Bird Identification

[Eve]

I've been spending quite a bit of time down the local park feeding the birds, a mixture of ducks, geese and gull. I know what some of the obvious ones are though thought it'd be good to find out some of the others.

I've been trying to upload some photos but neither tinypic or imageshack seem to be playing!

There are white geese and canada geese and the usual ducks but there are some little black birds, I thought they were coots but not sure. They have little bits of white on the edges of their wings and a little bit under their tail feathers and what look like feathers on their feet.

Some of the ducks are quite distintive as well. Will try and find another way of uploading some photos!

[NazNomad]

Mooorhen?

[Milvus]

Moorhen
Coots have a white flash on their forehead

[razza]

Buy a book about British birds,they are not expensive.

[Prudie]

Jenna birdwatching can be a lot of fun, I suggest you get a good bird book and look up the one's you see, you'll soon learn them.

[Eve]

Thanks Naz and Invictus, just googled and they are moorhens, lovely little things.

I will see if I can find a book in town later, not too bad on day to day garden birds from growing up in Shropshire with a dad who likes quizzes :)

Will see if I can find somewhere to upload some pics of some of the more unusual ducks.

[Eve]

Sorry, Milvus, having a moment!

I love watching birds. Am hoping to get up to Martin Mere soon which isn't that far away from me, just need to work out how to get there on public transport.

I found a lovely place not long ago in Keswick. Was wandering about after going on the lake and found a park where they have a closed off area with loads of bird feeders inside and peepholes, you can watch them really close up without them feeling threatened.

Muncaster Castle was lovely for birds too with the owl sanctuary and they had loads of feeders up.

[NazNomad]

Jenna, get a Flick account (after first getting a Yahoo one, if you haven't already).

[seadogg]

A small inexpensive book that you can carry is great to start with as you can get the more comprehensive ones as the library for now. Martin Mere is good at this time of year.

[seadogg]

http://www.wwt.org.uk...n-mere/how-to-find-us

You may find this useful Jenna.

[rowanwitch]

visit the rspb website it has a good common bird identifier.....and if you can't find your bird on that try the one on the surfbirds website

[Eve]

Thank you :) I do have a Flikr one but it's under my real name (as with my Facebook album) so not keep posting links to it on here. Not sure why the usual sites won't upload.

Thanks for the directions, should be able to manage a 0.8 mile walk from the closest station providing my arthritis is playing nice and it's flat :)

I will have a look Rowan, thank you!

[Eve]

Loving the RSPB site, have identified:

Black headed gulls.
Egyptian Goose (check one of the distinctive "ducks" haha)
Coots as well as moorhens.
The usual mallards.

Am assuming the white geese are just plain old white geese :)

One wierd looking duck and some other cute little ones to go...

[NazNomad]

How about Picasa?

[Eve]

Got one of those in my own name as well.

Could set an incognito one up though...I'll be back...

[Eve]

I've finally managed to set up an incognito e.mail and account.

Discovered I didn't have any decent photos with the ones I have still to identify on so got some earlier today and have put some photos on here...

http://picasaweb.goog...Gv1sRgCOLurojWjZ7CLw#

There are a few I took generally but the ones I'm still to identify are the ones in the last 3 photos, the little black ducks which I'm guessing are the same type and the black and white duck with red on its face and beak. They are the ones I couldn't identify them from the RSPB site.

Thank you for any help :)

[Milvus]

The black and white duck and the mainly black duck are male and female tufted ducks

[Eve]

Thank you :) They are lovely, they seem to miss out a lot though as they aren't so fast off the mark or aggressive and tend to keep a distance more though they will go for the bread when I try and throw it directly to them.

They dive pretty well though, got that sussed, go underwater and try and grab the bread from there.

[Milvus]

I think the last one is a male spur winged goose but they can range from brown/white to black/white and the red beak and head flash differs between specimens.

[NazNomad]

#1 is a Muscovy duck ...

[DrFilth]

do they still have pets corner in the park Jenna