Nature Notes: the 2022 edition

[ErrolTheDragon]

Happy New Year to all nature lovers!
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Please join us to add your observations throughout the year. Urban or rural, there's always something going on throughout the year, even if it's a bit quiet right now.

Cold again here, but sunny. The snowdrops are coming up,with a few showing a little white though none out. And willow buds just starting to open and show their furryness. Yesterday an unseasonal splash of purple from some very early honesty in a hedgerow.

I heard the first blackbird song of the year today. If I’m not mistaken, it’s last year’s fledglings that like to get their practice in early. Last year’s adults generally wait a little longer.

There's been a lot of birdsong in the last few days.

Todays wonder at the WWT reserve was a large flock of lapwings, swirling and sparkling in the sunshine, gradually descending back down onto the mere mudflats.

I've just ordered a new 20 kg sack of sunflower hearts as our resident goldfinch charm (16 of them today) visit multiple times each day. They are very wasteful too, which means the blackbirds, starlings, dunnocks and collared doves can also join the feast.

I used to love goldfinches @ApricotArcade, but ever since a big flock of them added my garden to their list of “best sites in town”, my appreciation for them has gone downhill... Don’t get me wrong, I still think they’re beautiful and am glad to have them in my garden, but their constant bickering does my head in! Is it that hard to share a feeder?! 😂

Talking of squabbling, today I saw three mistlethrushes, fighting over a holly tree. I guess it must be getting harder for them to find food at this time of the year.

I guess it must be getting harder for them to find food at this time of the year.
You'd think so, but some of our local woodpigeons are so immensely fat, they can barely get airborne.

I saw a buzzard today as I drove along, perched up a tree and staring around in that grumpy, supercilious way they have. And then I saw one of the handful of local kites.

And out training, the dog flushed a snipe. I didn't see it, I only heard it, as I was so busy making sure she sat to flush, but the gundog trainer was delighted to have seen one.

Yes, some of the woodpigeons are nearly spherical, and quite often walk rather than fly away when the dog goes outside. (He's nearly 16 and CBA to chase birds anyway).
One pair has a nest in our silver birch, which is now exposed - doesn't stop them DTD of course. I shall have to keep my eye out for signs of activity, I believe they can breed year round thanks to their ability to produce 'crop milk' to feed their young.

Today I was working in my office and saw/heard some very noisy crows and a raven. They were having some sort of disagreement. For a second I thought maybe nesting sites.

The weather in Vancouver has warmed up, but today it was very foggy.

I have seen many black capped chickadees this week, and heard them. Not their spring mating song yet.

I'm enjoying looking up the Canadian birds! I lived in Pennsylvania for a couple of years - one of the delights (while also a reminder I was in a foreign country) were the unfamiliar birds. We visited Audubon's house at Mill Grove quite a few times, our main souvenir of that period is a pair of large 'Birds of America' prints.
At that time (~1990) the unfamiliar birds delighting us included little egrets, which were very unusual at the time in the U.K. - now they're quite common in my neck of the woods.

Yesterday's estuary/coastal walk didn't include any, but there were lots of oystercatchers. Also, on our journey quite a big flock of starlings though too early in the day to be a proper murmeration.

Today was a different estuary and section of the bay, with salt marsh and mudflats. Numerous birds: a curlew and lots of red shanks on the mudflats, also some shelduck and oystercatchers, though many more of the latter in the fields to the landward side of the sea dyke that the path runs on. Also a huge flock of pink footed geese, swilling and forming skeins.
And some emus...a couple of normal coloured ones in a field with a llama, and a white one with a few sheep, which were following it around though sometimes having a hard time keeping up with it. I think they'd decided it was their Lead Sheep.

It’s been an odd weekend for birdwatching here. Everywhere I went, things were eerily quiet, including at the local RSPB reserve. The volunteers were commenting on it too!

Having said that, I actually saw three birds this weekend that are supposed to be really common, but that I hardly ever see around here:

Starlings - for some reason they avoid my town, even though there’s a lot of fields around here that should be perfect for them
Rooks - I saw more rooks today than I’ve seen in all of last year, when I saw a grand total of three!
Reedbunting - never seen one of those in my life, but saw two of them yesterday

So all in all, not a bad weekend 🤔

Foggy again today. We can barely see across the road.

I keep hearing groups of Canada Geese flying over honking away. I am sure if I could see them they would be in their usual V formation.

I am waiting to see the first snowdrops. I am betting they are already up and I haven't seen them.

I've just noticed an auto(un)correct in my last post - the geese were swirling, not swilling.
It's quite interesting to observe the patterns - from a distance when it can sometimes be hard to judge the size of each bird, there's a very marked difference between starlings, lapwings and geese.

crazzzycat

You should see my garden I think every starling in town use my feeders and they fight amongst each other all the time, its quite funny to watch

Has anyone seen the full moon tonight? It's so bright out this evening. I heard a pair of tawny owls calling to each earlier

Yes, I did notice it earlier on, really big and clear. It's going to be another cold night with not much cloud blanket.

Very pleased to have found this thread!

Out walking today on the coast, found a Sea Mayweed in flower, with a couple of buds ready and waiting. OK it was a warm and sheltered spot, but for a flower that normally blooms from July onwards, it was a surprise.

Timed my afternoon dog walk perfectly. There was a mixed flock of forest birds making their way through the trees and shrubs in the neighbourhood,

Saw mostly bush tits, which are tiny and travel in large flocks. Also dark-eyed juncos, and black-capped chickadees.

The chickadees are singing their dee dee dee song still. When they thinking of a family they have a different song. I know when I hear it spring is coming.

Bushtits hang about in such large groups that a tree literally comes alive with their quick movements and twittering.

In this video you can hear some chickadees in the background, especially early on. Listern for the lower pitched dee dee dee.

And closer to the end the squack squack squack sound is a Stellar's Jay. We get them here a lot in the Fall.

Thanks, they're gorgeous!
I guess the closest to those in the U.K. are long tailed tits, which also typically travel in flocks. Their common name is the bumbarrel, collective noun zephyr... I drop the phrase 'zephyr of bumbarrels' into a thread at the slightest provocation.
I've found a cute photo

imgur.com/BSMet1C

They are very close! How lovely all bundled together.

Another section of the bay today - a broad promenade, with rocky groynes and beaches (some partly grassing over) sheltering various birds - more oystercatchers and redshank, gulls (herring, black headed and a large black-backed) and some ringed plovers (I think). But best of all, I noticed a 'raft' a little way offshore and fortunately we had the small binoculars in my rucksack - eider ducks! This is the only bit of the local coastline I've ever seen them, though I did hear one a little way further south.

Eider ducks are very lovely indeed.

On my usual walk today, I heard a lot of fluttering behind a hedgerow. So much in fact that I thought I’d better have a look, in case a bird somehow got stuck in something.

What I found wasn’t a bird in distress, but a massive very shallow pool of water which half the local bird population were using to take a bath! There were dunnocks, blackbird, blue tits, long tailed tits, chaffinch, bullfinch, robin and goldcrest (or kinglets). Lots of splashing!

Hi managed a small walk while at work today. Seen a few shoots sprouting up under the leaves and a couple of squirrels chasing each other. Back home in the garden I've noticed a mouse in the logs under my bbq