You're very much not alone in this @dauphne.bsky.social. I think that my level of identification ability 'for birds of prey in flight', realistically should be recorded using a negative integer! 🙄
Concerned about biodiversity loss & climate change. Interests: avifauna, plantlife, books, art galleries, museums 🐦🌾📚🖼🎨🏛
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You're very much not alone in this @dauphne.bsky.social. I think that my level of identification ability 'for birds of prey in flight', realistically should be recorded using a negative integer! 🙄
It would, of course, be positively rude for jackdaws to look any other way enjoying their peaceful, resting, morning moments of calm on, and in, chimney pots! 😆🩶🖤
5️⃣TH morning for jackdaws FBOMD. There appeared to be two on the roof opposite from the frontdoor, both on aerials. But, as I walked along, I saw a third stood on the rear brick stack looking upwards at the parent or mate? on the adjacent aerial. 🩶🖤
Two jackdaws were partially visible on chimney stacks to the rear of the houses opposite. My perspective, spotting them, and the jackdaws' apparent focus to the back of those houses to which they then flew.
Yeah, I understand about using your balcony without cleaning it up several times each 24 hours. Mmh, they'll be somewhere where their special purpose beak shape is being put to excellent use to feed themselves, but also issuing forth their inimitable sounds of fervent social interactions! 😆
Other than the weeks in each year when your swift boxes are full-on producing swiftlets 🙌, I hadn't noticed, in particular, any unlikeliness for house sparrows to be your 1st bird. I wouldn't mind if sparrows here were FBOMD 365 days! Though harvest time they're not here. Not far, in grain fields! 😃
I think of house sparrows chirruping in the dogwood in parallel with swifts during their summer in Szczecin as being the two basic staples of your 1st bird observations! I like hearing about them. 🤎🖤🩶😄
Yes, I was intrigued why the pair were walking on the intersection roof tiles and, maybe, were out of the line of sight of the other four pairs nearby! With a 🚂🚃🚃 to catch ⏳️, unfortunately, I didn't have the opportunity to observe their behaviour at greater length.
😲 No wonder the house sparrows were, as you reported, thoroughly wet!! 😟 I am relieved to learn that they have been able to show resilience in the face of such an enormous total rainfall.
Aw, hope this gang dried out by and by.
Many, many years ago since my Dad's car paused at this geographical feature en route to various holiday destinations in Scotland. It is very striking scenery. And I think it's not unreasonable to describe it thus having leafed more recently through US National Park 'coffee table' picture books! 🙂
Yep, sometimes it is inevitable. Especially problematic on those occasions when I rush to look out of the window and the blur appears suddenly whilst my eye-brain finer coordination is still 'booting up'! 🤣 I REALLY don't know what first bird I have seen!! 🙄
😁 (I Liked these replies of your's from Wednesday. But, this morning scrolling on a major UK retailer's store WiFi, nil Likes against them. BlueSky's functionality is at times somewhat perplexing! Plus my recent local 4G signal problems, it's making my contributions here less than straightforward!)
Initially, one, then two, then a total of ten jackdaws FBsOMD. The first pair were partially hidden in the join between a projecting gable and a main roof & the second initially looked to be a smudge. 8 jackdaws on the adjacent roof. All silent.
Two jackdaws on the roof opposite were FBsOMD. One perched on a chimney pot, this bird's partner looking down from a TV aerial under a sky brightened up after earlier, much needed rain.
3 goldfinches, FBsOMD, singing from telecomm. cables over the street, changing places in their choir stalls from time to time, then flying off. A little while later, their singing was from the crown of a birch tree. 🎼🎶
It was wonderful. I never cease to be fascinated by hearing then seeing goldfinches in the vicinity moving around. I struggle to understand how any people would fail to notice and admire their presence. I don't often see a pair of goldfinches join with a travelling charm. (Should be up to date now!)
Mourning doves are back. I've missed them!
Aw, I hope you didn't take this Blue Jay's eloquence personally!
... and haven't displaced a Brown thrasher yesterday to secure their fill! 🙄
A learning experience for the youngster, I guess.
I'm more than happy with your helpful Arkansas field guide notes - even if 'unofficial' - in these threads! 🙌
That must have been a stunning sight! Such beautiful birds that they don't actually need such a coincidental visual effect to make an appealing appearance but this cardinal would have looked super interesting in these circumstances. 😄
📡🐈⬛🐈⬛🐈⬛🔊😁 Indeed!
