What is your favourite bird in 2009

Hi all, lovely stories everyone.

I think my best experience for 2009 was as I drove home from work across the marshes.  On my passenger side I saw flying parrallel with my car a barn owl that flew beside me for a good 200 yards along the road.  Luckily there weren't any other cars coming in either direction so I was able to slow right down and just keep watching (with my mouth open in an "Oh") the owl as it gracefully flew with me.   Magical! 

thats sounds great Kezmo! i remember seeing a barn owl hovering over wheat fields in the summer which was a huge highlight. Or being blown away by a enormous flock of Goldfinches (my guess was approx 500!!) in Bedford Priory County Park. On first hearing the noise i thought i'd happened across a roost of starlings! a memory fully etched to last in my mind!

Kezmo, that is brilliant.

I had a similar experience with a huge mute swan. It was flying low along the line of our bye-pass, coming towards me. Fortunately, it was in the next lane and flew right past me.

Hi Lloyd

Beautiful thought, a charm of Goldfinches is lovely to hear with all the tinkling calls that they do.

A chorus of endless tinkles would be lovely to hear any day.

We saw a Barn Owl on a fence close to our former farmhouse years ago.

A drive up a dark farmtrack showed the white plumage of the flying Owl as the bird landed on the Fence post.

Very haunting indeed.

Regards

Kathy and Dave

Unknown said:

thats sounds great Kezmo! i remember seeing a barn owl hovering over wheat fields in the summer which was a huge highlight. Or being blown away by a enormous flock of Goldfinches (my guess was approx 500!!) in Bedford Priory County Park. On first hearing the noise i thought i'd happened across a roost of starlings! a memory fully etched to last in my mind!

Hi Lloyd - Barn Owls are certainly something special.   I am though extremely jealous of your encounter with Goldfinches - seeing something like that would have definitely blown me away too!

Sparrow if I saw a mute swan flying towards me I think I would have crashed the car!

Thanks Blackbird, you're right it is something that will stay in my memory for a long long time.  If it had been MarJus she would have had her camera out and got a couple of shots off.  Dag nammit! I wish I had done the same.

Oh what a choice to pick from, Peregrines to Flycatchers, Kites to Black Throated Divers.

I can't decide, as this year has been exceptional not only from my ringing but the sights I have witnessed whilst out and about just enjoying all birds.

Hours sitting watching and admiring the spectacles of migratory birds, to enjoying the birds in the garden and marvel at the nest building skills of Blackbirds to Blue Tits. 

Ringing migrant birds that have travelled thousands and thousands of miles, Chiffchaff, Willow Warbler etc

My ringing highlight this year has to be a Barn Owl amongst many, many others.

But there is one sight that I possibly won't witness again and will stay in my top 3 birding memories for ever, was watching a Marsh Harrier been mobbed by a Juvenile Peregrine, on this particular day I recorded over 60 species.

Regards Buzzard

Lloyd, I am also so envious of your encounter with all those goldfinches. Such wonderful birds in all respects, and so many all at once. I would have thought I had died and gone to heaven.

Kezmo, I almost did crash the car. I was on my own, and not one member of my family believed me. I have never seen anything so large, with that wingspan, and flying so low - as low as the car roof.

Everyone of us has a special moment every so often, and here's to more of them in 2010.

Hi Kezmo

Yes, it is amazing how often that we never seen to have our camera on us at the right moment.

Dave insists to keep our camera in the camera bag.  The thing is if you see a bird of interest by the time you take the camera out of the camera bag it has gone {sigh}

So we both need to take a few hints form MarJus about the best way to catch a bird on camera LOL {wink}

Love the idea of the Swan, Sparrow.

Regards

Kathy and Dave

Hi Buzzard

You are lost for choice, Buzzard {smile}

The Marsh Harrier and the Juvenile together now that would be a rare thing to witness.  The Barn Owl such a beautiful bird.  Black Throated Divers are quite large birds are they not?

Ringing birds would open a door to see all types of birds anytime, and a real feeling of joy to be able to handle birds of all types

Just to see the Nuthatch being ringed at the Lodge this year was really exciting to see.  Lovely bird to see close up.

Of course ringing any Waders would give you a real close up view of them, and the way they look too - if that opportunity arose

Regards

Kathy and Dave

Buzzard said:

Oh what a choice to pick from, Peregrines to Flycatchers, Kites to Black Throated Divers.

I can't decide, as this year has been exceptional not only from my ringing but the sights I have witnessed whilst out and about just enjoying all birds.

Hours sitting watching and admiring the spectacles of migratory birds, to enjoying the birds in the garden and marvel at the nest building skills of Blackbirds to Blue Tits. 

Ringing migrant birds that have travelled thousands and thousands of miles, Chiffchaff, Willow Warbler etc

My ringing highlight this year has to be a Barn Owl amongst many, many others.

But there is one sight that I possibly won't witness again and will stay in my top 3 birding memories for ever, was watching a Marsh Harrier been mobbed by a Juvenile Peregrine, on this particular day I recorded over 60 species.

Regards Buzzard