Here are some of the garden visitors who showed up during my hour ...
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| Blackbird |
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| Robin |
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| Blue tit |
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| Female Blackcap, quite a regular visitor |
David and I spent an hour doing the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch this afternoon. We felt our results were disappointing, but that may be more to do with the fact that we did our count in the afternoon this year (when many birds are less active) rather than in the morning. We often see Great tits, House sparrows, Magpies and Blackbirds. We sometimes see a Great spotted woodpecker, a Song thrush and a Wren. None of these put in an appearance today.
You can see our results in the list below.
Back in 2010 when we were still living in Swansea, we counted these birds. Last year (2023), from the same suburban Suffolk home as this year, we submitted this list.
I don't know whether our local bird numbers have decreased or whether the new time of day had more to do with our result than other factors. Yesterday when we were on a very local walk, we counted a slightly different mix of species (Greenfinch, Blackbird, Blackcap, Great spotted woodpecker, Great tit, Redwing and Starling), either from observation or from sound via the Merlin Bird ID app. It's good to know that we still have Greenfinches in our area as we rarely see these birds.
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| The first Robin |
We settled down this morning with binoculars, mugs of coffee, a pen and a recording sheet to do our bird survey.
It was a reasonable, fairly nondescript, January morning here in suburban Suffolk. Our bird feeder was hung about with fat-filled coconut, peanuts and sunflower hearts.
As ever, one or two of the 'regulars' failed to put in an appearance, notably the Great spotted woodpecker, Goldfinches and Wren; but never mind.
We spotted twelve species in the hour, which we felt was encouraging but not brilliant. Sadly, we hardly ever see Chaffinches, Bullfinches or Greenfinches in the garden these days.
These are our results:
We also saw a Jay (11.) and a Feral Pigeon (12.), though these species do not appear on the RSPB checklist.
I wonder how your count went. Perhaps you are still hoping to do one.
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| Blue tit, Starling, Great tit |
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| Blue tits, head to head |
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| The action! |
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| More Blue tits |
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| Seed-time |
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| Long-tailed tits with Blue tit in the wings, 29 January 2022 |
The results of our 2022 Big Garden Birdwatch are in, and sadly we are a little disappointed at this year's numbers. We are not particularly surprised as (a) we have had a couple of very recent visits from a female Sparrowhawk and (b) conditions were far from ideal with Storm Malik blowing the bushes about. Incidentally, all my photos in this post were taken during the hour of the survey (through double-glazing).
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| Blue tits and Great tit |
We put out four coconut fatballs, one container of peanuts and a small canister of Niger/Nyjer seeds. The Goldfinches (when they visit) are never interested in our Niger seeds, which is a shame.
We had a total of 10 species:
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| Female Blackcap |
The 'regulars' who were noticeable by their absence on this occasion were the Robin, the Dunnocks, the Goldfinches, the Woodpigeons, the Great spotted Woodpecker and the Wren. We occasionally spot a Coal tit and rarely see Chaffinches, and Collared Doves. Very occasionally we notice a Song Thrush. There are often various gull species about, but few come in to land.
I wonder what you have been seeing. Here are some of the visiting Blue tits ...
And finally, here are the RSPB charts pertaining to the data we submitted. It will be interesting to see the nationwide results in due course.
There is always the Climate Crisis to consider, but I wonder how much the pandemic will be responsible for variations from normal trends. We have a hunch that the many Woodpigeons in our neck of the woods moved to other areas when a local entertainment venue was forced to limit its hours of operation, and there were consequently less pickings to be had.
We hope to take part once again in the annual RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch, which runs from 28 to 30 January 2022. It is always interesting to see which of the 'regulars' deign to show up during our chosen hour, and if there are any surprises. Do consider taking part yourselves; this must be one of the largest and most popular citizen science projects around.
You might be wondering why I am posting a photograph of a Grey Squirrel. Well, it occurred to me that taking part in the Birdwatch is a bit like taking the photographs off our garden Trailcam ... you never quite know what you will find.
