Full house

[Bouba]

Thread suspended pending review.

Several posts and users removed.

Please keep it civil.

I never realized that bird spotting was so catty

 

[Daydream believer]

Tree Sparrows in Ireland are only really found in the East.

Well the Irish chap, with the broad accent, I was with, pointed out tree in the tree trees over there, so I just assumed

 

[Daydream believer]

I have just noticed a new thread posted "Chilly in Ipswich this morning" . This not only shows an exciting picture of some sheds But also some birds & what looks like ice on the water.
This reminded me of when I was sent to live in Berwick upon Tweed 70 years ago as a young lad. A small section of the river Tweed was frozen over. Unusual, as it is where the fresh water meets the sea. A swan decided to do a landing, but obviously did not realise that the landing strip was ice. It seemed to skid for miles & was so funny as wings, legs & neck flew out everywhere. Poor thing took some time to recover. The local bird watch people were on hand & checked it out, along with a few that they took to a sanctory to recover from the cold.
They did care about there swans in Berwick

 

[AntarcticPilot]

They'll take small mammals too. I once saw one take a Short-tailed Vole.

But wouldn't such small mammals be hibernating in these conditions? Hard frost here - fen skating for the first time in years.

 

[Egret]

Wren / Dunnock - I have both! Birds with grey head and body probably wrens but I also have three round brown Dunnocks - now I can identify them - more th[s afternoon. Can see them better with the frost on the ground.

 

[Puffin10032]

But wouldn't such small mammals be hibernating in these conditions? Hard frost here - fen skating for the first time in years.

No. Our bats hibernate as do Hedgehogs and Dormice but no other British mammals do. There's a fallacy that Badgers hibernate. They don't. In extreme conditions they can enter a state of torpor and lower they body temperature by about 8 degrees for a while but that's not hibernation.

 

[ianc1200]

Notice from the 1st post John Alison didn't mention egrets. On the opposite bank in the Twizzle to the marina early October there were hundreds of egrets, I just finished building a pram dinghy and was close to that Horsey Island bank, trying new oars etc & just amazed how many there were. Perhaps all gone now?

 

[Snowgoose-1]

Notice from the 1st post John Alison didn't mention egrets. On the opposite bank in the Twizzle to the marina early October there were hundreds of egrets, I just finished building a pram dinghy and was close to that Horsey Island bank, trying new oars etc & just amazed how many there were. Perhaps all gone now?

I think that there are more Egrets around now than I can remember. Purely by self observation rather than any published data. Good things are still happening in our society despite..........................

 

[Leighb]

Something unusual today on the Deben near the Tidemill. A Black Swan, it was only there for an about 5 minutes so I was lucky to see it.

 

[johnalison]

I think that there are more Egrets around now than I can remember. Purely by self observation rather than any published data. Good things are still happening in our society despite..........................

Egrets are beautiful birds, but as a barometer of global warming perhaps we shouldn’t be so pleased to see them. I remember the first time I saw one it was in the Pyefleet. I had heard that they were known to have reached the South Coast but was surprised to see one nearby. I was so excited that I sent a text to a friend. Since we only got a mobile phone in 1999 it must have been then or later, which makes the explosion in their numbers even more remarkable. I saw a lot roosting on East Mersea a few years ago and heard that seventy were known to roost there, but I’ve only seen sporadic ones up at Walton.

I have seen Great White Egrets many times at Abberton and once in northern Netherlands, and one recently inland in Wivenhoe. They are truly impressive birds, as are spoonbills, also occasional visitors. I have seen the odd cattle egret too, and in India the intermediate egret that must have been put there just to confuse me.