Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Birds

I can hear Birdsong, well I could until a minute ago, my dog started barking and in doing so scared the blackbirds away, and so I just called her back into the house, in fact I tempted her in with a piece of cheese.

I was reading yesterday that huge flocks of starlings are becoming a rarity in the UK. I didn't realise this, I thought that they were still very common.

Starlings make me remember when I worked in the city of Birmingham in a very big bank. In the winter when I left to take the train home, the noise in the streets was incredible. The starlings settled on the huge Victorian building opposite and also in a few trees, yes trees!. I think that many people regarded them as a pest like pigeons.

Now my favorite birdsong is probably the Skylark, which I used to hear occasionally in Dorset, where I lived for many years. My favorite piece of classical music is the Lark Ascending by Vaughan Williams. Well Skylarks are very rare too. Link here about the music, and here.


When we lived in Dorset we spent several years living in a cottage, and the chimney pots along this lane were very popular with Jackdaws, I love em they are so funny and get up to all sorts of nonsense. In fact the garden was always full of different types of birds, and we often heard woodpeckers.

It would seem that even the humble sparrow has declined in numbers, that I find very hard to understand because I would have thought that they didn't need a special habitat, just shows what I know.

I love to see the big birds of prey here in Brittany, they swoop the fields, and annoy the crows.

Yes I even like crows, am I the only person who does? The garden here has wrens, blackbirds, finches, the odd thrush and the territorial robin. I will keep a look out for any sparrows.

Here is a picture that I took last year, one evening, it is a grey heron in a tree down yonder, the heron is a symbol for this village along with three golden tree stumps.

Grey Heron takes a rest


Let me know if you see any sparrows today!

The French word to settle somewhere to live is s'installer.

The French word for nonsense (well one of them) is billevesée

Etymology for the word common.

9 comments:

Robynn's Ravings said...

BLU!! Thanks for writing back. This is the url I'm going to:

http://frenchwithmusic-blu.blogspot.com/

All your songs and videos are there. You can't see them from your end? That is so weird. I saw you put up some new links today but not the actual You Tube videos. I can see and watch them all and am in LOVE!!! My daughter and I watched them all again last night. I love your musical taste. Let me know if you are able to access them and my comments. I also see you are following my blog on that page but you don't show up as a follower on my blog. What weirdness is going on in blogland??!! LOL Did you click my follower button on my page? Anyway, keep the music coming....please!

Jude said...

I'm glad you enjoy the walks. The bird song is very different here. I've been thinking of writing a post about them but it's rather difficult as my camera would struggle taking any decent photos.
Take care

bindu said...

I love hearing the birds too. It is spring here in Austin and I can leave all the windows open, feel the cool breeze and constantly hear bird song. It is lovely. But you are right. Many species of birds have disappeared and are disappearing because of people. It will be a poor life with no birds to listen to.

French Fancy... said...

I didn't know starlings were getting scarce in the UK. Every time I used to meet a friend in Leicester Square to go and see a film, we'd see flocks of them being scared out of the trees in the Square by this automatic scarer machine. No wonder they've disappeared - bloody frightened to death.

Anonymous said...

Gorgeous photo! Love the golden light.

We have lots of starlings, sparrows, herons, cranes and swallows here in Sweden. Oh - eagles too.

Woodwosecarving said...

Hi Blu we have a pair of noisy Sparrows flirting in the bush outside of the kitchen window. they nest in a hole in the cladding on the house every year. every year I talk about filling in the hole, every year the cheeky little sparrows win me over. In regards to starlings in Pembrokeshire there is a huge flock which nest near to Camrose. I dont know but i would hazard a guess at close to tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands, its a sight to behold on a cold winter morning. Dave

Blu said...

Ok Robyn muck up is sorted.

Jude photos of birds!!tres difficile, I tried to photo butterflys last year!!oh my nearly impossible.

Bindu, nice to have the window open, I dont because I seem to attract bumble bees!

French fancy, Leicester Square, just like the pigeons eh!

Lady fi EAGLES..wow..

Dave glad that you have a soft spot for the love birds!

Anonymous said...

I love birds. I'm a bit of a twitcher, but very much an amateur. I too love the song of the skylark. It's haunting. I used to have offices on a little airfield and there were quite a few there. They seem to like small airfields for some reason - particularly if they have a grass strip. I love the birdlife around us in France it's vast. Have you ever seen a hoopoe (spelling?). I was astonished when I saw my first one. They're wonderful. Also, when I was in Cornwall once I witnessed a fabulous 'mobbing' of a peregrine falcon by some plucky little Jackdaws. They were so brave. They were protecting their youngster. It was fabulous to see. Gosh, I could go on. I get so enthused about birds (and fungus!!) xxx

ArtPropelled said...

That's strange...our sparrow population has diminished in a big way. Every house used to have several nest sites in the eaves but I never see sparrows anymore.