4 herring gulls FBsOMD straggling on their inland commute, adjusting their course for headwinds. An unlucky flying mallard, en route to the angling lake in the country park, was only a whisker too late to make my 1st bird (not unprecedented but rare)!
Carrion crow perched in the crown of a tree, remaining until a jackdaw approached in level flight - with a faint echo of previous jackdaw and crow rivalries I've observed hereabouts during 2025!
FBsOMD were two jackdaws which overflew the house as I opened the frontdoor. A glimpse that was over too soon!
Jackdaw FBOMD flew into a gap between houses, soon lost to my view and a bit of a disappointment. Soundtrack was goldfinches calling, one & then another appearing in the air, joining with about ten more, bouncing off taking joy with them. Left some for me! 😄
Wood pigeon flying on an urgent morning mission towards north on another grey morning. Wood pigeon FBOMD again (last time was Friday 15th).
9 jackdaws on two roofs opposite. One roof with a pair, the other with 7. The magnificent seven appeared to me to be reflecting on how big & uncouth crows cawing loudly from the woods are! If the big corvids had our social organisation they'd be a force ... 🙄
😄 Fascinating. I ought to read more on the folklore of birds. The raven is a species that has clearly been potent in engendering imagination and has been much loved in these islands in the past.
😁
Solo jackdaw, its feet gripping the lip of a sandy yellow chimney pot, issuing doleful ky-ow calls - apparently unanswered - picked up the baton of FBOMD from Wednesday's cronking raven. Upheld crow family honour even if unhappy at being unaccompanied!
Exciting! Gorgeous, colourful goldfinches 💛🖤❤️🤍 - my walk to the corner shop was 'bookended' by a raven and watching a charm of about a dozen strong calling and bouncing along overflying me. I love hearing, looking up and seeing goldfinch transits here!
Raven FBOMD, for 1st time. Fortuitously, the passing raven was cronking as he passed over the woods, thus drew my attention before I noticed wood pigeons on roofs. Wepre woods has also had passage swifts on 18 & 19th! Yay! 😄
Inland commuting herring gulls under a grey sky.
2 jackdaws, tchaking, in flight towards me & going over the house, on opening the frontdoor. Layer of grey cloud over all birds, but it won't rain! Humans here back to normal after a 2.5 day water supply outage affecting 100k+ residents, avians not as lucky!!
Broadcasters here are this morning reporting RBG Kew stating that trees & plants are currently under heat stress. Absolutely. The goldenrod flowers are way too forward for mid-August! Won't last until late September for the 🐝🦋. All worrying 😟 rather than goldenrod joy. 🥲 (2/2)
Ah, goldenrod. So much on my mind right now. Expecting to be visited anytime by a sibling who has formal interest in the property (was our parents') and no idea how fragile our biosphere is; & will disapprove of how much I have let it grow for the pollinators. Disagreement ahead I think. Also (1/2)
Chittering! 💯 so apt for the little insectivores. Two herring gulls at 5 minutes before dawn. A near quarter moon and only two planets & two stars visible, sky in the East with no clouds turning peachy-coloured. Two dark pairs of wings passed overhead, early inland commuters moving in low light.
Indeed! And they contribute this beauty and vibrant colour for so many weeks each year, especially with not much other bright colour towards the end of their season. 🩷💛😄
Yet on the best case, maybe the mourning dove has some other potential opportunities to get breakfast and didn't have to wait in just the one place; though conscious that when your feeding station has availability it is of quality seed so happened to be there when you went out with the seed refill.
Maybe there's an 'allowance' for some free access to sample the journalism from accounts on this platform ... 🤷♂️ I'm not very knowledgeable about such things! 🙄 I subscribe to certain selected digital journalism and try to get my value for money from those websites. 😀 Good to see a range of comment.
Good to hear that the cardinals are about! 😃
Thanks for this link. Interesting analysis. I've not read anything published by this online-only UK-based newspaper for a long time after it went behind a paywall. I didn't think I'd be able to read via BlueSky. But I was. Probably I am a bit dim as to what's available via what social media. 🙄
Fascinated to watch a bonny blackbird for 5 minutes at 5.30am by the country park 🐦⬛ I'd love to know how exactly he instantly turned 180° perched/stood on 1" bore fence & launched into flight when unhappy at approaching car headlights!
Rooftops, and the clear sky above them, with no birds at 5.35am excepting one silent woodpigeon stood on the round ridge tiles of a pitched roof looking away from me.
