I know what Ralph means – I’d like to add red kite to my BGBW list this year but how interested in my garden would one have to be to be ‘countable’? Will my honesty be tested today?
I’ll let you know how I got on with BGBW with another blog today some time after 1215.
Good luck if you are doing BGBW today and I’d be interested to hear how you got on.
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Our BGBW was better than the dismal last year, 11 species comprisIng all the usual common species. Would have added song thrush & greenfinch had a further 10 minutes been allowed.
Can your Blog say something about the real scientific value of BGBW as there’s been some discussion ( in letters pages of the Times)
Jim
Jim, I’m not sure how scientific it’s supposed to be. To me it’s an exercise in getting people involved in counting and identification of species etc at an early age. Trying to get people who normally wouldn’t venture out to countryside to watch wildlife involved in nature around them. Also to encourage younger people into wildlife watching too. Sure cynics will say it’s an RSPB marketing exercise etc and maybe it is, from my perspective it’s normally just a bit fun/ an excuse to get out of household chores etc but this year I’ve had to relocate my BGBW from Northants to Jersey and I have noticed a difference in species numbers etc and that’ll be reflected in my survey results.
In your comment you briefly mentioned the possiblity of a Song Thrush, did you know for example it was the BGBW that highlighted the drop in the number of Song Thrush before any other survey, so it has some merits.
Would love to know what the comments were in the Sunday Times?
Hi Mark,Ann always does BGB and I think she cheats a bit but she doesn’t see it like that,think lots of people must do a little bit of manipulating.
Dennis – I’m shocked 😉
Garden empty of birds. It’s the first day of thaw. Yesterday there would have been everything from Goldcrests to Sparrowhawks. Today they are all off partying.
Much to my surprise we actually had a male Merlin fly very low over the garden (between the trees). It’s a shame that one doesn’t count, as the results here were otherwise shockingly poor.
Yes so am I Mark from a genuinely normally righteous person but hey -ho one small fault cannot be bad.
We have a kite that checks out all the gardens here. It does not land, but it is hunting, using our garden and others. So I count that as ‘in’.
So to Mike (above) a merlin hunting in your garden, surely counts!