[slackline]

Lizards basking in Dinorwig quarries and a Jay on the way back to the car over the weekend.  Lovely blue feathers on the later.

[Mark Lloyd]

PM me the location and I might check it out.

I remember a kestrel nesting on/in a quarried face at Grindleford it was on the same side as yarncliffe but about half a mile further down the hill.

[Gritlad]

PM me the location and I might check it out.

I remember a kestrel nesting on/in a quarried face at Grindleford it was on the same side as yarncliffe but about half a mile further down the hill.

was it actually in Grindleford or still near the road?

[Nigel]

Was out at stanage after dark tonight and heard a bird with an odd sci-fi style wobbling call - hard to describe but very distinct. Any fucking ideas etc?

Sounds like a 'drumming' snipe. Bit like a goat? Actually comes from the tail feathers. Clip on here:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/jun/08/birds.snipe

NIce one guys, this has settled a mystery. Heard this when I got back to the van after climbing on Creag Dubh Dibadale on Harris, it was about half one in the morning and I thought I was hallucinating / being beamed up by aliens! Didn't sound natural, sci-fi is a good description.

[Bonjoy]

You sure it wasn't a Lapwing aka Pee-wit? They're commoner than Snipe and have an extremely freeky sci-fi wobbly call

[Bonjoy]

There's a male mandarin duck in Endcliffe park at the moment. It looks ridiculous.

thought I saw one in cheedale about 3 week back too

I've seen a pair down Cheedale a year or so back, think they are resident. Do they nest in trees or did I imagine that?

[Johnny Brown]

'in tree holes; rarely on ground in cover'

There's a pair in Endcliffe valley I see quite often, down Chee I've seen them on the pond at the bottom of cragx dale where you park for Rubicon.

[Nigel]

OK, here’s one for you to toss up. Cycling down the Monsal Trail yesterday, between Plum Buttress and The Embankment there was a bird of prey flitting through the trees. It was blue grey on the back, orange on the front. Size was hard to tell from distance, Kestrel-ish? Jizz was distinctive, it would bob and weave dead fast through the tree branches for 100m, then have a perch on a branch, then repeat. Help me out – Merlin or Sparrowhawk?

Will look into Lapwing suggestion for my otherworldly noise, though snipe drumming did sound very like it...

[Johnny Brown]

Male Sparrowhawk.

[BB]

Found this in the garden...

[DaveC]

Found this in the garden...

You need to be a little careful about those little critters. I don't think they are as common up your way as down here in Victoria. We see them pretty much every time we work in the garden at our place.

[BB]

There seem to be quite a few in our garden. I even Found one in my running shoe the other day.

[DaveC]

When growing up we were always told to check our shoes before putting them on, I'd say that might be a good rule around your place as well!

[BB]

Yeah! Very nearly learnt the hard way!

[blacky]

My first blackcap singing yesterday (Somerset tho). My first chiffchaff singing (Peak) on Saturday. Lizards have been active for the last 3 weeks on Langsett moor up to about 500m.

Kestrels tend to hover or perch hunt as they eat voles etc. and nest on ledges, trees, buildings etc in a wide range of habitats
Sparrowhawks are generally woodland nesters and hunters (very agile fliers)  and have a distincitve flap-flap-glide flight.
Merlins are small and tend to nest on the ground in the uplands  - mature heather etc. and pursue song birds rapidly on the wing, can hover too.

[duncan]

Frustration with not climbing or running drove me to hillwalking on the Chilterns.  Going up Bacombe Hill from Wendover through old woodland I heard a noise in the undergrowth that was clearly not just a bird or squirrel.  Turned and saw wild boar about 15m away.  S/he didn't hang around for long but the profile was unmistakable.  A quick search suggests others have seen them in the area.  Made my weekend. 

[SA Chris]

Lizards basking in Dinorwig quarries and a Jay on the way back to the car over the weekend.  Lovely blue feathers on the later.

Blue feathers on the car?

[fatneck]

Reed Bunting spotted in a friends garden in Lincolnshire over the weekend. First for me!

Re Andy's Pex Hill sightings; I've seen Buzzards and Kestrels there in the past. One time I walked in and there was a Kestrel sat in the break on Dateline Wall. Quite often Chiff Chaff's around as well.

A friend of mine allegedly once spotted a Firecrest near Pex. He knew what he was on about as well, was a whizz with bird song (one of my weaker areas of knowledge although the new RSPB app for iPhone is definitely going to help with this!).

Other twitchers I've mentioned this to where highly skeptical about the Firecrest though...

[mrjonathanr]

Reed Bunting spotted in a friends garden in Lincolnshire over the weekend. First for me!

Re Andy's Pex Hill sightings; I've seen[..] Kestrels there in the past. One time I walked in and there was a Kestrel sat in the break on Dateline Wall.

Ditto. Seem to like hanging out on the crux bulge of One of These Days

[SamT]

Lovely red Fox trotting along amonst the boulders at St Bees. Looked down on it as I descended the fishermans steps.  It was unaware of me.  Lovely.  First time I've climbed here, crag to myself, sunny. sweet.

[DaveC]

The mrs & I decided to write down every species of bird we saw in or around our place over Easter. Quite the list!
Australian Magpie
Pied Currawong
Australian Raven
Common Sparrow
Starling
Blackbird
Indian Mynah Bird
Red Wattle Bird
New Holland Honeyeater
Kookaburra
Galah
Sulphur-Crested Cockatoo
Yellow-Tailed Black Cockatoo
Eastern Rosella
Little Lorikeet
Rainbow Lorikeet
Pied Cormarant
Straw-necked Ibis
Great Egret
White-Faced Heron
Yellow Spoonbill
Cape Barren Goose
Wedge-Tailed Eagle
Black Kite
Whistling Kite
Black-Shouldered Kite
Marsh Harrier
Collared Sparrowhawk
Nankeen Kestrel
Australian Hobby (a small Falcon species)
Fairy Wren
Australian Moorhen
White Ibis
Australian Wagtail
+ a couple of duck species, a type of Rail and a honeyeater we couldn't ID.
Forty-odd species in one weekend just from our garden! We were quite staggered.

[SA Chris]

Parked up on the roadside at Nigg Bay on Saturday morning, and was amazed to see a bird of prey on the opposite verge tucking into a half dead pigeon. I got one poor shot before a truck zoomed past and startled it off. I was pretty brown, peregrine or buzzard.

[Nigel]

I was pretty brown, peregrine or buzzard.

This is the most cryptic sentence I've ever read. Are you communicating with your Russian spymasters through this thread?

[SA Chris]

meant to say it

(Are you Grey Sqiurrel?)

[SamT]

pretty brown, peregrine or buzzard.

Peregrins are fairly recognisable, very yellow bill and the distinctive 'sideburns', about the size of a rook.
Buzzards are pretty big things though, bigger than a crow for instance.
did it look like this

http://www.digital-images.net/Gallery/Wildlife/BolsaChica/PealesPeregrin_3214.jpg
or
this
http://www.wildlifeextra.com/resources/listimg/birds/2010%20jan/buzzard_wx_PE@body.jpg