Seen today

[Mrs Pingu]

Must've seen >20 buzzards today on 55km ride.

Heard a yellowhammer.

Anna wooderypeckery.

[rafletcher]

A couple of hen pheasants under one of the seed feeders hoovering up the spills.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Two kestrels, separately, and two rooks, together.

[Pingu]

Must've seen >20 buzzards today on 55km ride.

Heard a yellowhammer.

Anna wooderypeckery.

And saw a kestrel

[Cudzoziemiec]

A buzzard, but not just another buzzard - this one was sitting on a fence post as I hurtled (for me) by, and didn't move as I passed except to stare at me intently.

[Arch]

In a tree on the green outside MFWHTBAB's house, a Harris Hawk, we think.

It's been hanging around on and off for some months. Wearing jesses. When it was first spotted, some people turned up to claim it (but didn't seem entirely kosher, apparently), but it refused to come down off the roof it was perched on. It was gone for a while, but seems to be back. As this keeps the pigeons on their toes, MFWHTBAB and neighbours are quite happy about this.

[Riggers]

1 squashed toad on road outside our house.

[jogler]

Saw two sparrow hawks wheeling about on Hollington Level.One was very low & very close.Marvellous markings.

[Tail End Charlie]

Saw a kestrel making a kill yesterday. The way it plummeted down I could almost heat the thump as it grabbed whatever it was hunting. So glad I stopped and watched. Reminds me of a time in Spain when I saw a buzzard diving down, it started from around 400 yards up and went down like an Exocet. It wascompletely by chance that I saw it. It's one of the things that got me into watching birds.

[Wowbagger]

The ten ducklings of yesterday were originally 12, or so I was told, but now are down to 8.

While I was watching today, some people were throwing bread into the water and the duck was feeding happily, as were the ducklings. There was a flock of black-headed gulls milling around and suddenly there was an enormous commotion as one of the gulls had settled on the water too close to the ducklings and the mother attacked it quite spectacularly. The gull was coming off by far the worse in this encounter and for a time I wondered whether the duck would succeed in drowning it, but after quite a bit of thrashing about the gull escaped and flew away, seemingly none the worse for its encounter.

Although I've never seen them do it, I suspect that gulls are often responsible for the early losses in a brood of ducklings but this was the first time I've seen a duck attack one.

[Steph]

One shag, one common tern, three black redstarts, one sardinian warbler, three crag martins, one blue rock thrush, uncounted numbers of yellow-legged gulls, one unidentified Dartford-style warbler, three booted eagles, thirty-plus short-toed eagles, ten black kites and a honey buzzard.

Plus a lot of barbary apes. Guess where I am...

[Tim Hall]

One shag, one common tern, three black redstarts, one sardinian warbler, three crag martins, one blue rock thrush, uncounted numbers of yellow-legged gulls, one unidentified Dartford-style warbler, three booted eagles, thirty-plus short-toed eagles, ten black kites and a honey buzzard.

Plus a lot of barbary apes. Guess where I am...

At the zoo?  Or on the Rock.

(Brain of Britain had something about barbary apes last week. They're not apes but tail-less macaques)

[Adrian]

Apologies for the late posting on this one. Not today but Sunday a gull doing the jogging on the spot thing that is supposed to sound like rain and bring worms to the surface. The odd thing being that it was already raining.

[ferret]

The ten ducklings of yesterday were originally 12, or so I was told, but now are down to 8.

While I was watching today, some people were throwing bread into the water and the duck was feeding happily, as were the ducklings. There was a flock of black-headed gulls milling around and suddenly there was an enormous commotion as one of the gulls had settled on the water too close to the ducklings and the mother attacked it quite spectacularly. The gull was coming off by far the worse in this encounter and for a time I wondered whether the duck would succeed in drowning it, but after quite a bit of thrashing about the gull escaped and flew away, seemingly none the worse for its encounter.

Although I've never seen them do it, I suspect that gulls are often responsible for the early losses in a brood of ducklings but this was the first time I've seen a duck attack one.

I've never seen a gull take a duckling but I have seen a pike taking one, amazing to watch and the duck was really confused as to where her offspring had disappeared to.

[jogler]

A buzzard in a field near Newtown.
A dead tree rat in Colton.

[Peter]

One shag, one common tern, three black redstarts, one sardinian warbler, three crag martins, one blue rock thrush, uncounted numbers of yellow-legged gulls, one unidentified Dartford-style warbler, three booted eagles, thirty-plus short-toed eagles, ten black kites and a honey buzzard.

Plus a lot of barbary apes. Guess where I am...

Gib?

[Cudzoziemiec]

A Canada goose all alone in a field.

[cycleman]

2 coots and 2 rats at slough canal arm basin .

[Steph]

One shag, one common tern, three black redstarts, one sardinian warbler, three crag martins, one blue rock thrush, uncounted numbers of yellow-legged gulls, one unidentified Dartford-style warbler, three booted eagles, thirty-plus short-toed eagles, ten black kites and a honey buzzard.

Plus a lot of barbary apes. Guess where I am...

Gib?

Yup. Had a flight of 12 black storks overhead today, plus a red kite. Pics to be uploaded when home.

[fuzzy]

One shag, one common tern, three black redstarts, one sardinian warbler, three crag martins, one blue rock thrush, uncounted numbers of yellow-legged gulls, one unidentified Dartford-style warbler, three booted eagles, thirty-plus short-toed eagles, ten black kites and a honey buzzard.

Plus a lot of barbary apes. Guess where I am...

Gib?

Yup. Had a flight of 12 black storks overhead today, plus a red kite. Pics to be uploaded when home.

Say hello to 'The Angry Friar' for me Steph (and sink a jar or three on my behalf)

[Pingu]

Larks, lambs & llamas alpacas. Also, geese, buzzards, heard a woodpecker & most unusual: a pair of bullfinches 

[Steph]

Larks, lambs & llamas alpacas. Also, geese, buzzards, heard a woodpecker & most unusual: a pair of bullfinches 

Lawks!

[Steph]

From Monday:
Short toed eagle, and also with yellow-legged gull




Red kite


Black kite


Booted eagle

[Steph]

Just to add: I am really, really chuffed with that first photo.

[Butterfly]

Just to add: I am really, really chiffed with that first photo.

It is stunning, isn't it?

I saw several Skylarks just after Ditchling beacon this morning - kind people kept stopping to check I was ok, but I just watched them for 10 minutes! They were wonderful. I saw a bird of prey of some description dive, presumably at a nest, but I couldn't see if it was successful.

I also heard several woodpeckers along the way