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From Our Gardens 2025

We have a regular pair of crows who vist our garden. I think they must have chicks they are feeding. They seem to have found a source of bread which they bring to our garden and soak it in the water bowl we leave out everyday and make it all mushy to feed the chicks.

 
Mark Tooze said:
After consulting a bird book we think they are Tawny Owls - have been with us for the last 3 nights. If they come back tonight I have 2 Canon speedlites waiting to try and get some better photos!
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thats great mark...fingers crossed they pay a visit tonight

lyn
 
Morturn said:
We have a regular pair of crows who vist our garden. I think they must have chicks they are feeding. They seem to have found a source of bread which they bring to our garden and soak it in the water bowl we leave out everyday and make it all mushy to feed the chicks.

Click to expand...
That's exactly what the crows do in our garden. Whatever I throw out to them they dunk it in the bird bath!
 
Tawny Owl update - last night the 2 chicks (without mom unfortunately) arrived whilst it was still light enough to see them, so we managed to get some decent-ish photos:-
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Then the one chick flew away for a bit:-
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By now it was dark so we had to use flash again - the chick was eye-balling me:-
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Then they were both together again:-
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for the last 2 evenings same time i have seen about 6 to 8 what could be pigeons but smaller.. white in colour circling over head for about 20 mins...they seem smaller than the usual pigeon and seem to flap their wings a lot faster...the odd thing is that at least half of them have bright red wings as though someone has sprayed them...would anyone know why ? is it to ward off predators ? are they racers i wonder

lyn
 
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The redwing (turdus iliacus) sort of gets there, it has a creamy white chest with brown flecks, and a bright red or orange underwing. A bit small to make you think of a pigeon though, more thrush sized. Certainly flaps faster than a pigeon.

On an adjacent topic, and to bring it directly to the forum, did you know that there is a Birmingham roller pigeon ? Bred in Brum for racing and showing. Apparently had a distinct flying pattern that makes it very fast. Not what you saw because they are brownish.

Andrew
 
thanks andrew but these birds are definately sprayed red on the wing.. since i first posted i have read that this is done to deter predators and what is used is red food dye..

lyn
 
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