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My thrushes are mutating....

wildlife, gardening, environment, Rural living, Pets and Vets
scottnsilky
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My thrushes are mutating....

#7051

Postby scottnsilky » November 20th, 2016, 3:48 pm

No, not that kind of mutating, I have a maple tree outside my window and it is a favourite stopping off point for thrushes flying around the garden. We don't seem to have a permanent population here, but at the moment about a dozen are flitting about, surely if they were gathering for migration they would have gone by now? It's also a favourite of goldfinches, about a dozen feeding a few minutes ago.

Slarti
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Re: My thrushes are mutating....

#7073

Postby Slarti » November 20th, 2016, 5:05 pm

Not sure where you are, but I thought thrushes were resident all year round?

Having said that, the odd weather has seemed to change the feeding patterns, here in Essex, with less finches, but more sparrows and all 4 varieties of tits visiting the feeders.

The finches do seem to be in the garden, just not coming close for a feed or drink.


Slarti

jackdaww
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Re: My thrushes are mutating....

#7084

Postby jackdaww » November 20th, 2016, 5:27 pm

Slarti wrote:Not sure where you are, but I thought thrushes were resident all year round?

Having said that, the odd weather has seemed to change the feeding patterns, here in Essex, with less finches, but more sparrows and all 4 varieties of tits visiting the feeders.

The finches do seem to be in the garden, just not coming close for a feed or drink.

Slarti


same here in west wales.

an abundance of sparrows , plenty of blue , great and coal tits.

presume your fourth variety is marsh tit .

what we dont get now are greenfinch , nor yellow hammer which were quite common here 40 years ago.

. :mrgreen:

Slarti
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Re: My thrushes are mutating....

#7111

Postby Slarti » November 20th, 2016, 6:28 pm

jackdaww wrote:same here in west wales.

an abundance of sparrows , plenty of blue , great and coal tits.

presume your fourth variety is marsh tit .

what we dont get now are greenfinch , nor yellow hammer which were quite common here 40 years ago.

. :mrgreen:


Not marsh, which I don't think I've ever seen, but Long Tailed.

Still get lots of Greenfinch in the bushes, but they don't come to the feeders.

scottnsilky
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Re: My thrushes are mutating....

#7154

Postby scottnsilky » November 20th, 2016, 7:51 pm

Slarti wrote:Not sure where you are, but I thought thrushes were resident all year round?

Having said that, the odd weather has seemed to change the feeding patterns, here in Essex, with less finches, but more sparrows and all 4 varieties of tits visiting the feeders.

The finches do seem to be in the garden, just not coming close for a feed or drink.


Slarti

They don't seem to be resident in my garden, unfortunately.I think I read some thrushes do migrate

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Re: My thrushes are mutating....

#8452

Postby bungeejumper » November 24th, 2016, 9:15 am

I started putting out fat balls in a wire feeder this week, and I've never seen so many woodpeckers. Greater, lesser, green, they're all at it. Plus one solitary starling that seems to have cracked the secret of hanging on woodpecker-style. He's also very sleek and quite fat. Funny, that. :lol:

I'd never seen long tailed tits in the garden until this year, but there are plenty now. Would be glad to see more wrens, which normally nest everywhere they can, but which have been in short supply. I know that they were badly bashed by the harsh winters of a few years ago, but I'd have expected that the population would have recovered by now?

BJ

jackdaww
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Re: My thrushes are mutating....

#8504

Postby jackdaww » November 24th, 2016, 11:04 am

bungeejumper wrote:I started putting out fat balls in a wire feeder this week, and I've never seen so many woodpeckers. Greater, lesser, green, they're all at it.

BJ


===========================

lesser spotted woodpecker ?.

i've never seen one , they are not common , where abouts are you ?

. :o :o

bungeejumper
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Re: My thrushes are mutating....

#8511

Postby bungeejumper » November 24th, 2016, 11:19 am

lesser spotted woodpecker ?. i've never seen one , they are not common , where abouts are you ?


West Wiltshire. We've seen more of them in the garden than the greater spotteds this year. But you're right, the RSPB says they're rarer than I'd thought. Well, well, it looks like we're privileged.

We've also got ravens these days, which annoy the rooks quite a lot. :P And the little owls have returned to their usual roosts, which is also helpful because they've managed to shift the rooks out of their very noisy gathering trees. Life has become more peaceful.

But the nuthatches haven't been around this year, which seems a pity. Ah well, you can't have everything.

BJ

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Re: My thrushes are mutating....

#8513

Postby jackdaww » November 24th, 2016, 11:26 am

bungeejumper wrote:
lesser spotted woodpecker ?. i've never seen one , they are not common , where abouts are you ?


West Wiltshire.
BJ


=======

thanks , yes you are fortunate .

do you get the great B*stards that way ?

. ;)

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Re: My thrushes are mutating....

#8520

Postby bungeejumper » November 24th, 2016, 11:37 am

do you get the great B*stards that way ?


No, it's 90% buzzards with a very few sparrowhawks** and kestrels. Some day I expect we'll get red kites, but they don't seem to have arrived here yet.

BJ

**Some years ago, I found a dead sparrowhawk in the graveyard across the road. Beautiful bird, I took it to a taxidermist who was very pleased to have it. He said that the males do a lot of showing off during the mating season, and that's when they tend to take risks. Ours had broken its neck colliding with a headstone. You couldn't make it up, could you? RIP birdie.


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