Mark Rigby wrote:

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Then there was the Firecrest, again at Spurn, who decided he was going to fight Mr. Chorley for his pork pie, but that's another tale........

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Give the observed behaviour on that day, it's surprising that Wigan isn't awash (or should that be afeather) with Firecrests

Spurn 02/10/1998

Saw Rustic Bunting, Black Redstart, Bluethroat, Subalpine Warbler, Pied Wheatear and Red-breasted Flycatcher!

But the highlight was 1000's of Goldcrest at the Point. They were everywhere, dropping from the skies, on the ground, on peoples heads and perched on tripods-truly unbelievable.

Myself and Mr.Chorley (if my memory serves me correct) found a rotting cat's corpse full of maggots. We shovelled the maggots out of the cat with a piece of roofing slate and threw them to the Goldcrest......................

Then there was the Firecrest, again at Spurn, who decided he was going to fight Mr. Chorley for his pork pie, but that's another tale........

Here's one if you consider Herring Gulls to possess a certain charm;

1) Visit the North Wales coast in the middle of winter

2) Buy some fish and chips

3) Toss any manky-looking chips in the air one at a time.

I guarantee some extremely close encounters, and none of the chips will reach the ground.

we ended up surrounded by gold crests feeding off the ground in a wood by the snake pass inn. a couple of months ago.

at one point i was sitting on the ground with my back against a tree trunk and one landed on a twig straight above my head, i could touch the twig from my sitting position.
but couldn't take a picture because it was too close for my lense to focus.

I have seen them on heather where I have had to look down on them only feet away!

Dennis atherton wrote:

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as we all know goldcrests usually stay at the top of trees and usually quite tall ones too, last week i had the best view i had ever had of a goldcrest on bradshaw brook, it was as usuall at the top of the tree but it was only a eight foot high tree and was just above my head, the closest encounter of that bird for me, excellent

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Me and my daughter had cracking views of a pair of goldcrests at Quarry Bank Mill on Saturday too, they were at eye height and flitted round the edge of a bush for a good few minutes, best views I've ever had and a first for my young 'un.

as we all know goldcrests usually stay at the top of trees and usually quite tall ones too, last week i had the best view i had ever had of a goldcrest on bradshaw brook, it was as usuall at the top of the tree but it was only a eight foot high tree and was just above my head, the closest encounter of that bird for me, excellent

i once had a juvenile kingfisher land on my fishing rod.it couldnt keep its balance and flew off.at the same time a green woodpecker landed on the far bank.but it was only about 7 or 8 metres away.easily the nearest ive been to a GW. id like to say the tip of my rod shot sideways and i was into a world record chub but id be lying.

Once a Sparrowhawk visited my works garden twice in as many days.

My boss was horrified and begged me to do something.

It is nature and is the order of things, but there's a time that the prey will never come back from.
So to run out and try and save the bird from a horrible death, once it has been attacked, might be inadvertantly more cruel,the damage has already been done,as then it will suffer a very long and slow death

I watched a juv Sparrowhawk for about 30 mins today whilst it sat on top of the aviary in the childrens' play area in John Leigh park in Altrincham. Every now and then it would drop off it's perch on the roof and fly along outside the cage, sending the budgies, cockatiels and zebra finches into an absolute frenzy. It too wasn't going to be disturbed from it's task - I got well within touching distance (had to back away because my camera wouldn't focus!) and appeared completely unperturbed when I jumped up and waved my arms at it to try to scare it off before the park keeper tries to deter it in a more forceful way (I'd already seen him with a net on a long pole earlier in the day).

Nice photo opportunity though!

I think you may be correct Mike, it certainly was not going to let a couple of humans interrupt its meal.

It is also an excellent hunter as it has just caught a Blackbird and is eating it while perched in the tall Birch tree at the rear of my garden as I type this.

It tried to catch a Blackbird earlier while Dave Winnard with his cameras was in my garden but the hawk missed the bird. Unfortunately Dave left about 40 minutes ago so he has missed this photo opportunity.

