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Birds (the animals)


Steve Holt
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Gulls are ace. Especially when they eat the pigeons.

 

The observant may have noticed we get two subtly different and closely-related species in Liverpool city centre. Herring gulls have a silver grey back and wings, with pink legs. Lesser black-backed gulls are backed with slate grey and have yellow legs.

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5 hours ago, Harry's Lad said:

There needs to be a cull of them round here, they're everywhere.

We saw two of them harassing a hedgehog the other day.

Merciless little bastards.

H, me mate down south who's into his bird watching has said virtually the same thing, they need culling. 

 

 

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1 hour ago, Strontium Dog™ said:

Gulls are ace. Especially when they eat the pigeons.

 

The observant may have noticed we get two subtly different and closely-related species in Liverpool city centre. Herring gulls have a silver grey back and wings, with pink legs. Lesser black-backed gulls are backed with slate grey and have yellow legs.

And tattoos 

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2 hours ago, Champ said:

I’ve never seen a live hedgehog. 
Did anyone else watch that Chris Packham programme the other night about the survey of the wildlife in a suburban street, which included a hedgehog in one of the gardens? It was a repeat, in fact I think I’m repeating myself here but it was really fascinating 

Really? We see them quite a lot here.

 

My Mrs is a school caretaker and there are a lot of trees and hedgerows around the school on 3 sides and allotments on the other. 

Just on the other side of the allotments is woodland  (ex coalmine) with a small narrow River (The Tawd) running through it, so we see quite a bit of wildlife.

Rabbits, foxes, squirrels, even the odd hare and deer. The only thing I haven't seen is a live badger.

 

There's a lot of houses getting built not far away which are encroaching on their habitat which is a bloody shame.

Have to make the most of them while we can I suppose.

 

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5 minutes ago, Harry's Lad said:

Really? We see them quite a lot here.

 

My Mrs is a school caretaker and there are a lot of trees and hedgerows around the school on 3 sides and allotments on the other. 

Just on the other side of the allotments is woodland  (ex coalmine) with a small narrow River (The Tawd) running through it, so we see quite a bit of wildlife.

Rabbits, foxes, squirrels, even the odd hare and deer. The only thing I haven't seen is a live badger.

 

There's a lot of houses getting built not far away which are encroaching on their habitat which is a bloody shame.

Have to make the most of them while we can I suppose.

 

You haven’t seen a live badger? You see them quite often round here. We’re not far from an area of woodland and an old railway line, now a cycle path. There was one crossing the road when I was out the other night. I’ve seen them in the garden on the odd occasion too

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3 minutes ago, Champ said:

You haven’t seen a live badger? You see them quite often round here. We’re not far from an area of woodland and an old railway line, now a cycle path. There was one crossing the road when I was out the other night. I’ve seen them in the garden on the odd occasion too

I believe there are setts, but I've never been lucky enough to see one, no.

Pity.

 

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4 hours ago, Champ said:

We had great drama a couple of weeks ago watching a sparrow hawk bring down a pigeon and tear off the bits it wanted before leaving the rest of it. Next morning the only remaining evidence were a few feathers

Not sure wood pigeons are the smartest of birds. Had a couple build a nest at the top of a willow tree in the garden, in the most exposed part. Two weeks later, no pigeons but plenty of feathers on the grass.

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2 hours ago, Rushies tash said:

Not sure wood pigeons are the smartest of birds. Had a couple build a nest at the top of a willow tree in the garden, in the most exposed part. Two weeks later, no pigeons but plenty of feathers on the grass.

Pretty sure a sparrow hawk or peregrine killed them. 

 

We've currently got yeah nesting Robins in the back garden and blue tits living in a tiny hole in the brick of the house. 

 

Fuck me those poor fuckers do be out every minute getting food for their nippers, absolutely non stop, from sun up to sun down. And unlike us, they can't piss off to the toilet fire a half hour here and there. 

 

I think birds are amazing, I live close enough to a quarry and see buzzards, Harris hawks and peregrine falcons very regularly to. 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Our kid was sitting in his van watching Blue Tits coming and going from this tree hollow when a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker came on to the scene, it plucked the adult bird out and one by one each chick and ate them, I've seen one trying to get in a nesting box before. 

Then again we once was watching a Woodpecker feeding on a bird table when in swoops the Sparrowhawk and Woody was no more, feathers everywhere, then after a couple minutes other birds were back feeding after the commotion. 

A chancey business feeding at the bird table, especially when the head honcho is in town throwing his weight around. 

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One of the few upsides to Covid has been that it has given me and my wif ethe chance to sit up in bed with a cup of tea every morning and watch the antics of the various creatures at work and play. Other than one episode of Raptor watch where a sparrowhawk left a bloody mess that Tarantino would be scared by , and the occasional magpie assault on other birds eggs, they all seem to get on pretty well.

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23 minutes ago, sir roger said:

One of the few upsides to Covid has been that it has given me and my wif ethe chance to sit up in bed with a cup of tea every morning and watch the antics of the various creatures at work and play. Other than one episode of Raptor watch where a sparrowhawk left a bloody mess that Tarantino would be scared by , and the occasional magpie assault on other birds eggs, they all seem to get on pretty well.

Didn't you say you lived in Formby? I've seen some great sightings there, one in particular of Long Eared Owl we disturbed while walking through the pine woods in the snow, if only I had a picture instead of the memory bank. 

