OS Daily Thread - Tuesday 13th April

taplady

stroppyjock wrote: »

Hi Taplady.Unless you live near a large pine forest then it wont be a Goshawk. Likely it will be a female sparrowhawk, these can be huuuge birds! As with most birds of prey the female is considerably larger than the male. Not much solice I know and really not much you can do about it either

I'm a birder by the way, I catch and ring wild birds to work out longevity/migration etc and have had some massive female sparrowhawks in my net, always handle very very carefully!

we do live near a lot of pine trees! DH has seen a lot of sparrowhawks and doesn't think its one but he may be wrong, he studied birds all his life. He says to ask you why it might not be frightened of him and he saw it attack a pigeon in the air which is unusual as they usually go for them when they are on the loft as they struggle to carry them. He is wondering if it was once a tame bird. Usually the ones we get are scared of humans.
Thanks for your interest!:T:)

stroppyjock

If you live near pines then it may well be a gosser, they are really big powerful birds, taking birds in flight is unusual as sparrowhawks usually do a "smash and grab" at smaller birds.

:cool: i will investigate and see if goshawks have a tendency to take birds in flight and will report back to you.. For your DH sparrowhawks can be very fearless and will sit in a fence/bush and stare you out 'til the last moment!!

passthewine

I used to have a couple of birds of prey and lived in quite a rural area. Not sure if my birds attracted them but I saw loads of different types. I was told that some had escaped from their handlers. The eagle owl that came was amazing:D
A lady up the road had a barn owl and it was taken mid flight by what looked like a Harris hawk:eek:

Hope your pigeons are ok and you get the others back.

CRANKY40

passthewine wrote: »

On the other side I gave away my sons collection of pokemon cards recently and the lady I offered them to brought him an easter egg as a thank you.:D

I have had two items off freecycle. One was a music centre for my friends son, and one was a video player for the house elf (you can't buy them any more). I took both ladies that I collected from a bunch of flowers. I'd have sold my soul for a video player when ours broke and Grumpy couldn't play his mermaid videos, so £2 for flowers from Asda didn't seem like so great a sacrifice.

HariboJunkie

passthewine wrote: »

I used to have a couple of birds of prey and lived in quite a rural area. .

Ooh I LOVE birds of prey. :j Are they difficult to keep? We are lucky enough to see Sea and Golden eagles up here but never too close up. Sorry your pigeons have gone Taplady .

There was another poster on here who kept birds of prey but her name escapes me atm.
Edited to add: I remember now, her name was Sandy71.:)

taplady

stroppyjock wrote: »

If you live near pines then it may well be a gosser, they are really big powerful birds, taking birds in flight is unusual as sparrowhawks usually do a "smash and grab" at smaller birds.

:cool: i will investigate and see if goshawks have a tendency to take birds in flight and will report back to you.. For your DH sparrowhawks can be very fearless and will sit in a fence/bush and stare you out 'til the last moment!!

thankyou Stroppy! :T DH said it appears to be darker in colour than a sparrowhawk if thats any help. Any info is most welcome.
About 5 miles away from us is a chap that rehabilitates birds of prey that have been kept illegally and we've been told he lets them go so it may well be something like that.

I'll be out there armed with my camera on my days off !:D

meanmarie

Evening all,

Nice to see you Haribo, its been a while.

Diva....so happy to see you back, take your time and look after yourself.

Not keen on birds in captivity, prefer to see and hear them in the wild, very few eagles left in Ireland, a breeding programme for sea eagles is constantly being undermined by cretins who blame them for taking lambs and leave out poison. Like the look of owls but believe that they are cranky so-and-sos.

Had a lovely roam around the town where DGS 2 is at school, had an appointment which took less time than expected but wasn't worth time come home before school ended, enjoyed it no end as OH doesn't understand the need to roam on occasion, without wanting anything specific.

Dinner was lamb stew....made enough for two days so we may have it again to-morrow, really enjoyed it, meat cost about €6, pleased with that as lamb can be sooo expensive here....small chop costs almost €2 so we don't have them very often.

Clothes drying beautifully on line as it has been wonderful for about a week now, can't believe it, a little colder than at weekend but lovely all the same.

Csarina....know how you feel about freecycling....someone took 2 single beds I offered and came back an hour later with them as she had changed her mind....they ended up in dump.

Have some broccoli just coming in garden, will have it to-morrow I think, should be nice if I just use meat from stew and leave the rest for soup....ooooh am I not clever!

Hugs to all,

Marie

AussieLass

Hello Possums,

I've been a real slack !!!! & haven't been on lately. Hope everyone has been happy & well. We had DGS here last week for the holidays which was lovely. He went back Monday. It was raining yesterday but sunshine today so will start the sheets etc soon.

We have heaps of bird life here on the island. I especially love the curlews. They make a noise like a scream at night. Well I"ll love you and leave you. Sleep well. xxx Byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

jackieglasgow

Evening all you "strangers" good to see you are all well. Sandy71 had been posting quite regularly for a while but haven't seen her for maybe three weeks now?

Busy night, went to Aldi, helped OH with the patio, still not quite finished, but we're not divorced and neither of us is under it, so that's a result to be happy about!

Night all. X

donny-gal

Hi everyone, just to update, the new stuff does appear to work with a large amount of elbow grease courtesy of DH. Hospital - concerned for my kidney function which has dropped severely from a year ago. Have to stop two tablets one for BP and a anti-inflamatory, had blood and water tests and lined up for a kidney scan in a couple of weeks, returning in early August. They are hoping that the stopping of these tablets known to affect the kidneys may bring it back. I just hope my knees and ankles can cope and I can keep moving, they have given me some alternative pain killers but thought my BP was so good I did not need the tablets for now. I will monitor and keep in touch with my GP.
Brickie coming to remove the fireplace and inefficient gas flame fire. Piccies here if anyone likes looking a a mess.
DG