Big Garden Birdwatch Results

[rolf]

Well as usual, a couple of my main visitors didn't turn up for the count, but I guess that's just the luck of the draw.

Garden Details

Size of garden: Small
Area: Suburban
Distance to farmland: 300 - 500m
Features of garden: Small tree (trunk < 30cm across at chest height), Lawn, Shrub/hedge that drops leaves in autumn, Flowerbed.

Common birds

Blackbird: 1
Blue tit: 5
Chaffinch: 3
Coal tit: 1
Goldfinch: 5
Great tit: 5
House sparrow: 2
Long-tailed tit: 2
Magpie: 1
Robin: 2
Woodpigeon: 2

Scarcer birds

Marsh tit: 2

No Shows

Pair of Dunnocks
Nuthatch
Collared doves
Great spotted woodpecker

Sparrow numbers are normally greater, as are Goldies

[ladylouise62]

Garden Details

Size of garden: Small
Area: Suburban
Distance to farmland: 1000m
Features of garden: Small tree (trunk < 30cm across at chest height), Lawn, Shrub/hedge that drops leaves in autumn, Flowerbed.

Common birds

Blackbird: 2
Blue tit: 2
House sparrow: 25
Dunnock: 2
Robin: 1
Woodpigeon: 1

Scarcer birds - never in my garden

At present I normally get a pair of Woodpigeons, and there is both a second Robin and a third Blackbird.

[rolf]

The number of Sparrows is impressive, the most I've ever seen here is 11.

[Catherine]

On Sunday, Glen helped me do the count just after breakfast, the busiest time in the day for birds, and when the greatest variety is most likely to be seen. All the feeders had been filled just before t-time on Saturday evening, so we didn't disturb the birds at all!

Order as from my form;

3 Blackbirds (2m and 1f - on bird table)
7 Bluetits (I think most of Fluffy's family still call here!)
1 Carrion Crow (chased off quickly by Magpies)
3 Chaffinches (2m and 1f - all we could definitely identify at one time)
1 Coal Tit (shortened visit when chased off by GTs)
1 Dunnock (on ground below feeders and along pond edge)
7 Goldfinches (sunflower hearts and nyjer feeders)
3 Great Tits (fatball and peanut feeders mostly, but taking a few sunflower hearts)
5 Greenfinches
3 House Sparrows (now regular visitors to the fatballs and fatcake!)
7 Long-tailed Tits (fatballs, several times)
2 Magpies (dunking cake from other garden in our roof gutter.)
2 Robins (chasing each other, then feeding on ground)
1 Song Thrush (feeding on bird table twice)
1 Starling - (short visit to fatcake)
4 Woodpigeons (hoovering up)
1 Wren (bobbing around bushes and trellis in hunt for Spiders, etc.)

also;
1 Blackcap (m. at fatball feeder once)
1 Goldcrest (a 'NEW 'regular, tumbling up and own Forsythia hunting insects and dropped fatcake)
1 GSW (m. - called twice - at fatballs)
2 Bullfinches (sunflower feeders)
2 Nuthatches (nicking peanuts from feeder with hole in it.)

Counting them was the best excuse ever to leave the breakfast dishes for a while!

Although we have a great variety of birds calling 'for breakfast', you will see that we often had one of each species. Thankfully, no Sparrowhawks called - but we didn't see any Siskins or Green Woodpeckers either - and Rooks and Jackdaws stayed away.

[rolf]

That's a superb variety of birds Catherine, you are obviously a bird caterer of great renown.

[Catherine]

NO. I just cheated a bit by filling all the feeders the night before and adding a couple of fatball feeders in 'empty' spaces!

Our neighbour hadn't her feeders full and the old couple along the road (who also feed the birds) are not at home, so they all came to us!

In fact, the flock of LTTs visited us about 5 or 6 times in that hour, with there seldom being a time when we didn't have at least one at a feeder!

Really too dull for any pics though as the back of our house faces north.... However, here is a glimpse of the Goldcrest - taken from inside the conservatory later that same day

[ladylouise62]

Wow, Catherine - that's obviously where all of my birds have gone

[Catherine]

We were amazed at the number of species we had, but often spied only one bird of each - 1 Goldcrest, 1 Wren, 1 Starling, 1 Song Thrush, etc.

So although we had lots of species, we only counted 62 individuals - despite my obvious attempts to entice them to call!

You had 25 House Sparrows, Louise, and, with just one species, you had nearly half my total!

This is our local area - accounting for the variety and species we get here - the red cross being our house!