Tag Archives: bird

Apr 26 2025
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

Red kite, green field

Friday 25th April 2025, 2.35pm (day 4,992)

Red kite, 25/4/25

Red kites (Milvus milvus) were nearly extinct in Britain at the end of the last century but in the 2000s, thanks to some serious efforts on behalf of conservationists, have made a remarkable recovery. If you are aware of the place you might not think that Luton would be one of their strongholds, but that is where this picture was taken, just on the edge of that town. There were a number of them gliding around this afternoon seeking prey, and clearly, Luton is not a great place to be a fieldmouse.

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Apr 10 2025
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

Four boobies

Thursday 10th April 2025, 12.50pm (day 4,977)

Masked boobies, 10/4/25

The boobies in question being, of course, the species of seabird (Sula dactylatra), of which there are hundreds, possibly thousands nesting on the Letterbox peninsula, at the eastern tip of Ascension Island. They fly very gracefully but have these big, ridiculous flappy feet and, on the ground, waddle in an amusingly silly fashion. It’s interesting that male and female masked boobies can be distinguished not by their appearance, but by their sound. Males whistle, and females honk. Both noises came out as they watched me pass by, I took the shot, everyone was happy.

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Apr 02 2025
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

Pigeon and pool (early)

Tuesday 1st April 2025, 7.55am (day 4,968)

Pigeon and pool, 1/4/25

Once again, not the most exciting day, photographically or otherwise. But this one can make the cut for the curiosity factor of a pre-8am shot in Manchester: the earliest taken there since December 2022. These used to happen a lot more often; in 2019 alone I count six. But in 2019 I was still trying to be some kind of ‘manager’ at work. Not any more. These days, the Exchange Square pigeons can have their early morning paddles without me. In fact that was the last day I will be on campus until the 22nd.

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Mar 24 2025
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

Canada goose

Monday 24th March 2025, 10.20am (day 4,960)

Canada goose, 24/3/25

The bird theme continues: this is the fourth in a week. A well-lit moment presented itself, and I took it. The local Canada geese were very noisy this morning — a symphony of honking, which I attributed to the fact that it’s surely gosling-making season around now.

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Mar 23 2025
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

Scouse seagull

Friday 21st March 2025, 2.55pm (day 4,957)

Seagull and Liver Building, 21/3/25

“Who you calling a Liver Bird? I ain’t no Liver Bird. Call me that again and I will eat your chips.”

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Mar 18 2025
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

Waiting for lunch

Tuesday 18th March 2025, 1.00pm (day 4,954)

Sparrow at lunch, 18/3/25

There seem to be a lot of sparrows in Gibraltar, and many of them have acquired the habit of hanging around restaurants and cafés: which seems a reasonable evolutionary adaptation to me. On Sunday I went into one place that had an entire flock of them seemingly living inside the building. Here, we are outside, but nevertheless, this chap looks quite content with his lot. All three of us — me, the bird, and the guy behind — were waiting for our lunch.

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Feb 09 2025
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

Bird and stonework

Sunday 9th February 2025, 11:05am (day 4,917)

C said she liked both the bird (‘magnificent’, she put it) and the stonework. I, myself, can see no other reasons to like the shot. So these things will do as a title.

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Jan 21 2025
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

Invasive species: two for the price of one

Tuesday 21st January 2025, 2.30pm (day 4,898)

Flax and chicken, 21/1/25

St Helena has been subjected to many invasive species since humanity first arrived here five centuries ago, some deliberately planted or otherwise introduced, some accidentally so. In the background, New Zealand flax (Phormium tenax), which a while back someone decided would be a good cash crop, it being the basis of things like rope and mailbags. The cash for it stopped flowing fifty years ago, but that doesn’t mean it all decided to stop growing. In the foreground, well, you know what bird that is (Gallus gallus domesticus, according to the biologists): much the same thing happened, but as a chicken is for life and not just for Sunday dinner, when there stopped being much economic point in people looking after them, out into the environment they went. There are now large numbers of feral chickens on the island.

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Jan 18 2025
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

(Very) Red fody

Friday 17th January 2025, 4.25pm (day 4,894)

Red fody, 17/1/25

Another bird, yes, but I’ve been trying to get a decent shot of a red fody, a.k.a. common fody (Foudia madagascariensis) since my first visit here. He — and this is definitely a male — really is that red: I’ve not tweaked the colour settings at all on this one. As the species’ Latin name suggests, they are originally from Madagascar, but have made it over to the other side of Africa by one means or another down the centuries.

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Jan 13 2025
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

Mynah

Monday 13th January 2025, 10.45am (day 4,890)

Mynah bird, 13/1/25

Mynah birds are everywhere on St Helena, and considered something of a pest by the locals, though I have to say I quite like them, they are handsome creatures I think. Two of them were the subject of the photo taken on my first full day here, in quarantine, back in November 2021 and it’s time one made a reappearance. This is the 60th shot taken on the island, and considered as a country, it thus draws level with Russia on the stats, ready to overtake it tomorrow and become the 5th most depicted one on here (after England, Australia, Scotland and Norway). And I doubt I’ll be going back to Russia any time soon — but there is more to be seen of St Helena yet.

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