Goldfinch - NOT amateur radio

This was a goldfinch on the top of our silver birch tree a few days ago. We hear them most days. They are quite common and perhaps one of the most colourful UK garden birds. They tend to fly around in flocks.

Red legged partridges - NOT amateur radio

We frequently get these birds wandering around our close. There are also 3 Mallard ducks that appear regularly. Red legs now far outnumber ordinary partridges. I think red legged partridges were introduced but they are now widespread in the UK.

Summer bird migrants returning - NOT amateur radio

The wheatears have started arriving back in Devon and soon it will be martins and swallows. The long winter will soon be behind us.

See http://www.devonbirds.org/news/bird_news/devon_bird_sightings .

The image below is not on this site but at the link below. It will be removed if a problem.
http://www.devonbirds.org/images/library/dbn/public/stoke_point_male_wheatear_10617_0.jpg.

Wheatear in Devon

Parakeets - NOT amateur radio

We are "grandchildren sitting" in Stoke Newington, London, but are back home today. One difference is hearing parakeets first thing in the morning. There are lots of these in nearby Springfield Park. I see these Australian birds have now reached Plymouth. They are becoming naturalised and spreading widely. At one time these escaped cage birds would have been rare indeed here in the UK.

It is hard to believe that collared doves first appeared in the UK in 1955. Little egrets were virtually unknown in the UK before the late 1980s and now they are all over the place.

There are different species of parakeets, but I think those spreading are from the same core stock, but this may not be the case: several escapees may have survived and bread in the wild in the UK.

 See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parakeet .

RSPB Garden Bird Count - NOT amateur radio

The annual UK RSPB bird count is any hour in the last weekend of January. I have been doing this for years. You just choose a spot and count the maximum number of each species seen in the hour. It can be surprising. When done, I submit results to the RSPB online. It is always a great pleasure and you do not need to be an expert birder to do this. Each year, the RSPB get a great deal of data.  Some years I see very little. Some years I have seen up to 11 different species.

Most times you will see quite common birds, but occasionally you may see something unusual. It is the number of the ordinary birds seen that tells the real story.  If you can, grab a coffee and sit down, look out the window, and count the birds in your garden or park.  I am sure, like me, you will enjoy it.

See https://ww2.rspb.org.uk/discoverandenjoynature/discoverandlearn/birdwatch .

Swifts - NOT amateur radio

This evening, in a further attempt to beat my giddiness, I went for a decent (for me!) walk. One of the joys of an English summer evening is seeing swifts on the wing high in the sky and hearing their calls - a high pitched scream. To me, this is the sound of summer. Their wings are scythe like and they spend most of their lives on the wing.

They arrive late (around the end of April) and go before summer is done. It an ephemeral sound that they make. When you hear it, it is truly late spring or summer. Soon the summer migrants will head south to warmer skies and we will be joined by migrants from the north such as whooper and bewick swans from the high Arctic and Russia as well thrushes like redwings and fieldfares from Scandinavia. To them we represent warmth and mildness!

For now I am content to hear those swifts, although they will soon be on their way. Hopefully, I'll still be around for their return in the spring. Seeing the first swifts in late April brings joy to my heart. The cycle of life that has happened for thousands of years goes on. No doubt this cycle went on when we still lived in caves and when Roman soldiers walked these lands and this cycle will still be going on long after I am dust again.

See http://www.rspb.org.uk/discoverandenjoynature/discoverandlearn/birdguide/name/s/swift/ .

Jackdaws - NOT amateur radio

Jackdaw

At the QTH we moved to a couple of years back, just before I was taken seriously ill, we see far fewer smaller birds. They are around but don't seem to be attracted to the bird table or nut feeders. We get a reasonable number of small birds in the garden and nearby such as dunnocks (hedge sparrows), great tits and blue tits, robins etc. Maybe they visit other bird tables or find food naturally very locally?

Our nut feeders seem to attract larger birds in the main like pigeons and collared doves. We have lots of trees and other cover. Every morning at much the same time we get jackdaws on the bird table. We have red legged partridges in the road most days and we have even had mallard ducks in the garden.

See http://www.rspb.org.uk/discoverandenjoynature/discoverandlearn/birdguide/name/j/jackdaw/ .

Birds at this QTH

When we first moved to our bungalow (19 months ago) we saw 2 red legged partridges regularly in the road and in the garden.  Then we saw 3 for one day.  After that (for the last 6 months) there has been just 1. Now, today, we have just seen 2 again. I hope it is a male and a female and they stop around and have young!  The red legged partridge is an introduced species, but it is the commonest partridge with 82000 territories. It is a very good looking bird. The ones locally seem quite content.   See red legged partridge RSPB page .

View from shack window

Yesterday, there were a couple of mallard ducks in the close. Overall though we see fewer bird species than at the old QTH despite putting out plenty to attract them. I would have thought with an orchard next door, the windmill, allotments and fields close by, we'd see lots. Starlings do roost on the windmill sails and there are fewer starlings around nowadays.

From the shack window I get an excellent view of the birds in our garden.

Shack limited access this week

Busy birdwatching

We have different grandchildren staying this week depending on the days so I have limited access to my shack.  I should be able to do some WSPR for the first few days, but later in the week will be more difficult as there will be a cot in the shack!

Today we went birdwatching, counting the different species spotted on a 1 mile village walk. The elder grandson (aged 7) is into categorising and collecting. 12 species mostly seen (a couple heard).

Not amateur radio.

This weekend was the Big Garden Birdwatch. People in the UK were asked to observe a garden, park etc. for 1 hour and record the highest number of each species seen, then submit results online to the RSPB. It has become an annual event now. I did a record yesterday in our back garden and, just for fun, I did another 1 hour today at the same time but overlooking the local museum and windmill at the front of our bungalow.

More species were seen yesterday but far more starlings were seen today as they roost on the sails of our windmill next door.

I am still active on 630m and 10m, but will be going QRT on 10m quite shortly.

Bird migration and man-made electronic noise

See http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature13290.html .

Evidence that bird migration is affected by human EM noise pollution - article in Nature journal.