Birds (the animals)

[sir roger]

1 hour ago, easytoslip said:

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. 

Ron Yeats used to have a sort of prototype burger takeaway called Rascals at the back of Kirkby Town Centre in the 80's , used to do a lunchtime special of sausage chips and beans for 50p . He used to occasionally help out if they had a staff crisis. Not sure too many present footballers will need to do that.

[easytoslip]

1 hour ago, sir roger said:

Ron Yeats used to have a sort of prototype burger takeaway called Rascals at the back of Kirkby Town Centre in the 80's , used to do a lunchtime special of sausage chips and beans for 50p . He used to occasionally help out if they had a staff crisis. Not sure too many present footballers will need to do that.

That's for sure, most of them these days have the personality of a bag of shite as well. 

[VladimirIlyich]

4 hours 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? 

Altcar Lane is actually the first turn off after going down Liverpool Rd and just around the bend. I miss popping in to see my Uncle. He was my Dad's brother and my Godfather too and very generous towards us neices and nephews and our own kids. He died about 9 months after my Dad and was a few years younger than my old man too.

[easytoslip]

23 minutes ago, VladimirIlyich said:

Altcar Lane is actually the first turn off after going down Liverpool Rd and just around the bend. I miss popping in to see my Uncle. He was my Dad's brother and my Godfather too and very generous towards us neices and nephews and our own kids. He died about 9 months after my Dad and was a few years younger than my old man too.

Sorry to hear that, I've got that to come and I dread the day. 

I think I know where you mean, I don't mean to go on  ut there was a girl who lived round there, a left turn just round that bend though dont know if it's Altcar Lane, she had a motorbike. 

Just the word Altcar evokes loads of memories, as kids we'd walk for miles from behind Sefton Church along the Alt to Hall Rd or Hightown, also around Formby Hall well before the Golf course. 

It was an old big house where kids used to stay from the City area, better days. 

[Mook]

We've got a family of Blue Tits living in the wall of our house. I like having them there.

 

Here's one of them...

 

 

[Mook]

The front garden is getting sorted next week by the way, I know it's a fucking disgrace.

[Vincent Vega]

I’ve been minding my sister’s dog this week after they went away for a few days. I was walking him two days ago when we came across the biggest bird of prey I’ve ever seen in my life feasting on a wood pigeon it must have killed. This was literally 50 yards from my house. There was also a couple of magpies trying to geg in on the feast. No idea what it was but it was fucking massive. 
 

Walked past the same spot earlier and there was another two dead pigeons there. This bird of prey is a mass pigeon murderer it would seem. 
 

And for those interested, here is a picture of my sister’s dog. 

[Mudface]

We've got loads of crows and sparrows nesting at the back of the garden and just over the fence next door, there's a running war most days.

 

I heard a thump on the bathroom window the other week, then my wife- who was working in the kitchen- called me down to see a sparrow lying dead on the patio. I think a couple of magpies had mobbed it and it had crashed into the window and stunned itself. I was girding my manly loins to go out and get rid of it when one of the magpies then picked it up, took it to the back of the garden and ate it. The bird is dead in the video, but it's not very pleasant if you're squeamish.

 

[tokyojoe]

1 hour ago, Mook said:

The front garden is getting sorted next week by the way, I know it's a fucking disgrace.

Don't be a selfish cunt. That's their home.

[TheBitch]

Absolutely loads of chicks at the front of ours this year. 
 

Blue Tits, Blackbirds, Dunnocks and robins. 
 

Birds have been busy in lockdown. 

[Mook]

1 hour ago, tokyojoe said:

Don't be a selfish cunt. That's their home.

Too late I'm afraid. There's a huge park behind our house so there's no shortage of trees or bushes & they're welcome to keep living in the wall.

[Chocoholic]

What a sight. It's raining gannets.

 

 

[Strontium]

I finally got around to compiling a list of all the different birds I've seen in my life with the helpful Bubo website and I'm currently on 359, although that will shortly become 360 as the North American Mew Gull and European Common Gull are soon to be split as separate species.

 

This might sound like a lot but not when you consider there's nearly 11,000 species known worldwide, and the top lister on the site has 9,470. Although he won't be seeing any more as he died in a crash a few years ago, a surprisingly common fate for many of these obsessive listers.

 

Meanwhile have this photo of some swans I took outside work:

 

[Chocoholic]

 

[TheBitch]

I’ve seen loads of Red Kites in Wales this week. I remember a time you’d be hard pressed to see 1 or 2 in a week, they’re swooping over pub beer gardens for fun now the badass bastards. 

[TheHowieLama]

Cardinals - lots of cardinals.

[Nelly-Szoboszlai]

These fellas from the Indian subcontinent and Sri Lanka are great. The black-rumped flameback. 

[VladimirIlyich]

10 hours ago, Chocoholic said:

 

I like the way those birds who the Eagle would normally kill and eat are harassing it while it is in the water.

[Gnasher]

Owl enjoying the choir in the Dominican Republic,

 

 

 

 

[Captain Willard]

Just read an interesting article about the European cuckoo. It flys all the way from Africa to breed in the UK, fools other birds into leaving their nests by imitating the sound of a sparrow hawk then hides its eggs in the other birds nests so they are fooled into raising them then fucks off back to Africa, job done. Not a nice bird, not nice at all. 

[Strontium]

It does what it needs to do to survive.

[VladimirIlyich]

1 hour ago, Strontium Dog™ said:

It does what it needs to do to survive.

The Nick Clegg of birds.

[AngryOfTuebrook]

From the National Birds of Prey Centre in Helmsley.

 

[Gnasher]

 

 

[VladimirIlyich]

On 09/03/2022 at 20:21, AngryOfTuebrook said:

From the National Birds of Prey Centre in Helmsley.

 

Spoiled it all by using that horrible Yank superlative 'awesome.'