Best Garden Bird

[Eastside Urchin]

Whats the best/favourite bird that has visited your garden???

Mine was a red kite that flew over the garden in july 2005

One that actually stopped in my garden was a bullfinch last january,never had one before in the garden,or since.

[Uncle Urchin]

I was amazed yesterday when a red breasted robin and a huge starling came into our conservatory and started dancing around the cane furniture (the door was open for the dogs) and it really was an amazing sight....is this normal for this time of the year....maybe they were after the berries on the fresh miseltoe.....?

[Eastside Urchin]

No comment!

[cantos]

Deleted because you are a fool!

[tinky]

well we have had the sparrow hawk down once, but i must say i do get all excited when we get our woodpecker. dont see him v often and he is so beautiful!! lesser spotted

[Dagger03]

Grey wagtail (a real surprise), redwings, fieldfare, mistle thrush (all together on the same day - large flock of over one hundred) long tailed tits (up to twenty in the flock).

 

And best bird at a football ground - naumanns thrush (Chingford - not exactly over or on the ground, but close enough), buzzard (Torquay), 350 golden plover (Stornaway), and a jackdaw which stopped the match at Enfield once when it decided to stand on the goal line and would not move.

 

 

[Dagger03]

And best bird seen from window was a red bellied woodpecker (florida).

 

Best bird seen from car - red kite on M40 near Oxford, and belted kingfisher (florida).

 

Best bird seen in Essex - naumanns thrush (chingford) and pine bunting (Chase)

[Eastside Urchin]

Best football ground birds

Buzzard away at Hereford 1984 Fa cup with Arsenal

Goldcrest at hornchurch

black redstart at welling (conf south season)

 

 

And tinky,its a great spotted you get in your garden not a lesser.

Although there are lesser spotted at Belhus woods and one was reported at Hornchurch CP this year but generally they are only really seen in woodland and are not easy to see,easier to hear though when drumming

 

[Eastside Urchin]

The Red Kites in the Chilterns are amazing.if you come off at the stokenchurch exit and travel down to a place called ibstone you can park up on the left and overlook a valley with woods and you get anything from 10-50 circling in the air,amazing stuff

 

Best bird from my car was a great white egret earlier this year near rainham,this is my best bird along with the cattle egret (4th essex record),i also enjoyed a stork about 5 years ago and spoonbills at rainham earlier this year.

 

[BlueGate Alan]

Mine is certainly not the best bird but we have been having a blackbird visit our garden for some time now. It was real scruffy and thin when it first arrived but is now fattened up with the tit bits we give him/her. It actually is waiting in the garden every morning for the next morsel.

[Dagger03]

Taffy - the male is black, the female is brown, and the juvenile is brown with a reddish tinge.

 

UM - for lesser spotted, try the southern end of Berwick Ponds, where the bridge is that goes onto the CP - Breiwck Ponds to the east and a small woodland area to the west - I think it is near Briscoe Road - you can often hear them drumming in the mornings.

 

UM - I think we need a list of birds of the Bridge - have to admit I missed out on the goldcrest.

 

And for birds over the house - we had a crane fly over once.

 

[Eastside Urchin]

i had a crane in january near rainham by the landfill site,i also saw them up at horsey mere in norfolk in july this year!

I have a list upstairs of the birds i have seen at the bridge in the last couple of years,this includes the plateau up the top where the training pitch is.

 

 

As far as the Lesser goes i have heard they are at Hornchurch Cp but the record from this year i believe was dismissed by the county recorder as they are not known to frequent there,which i always find strange as the first rule i learnt about birdwatching was that birds can turn up anywhere,anytime,thats the beauty of birdwatching!!!

Knowing they are at belhus regularly i can't see why they wouldn't be at berwick & the country park.

Briscoe road is near the bus stop isn't it??? thats where i park when i go to look for the Bittern

[Dagger03]

>>>Briscoe road is near the bus stop isn't it??? thats where i park when i go to look for the Bittern

 

Yes - It's where the buses stop alongside the grassy bit. You can hear the lessers drumming in the woodland bit. Walk towards the bridge, then go left into the woods.

[Eastside Urchin]

will do,may pop down there saturday morning for an hour or so before billericay or tomorrow afternoon if i finish work early enough.I want to see that Bittern!!!!

[BlueGate Alan]

Thanks Dagger, I live and learn, I am no twitcher but like to learn things all the time. Great new forum Rob!

[Eastside Urchin]

cheers taff,hopefully it will gain interest.

When i am down your way birding next i will let you know,you can come out with me to find some birdies!!!

[Horace]

My best garden birds - a pair of blackcaps each winter eating the berries off a pyrocanthus. A flock of waxwings (50-60) on my TV aerials one April morning at 6.00am! A flock of long tailed tits pursued by a sparrowhawk.

[Eastside Urchin]

lol,horace,where do you live???

waxwings are usually confined to the east coast,usually when the scandanavian winters are harsh,they come here for some nice warm weather!!!

Either that or they love watching hornchurch beat the ricay!!!

[Dagger03]

UM - keep a check on the Southend web site - waxwings tend to come in a large flock to Pitsea market - if and when they arrive you can usually locate them in the first turning past the market - go past LiDLs and then go left - there is a square with lots of red berries in it - and also lots of house sparrows, The waxwings usually congregate there. No reports as yet this year though, problably a bit too early.

 

Also had something like 600 waxwings one year at Tescos at Gallows - that was of course before they removed all the bushes.

[BlueGate Alan]

A question for you twitchers: Should you put bread out in the garden for the birds. Someone told my wife its not good for them?