Just seen 'Richard Hammond's miracles of nature' on the Iplayer. There's a nice episode on how Great Spotted Woodpeckers protect their brains from the impact of their beak on the wood (a few nice slow motion shots of it hammering away). Funnily enough, at 34 minutes, we see a short clip of what I can only conclude to be a White-Backed Woodpecker !! (Which I expect is quite a rare bird to be found in the forest of Dean) You only see its head attacking a trunk, but after going through 'Collin's bird guide' and the 'Advanced bird ID guide', I can't see how it could be anything else (unless its an aberrant juvenile Great Spotted Woodpecker of some obscure sub-species). I spent 5 minutes trying to pause the clip exactly so I could properly see the head!
Anyway, I hope I'm right, otherwise I think I'll have to go over all the other woodpecker's I've seen recently to check if I identified them correctly...

Driving Miss Daisy (one of the Beaver cubs)

The Peregrine diet film was shown. Corncrakes as a prey item was the most mindblowing for me!! I think it was in Exeter. Daftest comment was when they found Knot as a prey item in Derbyshire, Mike Dilger said "I bet no Derbyshire birders have seen a live Knot". I presume he meant in Derbyshire - because I am sure many Derbyshire birders visit the coast!! Even if he meant Derbyshire then the big reservoirs get passage Knot every year (classified in the Derbyshire list as scarce - c.10 birds annually)!!

Roger Baker 3 wrote:

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They must have had a great time ...... you can't beat a bit of gore and depravity ! Better than watching telly.

Roger.

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The Romans.......................or the guys making the programme?

I thought the Redstart's timing was impeccable

well that's two of us watching it then, Roger

Mistle Thrush on pitch at Old Trafford on Saturday against Fulham. Mark Schwarzer had to shoo it off.

Springwatch Guide to Seabirds on BBC2 at 9.00pm on Thursday 23rd August.

Cormorant on Eton Dorney lake during the Mens single sculls final today.

Matt Potter wrote:

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Tony Darby wrote:

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"The Jean Genie" and "Rebel Rebel" nicely inserted by Mr Pakham this evening.

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I heard them too! How he does it and keeps his face straight!

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The pure genius of the BBC!

Mr Packham is one of the reasons why I watch Springwatch with the sound turned down.

"The Jean Genie" and "Rebel Rebel" nicely inserted by Mr Pakham this evening.

Paul Wilson wrote:

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Seems that after a season of Cure songs, followed by a season of Damned songs, Chris Pakham has moved on to Bowie songs in this seasons Springwatch.

So far i've heard his say "Be my wife" and "Let's dance".

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Didn't he do Manic Street Preachers one year? Seem to remember 'if you tolerate this' and a couple of others!

One of Worsley's Grey Herons had a brief cameo on tonight's North West Tonight this evening

Take a look at the link to this programme from Norway, its all about the White Tailed Eagle.
Stunning stuff, am slowly working my way through the previous episodes, they certainly know how to make a nature programme, & you don't really need a commentary, the filming speaks for itself.

http://www.nrk.no/nett-tv/klipp/840799/

Fairly sure I could hear a Great Spotted Woodpecker calling on Albert Square in tonight's Eastenders.

Also, the first question on tonight's Pointless was on ducks.

Some great footage of birds on Winterwatch last week (Wed BBC 2), including a nice few shots of Short Eared Owls.
Still on i-player.

Joey Eccles wrote:

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Excellent footage of the cranes being attacked by the eagles and peregrines too. You have to wonder if lone birds usually associated on flocks(such as the lone pink footed goose seen at Rumworth a few days ago) have had similar experiences i.e. attacked by peregrines and forced to land and are waiting for the next geese skein to come over so it can resume it's journey. I have heard reports of peregrines taking geese before so it wouldn't be too far fecthed an explanation would it?

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Hi Joey,

That's an interesting and thought-provoking observation. I personally have seen Peregrines attacking skeins of Pink-feet in GM on two occasions. Firstly, in conjunction with another observer we watched as one attacked a skein over the Rochdale/Calderdale Moors at Light Hazzles on 31/12/03. This sighting is documented in the County Report of that year. I have also observed this once over the Piethorne Valley (again Rochdale moorland) but I can't quickly lay my hands on the date. In my opinion, it is always worth having a second look at skeins that seem to become suddenly and seriously fragmented and disorganised. I guess that there wouldn't be much "logic" in Peregrines bringing down geese over our more heavily built up areas but over quieter moorland areas it might make more "sense", where they could then feed on any kill undisturbed?

This is one of those instances where it would be of interest to try to look at trends. Has the frequency of birds seen "down" increased as the Peregrine population has recovered somewhat?


Best wishes,


Bill.

Just watched Earthflight and was amazed by the amount of grain that the villagers of Khichin put out for the Demoiselle Cranes.

If I heard correctly and doing the sums they said 5000kg per day = 11,000 lbs = about 5 tons

The birds stay from August to March = 8 months = c.240 days

So 240 X 5 = 1200 tons - blimey that's a lot of grain - wonder where it all comes from .

Here's the iplayer links for Earthflight

Earthflight

and also the BBC Radio programme 10 Rare Men

10 Rare Men

Hi Rick,
Earthflight

I notice in the narration that many of the locations are not named.

The scenes of the very high concentrations of Scarlet Ibises, Egrets, Jabirus, Wood Storks, Jacanas, Capibaras, etc. to which you refer, is an unbelievable spectacle and would be shot in the llanos of Venezuela; it looked exactly like Hato Cedral, (a working ranch which floods seasonally), which caters for birding visitors.

Earthflight: South America...

Why oh why do producers of nature programmes have to make everything into a dramatic storyline? The photography was awesome enough. Harpy Eagle taking a baby spider monkey was simply breathtaking. But the stupid narrative about the parrots having to find another salt lick fast or suffer the consequences of a poorly tummy was simply rubbish. Why can't nature programmes just deliver facts anymore? The fact is that they take on the clay to settle their stomachs. There is simply no point in dramatising it. Especially when it's David Tennant's smug face the words are drivveling out of.

Anyway, great photography, but if you're going to watch it, I suggest watching it on mute.

There was one scene of a wetland somewhere near Rio I think where the whole frame of every shot was crammed with all sorts of waders, herons, storks and raptors (including some stunning Ruby Ibises). I honestly think that if there is such a thing as heaven, that's what it will be like.

Midsummer Murders next week is all about murder amongst jealous twitchers apparently. Wonder if Lee is in it?

Nice little programme called Earthflight about bird migration, behaviour and other stuff on BBC 1 at 8.00pm on Thursdays for six episodes. Lots of views from the birds' point of view using birdcams as well as close ups of birds in flight (probably using trained birds following a microlight).

Series started last Thursday (29 Dec) - I missed it live so I watched it on iPlayer where it can still be seen. This was about North America with eagles, snow geese and brown pelicans being featured as they crossed the US. The next programme is about Africa.

Here's a link on the BBC Website: Earthflight

Mr Woosey I do it on purpose to annoy the literalist nit pickers amongst you

Although a small amount of scottish highland water had been consumed,

Take care and Keep Birding.