It really is a beautiful looking hawk

Sounds very much like an escaped or cast-off falconer's bird, which would be used to feeding on the glove, usually dead meat. The leather loops might be where the longer jesses (think dog lead) would be attached.

A really amazing close encounter this afternoon at 5.30pm as I watched the Hailstone start to come down from my kitchen window.

A Starling suddenly hit the window closely followed by a Female Sparrowhawk, both falling to the path with the hawk grabbing the screaming Starling. I ran outside to find the hawk covering the Starling with its wings as it started to peck at the Starlings chest.

I carefully kneeled down within 3' of the birds as the hailstones turned to heavy rain, the noise coming from the Starling caused my next door neighbours to come outside to see what was going on. The hawk totally ignored us as it opened up the starlings chest and started to eat the bird alive. This went on for about 8-10 minutes , the starling continually screaming, the hawk making no attempt to fly away or put the starling out of its misery.

Both my wife and my neighbours said that I should have moved the hawk off and stopped the suffering to the starling. Try explaining that it is just natures way and let the hawk sort it out to 3 people who are watching a little bird being eaten alive.

The rain was now hammering down as the starling went quiet, the hawk spent another minute removing the rest of the flesh from around its chest and neck . Everyone else had gone back inside as the Hawk stopped feeding and just watched me.

A really Beautiful bird, in pristine condition, not ringed on either leg but I noticed a small piece of leather strap about 8mm in diameter tied to the left leg with 2 short ends of about 15-20mm coming from the knot. The leather looked old and was curled up. It was not tightly tied and there was no swelling evident from the birds leg.

The hawk nearly caused me a heart attack as it suddenly flew over my head and disappeared over the houses.

I can't help thinking that this hawk may have been use to people as it certainly did not mind a close audience. It stripped out most of the flesh from the starlings breast though making no attempt to kill it first.

I have seen Sparrowhawks catch birds in my garden before, mainly Collared doves which seem to die from the shock of the attack before the hawk can do any damage with its beak. I have never before seen such a prolonged death from any bird from a Hawk attack.

A Beautiful close encounter but it really was Nature in the raw.

Pete, the feeding station in the lay-by near Rostherne is long gone, was a magical place in the 1970,s.

Keep birding

Theres a place trying to think exactly where it is now somewhere near Rostherne and Tatton park but was a few years ago so I am struggling.

Anyway its a layby with a wood by the side and people put seed on the fenceposts. The usual woodland birds Blue Tits, Great Tits, Coal Tits and Nuthatches come down for the seed on the posts. Then I discovered by putting seed in your outstretched hand holding your arm through the car window keeping arm really still they came and perched on your hand and took the seed.

I wish I could remember where it was now.

I was photographing a Robin on a fence in Lyme Park over Christmas and took my eye off the bird to change the settings on my camera.
When I'd done, I looked through the viewfinder to where the Robin was and he wasn't there
Just thinking he must of flown off, I lifted my head to see him perched on the end of my lens, staring straight at me!

Anthony

That's amazing!! What a great experince

Yeah l'm sorry for the tit but we all have to eat.

I'm starting to wonder if I am invisible....... I've just had a male sparrowhawk land at my feet in my side garden (complete with blue tit). It came through the hawthorn hedge, landed on the ground less than a foot from me looked up at me, waited few seconds and then took off with its prey. Not good for the poor blue tit which was still alive at that point but I figured that once a sparrowhawk had got its tallons into it it survival would be very unlikely so I stood very still rather than spook it and make it drop it. They have to eat too don't they?

Cool, only managed to tempt a Robin in the spring with grubs from the garden, cleaning out the veg patch.

Keep birding

cool, buy some bird feed for your free hand and a better way of disipating your excess heat and you may have a cool xmas card photo for next year!

Late this afternoon I was grubbing around in the pond at work (I'm in the process of relocating its contents). I had one arm in the freezing cold water and my other hand on the edge of the pond to balance myself and prevent an afternoon swim. I felt a bit of a scratchy sensation on the back of my hand which was gripping the edge and looked round to find a Robin was using me as a perch. I couldn't believe it when if flew off my hand, rummaged round in some pond weed, found a pond slater and then returned to the back of my hand to eat it!