They eat carrion but I’m not sure its digestive system will cope with a Greggs snack.
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Twas lovely at the local Reserve yesterday. Lots of feeders up around the mist nets that have been installed for ringing, and the volume of birdsong was wonderfully deafening.
The Merlin App suggested species aplenty, though I only saw and got snaps of a Chaffinch, some Goldfinches, Long Tailed & Blue Tits and Robins.
On the water I enjoyed seeing Tufted ducks cruising around looking fancy, a Great Crested Grebe was close enough for a reasonable photo and there was a nice Coot sunset
And had a kingfisher whizz right past me as it travelled between lakes, and a very close encounter with what I’m sure was some sort of small hawk chasing another bird, though it happened so fast, it may have just been my medication playing up
In any case, it was a very restorative few hours 
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Merlins are notoriously difficult to find, more often than not you just jam into one, usually in flight. However, they do favour launching into a hunt from an elevated viewing platform, presumably it saves energy looking for birds on the wing.
One fairly regular perch is a derelict croft at Northdale Mires, so I was pleased to find this one surveying its territory.
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I’d heard someone on the radio a couple of months ago saying don’t put bird feeders out because of the spread of infection, particularly to finches.
Now RSPB are saying the same, at least during the summer months and to replenish any water with fresh from the tap daily.
Want to help garden birds? Don’t feed them in warmer months, says RSPB - BBC News Want to help garden birds? Don't feed them in warmer months, says RSPB - BBC News
Certainly no finches, particularly Bullfinches seen here for several years now 
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I stopped a few weeks ago plenty of food around for them now
We read that as well and have taken down our feeders. We already clean and replenish their baths daily.
I had one of the best meals of my life on Rathlin.
Mackerel off the day boat an hour ago, bunged in a pan on a calor gas burner for a couple of minutes, stick it in a bap, can of Fanta (or whatever), Michelin star.
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Similar along the Bosphorus. Balik Ekmek. Not the usual spot in the centre of Istanbul (although these are pretty decent), but up (or down, whatever) the river.
BBQ’d Mackerel, sold off the boat on a baguette for €1 including condiments.
Fuckin’ epic !
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Cuckoo takes one look at Suffolk after migration and flees - BBC News Cuckoo takes one look at Suffolk after migration and flees - BBC News
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Saw something today that’s left me puzzled - imagine if you will a greenfinch, but with a very distinctly yellow head - or alternatively, a yellowhammer, but half as big again, greenish, and without the streaking in the plumage anywhere.
Sadly no camera, but I got a really good look at it from less than 10m away - it was pretty bold, and the light was good, diffuse but bright, and the bird was not backlit. The area is large open fields, some hedgerows, copses, and oaccasional gardens.
I’ve spend some time ploughing through ‘Europe’s Birds’, but none the wiser - can GFs and YHs hybridise?
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Yes. Strange when you think one is a finch and the other is a bunting!
Extremely rare in the wild but in captivity they have been known. Aviarists call them ‘mules’ although Greenfinch/Canary is far more common.
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Thanks - wonder if this is the latter…? I really should get a zoom camera of some sort…
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Heavily cropped, distant shots of the long staying Grey Plover (present since 19th Oct '25) now very close to its stunning breeding plumage.
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If you find a ringed bird in the UK, report it to the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) via their website at app.bto.org/euring/lang/pages/rings.jsp or call them on 01842 750050. For birds found outside the UK, use EURING to find the relevant national ringing scheme.
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Unfortunately the serial number (?) on the other side of the ring has been obliterated by it being driven over (it was in a car park) so someone is going to have to wonder what happened to his racing pigeon forevermore.