Garden / Yard List 2025 (7 Viewers)

[Bismarck Honeyeater]

A couple of snippets, some more tantalizing than others.

A female House Sparrow seen by where I suspect they are nesting was encouraging, as I have only seen the male for quite a while, and wondered if they had split up. Apparently not.

Later down by the river, I glimpsed what was likely another female House Sparrow dive into a bush, with nesting material. 🚌 🚌 🚌

A Green Carpet, which landed on the footbridge, was new for me.



A few Starlings have started to appear, after a maybe 6 week absence. I guess they have been off nesting elsewhere in the town. They should be pretty regular now, feeding with their young on the cricket pitch.

Also on the cricket pitch an Oystercatcher, 2 yesterday.. it got flushed by rampant dogs 🤨 It was interesting to see where it went, over to some farmland, and not down the river, where I expected it to go.

This morning a local birder had a probable Night Heron fly past his garden, I shared my wish/hope that I would get one in my millstream one day. He said he daren’t believe it from the garden, I know how he feels.

Anyhoo… I’m in the bathroom at c.21:15, window open, and what do I hear? What sounded like a Night Heron! Certainly not Little Egret or Grey Heron. A short double-call then a single. I’m at a loss as to what else it could be, but there’s certainly no way I could claim anything on the basis of two calls.

I know where I will be tomorrow evening though, maybe it will call three times - that would do it.

I might be in for a garden tick, of sorts, tonight. Airforce One is due in between 23:00-04:00. I’m happy to tick it on call as I’ve already seen it a few years ago but not from the garden.

I did have Marine One on my old house list in London, twice.

 

[Richard Prior]

A couple of snippets, some more tantalizing than others.

A female House Sparrow seen by where I suspect they are nesting was encouraging, as I have only seen the male for quite a while, and wondered if they had split up. Apparently not.

Later down by the river, I glimpsed what was likely another female House Sparrow dive into a bush, with nesting material. 🚌 🚌 🚌

A Green Carpet, which landed on the footbridge, was new for me.

View attachment 1645277

A few Starlings have started to appear, after a maybe 6 week absence. I guess they have been off nesting elsewhere in the town. They should be pretty regular now, feeding with their young on the cricket pitch.

Also on the cricket pitch an Oystercatcher, 2 yesterday.. it got flushed by rampant dogs 🤨 It was interesting to see where it went, over to some farmland, and not down the river, where I expected it to go.

This morning a local birder had a probable Night Heron fly past his garden, I shared my wish/hope that I would get one in my millstream one day. He said he daren’t believe it from the garden, I know how he feels.

Anyhoo… I’m in the bathroom at c.21:15, window open, and what do I hear? What sounded like a Night Heron! Certainly not Little Egret or Grey Heron. A short double-call then a single. I’m at a loss as to what else it could be, but there’s certainly no way I could claim anything on the basis of two calls.

I know where I will be tomorrow evening though, maybe it will call three times - that would do it.

I might be in for a garden tick, of sorts, tonight. Airforce One is due in between 23:00-04:00. I’m happy to tick it on call as I’ve already seen it a few years ago but not from the garden.

I did have Marine One on my old house list in London, twice.

That will be a tick to ‘trump’ the rest of us BH……
I am currently on my best behaviour as we have guests visiting for a few days, but I blotted my copybook and ruined my previous good reputation for impeccable table manners(?) at lunchtime yesterday as I swapped knife and fork for binoculars in mid-meal as I saw a small bird zipping around the fruit trees very energetically. Thankfully it soon sat still briefly allowing me to clinch the id., only my third spring

78 Spotted Flycatcher

since our arrival in 2016. We get them every autumn without fail but nice to see they’re not impossible at this time of the year too.

 

[Bismarck Honeyeater]

If I were playing bridge my bid last night would have been ‘no Trumps’ in fact I had the best nights sleep for ages. 🤣Didn’t hear a thing, maybe he didn’t turn up.

Back to the strange call I heard last night. I remembered this morning that on Sunday morning Merlin™️ gave me Little Bittern. Which I obviously dismissed. But I thought I would check the call on Xeno-Canto and it’s not a million miles from Night Heron, nor what I heard last night. The mystery continues.

 

[An Caislín Dearg]

Had my first addition to the lifetime garden list in about 8 months in the form of a Common Cuckoo yesterday. One has been singing intermittently in the area for the last 10 days or so. I finally tracked it down to a particular clump of trees while out birding on the weekend and a chance scope of the area yesterday morning yielded brief flight views. As a child they were commonplace but then pretty much disappeared. They have only reappeared in the area in the last couple of years and are always a struggle to get eyes on. No. 105 for the all time list and No. 87 for 2025.

