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May 2020
11:45am, 18 May 2020
2,795 posts
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phal
Great photo um!
Oooo Pinkies, sparrowhawks and a lesser whitethroat  All sounding good.
Our happy sparrow is doing well top bird spots a plenty here
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May 2020
1:44pm, 18 May 2020
4,903 posts
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The Scribbler
Heard but could not see what sounded like a very loud, rather angry grasshopper on Sunday afternoon in my local park. It had an almost mechanical sound to its one note TWEET, like mimicking a car alarm. Given that I thought it sounded like a grasshopper, I found some audio for a grasshopper warbler, but it wasn't that trill like sound.
Spotted but could not get my camera in time to a nuthatch in the same park and hung out for a while with a mistle thrush.
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May 2020
1:54pm, 18 May 2020
41,896 posts
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Derby Tup
Gropper envy. I’ve never heard / seen one
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May 2020
3:20pm, 18 May 2020
1,645 posts
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flyingfinn
Until this morning DT I'd only ever had one fleeting glimpse but whilst looking for Yellowhammers I heard what I thought was a Gropper, then as I tried to identify where the sound was coming from I spotted something low down in the hedge a couple of metres away. Got the bins up for a really good luck and there was a Gropper singing away. It continued until I decided to move off and leave it to it. They really are a LBJ though, without the song my best guess would have been a Garden Warbler.
All in all a good birding day, a little trip out to Willington Gravel Pits and a couple of other stops on the way back resulted in 60 species including Common Tern, Black Tailed Godwit, Red Crested Pochard, Red Kite, Peregrine, Whitethroat, Reed and Sedge Warbler.
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May 2020
3:34pm, 18 May 2020
1,646 posts
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flyingfinn
Oh and hordes of Swift over the gravel pits, way more than I've seen anywhere else this year, proper screaming too
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May 2020
3:45pm, 18 May 2020
2,419 posts
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um
What's the word for 'a whole lotta red kites'?
According to the web, a wake, which is the same as the collective noun for buzzards? Or other unofficial terms include ‘husk’, ‘kettle’ and ‘soar’.
But anyway, I saw one today for the first time ... driving along the A30 between Popham and Sutton Scotney.
Saw one, then another, then another, and in the space of about 1/2 mile, between 20 and 30 - all low and seemingly close and happy with each other. The field the other side of the hedge looked recently ploughed or harrowed, so I'm assuming some sort of 'all-you-can-eat-buffet' rather than any sort of social gathering? Unfortunately no spots to stop & take pics.
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May 2020
4:39pm, 18 May 2020
41,899 posts
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Derby Tup
I had a willow warbler a few hundred yards from home (I’m blooming sure they sing differently here to Wharfedale), and a party of five swift above Vale Mill tear-arsing about like a young Ian Holmes. I also heard our local song thrush this morning doing his best cur-lew cur-lew
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May 2020
4:48pm, 18 May 2020
9,917 posts
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rf_fozzy
Thanks steve - I suspect it was either Brooding and hadn't laid or something got up there and stole the eggs then.
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May 2020
6:03pm, 18 May 2020
5,856 posts
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Eynsham Red
The first lot of starlings have fledged. They always remind me of that large noisy family you see arriving in the park or beach, and hope that they aren’t going to make camp near you. Except that starlings are great fun!
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May 2020
10:22am, 19 May 2020
11,685 posts
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D2
The swallow is here again, I so hope its not just visiting but thinking of staying although its probably a bit late, my daughter tells me her swallow have some young already!
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