any cockerels weirdly for a couple days

Maybe check on their owners, are they being let out???

We've had blackbirds in the garden, we don't usually. They're coming in for the food and there's been a few squabbles between them and the starlings, the sparrows and blue tits just watch. The pigeons that live at ours look most bemused.

We live by the coast. The seagulls in normal times were getting cheeky. I caught some swooping on my kitten a few months ago but he hid in a twiggy bush and they couldn't get him. Thankfully he's bigger now . There are lots of different birds here ive not noticed before like Magpies in my front driveway.
Glad I'm not by Llandudno those Seagulls will be going mad at the loss of tourists and their grub.

I think the bird's habits are the same - we have slowed down and so are noticing much more. Red Kites are impressive - dark red with a triangular tail that twitches/moves like a rudder. When were they released in Leeds? I lived there a long time ago - I would have loved to have seen that sight. We get the odd one down here, they are moving across from Wales, but I think I have only seen 3 in 8 years.

I love watching the buzzards and crows fighting - spectacular, aerial displays!

I love watching birds - makes my heart and soul peaceful...

I've seen 2 red kites recently in Warwickskire which surprised me (a few weeks ago, pre lockdown) their breeding programmes have been really successful.
In the last couple of weeks a sparrowhawk has been perching on our garden fence. He is beautiful.

I am enjoying the bird action. I don’t normally notice them as much which is pretty poor really. Seen some huge crows circling our church spire.

I suspect a lot of you are just noticing more what is around you.

black-hearted gulls

Good anthropomorphising typo, if you've ever seen them patrolling over puffins' nests.

Black headed gulls are enormous too.

Sorry, I'm not awake. I was thinking of black backed gulls. black headed gulls are quite small, but do also predate other birds nests.

I have wondered what all the pigeons will do by ours now Maccies has closed.

Been less birds in our garden as all the kids are out more and gardens all back on to each other.

I live in Sussex and have yet to see more than one or two red kites here but I hope they arrive soon. Buzzards however have become hugely successful and it's rare to go on a walk and not see one or two circling above. I watched a spectacular buzzard/crow dog fight from my bedroom window the other day. The crow retired with dignity in tatters

I've got parakeets and they are indeed noisy buggers.

LMAO at changing the batteries in the birds!

No I know red kites. I see them almost every day. I've never seen one fly down into a garden though. Perhaps it was just going after food that the dog was also after or something like that.

That's possible. We sometimes give our dog raw bones in the garden. Various birds, especially blackbirds, stick their heads in to get marrow he can't reach, and once we had a sparrowhawk ripping off shreds he'd missed.

I have never noticed our night birds before. I don't think they are any louder, but by about 7pm there is almost no traffic until around 6am the following morning. We live in a busy main road, but the sound at night reminds me of the country side. 2 am, 3 am their is gentle bird song and the occasional owl hooting. I'm not even aware we have enough trees for it! Also heard a fox fight.

I live on south coast, right by the beach.

Huge increase in the number of garden birds, never heard anything like it.

Seagulls will be going mad at the loss of tourists and their grub

I live in a inland city which has lots of problems with seagulls usually. Tall buildings, nesting on rooftops, general noise. Council had various ideas to get rid of them in recent years including things like birds of prey, special bags for rubbish and the like

This year the tourists aren't coming, far less litter and for now, no seagulls...

Seagulls will be eating their natural diet now that their aren't fish and chip leftovers in every coastal town or nearby town centre. They only come inland because their is a ready supply of waste to pick through.

@DontGoIntoTheLongGrass you'll be telling us that BJ and Dom are replicants next....(uh-oh. Does that mean we're ALL replicants??)

We get lots of birds in our garden anyway, but definitely noticed more owl hooting going on and watched a sparrowhawk trying to catch something earlier which we don't see often. Seen and heard loads more birds while we've been out walking.

Kites are scavengers. I have seen a sparrow hawk killing a pigeon in a courtyard at Leeds General Infirmary, but that was many years ago.

With regard to the other birds, there was a scrap between a rook and a magpie this morning, there are lots of other birds around, and the owls are very hooty, but it is spring and they are all finding mates and nest building, and I don’t think it’s particularly unusual round here.

Does that mean we're ALL replicants

“How can it not know it’s a replicant?”

I wish the pigeons would self-isolate instead of shagging themselves stupid on my barn roof at 5am, or at least learn how to have quiet sex.

I saw a sparrowhawk killing a pigeon in central Birmingham not long ago. We have a lot of buzzards near us. Thanks to the posters who provided info on the red kites of Leeds