OFF-SEASON OBS - LOCH GARTEN - September 2019-February 2020

Very many thanks Gardenbirder for the link to a great Blog and wonderful news - Such an indepth Blog making really interesting reading too.

scylla said:

I think that should have said "snuck".  Getting so old here :o

Nooooooo! Please do not change---I knew exactly what you meant, love it for two reasons:
• ALL your scyllogisms make me smile.
• I have said "snook" myself on occasion.
And regarding oldness, you have plenty of good-natured company. That's why we're here!

Thank you for the news, GARDENBIRDER

Thank you for the amazing "Ouch!", ALAN

This morning at about 5 past 9 we had two black birds on the perch - one at a time, the first very briefly - CIRRUS (my go-to LG bird lady) thinks they may be juvenile Rooks - we did see a pair of Rooks in the summer, on the perch tree next to the nest.  A few glimpses of the pale feathers have convinced me, if I needed convincing ;)

All the usual birds appeared today, Coal Tits dominating as always lately.

A Chaffie was prominent throughout the afternoon:

A Coat Tit was easily the last bird tho a Crestie had been an evening visitor.

BirdWatchingHQ (Akron, Ohio) has done a 4K test today - if you scroll back at this time of the night you can still get daytime footage - Northern Cardinals, Sparrows, Mourning Doves (whose plumage shows up amazingly in 4K), a Woodpecker I can't ID...

And many others.  I've shown you this cam before, it's the one with the critter cam below showing raccoons, opossums, skunks, groundhogs, etc, at nighttime.

Following links below YT vid I see a Downy Woodpecker listed amiongst colourful visitors!

Here is a link to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, All about Birds for:
Downy Woodpecker:
www.allaboutbirds.org/.../Downy_Woodpecker
Hairy Woodpecker:
www.allaboutbirds.org/.../Hairy_Woodpecker

I hope everyone gets to read this article re the Centre at LG and the loss of the feeder cam.

First in by a long chalk:

It dropped a nut but didn't bother to fetch it in the end:

First bird:

Then another squirrel, then the second bird:

It made the thirds queue up... seconds later there were 7 Coal Tits queuing:

They'd all given up when a BlueTit arived with a couple of Coal Tit hopefuls:

Then the Coal Tits made up for lost time, but it was a squirrel who was first in colour.

That's up to 08:50 - can't do any more till later because I've caught my brother's cold >:(

Thanks, Mike (but I posted that link yesterday morning--lol! Just happened to see it by sheer chance.) I hope Brexit does not mean any difficulties in LG actually receiving the funds or perhaps it is already in the bank. Sad about the webcam but I hope we will not be without it for long. The main thing is, of course, that the cam on the LG nest is up and running before any Ospreys return next year.

Scylla, Sorry to hear you have a cold; hope you feel better soon. But I love your nighttime snaps--thanks! Also, re: the Downy and Hairy woodpeckers, the Downy is smaller than the Hairy. Unfortunately, I cannot tell the size of that Ohio bird in your capture; looking at further photos on the allabout birds site, the longish beak makes me think Hairy although that might just be due to the angle, but presumably since the YouTube list which was noted by Wendy says Downy, then that is probably correct. North America has many more species of woodpeckers than just those two as you will have seen if you wandered around that website