 

[Steve Lister]

May 12th
60. Hobby - one briefly showed interest in the few local Swifts and House Martins

 

[gerald762]

That will be a tick to ‘trump’ the rest of us BH……
I am currently on my best behaviour as we have guests visiting for a few days, but I blotted my copybook and ruined my previous good reputation for impeccable table manners(?) at lunchtime yesterday as I swapped knife and fork for binoculars in mid-meal as I saw a small bird zipping around the fruit trees very energetically. Thankfully it soon sat still briefly allowing me to clinch the id., only my third spring

78 Spotted Flycatcher

since our arrival in 2016. We get them every autumn without fail but nice to see they’re not impossible at this time of the year too.

I hope your punishment was not too severe! Perhaps doing the washing up for a week!

 

[angusmcoatup]

The Hooded Crow alarm system worked impeccably today, White tailed Eagle adult making its way from lake towards the valley opening of the mountains ahead.

 

[Andy Lakin]

Another leucistic Blackbird this week (probably bird number 6 overall) weirdly similar white feathers on head but sufficiently different enough to I.d.

 

[Bismarck Honeyeater]

An anticipated, but none the more for that, year-tick this afternoon. #90 Reed Warbler, singing from the Buddleia scrub. Spot on for a spring arrival, which though not quite annual, usually arrive between 13th-26th May. I do have an April date, and they can turn up from July through to September, though they are probably juveniles and never singing by then.



The next most likely birds would be Whitethroat, Hobby or Tawny Owl - or hopefully something from left field.

Common Blue Damselfly was NFY today, and is the 6th Dragonfly for the year.

I'm now off to wander round the garden in the hopes of yesterday's mystery caller re-appearing...

 

[Sherpa]

Came to this thread late, sorry. I'll try to post updates from time to time. Living on the edge of the Humber near Spurn. Finally moved into newly built house. Thought I'd do a garden year list, although many distractions, particularly mornings out down Spurn Point, conspire against a really big list.

Kentish Plover 129 on the Humber on Saturday was the first BBRC species of the year. Red-backed Shrike 130 yesterday was also nice. Other highlights so far include Tundra Bean Goose, Water Rail, Glossy Ibis, Caspian Gull, Bee-eater, Woodlark, Hawfinch and Waxwing. Annoying that I can't count the seven Swedish Lesser White-fronts that dropped in on 15 Jan, but a lot of people seem to despise them for some reason.

The spring has slowed to a standstill with these northerlies, so I think I'll struggle to add much more this week. Perhaps I'll finally get a Blyth's Reed Warbler singing in here at the end of the month.

 

[Warixenjalka]

#41. White Wagtail - May 14th
#42. Lesser Whitethroat - May 15th

At today Orange Tip and couple of whole white butterflies. They didn´t looked big enough for a Large Whites, so they might been female Orange Tips or Small Whites.

 

[halftwo]

A little overdue:

HOBBY

 

[Richard Prior]

Had my first addition to the lifetime garden list in about 8 months in the form of a Common Cuckoo yesterday. One has been singing intermittently in the area for the last 10 days or so. I finally tracked it down to a particular clump of trees while out birding on the weekend and a chance scope of the area yesterday morning yielded brief flight views. As a child they were commonplace but then pretty much disappeared. They have only reappeared in the area in the last couple of years and are always a struggle to get eyes on. No. 105 for the all time list and No. 87 for 2025.

A difficult species for me these days as well, the last one I heard from the garden was in 2019. Fortunately I discovered they frequent the mountain opposite (Water Pipit presumably the host species up there) so once May arrives I scan the ridges and isolated trees most mornings with the ‘scope after trying to spot the Black Grouse (which is increasingly tricky as the snow melts), Cuckoo and Rock Thrush my two targets (it’s too far to successfully identify the pipit at such a distance!). Success this morning with one of the former briefly atop a conifer before shooting down the southern side of the mountain.

79 Common Cuckoo

 

[Jos Stratford]

At today Orange Tip and couple of whole white butterflies. They didn´t looked big enough for a Large Whites, so they might been female Orange Tips or Small Whites.

The most common white in southern Finland at this time of year is likely to be Green-veined White, which in flight basically looks like a Small White, the green veins not really apparent.

Large, Small, Green-veined, Bath (localised) and the two Woods are all flying in Lithuania now, Orange Tip is almost over - of these, Green-veined was the first to emerge and is by far the most abundant. Small is quite common now, but will become more common later. I would expect southern Finland to be similar, but with a time lag - so at a guess, I'd say Orange Tip and Green-veined should be pretty common, Small less so and Large still uncommon. At a guess 🙂

 

[Andy Lakin]

Had a Grey Herion yesterday probably a couple of records a year. Nice to hear a Great Spotted Woodpecker on the hillside visible from the garden (the trees there are maturing nicely, but the whole lot may disappear for housing).

 

[Richard Prior]

Eighty up early this morning- as I was watching a local Buzzard through the ´scope two more distant raptors came into my view, thermalling up from a patch of Forest before heading north:

80 Honey Buzzard

A May regular, average first date is 20th.

 

[Richard Prior]

Right on schedule (average first date is 16 May), a solitary

81 Griffon Vulture

gliding over the mountains.