Fetch Birdwatchers

165 watchers
May 2018
4:28pm, 7 May 2018
574 posts
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bonners
Same as Finns, lots of wheatear, a couple of curlew on the river today, a couple of buzzards doing their dance above our house and intervals on the beach this morning accompanied by flock of dunlin creating shapes.
J2R
May 2018
6:58pm, 7 May 2018
1,213 posts
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J2R
At last! First willow warblers of the year, and in some numbers, at a little local riverside nature reserve, where I also heard a rather insistent cuckoo. We got great views, close up, of a blackcap, which I had heard and been puzzled by before I saw it, couldn't work out what it was. It wasn't doing the usual blackcap song, but was doing one composed a lot more of mimicry, mimicking, to my ears, nightingale or song thrush and maybe even sedge warbler - although that's tenuous as the sedge warbler is itself a mimic. Apparently one of the birds blackcaps imitate is the garden warbler. As if it wasn't already tricky to tell the two apart by song...
May 2018
7:57pm, 7 May 2018
25,782 posts
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Derby Tup
I got a couple of wheatear today up on the Brönte moors. 2018 is rapidly turning into cuckoo year for us with three heard today :)
May 2018
7:06am, 8 May 2018
1,022 posts
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flyingfinn
Coal Tit feeding a fully fledged youngster by my feeders this morning :-)
May 2018
7:09am, 8 May 2018
1,149 posts
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Heinzster
I am awful at identifying birds by song. Can anyone suggest a good resource to help?
May 2018
7:23am, 8 May 2018
25,786 posts
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Derby Tup
RSPB website have Audio for birds. Suggest you maybe start with common ones like great tit, robin, blackbird, dunnock plus a few easy ones like magpie, chiffchaff, rook and / or jackdaw to start to build up a ‘library’
May 2018
9:15am, 8 May 2018
575 posts
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bonners
I'm with you Heinzster and echo Derby's comments. Although I'm now struggling with warblers and the like. Been tracking one that has been singing from the top of the trees in our garden. Been all the way thru the RSPB site and eventually settled on blackcap, it was even singing back to the clip. Only trouble is, it doesn't have a black head😀So obviously something immitating a black cap.
May 2018
10:01am, 8 May 2018
25,788 posts
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Derby Tup
Garden warbler is a plain brown ‘skulking’ bird with probably closest song to blackcap. Usually very shy but maybe a new arrival ‘on the pull’ so to speak would be more showy

Blackcap has lovely plummy almost blackbird notes (this sounds like a crap write up for a supermarket red wine) but in relatively short snatches. Garden warbler can sing for what seems like minutes at a time

My target bird this spring: grasshopper warbler or ‘gropper’

Incidentally I thought I heard a wood warbler just revving up yesterday in a former stronghold (not Strid Woods); someone heard one there on Saturday
May 2018
10:02am, 8 May 2018
25,789 posts
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Derby Tup
I’ve probably posted before but the Simon Barnes book is a great intro to bird song. Very readable and entertaining
May 2018
10:03am, 8 May 2018
25,790 posts
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Derby Tup
simonbarnesauthor.co.uk

About This Thread

Maintained by AngelWings
Big Garden Birdwatch 26-28th January rspb.org.uk

BTO BirdTrack: blx1.bto.org

BirdTrack App: bto.org

BTO Website: bto.org

Website for identifying dragon & damselflies: british-dragonflies.org.uk

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