Our Trailcam has picked up the following creatures to date:
We keep hoping it will deliver a surprise, though I have to say that (despite the charm of 'Ray' the rodent on BBC Winterwatch), I am glad we have not ended up with frame upon frame of rats! In fact, rats have not appeared at all to date. Perhaps I should mention Ray's nemesis, the Tawny Owl; as it happens, I have just heard our resident bird calling, but I sense an appearance on the Trailcam is, at the very least, unlikely.
Here is a small selection of our recent photographs ...
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| I would love to know the real colour of the fur. |
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| One of our faithful visitors, a female Blackbird |
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| This one was burning the midnight oil ... |
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| This was the early |
This looks like one of the males, but 'Star', the female Blackbird with a white (leucistic?) mark, has also been strutting about. She seems to like the grassy path we made for my daily exercise during the first lockdown, when we stopped mowing what was then a lawn.
The photo above shows something at the tip of the arrow. I know because the next photograph, taken a couple of minutes later, shows a space here. Could it a be a rather round Blue tit? I know it's hard to tell, especially in terms of scale, though the planter is about 30cm high.
Speaking of Blue tits, the RSPB have released this year's figures for the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch. These are the the Top Ten 2021 species from the records that were submitted ...
Back at the start of February I recorded my survey results for our garden, which you can see here. It seems to me that the general picture (above), with the notable exception of House Sparrows, corresponds pretty closely with our own findings. We recorded the following nine species, all of which feature on the RSPB list. Birds were counted according to the maximum number of a given species seen in the garden at the same time, rather than sequentially over the hour.
1. Blue tit (2nd on national list)
2. Starling (3rd on national list)
3. Long-tailed tit (10th on national list)
4. Goldfinch (8th on national list)
5. Woodpigeon (also 5th on national list)
6. Blackbird (4th on national list)
7. Great tit (also 7th on national list)
8. Magpie (also 9th on national list)
9. Robin (6th on national list)
Happily, we are now having regular garden sightings of House Sparrows. I just hope the feline visitor gives them a chance.
As you can see, I finally succeeded in uploading my Big Garden Birdwatch Results for 2021 on to the RSPB site. There are not really any surprises on my list, although, typically, Long-tailed tits and Wood Pigeons have been around in much greater numbers since my counting hour.
Ours is a medium-sized suburban garden. It is in close proximity to a Local Nature Reserve. We have a mix of trees, shrubs and the somewhat battered stalks of last year's long grass. Our sandy soil contains a fair amount of old builders' rubble.
We usually put out fatballs with seeds or mealworms. We replenished our supply of these, adding a new canister of sunflower seeds, which attracted the Goldfinches.
I wonder what birds you were able to count. Results can be uploaded, I believe, for the next few days (possibly until 19 February, but do check). Here are a few photos of our avian visitors, taken from behind double-glazing ...
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| female Blackbird |
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| Long-tailed tit |
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| Starling |
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| Blue tit |
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| Robin |
RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch Update of 31 Jan. 2021: I have tried several times to upload my Big Garden Birdwatch results to the RSPB site, but apparently the volume of results has caused a glitch. According to messages on the RSPB England Facebook page, we are invited to keep trying to upload our data, and this can be done right up until 19 February.
I look forward to taking part in the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch over the weekend. Long-tailed tits may not gain my highest score, but I expect they will be in the top three. We hardly ever saw these exquisite birds when we lived in South Wales: I wonder whether they have become much more prevalent in recent years. We placed a robin-sized nesting-box of brushwood and a small roosting pouch in the garden today. It will be interesting to see in the coming weeks whether we have any takers.
Sadly this Dockbug has come to grief. I noticed it in the old shallow tray of water we keep out for the birds. On a happier note, I watched a ladybird moving along a branch in the sunshine. I expect it should really be overwintering, but the unexpected warmth had probably lured it out. I also saw what looked like my first bee of 2021. I always look forward to the return of the insects.
The specks of ice (or hail?) on this leaf caught my eye the other morning. I have greatly enjoyed seeing the icy wonders on BBC Winterwatch this year.
