RSPB Big Birdwatch

[tjh290633]

Did mine this morning:

Bluetits - 4
Woodpigeons - 2
Greenfinches - 3
Goldfinches - 3
Great Tits - 2
Blackbird (Male) - 1
Dunnock - 1
Chaffinch - 1
Robin - 1
Coal Tit - 1
Jay - 1
Nuthatch - 1
Jackdaw - 2

TJH

[AleisterCrowley]

I may give it a go
If it includes stuff in the sky (not visiting one's garden I'm guaranteed a red kite or several

[jackdaww]

Did mine this morning:

Bluetits - 4
Woodpigeons - 2
Greenfinches - 3
Goldfinches - 3
Great Tits - 2
Blackbird (Male) - 1
Dunnock - 1
Chaffinch - 1
Robin - 1
Coal Tit - 1
Jay - 1
Nuthatch - 1
Jackdaw - 2

TJH

=============================

wasnt me................

[tjh290633]

I may give it a go
If it includes stuff in the sky (not visiting one's garden I'm guaranteed a red kite or several

No, they have to land to be counted. Flying overhead is not permitted in the count. Perhaps some roadkill?

TJH

[AleisterCrowley]

I'll have to leave some carrion out, or just sit in the garden looking dead

[6Tricia]

Thanks for the reminder tjh!

Tricia

[PinkDalek]

I may give it a go
If it includes stuff in the sky (not visiting one's garden I'm guaranteed a red kite or several

No, they have to land to be counted. Flying overhead is not permitted in the count. Perhaps some roadkill?

TJH

Landed as in not in the air?

Today’s count includes our regular 13 Parakeets and a combative Greater Spotted taking his chances with the fat cake and the screeches!

No Magpies your way then Terry?

[AleisterCrowley]

Ach, dem dam ring-necked parakeets - curse of Windsor Great Park
The noisy little sods

[bungeejumper]

I found a telltale handful of small grey feathers last week in the yew tree where the pigeons usually roost. No sign of the predator at all, but if it had been a cat it would have left the bigger feathers and probably the bones. A mystery, then.

Until my wife saw the barn owl. Might explain why we've not had quite the usual bird numbers around our feeders this year?

BJ

O/T, but this month's Winterwatch had a rather fine sequence of a barn owl grabbing a starling under Aberystwyth pier. Anybody see it?

[Edit]. It's at https://www.trendsmap.com/twitter/tweet ... 6729019395 . Twitter, of course.

BY

[tjh290633]

Landed as in not in the air?

Today’s count includes our regular 13 Parakeets and a combative Greater Spotted taking his chances with the fat cake and the screeches!

No Magpies your way then Terry?

Yes, not just airborne, they have to be on something, be it a tree, bush, house or a feeder.

Plenty of Magpies but, like the Collared Doves, they didn't deign to call in yesterday. Saw one over the road later.

TJH

[6Tricia]

I have five 4 point feeders on my bird feeder station but in the last hour it has only been visited by 1 great tit and 7 goldfinches (usually over 20 of them squabbling for a perch) plus 1 feral and 1 wood pigeon on the ground and (most unusually at this time of the year) a single blackbird. It's raining quite heavily and pretty windy too so I think I'll give up for today and have another go tomorrow in the hope that more of my usual visitors will make an appearance.

Tricia

[Arborbridge]

Very quiet for garden birds yesterday and we only had five woodpigeons and two magpies. Oddly enough, we rarely get magpies.

Maybe the smaller birds knew we were watching and stayed away? We would normally have a blackbird around - recenty two have been fighting over territory - as well as three varieties of tits, and starlings.

I hope there might be a glint of sun to bring them out tomorrow, otherwise our score will be really bad this year.
I don't know how useful the garden bird watch is if on the day one does it, the results are nowhere near typical. It's a failing to try to generalise from the particular.

Arb

[bungeejumper]

As already mentioned, bird traffic around our feeders has been fairly subdued for the time of year. I suppose it might be the owls or the buzzards, which are very active, but actually I reckon it's that there's plenty of natural food around. It's been a wet but mild winter (Wiltshire).

The hundreds of rooks out in the fields are having no difficulty in finding worms, whereas it's been traditional to suppose that worms burrow three to six feet underground during the winter season. The fallen apples which we always kick into the borders in the autumn aren't gone yet by any means, and the blackbirds are living quite happily off them. Even the insects seem to be awake a bit earlier than usual. So maybe it isn't necessarily such bad news if numbers in the gardens are down?

Dammit, even the fat feeders are taking longer to empty than usual, although the woodpeckers (green and greater spotted) are certainly taking their share. What they all love, though, are the mealworms that we put out each morning. Tesco do 100 gram packs for £1.75, which go quite a long way, and they're good for the robins which can't easily access the hanging feeders.

BJ

[richlist]

I'm convinced that the size and design of garden has a big influence on the type of bird that visits the garden.

We have about a 1/4 of an acre for a back garden, mostly lawn with some hard landscaping, low open fencing backing onto woodland....lots of bird feeders and nesting boxes. We don't get many small birds. A few blue tits & wrens but mostly larger birds....magpies, pigeons, doves & woodpeckers.

Friends & family with modern houses and smaller postage stamp back gardens with tall walls of fencing seem to attract far more smaller birds and much more variety.

The bigger issue for me is that the awful Chris Peckham is involved with this project. I have the guy so can't summon any enthusiasm for it. Good luck to those who are taking part.

[dealtn]

Blue Tit 3
Chaffinch 3
Magpie 1
Wood Pigeon 1
Crow 1
Robin 1
Woodpecker 1 (and first, the show off).

[swill453]

The bigger issue for me is that the awful Chris Peckham is involved with this project. I have the guy so can't summon any enthusiasm for it. Good luck to those who are taking part.

Chris Packham is a hero, and comes across as a lovely, sincere, bloke. Why do you "have" him?

Scott.

[staffordian]

The bigger issue for me is that the awful Chris Peckham is involved with this project. I have the guy so can't summon any enthusiasm for it. Good luck to those who are taking part.

Chris Packham is a hero, and comes across as a lovely, sincere, bloke. Why do you "have" him?

Scott.

Whilst not wishing to derail an interesting thread, I too "have" him. Mainly because of his unswerving opposition to HS2, using his BBC 'fame' to ensure his voice is heard whilst quoting misleading and incorrect facts to bang on unceasingly about it.

He conveniently ignores the fact that the alternative would probably be to widen or build more roads which would destroy far more trees than a two track railway, lead to far greater carbon dioxide emissions and, to drag this back on topic, probably destroy the habitat of far more birds than building HS2 would.

[6Tricia]

I have five 4 point feeders on my bird feeder station but in the last hour it has only been visited by 1 great tit and 7 goldfinches (usually over 20 of them squabbling for a perch) plus 1 feral and 1 wood pigeon on the ground and (most unusually at this time of the year) a single blackbird. It's raining quite heavily and pretty windy too so I think I'll give up for today and have another go tomorrow in the hope that more of my usual visitors will make an appearance.

Tricia

Didn't happen . Woke up to rain again, just pelting down and it hasn't stopped yet so I'll have to use yesterday's meagre results.

[didds]

if yoiud asked us to fill in the birds wed see in our hour we could have done it last summer and been spot on.

Though Ive only just now realised from other posts here we were supposed to count how many of each species not just tick them.

Id probably guess it would go something like

blue tit 2
pigeon 1
wren 1
robin 2
seagull 4
crows 89275936243649090110