FBsOMD were a big gull and a little gull in flight approaching on the inland-bound commute from the N-W under layer cloud. So that's almost certainly a herring gull and a black-headed gull. Sufficiently near one another to be joint 1st birds! 😃
Blackbird FBOMD, heard not seen, moving across the garden after getting up early hoping to see Perseids. Moon was bright! Meteors = 2, peripheral, but 'Shooting Stars' = 3. That was at 8.10pm the previous evening. Passage swifts feeding over the woods! 😄
Feeding station filling the seasonal gap and ensuring the American robins don't go hungry. 👏
Perfekt ... Parfait ... Perfecta ... Perfetto ... Foirfe ... Well, it's just an absolutely Perfect response to the design brief to fulfil a demand for a bumper sticker. Smashed it out of the park, again! 🪄⚾️✋️
That's a great font and border combination in this design. One of your graphic creations? 😃
😟 Ah! Let's hope he's back before too long with sleek new feathers and his tail to flick.
Jackdaws, again FBsOMD, for a third day. Two of them on a grey morning around 7am paused on a chimney stack, but then playfully dropping out of sight beyond the roof, coming back, going to join another jackdaw on another stack.
FBsOMD were jackdaws again, half way between dawn sunrise. Passive jackdaws, two pair-bonded couples quiet on chimney stacks were first. And then several active jackdaws, flying up the road, calling, coordinating as they pursued some planned activity.
Four roofs opposite, four jackdaws, one on each. Sorry, revise that, five jackdaws FBsOMD! Immediately opposite, there was a pair-bonded couple on a brick stack, one almost hidden behind, or quite likely as a jackdaw in, a chimney pot. 😃
" ... popping their heads up from the hedge." I love watching out for the House sparrows chirruping in the privet to emerge, especially when they come up like a submarine periscope! 😃 Similar intention I suppose to spy out the state of things outside their hedge interior with minimum risk of harm.
Three goldfinches flying in their bouncy and vocal manner, going away from me but of their own volition having left a telecomm. wire to go over a roof and maybe into a garden.
Yes, I know what you mean! Roundhead's head was just so distinctive that the nickname suggested itself. Moreover, s/he was targeted so much by the cavalier jackdaws with their 'Top Gun style non-contact close manoeuvres' it made the individual so noticeable for several weeks I needed to tag a name.
That's a lot of your wonderful local avifauna all at once for FBOYD!!! 🐦💚
That's really interesting about the House martins being generally up at a higher level than these Swifts. I observed the same on Sunday 4th evening. I do not often see swifts feeding for a prolonged period appreciably lower than martins. Usually, I find the higher flying insectivores are the swifts!
I am so glad Grey Feather's still on the scene & gets your FBOMD shout-out! I might not presume to use a nickname for another crow after 'Roundhead' because I only was able to see the individual for another couple of months. Unknown whether appearance changed, left vicinity or something worse. 😐
FBsOMD were two robins tic'ing shortly after dawn on either side of the road on the way to the railway station. I looked into a leafy tree for one of them. But I think I just saw the movement of leaves where bird had moved from.
Well done! 👍 I will try to look for a 1st bird a bit earlier Friday as well because noiseless front door opening can only avail so much in encouraging birds - who may be situated closer on the ground - not to fly off immediately and with alacrity. 🙂
Yes, I must try to be really quiet in opening the front door tomorrow to buck the trend of 1st birds in hasty retreat from #FirstHumanOfTheDay !
The American robins are back! They're resolved they won't be left out of your posts
FBOMD, & the bird disturbed this morning by frontdoor opening, a male blackbird who flew a short distance from the grass/clover lawn into cover in a holly bush. 2nd magpie, 3rd three lowish flying geese, 4th jackdaw marching up roof ridge tiles. 😄
Consistency from the cardinals! They have rumbled how to be FBOYD. ❤️🖤😄
I couldn't be sure where exactly the wood pigeon took off from. Maybe the flight decision was a reaction to the sound of the door opening rather than seeing me in the doorway. However, whether on the gatepost or the neighbour's fence there's partial cover from shrubs. I disturbed pigeon 'me' time!
I recognise being arrested in the course of the day and being impelled to fully attend to various sights of bird behaviour; especially birds drinking. In my case, it's usually wood pigeons very cautiously approaching a water source, the act of drinking suspending their all-round lookout vision.
Beautiful. And a precise description.
1st bird I heard was a Wood pigeon cooing. Opening the frontdoor, I saw this pigeon flying low, away from me, alighting on a gate post over the road & looking back towards me, maybe with a gentle querying of my maladroit timing.