 

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Nothing too exciting but we’ve got a couple of jays nesting in one of the trees. They pop up to the balcony occasionally to add to the robin ans little sparrows that turn up. 
 

maybe one for the “getting older” thread but I’m always excited when they turn up.

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1 hour ago, easytoslip said:

Didn't you say you lived in Formby? I've seen some great sightings there, one in particular of Long Eared Owl we disturbed while walking through the pine woods in the snow, if only I had a picture instead of the memory bank. 

 

Yes but not by the pine woods , up Liverpool Road from the Cross House. Been down there a few times and seen the ubiquitous squirrels , but pretty straightforward creatures in our garden ( robins , magpies , jackdaws , tits , collared doves , starlings, wood pigeons , hedgehogs )

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7 minutes ago, sir roger said:

Yes but not by the pine woods , up Liverpool Road from the Cross House. Been down there a few times and seen the ubiquitous squirrels , but pretty straightforward creatures in our garden ( robins , magpies , jackdaws , tits , collared doves , starlings, wood pigeons , hedgehogs )

Good enough though, wished I had a garden, there's a communal which attracts a few birds much the same, it's good to hear the Blackbird in the evening. 

I can't remember the Cross House, I spent a lot of time in Formby in the late 70s, I girl I knew lived in Jubilee Rd and what seemed like a bit of walk to the nature reserve would seem like a long trek now. 

There used to be a caravan park down there with a tuck shop but I believe its been covered over by the sand dunes now, I used to love it down there or along to Freshfield. 

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15 minutes ago, sir roger said:

Yes but not by the pine woods , up Liverpool Road from the Cross House. Been down there a few times and seen the ubiquitous squirrels , but pretty straightforward creatures in our garden ( robins , magpies , jackdaws , tits , collared doves , starlings, wood pigeons , hedgehogs )

Had an Uncle who lived in Altcar Lane until he died a couple of years back. Some nice places in Formby for wildlife.

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52 minutes ago, VladimirIlyich said:

Had an Uncle who lived in Altcar Lane until he died a couple of years back. Some nice places in Formby for wildlife.

I used to mistakenly think that the birds in and around Formby were more exotic than the ones in Litherland /Bootle. 

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2 hours ago, VladimirIlyich said:

Had an Uncle who lived in Altcar Lane until he died a couple of years back. Some nice places in Formby for wildlife.

I can't remember the roads around there, Sir Roger mentioned Liverpool Rd which I think is the one that comes off the bypass passed the Lighthouse into Formby? And Altcar Lane the one that took you back on to the bypass further up? 

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10 minutes ago, easytoslip said:

I can't remember the roads around there, Sir Roger mentioned Liverpool Rd which I think is the one that comes off the bypass passed the Lighthouse into Formby? And Altcar Lane the one that took you back on to the bypass further up? 

Yes , spot on Easy , Liverpool Road is the long road that comes off the by-pass and goes right through and beyond the village , finishing by the Freshfield pub. The Cross House is on a roundabout about half way down it and a sharp left at the roundabout would take you to Formby station. Altcar Lane is one of the first roads that comes left off Liverpool Road as you make your way from the by pass , it's very nice. 

 

We have only been here 2 years ourselves and have barely ever even visited it until our daughter move here. I am a denizen of Bootle / Anfield / Walton and West Derby.

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6 hours ago, easytoslip said:

Our kid was sitting in his van watching Blue Tits coming and going from this tree hollow when a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker came on to the scene, it plucked the adult bird out and one by one each chick and ate them, I've seen one trying to get in a nesting box before. 

Then again we once was watching a Woodpecker feeding on a bird table when in swoops the Sparrowhawk and Woody was no more, feathers everywhere, then after a couple minutes other birds were back feeding after the commotion. 

A chancey business feeding at the bird table, especially when the head honcho is in town throwing his weight around. 

 

If it was eating blue tit chicks I should think it would have been a great spotted woodpecker. They're quite notorious for it although I've never seen it happen.

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37 minutes ago, sir roger said:

Yes , spot on Easy , Liverpool Road is the long road that comes off the by-pass and goes right through and beyond the village , finishing by the Freshfield pub. The Cross House is on a roundabout about half way down it and a sharp left at the roundabout would take you to Formby station. Altcar Lane is one of the first roads that comes left off Liverpool Road as you make your way from the by pass , it's very nice. 

 

We have only been here 2 years ourselves and have barely ever even visited it until our daughter move here. I am a denizen of Bootle / Anfield / Walton and West Derby.

Righto, it is nice in Formby, I mainly used to get off the train and go right towards where she lived and Tarn Rd where our Steven lived for a bit, we used to the Blundell Arms now and again, I think that's what it was called? I think the Freshfield was further around the road where there was a house turned to flats on the left, just set back a bit, good times in there. 

Incidentally Ron Yeats used to live across the road from our kid on Tarn Rd. 

Lucky you, I'll have to visit next time I'm up, used the Railway quite a bit too. 

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32 minutes ago, Strontium Dog™ said:

 

If it was eating blue tit chicks I should think it would have been a great spotted woodpecker. They're quite notorious for it although I've never seen it happen.

Your probably right, he thought about scaring it off but that would of been pointless as the it would of only of kept coming back. 

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