May wildlife 2014

[Roma]

I think the nest would have been upright.  Blue tit, Great tit and Coal tit nests I have found have been in holes in buildings.  I do not know if they nest in the open on trees.  We used to have an old Ferguson Potato digger lying around in the wood where the ponies live.  It had a tool box as part of the cast iron frame.  It had a small hole at one end.  A blue tit nested there for 2 or 3 years.

[Margaret]

A friend had a beautiful long tailed tit nest in her Ceanothus arboreus last year. It was right by her french doors.  Sadly the fledglings were spotted by magpies and, despite her best efforts, the inevitable happened.

[Anthony Darby]

A couple of moths from the moth trap yesterday. Peach Blossom and Eyed Hawkmoth.

Used to see the former, but the latter has never made it as far as Scotland.

[mark smyth]

I'd say its a chaffinch nest. Always beautifully decorated on the outside

[mark smyth]

non breeding / banger swifts at my house yesterday evening

[scatigaz]

Yes I agree, a Chaffinch nest.

[Peter Maguire]

Before May draws to a close, I thought that I'd post a few birds pictures from a trip to Mallorca at the beginning of the month whilst they are just about topical. There are flower pictures also but I'm still working my way through identifiying those. 
It wasn't meant to be a bird photography trip, but these seemed to be in the camera when I returned, can't think how that happened....

Audouin's Gull - they're internationally rare, but Porto Pollensa was crawling with them.
Black-winged Stilt - at S'Albufera reserve.
Blue Rock Thrush - a bit distant but I was pleased to get a good view.
Common Tern - also at S'Albufera.
Greefinch - I don't think that I've seen one as confiding as this, normally they're in the top of a tree.

[Peter Maguire]

A few more.

Hoopoe - these were really tame, happily feeding at the edge of a golf course whilst people walked past.
Kentish Plover - I always think they're a long way from Kent when I see them!
Little Egret = also at S'Albufera
Osprey - shame about the perch!
Red-legged Partridge - another bird that was tame/stupid and let me stalk him. He'll be in someone's cooking pot before before the end of the year.

[Peter Maguire]

Finally an endemic bird: Spotted Flycatcher. Yes I know we get them over here, but this is the Balearic race with whiter throat and underparts. A new 'tick' for me. 

[Maggi Young]

Quite a selection from a flower trip, Peter!

This photo was tweeted by the RHS  (yes, the RHS) but, as is often the case with the twitter restrictions, there was no mention of the subject - who can help with the name of this little bird family ?

[Peter Maguire]

It wasn't even a flower trip, just 'R+R'. 

As to your mystery bird - where's the clue? Apparently 'there's always a clue'! A hint of geographic location would be nice, a continent perhaps, otherwise I'd have to say it it's not any European bird I recognise. If so, that rules out about 700 or so of 9,721 species. 

[ChrisB]

Disappointed when I got up early yesterday.  One of the local wood pigeons was sitting sunbathing on one of my pots of semps so I opened the window to shoo it off only to see the jumbo jet of a heron taking off from my pond.  It has had quite a few of the mature newts that were living happily in there as well as damaging some of my iris ensatas. But it's nature I guess.. Still sad....

[Anthony Darby]

Could the mystery bird be a Spanish rufous bush robin?

[Steve Garvie]

Nice images Peter!!!
Mallorca was my first foreign birding trip many years ago. I still remember watching an Eleonora's Falcon chasing a Crag Martin on the Formentor peninsula -the life/death chase lasted for about 5 minutes before the Martin made its escape.

The mystery bird isn't a Rufous Bushchat. Could it be a species of Asian Prinia?

[Maggi Young]

As to your mystery bird - where's the clue? Apparently 'there's always a clue'! A hint of geographic location would be nice, a continent perhaps, otherwise I'd have to say it it's not any European bird I recognise. If so, that rules out about 700 or so of 9,721 species. 

Exactly my point about Twitter - there is no ruddy clue  - no namefor the bird, no location, with flowers there's no  - all the talk between tweeters about how wonderful it is  may hold true for the chance to post useless info but that's as far as it goes!