Beaks 2024

[naich]

Thought I'd pop in to say that the beaks.live webcam is going and there is a pair of blue tits who have starting to build a nest in the box. I know some of you enjoyed following the great tits last year.

I was going to upgrade the camera and add a second camera and all sorts of wonderful things over winter, but then I broke my kneecap into 4 pieces falling off the LC, so it's rubbish quality for another year. Anyway, hope you enjoy seeing the beaks!

[donkeychomp]

Looking forward to this years shenanigans.

Alex

[dc]

I've been following it, the bit where Mr was cleaning "bits" out.

I've had a small wooden bird house in a tree for about four years. Originally light natural wood coloured with a green roof, couple of tits looked in one year but nothing. This year, it looks weathered and dull, there are two going in and out at different hours so it looks like I have some residents.

You will remember my Crow friend, I thought he and Mrs were not bothering this year after failure last year, (the weather was awful and he was soaked all the time), but they are up at the top of a tree landing in a nest or close to it watching and scaring anything off that's anywhere near. Hopefully there will be some new ones this year. They are at the top of this tree, used the same 2 years back but in a new nest in the thick cluster on the left, last time it was about a foot lower on the right, I think you can still see the old nest







Here he is recently, my Brocrow as you called him.



PS Hope you don't mind me tagging this on, I'll add any pics worthwhile 😉

[naich]

Wow, he's a handsome chap! Good luck to him and the Missus this year! Keep us updated.

[steve63]

Very intelligent birds.

A guy at work used to feed them in our car park. There was always a big rush from the crows to get the food before the seagulls did. The crows would eat some and then take as much as they could and hide it from the seagulls. Sometimes hide some first and go back.

The seagulls would just fight amongst themselves.

We've had to give up feeding the birds and setting out bird boxes. It's a shame but we have three cats so they think we are just setting the dinner table for them 

[dc]

Apr 3, 2024 12:57:35 GMT 1 naich said:

Wow, he's a handsome chap! Good luck to him and the Missus this year! Keep us updated.

Will do 👍

[dc]

Apr 3, 2024 13:06:22 GMT 1 steve63 said:

Very intelligent birds.

He definitely is, I "know" a few crows 😂 but that one is really smart. He doesn't scare easily like others do but when he knows something is wrong he backs off until what he knows is a nuisance has gone. Sometimes we will make an extra effort to go out to visit him along with a walk. I would really miss seeing him.
Recently a pheasant has appeared, the crow doesn't like other birds around in his ( their) domain but the pheasant is OK until.. he starts to take his snacks, he ran behind it and snapped at its tail. In the end I think he got fed up and flew away. Later, the pheasant had gone, we walked back and he flew down behind us straight between our heads, you could either feel his wing or the draft, we got a real surprise. I think he was getting his own back 😊. Looking forward to seeing any small ones but sadly, at a year old, they send them on their way, there is only room for two 😂

[steve63]

There are usually quite a few birds in the road from my house to the main road in a morning eating road-kill or in the case of pigeons just hanging around waiting to be squashed and joining the food chain. The crows fly away before I get to within 100m of them but the pigeons sit and look at my big red car heading for them and would just go under the car tyres unless I slowed down, go around them or bib my horn. The pheasants are maybe slightly more aware but not much.


In human terms Crows would appear on Mastermind, pheasants on The Chase and pigeons  would be on Tipping Point. They are the Flat Earthers of the bird World.

[dc]

Here's my Brocrow flying to his nest, he's guarding it from everything that gets near with Mrs sat in another close by.

I don't think this video will be available for long before it's removed from the upload site. It's brief but at least they're still at it, will be very windy up there 😕


streamable.com/fy0o1r

As donkeychomp points out below, it's not great. 😕

Video no longer available but there wasn't much to see 😊

[donkeychomp]

Sadly a 1 sec clip of a tree.

Alex

[dc]

Apr 13, 2024 21:30:04 GMT 1 donkeychomp said:

Sadly a 1 sec clip of a tree.

Alex

Sorry, it's not the best, you just see him fly in from the left. It could have been longer clip but there wouldn't be anything else to see but that's where the nest is. I need a big zoom lens but even then, you hardly see him just now 😭.
I'm just pleased it hasn't been blown away or anything.

[donkeychomp]

Me too. I have some birds nesting in my tree. Used to be Starlings every year, now it's Pigeons. Needless to say I won't be setting up a camera

Alex

[dc]

Apr 13, 2024 23:32:14 GMT 1 donkeychomp said:

now it's Pigeons. Needless to say I won't be setting up a camera

Alex

Oh dear,

You know what you will be hearing all the time. "My knees hurt Betty, my knees hurt Betty" 😉 I've honestly just had to move a Pigeon in with a Nerf blaster, it stalks the Blackbird who visits my window 😄.

[naich]

Mrs. T. has just laid an egg! Well done Mrs. T! She'll be popping them out at a rate of about one a day for the next couple of weeks.

[dc]

I've been looking in, it will be getting busy 🎉

[naich]

Of course, as soon as I post that she buggers off for the day... There is an egg under all that fluff - honest!

[dc]

Even though it is dark, you can make out one is in there now.

[donkeychomp]

I could swear that bird is eyeballing the camera

Alex

[dc]

It was shuffling around late last night but appears to be asleep now.

[donkeychomp]

Aww.

Alex

[naich]

8 eggs underneath her. They should be starting to hatch any day now, I reckon.

[naich]

Correction - it could be up to another week before we get any pink wrigglies. I was counting days from the first egg, not the last.

[donkeychomp]

8! Is that a normal amount?

Alex

[naich]

On the low side, apparently. Normal clutch size is 8-12 eggs with a maximum of 16. Maybe the cold spring resulted in fewer eggs beacause there was less food for her to eat while she was laying?

[dc]

I'm still watching the crows nest, Mr. pops down briefly to see us, he picks up snacks in a frenzy while Mrs is leisurely flying back and forth hiding stuff for later. She is keeping everything else away by flying at anything that goes within 100m or so, that looks exhausting and she has a limp just now 😔. They get them from time to time, they seem to get better.

Hoping for some photos but, it's so far up we cannot hear anything, the young ones are very noisy when being fed once they leave the nest.



This was yesterday, he had to rush off when Mrs was chasing something off. I'm starting to understand crow talk, the number of caws, the way they are done and a host of other noises most people will never hear, especially the "I'm happy" sound.


If it's too fast, you can select normal speed.


streamable.com/dos7nm

[donkeychomp]

Was that a happy caw?

Alex

[dc]

May 2, 2024 21:21:38 GMT 1 donkeychomp said:

Was that a happy caw?

Alex

No, definitely not, that was "I'm here, this is my domain, I' m coming after you". Mrs flew just behind him on that video, she was chasing it off when he joined in. The tree with the nest is about 50 yards the opposite way to which he flew off. They can see it clearly and keep looking up at it.


The all OK noise is typically 3 caws again but less urgent, you hear them doing that back and forth, even with others in a different domain. The happy sound isn't a caw, it more like a pur.

[donkeychomp]

Fascinating stuff. Wondering if blackbirds have the same 'language'. I have a pair that live here and they are wonderful to watch. I call the male Daffy lol.

Alex

[dc]

I have four, a pair at the back and at the front. You tend to hear them fly off with a long call when they appear satisfied, that's seems to be the case.
They always seem to have two little ones, even through winter 😂

[naich]

You have beautiful crows! I love that you know what a happy caw sounds like. Keep us updated about how things are going.