This was a question that was posed recently over a quiet pint and fascinated me enough to make me reach for my reference books.

Birds apparently can taste and smell, although how well birds taste is still unclear.  Birds have a few taste buds on the rear of their tongues and on the floor of the cavity forming the upper part of the gullet.  Chickens have about 24 and a pigeon 37, which is negligible compared with the 10,000 we human beings possess.

Tags: bird races, birding, birding norfolk

Sorry, that should be Ringing, but I have a slight lisp! Half a dozen of us joined Ray and Alan as they carried out a ringing session over the evening and early morning of 7/8 July at Whitwell Common.Ringing birds helps us understood more about bird behaviour, their migration, habitat requirements, and plays an important role in conservation and protection internationally.

In the past the Common Swift Apus apus was known as the Devil’s bitch or Devil bird but no one really knows why. With its long slim swept-back wings, slender body and tail and its almost completely black plumage one could imagine it being Satan’s messenger. In my mind I always associate it with the arrival of summer and listen out for its shrill screaming call in early May. They are often confused with the House Martin and Swallow although they are not related.

Did you know that we “Brits” feed 16,000 tons of peanuts, 20,000 tons of sunflower seed and 2,000 tons of fat to bird in our gardens every year?  We are told that the older finches have been heard muttering among themselves that the “young chicks of today don’t know the meaning of work.  I remember when we had to find our own seed…”Source: Garden Which?

Tags: birding, wensum valley birding, birdwatching

In total 86 new birds were ringed and 7 re trapped from previous years. A total of 93 different birds “processed” of 20 different species. Each bird when netted is “extracted”, put in a bag and taken back to the ringing base where it is - identified, a ring put on its leg, its wing length measured, weighed and any moult recorded before being released. All the data is fed into a computer then e-mailed to the British Trust for Ornithology, at Thetford, who administer the scheme for the UK.

We are accustomed to seeing blackbirds anting in our garden during the summer months. They normally spread their wings over an ants’ nest and behave very much as though they are dust bathing.

Recently we saw a great tit over an ants’ nest in our garden picking up individual ants in its bill and placing them under its wings. It carried this on for some time treating alternate wings.

Presumably this is a form of anting. We have heard various explanations of anting but am I not right in believing that it is accepted to be a way of tackling parasites?

Excellent Garden Birdwatching                                                   by Charles Neale

We live in the middle Wensum valley in Elsing, surrounded by woodland, arable fields, semi-permanent pasture, meadows & worked-out gravel pits.Saturday 2^nd June dawned grey and cool, but by mid-morning the sun had burned off the cloud and in the increasing warmth I was doing a little gentle weeding at the top of the garden. I heard a bird call from overhead not dissimilar to that of common terns which we get from time to time. Looking up through the trees I saw what appeared to be two falcons circling around and diving at each other. No binoculars !!

We were delighted when, in late February, our thrushes which had been with us all winter, selected the top of a trellis on the patio to construct their first nest. We soon named them the Barratts because, like the building company of the same name, they had the ability to build a house very quickly and in the most unexpected place.

Material was effortlessly garnered locally and the whole thing was plastered out with mud in no time. And then we just didn’t see them for a week until they began sitting on four eggs. The hen laid an egg a day and began to sit on the fourth day. They seem to keep well clear of the nest when laying and when it is not their turn to sit.

We have been to the Scilly Isles three times on holiday each time at different times of the year. The last time was Autumn 2004. When we booked, the only vacancy offered at that time was 17^th.September to 1^st. October . We were happy to accept those dates knowing that any later would involve sharing those lovely islands with hordes of birdwatchers!As usual we walked the various islands enjoying the fantastic scenery and wildlife. Migration was just underway and a few good birds were seen but with only a few other birdwatchers around.

Long weekend trip to Pyrenees for Wallcreeper

27^th - 30^th April 2007

Paul Riley & Ian Brittain

Having heard of the alpine birds the Pyrenees can offer and the fact Ian had been there in 2004 but failed on Wallcreeper, we decided to make this our target bird for a short visit.

A flight was booked with Ryanair, Stansted to Zaragoza. Arriving in Zaragoza 13.00 on the Friday and departing 13.25 the next Monday, £65 return.