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They're definitely not starlings. Large black birds that I'm inclined to think are rooks heading for a nightime rookery. Not possible to spot any markings. They seem to come in large 'drifts' and will often appear to stop for a while and then fly round in a lazy kind of circle for a few minutes before resuming their track. Have always wondered if they're perhaps on their way to Attenborough Reserve for the night.

Did post a question on one of the local birdwatchers sites some time last year and have also asked a few birdwatchers seen in the Country Park, but no one responded or seems to know - which surprises me, as they're a fascinating sight and impossible to miss on account of their huge numbers and regular flight path.

Was hoping that a few folk to the south of me might have noticed them and could then perhaps plot the route!

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Florida Eagles. This is for anyone who was following Ozzy and Harriots story last year. I for one was, and really sad when I read this news today. He had been through so much and after being brought

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Teebee,

Quite possibly rooks/crows/jackdaws, can you hear them squawking as they go over? Out in the fields all day and off to roost in the evening, Attenborough does seem a likely roost site but a short hop over the river to the Clifton grove would be more likely as this will be much higher ground, I used to work at the Gravel quarry at Attenborough and can remember seeing them, keep an eye open for the starlings though that is a sight worth looking for this time of the year, we all see them on the telly but it's much better live as it were. Are you a birder or just a passing interest?

Rog

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Just a passing interest, though do like to take the binocularss out, especially when we have a week in Norfolk and visit the reserves there.

I have just e mailed someone on the Nottingham Birdwatchers site, to see if I can get info from him as he seems to live close by.

Don't recollect any raucous sounds from these birds, and they certainly do not fly in a recognised formation as do geese. They also seem in no particular hurry to get where they're going - sometimes seem to be dawdling along.

I agree that the starlings are a spectacular sight, probably the most spectacular wildlife sight I've seen - when shown on the TV. But have never had the good fortune to catch this spectacle live.

Will let you know if I learn anything more

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Ayup Teebee,

Loosely talking about wildlife, the Grey seals are starting to come in now to have their pups, this is the only time you can get this close to wildlife, the last two weeks of November and the first two weeks of December are best, up and close to the action as it happens. A quid to park your car and miles of sand dunes and beach to cover, last year over 2000 pups were born.

About 10 miles up the coast from Mablethorpe

Rog

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Pretty sure I have the Answer, they will be gulls heading to roost , from (possibly) a land fill , to some where relatively safe ( possibly the Trent)

They don't always fly in that V formation ,and if they are dawdling it is to try and catch a thermal to aid their flight

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Good thinking there Beefsteak, once again the combined efforts of the nottstalgia membership has solved yet another puzzle, The gull population do tend to roost on the Attenborough nature reserve lakes well away from predators

Rog

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Pretty sure I have the Answer, they will be gulls heading to roost , from (possibly) a land fill , to some where relatively safe ( possibly the Trent)

They don't always fly in that V formation ,and if they are dawdling it is to try and catch a thermal to aid their flight

Sounds like a good bet, we get loads over here at night, they go to the landfill site just north of Braintree then fly off back to the coast in the evening, as the gull flies it's probably only about 15 odd miles to the estuary at Maldon, they sometimes fly in V formation if it's a nice evening or generally wheel about looking for thermals over the town. Something upset them big time in their way in early the other morning, I reckon it may have been our Mr Nasty, our local Sparrow Hawk, he really is a hell of a predator, nothing is safe round here, even our Jack Russell doesn't feel comfortable when he's about. He was standing on our bird table the other morning, arrogant git, he really is a handsome specimen and bloody big too, I wouldn't want to argue with him, typical though, as soon as you reach for the camera, he's off.

When I lived in our last village though, we did get massive flocks of rooks flying about every night at certain times, they all went off to a particular wood, they never nested there as the trees were too immature, they seemed to accumulate from other places as if there was safety in numbers, I can't think what predators were about over there, apart from the local gamekeeper, who notoriously blasted everything in sight, but the silly sods chose to roost in the nearest wood to his house, I could never work that one out.

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Ayup firbeck,

Glad to hear you are a birder, I don't like the term "twitcher" they are the ones that take off to see these exotic birds that come to our country and 9 time out of 10 the twitchers harass the poor bird to death as in the American Robin the other year.

