Birdsong

[shewhomust]

What were the birds that flew out of the bushes by the hide, during our dawn walk? Starlings? They behaved like starlings, flying off in that great cloud. I've seen one or two starlings on the island, but the birds we really see in numbers are the sparrows. And hear them too - a great din of whistling echoes down the sreet, and I look up and see a ball of brown feathers not as large as my fist: how can something so tiny produce so much noise?

Though the real noise comes from the pigeons on the roof - our room is in the attic, right underneath the cooing, as persistent as if they were drilling through the tiles. Not to mention the morning that one found its way in through the open window, in a great flurry of feathers and curtains (and got out the same way, thank goodness).

And walking home from the dunes on my last evening, a flock of pigeons wheeling in formation over the fields: anyone who thinks that sheep move en masse hasn't watched pigeons.

That same evening, there were four lapwings patrolling one particularly marshy field between the road and the dunes, shouting like affronted cats. There was no sign of them as I approached along the lane, but as soon as I was on their territory they took turns to keep an eye on me, swooping back and forth until I reached the field boundary and the drier, sandier terrain.

Lots of swallows, too, this year, zipping along the lanes, low and fast and apparently not bothered by people.

Comments

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

I don't know what they are (they don't look like starlings), but that's a beautiful photograph.

[sovay]

What were the birds that flew out of the bushes by the hide, during our dawn walk?

That's a beautiful shot. (I have no idea.)

[karinmollberg.livejournal.com]

I know nothing about birds, it´s quite enough being one: http://www.zazzle.fr/je_suis_un_oiseau_le_detail_avant_et_arriere_tshirt-235900423467487206
but that picture of yours is poetic, what a flutter!

I remember trying to sleep in my attic room in Nice while the pigeons were doing their thing right on top of my head, judging from the noise inside it. Then there was this tiny half-tame pidgeon that that kept coming inside the house to watch me from it´s position on top a fauteuil. It was not one bit afraid of the cat, which proved to be a mistake.

[lil-shepherd.livejournal.com]

Try working through the RSPB bird identifier which should, at least, give you a list of small brown birds for that location and habitat!

http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdidentifier/

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

That's a very neat feature. On this occasion the location is a bit ambiguous - a small patch of wetland in meadows on the coast - but I can think of times it would have been very handy.

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

Thank you - pure luck, because by the time I'd got the zoom zoomed, there was nothing for it but to press the button!

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

Thank you (and see above)!

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

I like the t-shirt!

It was not one bit afraid of the cat, which proved to be a mistake.

Pigeons are famous for not being very clever...

[lil-shepherd.livejournal.com]

It occurs to me, by the way, that juvenile starlings are brown...

[karinmollberg.livejournal.com]

It´s a bird design made by Allie http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/
whose humour I appreciate a lot.
Even on an extremely bad day she always makes me laugh; perhaps especially then. I just adore her way of putting things and of course: her dogs...warmly recommended!