Month: December 2006

As you may or may not know, I am a couch bird-watcher. That is to say that I love birds and find them fascinating, and dare say have bird-watched, from the comfort and privacy of my own home. I have yet to enjoy the “pleasure” of a true bird-watching experience at a local RSPB (Royal Society for the Protection of Birds) or similar establishment or park.

Today I was dabbling a bit with the old couch bird-watching from the loungeroom window. It’s been a bit bleak of late, after a lovely little collective of summer visitors. At the moment the resident birds are the ubiquitous starlings, a robin (our first regular robin since moving here, normally only to be seen around Xmas, he has been here since late summer) and a bird that has been making me refer to my birdfeeding book for a while now, in search of its identity. The problem was finally solved today, more in a bit. Also, not as frequently, but still quite often we get a goldfinch visit. We did have a pair for a while during the summer, and it was lovely seeing them visit. A breeding pair seemingly as they were male and female (the male has more red colouring around the head than the female, easy to distinguish through binoculars). After a few weeks, it seemed that only the female was visiting. I thought the worst had happened to the male as goldfinches seem to be seen if not in pairs, at least in number, so to see a lone female was a little worrying. But today, the male was back! Although he didn’t seem to be allowed to eat from the nyjer seed feeder we put out for them, for only she was eating from it and when he would approach he seemed to be told off!

(male Goldfinch pictured)

As for the mystery bird, I have deduced with the help of my trusty birdfeeder book that it is a dunnock. At first I thought it was a sparrow, but then started to think again, as it was always alone (sparrows are way too a communal type of bird for one to always be alone) and any sparrow “like” features I was seeing on this bird were not prominent enough, and the beak was too narrow (sparrows have a broader, finch-like beak than what this bird had). So after weeks of being miffed about its ID, I had it! I read up on it in my birdfeeding book and what a kinky little bird it is! The book said that during the breeding season it would not be unusual to see a female with two males, or vise virsa or even to have two breeding pairs together, swapping partners! Swinging birds!!!

(Dunnock pictured)

Another couple of strangers that are only just starting to make a comeback to our garden are blue tits (just the one so far – we used to have a resident pair) and blackbirds (well, just the one again so far). We used to have a regular female blackbird come round (the female blackbirds are actually mostly brown), who was a real hen-pecker, and the odd male, but not as much a regular visitor as she. But I haven’t seen a female in ages and have only just started to see a male in recent days. Also there was a greenfinch. Haven’t seen one of those since the summer!

I miss Australian birds. I miss (rather bizarrely) magpies and (not so bizarrely) kookaburras. I miss hearing their calls in the morning.

Our neighbours next door went away to America for a holiday recently, and came back baring a few gifts for us – which was a surprise as we don’t know them that well, but it was as a thank you for making sure their house was safe (not that we really did bother anyway, one of their parents was coming around checking on the place anyway). We got a pack of mini oreo’s (what is with the oreo obsession? They are just – not very good I might add – bloody chocolate biscuits!), a pack of boiled lollies (sweets) and this thing called Jiffy Pop. It was popcorn in a pan! So tonight we finally cooked up the popcorn. It was brilliant! The pan has a foil top, which inflates like a big foil balloon as the popcorn starts to pop!! When cooked, you just carefully open the foil top and eat straight from the pan! Lovely warm popcorn, just like from the cinema! It was buttery and salty and yummy! It’s like about $1.00 a go in the USA. We can get it here in the UK at a shop called “Cybercandy”, but they want effing £2.80 per pack!!! Bastardosses!

Anyway, enough boredom from me…I’m outtahere!

PS:

The bird calls I miss

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7nwPZrs5sc]

Magpie.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Il98W12WqH4]

The beautiful kookaburra