A quick question though, what was the Jack Russel doing on your bird table? we get squirrels up here on our tables

Rog

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They are rooks...As has been said the flights last over an hour with the birds seemingly appearing in a never ending stream miles long.

Some years there are more than others...last year very few.They have been feeding to the north of Nottingham around Blidworth,Bilsthorpe,Farnsfield.

Why they gather in that particular area I don't know...or why they fly south west to roost.Many roost around Wollaton Park others have been seen further on towards Attenboro'...Why?...Dunno.

They seem to go on forever...but thousands is a bit over the top...I would have thought a thousand tops.

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Think I've now got the definitive answer, courtesy Andy Hall - a local birdwatcher. The birds are certainly not gulls, and Poohbear seems to have come very close with his ideas. I believe that I am now reliably informed that:

"they are going to Wollaton Park to roost. There are about 10,000 Rooks and 5,000 Jackdaws. They go off in all directions at the crack of dawn and come back just before dusk. From now til February is the peak time. If you could provide a count of both species it would be good".

Have had to decline the suggestion of a count as would not know where to start, but think that there must be a good proportion of the 15,000 birds mentioned on a "good night". They seem to come in 'waves' - sometimes a flock of 10 or 20 that could be closely followed by a flock of 100 or more. Possibly then with a short break before the next group appears - but always following the same narrowly defined track.

Thanks to all

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Ayup firbeck,

A quick question though, what was the Jack Russel doing on your bird table? we get squirrels up here on our tables

Rog

Sorry, poor use of grammar, he'd get on there if he could when the wood pidgeons are about, he hates them, anything else is safe. We have an overfriendly Robin, he's just been sitting on a garden chair outside the patio door waiting for some meal worms, he's so brazen that he'll fly in and sit on a dining room chair, or hop around the birdseed bags on the kitchen worktop, the dog couldn't care less, he'll sit on the kitchen doorstep and the Robin will join him, they seem quite good pals.

We seem to have a large number of Coal Tits on the feeders this morning, whereas yesterday we had a huge flock of Long Tailed Tits flitting about in the trees.

We moved to Braintree nearly two years ago, what attracted us to this house was that despite living only a few minutes walk from the town centre, the River Blackwater flows a 100m away over the back of the fence, so the end of our garden is just trees, and a wilderness running into attractive river walks, it's quite something. The only trouble is that the local council and a bunch of ignorant, rinse haired, rich local pillocks have been messing with the area for the past year, it's been a bit of a saga which got me in the local newspaper, it still hasn't been resolved, it's an interesting story of how the so called great, good and influential, like to manipulate things for their own devices without actually knowing what they are messing with, but the self opinionated, but thick wife of one of Thatchers former henchmen is involved so it's hard going.

If you are interested I'll tell you the tale sometime, lets just put it this way, they have wiped out the habitat of rare breeding birds, like the Reed Bunting, but call me a liar when I try to present my case, despite having photos, which they refuse to look at. Thank you RSPB for not bothering to back me up. We have Otters down here, well known, but they make life hard for them as well, people cluck about and offer you support but do nothing, it's opened my eyes to the difficulties of wildlife protection, I can tell you, it makes you want to weep.

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Teebee,

Good news that you have solved your mystery, and that someone took the time and trouble to get back to you, I'd forgot all about Wollaton park, a wildlife haven.

firbeck, wild life conservation has to be one of the most difficult subjects to deal with, there's always the do gooders who know best but know bu99er all, they think if it looks pretty or looks like their garden the wildlife will love it, rubbish, leave things to go wild and see what you get, I also agree with you about otters, trying to convince folk that you have them in a particular area is a waste of time especially with the so called professionals, On several occasions I saw a pair of them swimming in the lakes at Attenborough nature reserve (part of the quarrying company I work for) one day we had a visit from the local wildlife authority to "have a look round" I asked him if he had come to record our otters? What otters? he said you haven't got any of them here, and no amount of persuading would change his mind, so you have my sympathy with the authorities, just keep the records for your self and take some pictures and blow the self important jobsworths

Rog

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We have an overfriendly Robin, he's just been sitting on a garden chair outside the patio door waiting for some meal worms, he's so brazen that he'll fly in and sit on a dining room chair,

I too had a very friendly Robin visitor to our garden in Sherwood, but going back twenty years or more. Would readily take food from our hand and also used to come into the kitchen to see what was on offer. It even got so tame that it would fly up and take titbits from my lips. (Maggots - I used to do a bit of fishing then).

