Add your "Odds & Sods" here thread ... 2020

One of the local valleys little owls this morning. Started seeing him or her up on the wires as I pass under on the lane but today he/she was adamant they weren't moving. The closest I've been to them, not keen on portrait but I cropped and saved for a close up with the P900.

Great to see the Little Owl Bob and what good views you got of it;  not jealous in the least  LOL

House Martins x 2 pairs are still busy with their nesting,  females seem to be incubating the eggs whilst presumably the male is bringing in insects to feed the female.

only record shots.

Unknown said:

Michael B said:

I was too busy watching the crows in a neighbouring garden at the time!

Basic error, there. Never get distracted when someone else has a camera!

Possibly, or it might have paid a dividend, Mrs PR said  the camera was too heavy and bulky.....

Seen on Twitter from the National Trust...

Your so lucky Hazel, second year running now we don't have any nesting on our house, just empty nests.

Let's hope for some little HM's soon!
On a sort of related note. I was in the park the other day with 1 Sand Martin, a couple of House Martins and at least a dozen or so Swifts hawking over the reed beds. No idea where the Swallows had gone! Only the Swifts would fly literally at head height straight at me just to veer off at the very last moment. I was forced to flinch at least once they were so near - sometimes curling around me less than 6ft away! I haven't experienced a flock of Swifts doing that for years. Fabulous!

I agree, Tony, Hazel is very lucky to have House Martins nesting there. There have been no House Martins in our area for 15 or 20 years or more, while 30 years ago there were a dozen or more nests in our neighbourhood. We even had a nest on our house about 30 years ago. That was a different house than the one we've been in for the last year, but it was only 3 miles away. In the autumn, the flocks were up to 50 or more. I really miss them and their cheery twittering. The problem is not Sparrows--we never had any then and only saw a few for a couple of years about 10 years ago and none before or since. The only thing I can think of is killing by humans along their migration flyways and the complete murder of our entire local flock.

Great set of pics again Hazy with those lovely House Martins, looks good so far for a family.
Bob I love the view of the Little Owl, great pic.
Nigel I have heard about Zoom meetings but not Swift. Know which I would prefer:-)

Thanks everyone,   even with busy House Sparrows raising their broods they don't seem to be bothering the Martins apart from the first pics I got when two male Sparrows went for a bit of a nosey round the nesting site.    From what I witness all seem to be doing their own thing and Martins, especially what I imagine is the male is zipping back and forth at intermissions to bring food to the female who is still incubating the eggs.    We have two pairs in nests next to one another;    pity a couple of other nests were damaged although we do appear to have a healthy number of martin in the general area as I see them over the fields.     So far I've only seen the one pair of Swallows whereas last year we had at least 3 pairs near the courtyard.    No doubt they are using nearby outbuildings for their nests but I see them perched up on the wires each day.   

@ Tony, I hope you get the martins back next year, fingers crossed. 

@ Nige,  what a thrill to have such an encounter with Swifts - the only similar thing I had was when a Sparrowhawk which must have had something in it's eyeline and without any fear headed less than a metre over our heads as we were sitting on the patio at the other garden,  all I remember is us both instinctively ducking as those huge orange/yellow eyes came on full throttle towards us and just thankful we were not on the daily specials menu  LOL

@ Ann,   I do hope you get to see local martins again,  they do have a funny chirruping;ratchety sound as they come flying in and I noticed they continue their bonding just being contentedly next to one another  - awww  !     I agree that so many birds don't make it here due to human intervention/trapping and I fear that may have increased during the pandemic when more illegal activity can go on with less scrutiny.     I read recently via BBC  that the raptor persecution has, unsurprisingly,  increased during lockdown;   it is still so sad that a human can harm birds/nature in such a way …. even for lucrative business purposes;   at Easter a Red Kite for instance was found with a dozen shotgun pellets inside it's body.     These people have no conscience;  how would they feel if someone did the same to their faithful "illegally working" dog.      

@ Gaynor, keep up those zoom meetings with uke  !   must be fun to get together.  

Not the clearest of photos, but it was grab the camera and shoot away before they disappeared behind trees, a buzzard being mobbed by a crow.

Its not often I see a pair of dunnocks together, usually they're on their own, but we do have a few visiting.

And a collard dove, not seen one for a good while around here, so nice to see this one.