WHAT'S BUZZING OR FLYING NEAR YOU 2020

Just below what's buzzing!

 

There's at least 6 nests within, or around our village boundary and a friend has a nest at the bottom of her garden. See plenty perching, but for some reason as soon as you point a lens at them they're off. Got a shot of this one today before it saw me:

 

I find that with some birds @Scrungee, it could be they see the reflection of the lens.

 

Not so much “buzzing”, as occasionally “crackling” - but I don’t think we have a thread for that!!

Not sure what it is, as it’s hiding underneath the leaf, and I took the photo with my phone (camera has a flat battery,and the spare battery is ... also flat)

edit: my suspicions have been confirmed - it is a female southern hawker.

 

Red Kite just about to leave it's perch

 

Young Kestrels.

 

A brown-headed cowbird, they are brood parasites, laying their eggs in the nests of other species.

 

Eastern Bluebird.

 

Cuckoos here do the same thing @hydrogardener. The Eastern Bluebird is pretty, are they small birds?

 

@Sheal strangely American Cuckoos don't parasitise other birds unlike our one.

@shiney if it doesn't disturb them any more, then yes, it may help if it is in a very sunny position.

Our resident pair nested for the first time in our garden in an Abutilon on the garage wall where we could watch her building the nest. Sadly she abandoned it with three eggs in. She then quickly built another in another hedge but abandoned that one too! A third nest was built the other side of our back fence and at last three young have just fledged!!!!
Male is doing most of the feeding.

 

I didn't know that, we learn something new every day.

 

Young Western Bluebird at Bryce Canyon (from a couple of years ago), looks similar to the Eastern one.

 

They are slightly larger than a sparrow. They are also hard to approach and not common at feeders unless you are feeding mealworms, which are costly. They will at times take suet in the extreme winter months.