Did get a picture of this published in newspaper at the time, but have ben unable to track down the original photo.

But did find the attached in an old album, though the colour and quality have deteriorated over the years.

post-1552-1225627077_thumb.jpg

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fantastic picture you must be joking the poor birds being cruelly held by the leg and the rest is out of focus get a life that’s wot I reckon and stop being malicious to our feathered friends.

Rose.

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Teebee,

firbeck, wild life conservation has to be one of the most difficult subjects to deal with, there's always the do gooders who know best but know bu99er all, they think if it looks pretty or looks like their garden the wildlife will love it, rubbish, leave things to go wild and see what you get, I also agree with you about otters, trying to convince folk that you have them in a particular area is a waste of time especially with the so called professionals, so you have my sympathy with the authorities, just keep the records for your self and take some pictures and blow the self important jobsworths

Rog

The problem is, I get really wound up about this sort of thing, I'm not going to let these scumbags get way with it.

The thing is, the area at the back of me is/was really wild, the river walk carries on behind a large housing estate where you have very large swathes of cut grass where people have picnics, fly kites walk their dogs, race around on quad bikes, drink lager, burn trees down, chuck their rubbish about, deal in drugs and generally vandalise everything.

Despite this and despite knowing the problems, the council obtained a £50,000 pound grant from the Essex County Council, formed a commitee of local rich twats, and carried on regardless. As you say, you point out things to any of them and they get all patronising and reckon they know more than you do, which in respect of some of my conversations with these people is complete crap.

I would not admit to being the worlds greatest expert on local wildlife, I wouldn't consider being so, but between my missus, my stepson and myself, we could probably take them apart on anything, we've tried it, but they always tell you something that they want you to hear and lie on behalf of the dickheads that have had an excuse to p### £50,000 of our money up the wall.

We then have self glorification articles in the local paper about for instance, that they have planted 2500 trees along the river here. When I point out to the council that it should make this place look like Sherwood f#####g Forest then, so where are they, what they actually mean is a dozen or so have been planted, neglected and are now dead, the rest being unnecessary hedging saplings that were ripped up and vandalised within a day of planting, followed up by very clever mowing removal by their own employees, but do they want to know, like hell, they've accounted for their dosh and thats all they care about.

You want to see the mega bucks childrens play area, it's a load of crappy old logs arranged in a circle, we call it Woodhenge, constructed and maintained by a company from Sheffield, they regularly have to come down here and fix it, being put up in local hotels at our expense, all the local families and kids hate the bloody thing, mind you, it's a good meeting place for the local dope and lager heads, so thats alright then.

The council refuse to talk to me about it.

Complaining about this sort of thing is time consuming and exasperating, trying to get people to back you up is hopeless, they shove their two penneth into to me over the fence and that's it. Unbelievably theres a bloke across the road who's an Otter expert with the Essex Wildlife trust, he admits to finding spraints down the back here, but wants a quiet life and won't make any complaints.

I ain't giving up, I decided to bide my time and see what happened over the summer, this time last year they shoved a gang mower through everything and destroyed the local habitat, it hasn't happened, so somethings afoot, I think it's time to strike.

Just out of interest, when I moved in last year before the scumbags went on the rampage, this is what I had in my small garden, backing on to this place, which haven't been seen this year.

Reed Buntings, feeding with their chicks, Category Red RSPB, Willow Warblers, feeding with chicks, Category Orange RSPB, Yellowhammers, Corn Buntings, Greater and Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers, Buzzards, even sparrows, sloworms, grassnakes, Comma butterflies, Emperor Dragonflies, down the river, Little Grebes, Egrets, Kingfishers, evidence of Otters, though I'm sure I disturbed one last week, munkjak and roe deer, badgers, even Mr Fox has'nt been having his usual argument over the fence with our Jack Russell.

