Today's Wildlife Encounter

[Derby Tup]

First Swallow of the year...last Monday...30th March...near Helwith Bridge... p'raps it was training for the 3 peaks?

Chiffchaff singing at Barley today.
http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/bird...haff/index.asp

From last year wharfee

[simgreen78]

*correction* LAPWINGS?? in the fields near Redmires Reservoir. Love that sound.

[Derby Tup]

Avocets in the fields near Redmires Reservoir. Love that sound.

Avocets or curlew?

[simgreen78]

Avocets or curlew?

I'm rather embarrassed to admit that when I went to check having read your question, what I thought was an Avocet was in fact a completely different bird! Very frustrating, as I have been claiming for years that we had a pair of nesting Avocets in the field behind my childhood home...

I'm heading over to the RSPB site for an ID.

I'm no Bill Oddie. (Which can probably only help my running prospects...)

[simgreen78]

Right. My brief stint in the Young Ornothologists Club twenty five years ago obviously made no lasting impression...

Lapwings. Probably. Do they have that distinctive, almost synthetic-sounding call?

Let the abuse commence...

[Grouse]

Pee - wit When I got a dog er well when my wife got one and I got landed with it and had to train it a bit I used the lapwings cal because it was one I could remember. Only trouble is i I can't do it very loudly.

[Grouse]

Starts high then goes down and back up again. Sort of.

[XRunner]

Only trouble is i I can't do it very loudly.

You should have used the evocative sound of an alarmed grouse.

Red grouse are particularly vocal when flushed from the hillside, announcing their presence with a 'go-back, back, back' call and a fast, direct flight on alternate whirring and gliding wings.

The male persuades females to mate with a display which involves calling, puffing out feathers, erecting its tail, and moving with a stiff walk.

In other words, just like a fell runner!.

[GeoffB]

Right. My brief stint in the Young Ornothologists Club twenty five years ago obviously made no lasting impression...

Lapwings. Probably. Do they have that distinctive, almost synthetic-sounding call?

Let the abuse commence...

If it was a pair of Lapwings they were probably doing some quite impressive acrobatic displays at this time of year (i.e. showing off).

[Grouse]

I have only rarely heard the 'go-back' call, it's usually more like "ggrrraaarrrgghhh".

(Which of course means wotcher mate 'ow's it goin? - I speak it fluently)