Birdwatching from the back garden doesn't get much better....

we had one in the garden a few weeks ago, it grabbed a blackbird but I was watering ,shot it with the hosepipe and it let go.
I know it’s nature and that’s what happens , but preferably not when I’m watching!

 

He's a decent Aew wrestler as well lol, (called Will Osprey).
Despite his absolutely awful southern English accent.

 

Don't get me started with Swans either......crap by the bucket load

 

Saw summat similar a while ago, baby rabbit and baby stoat, both furry little cute things until the stoat dragged the screaming rabbit by the throat down the path. Nature.

 

Yeah I hate it mate when it happens, and I know its nature etc, and that we as humans can't stop it.
But at least if we can sort of stop it when its near us, and say "hey, no you don't, not on my watch!!".

 

Ohh yeah they can also be nasty little characters can't they lol.
I love going to places like Newmillerdam and feeding bread to the ducks.
But when the Swans come out to play, shouting and growling at everything and everybody, as though we are Cardiff fans!.
And I've done it a few times at Hornsea mere, and the Swans there are scum lol.
I'm sure they have all got little flick knives in their pockets!!.

 

The trick is to let them peck you, doesn't really hurt but really riles them when they realise they're not that hard, they sulk.

Oh and don't feed them bread, especially mouldy bread, can potentially give them angel wing and they can't fly. Would stop them depositing buckets of shíte from height tho.

 

Oddly saw very few birds of prey. There weren’t many waders around though so that may have impacted it.

I’m pretty sure there was a peregrine sat on the Menai bridge given the ruckus from oystercatchers which had a nest at the base but it had gone by the time I got my bins.

 

I was attacked by a red kite once. I was camping out up on the moors at Crow Stones, on midsummer's day 2023. I'd taken a couple of chicken legs for my evening snap. A red kite was hunting nearby, and must have smelt my dinner as I was eating it. It hovered above, then started swooping down. I chucked some bits in the air, hoping it would catch them, but it just took them from the ground. Unforgettable experience.

 

Kestrels an Buzzards up ere in Brid, not saying there aint any Red Kites or Osprey but nivver seen any, plenty of greedy Gulls though, an a lovely day art at Bempton Cliffs for the Twitcher Types.

 

Get loads of kites round here in Burton Leonard. Also seen a kestrel and sparrowhawks, and many nights I get twitted at by a tawny owl that sits in a tree when I take dog out for last walk.

 

Superb stuff!!!! Lucky guy!!
Up in Knaresborough last week. Saw quite a few Red Kites.

 

We regularly get Barn owls hunting in the field behind our house, beautiful birds to see so close up.
We've had the odd red kite but they don't seem to want to venture much further south than East Ardsley.