What can you say, what can you do, but I'm a nuisance, it disturbs their little lifestyle and their clinical view on the world according to the Local Authorities route map, what I say doesnt count, they know best, but in reality they have a lot to answer for.

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Ayup firbeck,

You have my sympathy on that one, all you can do is record all your sightings and hope that some sort of pattern starts to emerge whereby you can say (with backup) this species is in decline because of your action/inaction. This will take time, maybe a couple of seasons, but a pattern will emerge and it's upto you to find the reason. I did a similar thing at work with a bird count throughout the seasons and this gave us enough written evidence to present to the planners to help gain further planning permission for our site, (check out the "witham staple" website and look under wildlife to see the lists) Good luck with you're cause

Rog

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I've done all that, shown them the results, with photographic proof, they don't want to know, they know best. There's so much more to this story, I've only touched the tip of the iceburg, when the council chairman is a grinning, self promoting bitch who's claim to fame is the wife of the former Conservative Party Leader under Thatcher, who's never done a days work in her life and can't tell a house sparrow from an ostrich, then theres not much hope is there.

When I eventually find the inevitable dead Otter, it's going through her living room window with a brick attached.

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...When I eventually find the inevitable dead Otter, it's going through her living room window with a brick attached....

Tempted to ring the Civic Office on 01376 552525 extension 2011, to forewarn her :tease:

Tony's wife?...how can he manage on the Lord's attendance allowance of only £827 per day?

Cheers

Robt P.

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Tempted to ring the Civic Office on 01376 552525 extension 2011, to forewarn her :tease:

Tony's wife?...how can he manage on the Lord's attendance allowance of only £827 per day?

Cheers

Robt P.

Possibly selling Otter pelts to boost the family income, thanks a lot, I'm really down today and that little posting really cracked me up, thanks, I really appreciated that.

Actually, to be fair to our Tony, I've had issues before and I've actually found Mr Newton to be very nice bloke, helpful and on the ball, unfortunately madam is just a cow living on his reputation, not the way to run a council is it.

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Yes...must confess that (for a Tory!} I always perceived him as being as sincere and affable as any...

There have to be countless political women who hang on to their husband's 'status', or conversely gin-sodden bone idle husbands with their PM wives...

Perhaps another, subtly different, female illustration appears on BBC 2 - three hours hence...

Cheers

Robt P.

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Cherie Booth/Blair!!!

Nahh, he's refering to Pauline Prescott, didn't you watch it?

Whatever you think of her, and I can't decide, at least she's not interested in climbing on her husbands reputation to falsely smile in our local papers and pretend to run a local council.

I met Tony Newton a few times, I've heard he wasn't much liked down here because he was one of the catalysts in unsurping Thatcher, good for him. Apart from my dealings with him in other matters, he once visited our primary school and was a really nice genuine bloke, totally non political and a pleasure to talk to, I got into trouble for having anything to do with him. The real epic was during the great anti Tory vote in 97, I happened to be voting in Finchingfield Village Hall when he appeared with his entourage, poor bloke was in a hell of a state, pale and shaking, I actually felt sorry for him, as to be fair, he was a good, helpful constituency MP, like it or not, the Labour MP that took over was merely a political beast and a complete tosser. I actually walked over to Newton to ask if he was OK, and he just gave me a grim smile and said that things were not good, pity his wife didn't suffer that day, well she probably did, but then rose phoenix like from the ashes and grinned her way into power with the local council, they just love it.

What has this got to do with birdwatching, sorry, Rob started all this!!!!

Just looking out the window as I'm doing this, on the birdtable and feeders we have Goldfinches, Coal Tits, Great Tits, Blue Tits, Dunnocks lurking in the grass, thats it at the moment, I've put out some peanuts for the squirell and our 2 Jays who love them, there are two attractive Wood pigeons lurking in the trees, whatever you think of them, they are handsome beasts, oh, and a Wren is having a good old sing. It's a lovely day now that the fog has cleared, I might take the dogs for a walk to see what catastrophies have occured to our so called nature reserve, I'll have to check as to whether the forwarned destruction of the stupidly planted rare and expensive Black Poplar is complete, I suspect it will be.

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