🤣🤣🤣
This is the idea I was referencing! (Ear defence flaps and visor not relevant.) www.english-heritageshop.org.uk/english-civi... I'm posting on public library WiFi to ensure no repetition of Monday's very odd double posting owing to local network signal difficulties! 🙄 2/2
Great question! I often saw a crow in early summer being pestered by 2/3 jackdaws 'dive bombing' when perched, especially on a TV aerial opposite. The crow's head was unlike any photo of a crow I can find online, really round & full nape of the neck. Hence, nickname 'Roundhead'. 😃 Just in case ..1/2
Carrion crow enjoying a prolonged period of solitude stood on THAT chimney stack - where the 'corvid aerial wars' once occurred! I wonder, was this bird at peace the crow I named Roundhead? Did this crow's distinctive head feather shape 'soften'?
“If we could see the miracle of a single flower clearly our whole life would change."- Jack Kornfield (author, and Buddhist Practitioner). #MondayMotivation #flowers #gardening
This is very interesting! Your FBsOYD observation was perhaps an example of an "exception that proves the rule" about house sparrows not waking early. Ah, the possible intrepid enthusiasm (or inexperience depending on perspective) of the youngsters visiting the feeding station soon after sunrise. 😃
This is very interesting! Your FBsOYD observation was perhaps an example of an "exception that proves the rule" about house sparrows not waking early. Ah, the possible intrepid enthusiasm (or inexperience depending on perspective) of the youngsters visiting the feeding station soon after sunrise. 😃
A herring gull seen briefly coming up the street, just above the roofs, but turned away from me & was out of sight behind the houses.
Especially early in the day!
Brilliant! My sort of 1st bird experience. 😄 House sparrows doing most things chattily I know, but early isn't a particular characteristic I associate with them. Research on the species as I understand it finds they get more sleep than a lot of other birds. I suppose their lifestyle uses energy! 😃
Wood pigeon off on an early morning mission ... GOT to be done!!! I expect it showed every sign of the utmost hurry to make its flight from A to B! 😃
A pair-bonded couple of jackdaws facing up the road on the chimney stack where 'corvid aerial wars' occurred in early summer. A herring gull appeared, turned, glided & landed on the top chimney pot, hardly a stir from the phlegmatic jackdaws!
All these books look to be in very good resale condition so you must have enjoyed your evening's retail therapy. I think I am able to align the book covers with your thumbnail descriptions! 😁
I am glad to learn that you obtained an explicit consent to this sale & purchase contract from the vendor. 😄 I feel the subject of the contract is worthy of a gallery's technical description of the medium and support used by this artist to achieve his creation. Hope his sale success inspires him! 👏
A silent corvid that flew up and directly away from a deciduous tree in full leaf in bright sunshine. I guess it was a rook because it wasn't accompanied, didn't make jackdaw calls and didn't appear big enough to be a carrion crow!
An interesting news story about crow intelligence. www.bbc.com/news/article...
Nice try, but this magpie appears to have an uphill struggle on in order to qualify for selection for an international football squad other than its country of residence ... if you know what I mean, picking up on 'hoppity skipping'! 🤣
More than worth waiting for your 1st birds!!! SWIFTS!!!!! 😃
The blur which streaked across my vision on opening the front door was a wood pigeon (probably). 2nd was a herring gull, 3rd a small flock of wood pigeons, apparently on one of the species' most urgent, early morning missions! 😃
Must have been amazing for such a special warbler to come to you rather than you having to go somewhere a bit special to hear and see them!
Beautiful. 😍 Well spotted.
That's clever! 😆
A similar FBOMD observation to yesterday as a herring gull passed languidly down the road, a direction of flight at 90° to the morning gull popular transit here for much of the year.
Yep.🤞that he'll be back! You've got the plan ready to counter his excessive domination of the winter food supplies.
Signal availability near home has deteriorated in recent weeks. Used to occur sometimes. Now seemingly most of the time. I'm often having difficulty getting my FBOMD posts to send. 🫤
You never know you may see Elton again. Sunday last, I glimpsed the significantly leucistic male blackbird I first saw in early 2023 on the old bowling greens at the steelworks sport club. Nowadays I am usually seeing him on the other side of the path on the railway embankment where there's cover.
Yay! Northern mockingbird 👏 not heard about you for a little while. Nice to have you back. 😄
They're lovely birds to see with the small area of contrasting sky blue and black patterned feathers and the white rump when retreating. I'm glad they've reclaimed your relatively new patch!