We live in the middle of Edinburgh but still there is a fair amount of bird activity. In these light evenings of early summer our local blackbird (who has the most beautiful song of any blackbird) duets with the loudest chaffinch I've ever heard. Both the blackbird and chaffinch have songs that I learnt to recognise quite a long time ago. It's only more recently that I've learnt to recognise the dunnock's lovely song, which also is heard a lot round here. We have the swifts here too of course, which I blog about a lot. The other day we had 44 starlings sitting around on roofs and chimneys, which is a lot for round here these days.
Up the road in the car park, where unexpectedly I recently saw a swallow, I also regularly hear what sounds like goldfinches, though as I'm not 100% confident of my ability to recognise their song, I'll need to wait to see them before I know for sure!
11 comments:
When we went to the zoo last Friday we seen violet starlings. They were beautiful. I couldn't get a picture of one though because it was too fast- even in it's confined space. We heard quite a few different birds calling at the zoo too. I especially liked the peacock. They're loud for their size. Hope all is well. Have a great day.
I fell in love with the call of the cuckoo over the water on Skye last summer. So pure. I haven't any idea about how the acoustics on water work, but it was real treat for the ears.
I agree with you about chaffinch - they're certainly loud and clear! And they have quite a range of calls. Like you, I'm just beginning to get me head around them.
Nice! It so is such a gift to know their songs (I know a few of "my birds" but not all I'd like to. I keep thinking I must take a class.)
So many different songbirds. Must be so lovely to hear.
How nice to have birds singing all around you!
I love listening to the birds too. The most common right now are the crows across the street. I think they have a nest in there somewhere.
Michelle - the peacock has such a werid call, doesn't it?
Coastcard - oh Skye was full of cuckoos when we were there, their calls are so wonderful....
Mistlethrush - one reason why the chaffinch can be tricky is they have different dialects round the country....
Deb - the RSPB website that i link to in posts like this is a great place to learn British birdsongs. There must be other online resources. CDs too which can help you get familiar with the birdsongs before you go out and listen to them in their natural habitat
Janice, furrybutts, yes, lovely - thanks!
Deb - oh i fogot to mention the jackdaws which we get a few of here too
so good to hear that there are lots of birds in the city. we live in a very little town, this year it seems much more filled with a variety of different birds than it has in previous years. i'm pulled out our bird-spotting guide and am trying to recognise them all. yesterday on my way to work a woodpecker flew across the road as i was driving, it was lovely to see.
p.s. - have a good weekend :)
Hi,
It came to my attention that your blog is popular! Are you aware of this? Let me explain... as I was googleing around Your blog came up top 10 under the keyword birds. This is pretty good and you could be making a lot of money through your blog.
Check this out:
www.bloggingtothebank.com
Post a Comment