Walking round our local 'patch' birdwatching this week, the conversation turned to species we now see regularly, but were unknown up to a few years ago, and then common species we used to take for granted but now rarely / never see.

On the 'new list' we have Little Egret, Avocet, Great White Egret, Spoonbill,Peregrine Falcon, Common Buzzard among others.

On the 'missing' list are House Sparrow, Grey Partridge, Woodcock.

What's on everyone else's lists?

No chance of doing a Hugh Fernly 10 bird roast then ??

Yogi.

None whatsoever if I have anything to do with it! How much meat is on a snipe anyway? That programme was done for TV effect rather than culinary delight I fear! I'm with the Buddhists on that one....Ok to eat so long as it's roadkill! (Apart from the rabbits who feast on my veggie patch that is! That is WAR!) Otherwise it's Sainsbury's for me!

Lovely big great white egret down the road BTW!

Post script to my last posting

Apparently there are EIGHT Glossy Ibis up on the Kent Estuary at the moment. Where have THEY come from I wonder. No prizes for guessing where I will be going on my day off tomorrow! Seems that the NW bays are becoming the holiday venue of choice for some nice rarities! Will try and get a pic and post in the gallery (when I work out how it's done that is!) HELP! RICHARD!

Hi

when I was younger we never got Commas , Speckled Woods and Buzzards, now they are two a penny.
We used to see loads of Wall butterflies but I rarely see one these days, and Small Tortoiseshells arn't as common as they were either.

neil

Interesting! We used to get loads of Brimstones but now get far fewer in comparison to commas etc. Hopefully the raptors are on the increase now that the gamekeepers etc are being kept in line?

Interesting thread,as for birds in my garden the numbers of House Sparrows have trebled and there are a lot of Collared doves,the Sparrowhawk is a regular visitor,inevitable i suppose with the hight number of sparrows.Birds in decline seem to be the Chaffinch,Bluetits and Song Thrush

Interesting regional variations then? We are INUNDATED with chaffinches and bluetits here! Fewer song thrushes here too. Another marked increase is in local population of both long-tailed tits and goldfinches - both guaranteed to liven up the birdfeeders!

On the mammal front - happy to report that we are getting lots of sightings of otters in the NW (including one in the centre of Manchester, according to my daughter!). Red squirrels happily beginning to fight off that dreadful 'squirrel pox' that decimated their already sparse numbers a couple of years ago.

Just got back from the Kent Estuary where I was met with the phrase that ALL birdwatchers learn to DREAD "Glossy Ibis - yes they've been here all week but you just missed them"

Scuse me while I SCREAM!!!!

Hi all, I'm new to the forum and just feeling my way around. Little Egrets caught my eye. These birds were almost non-existent on our local estuary {Lwchwr Estuary S Wales } just seven/eight years ago, but now it's a real pleasure to count them in flocks here of thirty birds or more. Beautiful things to watch dabbling in the mudflats here. Quite approachable too for camera work.

Haven`t seen any tits on my feeders for almost a year... vast increase in Sparrows, tho` !


Joey

There has been a dramatic decrease in the number of red squirrels in my area, so i decided to do a project on it (i'm a student at durham uni)!! We're creating a hypothetical vaccine against the Parapox virus affecting Red Squirrels. It would be much appreciated if you would take a minute to fill out this short survey (only 10 questions); it would help us to find out whether this is a viable project or not!! Please answer honestly it would help a lot!!

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/TZ9MHC2

Thanks

Hmm, I feel that there is a touch of "in my lifetime" here, since some of the species listed in the first post are merely returning to a previous population density rather than really new species - the spoonbill and especially the peregrine come to mind. With the latter species they are recovering from low numbers after the use of DDT, plus, they were killed in large numbers during WWll to protect carrier pigeons. Also, in my area particularly, the increase in abandoned quarries has given them a lot more nesting sites.

Many animals have periodic cycles of high and low population densities - rabbits, for instance have a seven year cycle (mixy allowing).

WildWoman, I have a mobile phone, with Skype, on which I get updates of bird sightings around the country. PM me if you want more info.

I was reading a copy of Birds magazine recently which stated that Bullfiinches are off the UK red list. This winter we've seen many bullfinches on our feeders so they're certainly making a come-back here in the south west.

Thats good, I'm off to the South West soon so I might get to see one.

Yogi.