I did the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch on Sunday morning while listening to Broadcasting House on Radio 4 and eating toast and Marmite.
As I heard my former colleague Derek Niemann talking about his Nazi grandfather (see his moving and interesting book) I reached 5 species: Goldfinch, House Sparrow, Dunnock, Blackbird and Blue Tit.
The ‘best’ birds of the one-hour watch were the 2 Long-tailed Tits which popped in for a visit to the fat balls. I see LTTs very occasionally in the garden and they are just the type of species deliberately to shun the garden during BGGW so I was grateful for their cooperation.
Species 7 and 8 came together and were Wood Pigeon and Chaffinch.
Now I know that in this citizen science project, which has provided valuable and interesting information on the ups and downs of garden birds for over 30 years, as in all monitoring, negative records are just as important as positive ones but I, as I bet you, sit looking at my garden willing all the possible species to turn up in my watch. Negative records are important for sure, but they aren’t as much fun. But you have to keep to the rules so the gulls flying over and the distant Red Kite don’t count for the purposes of this exercise.
The radio folk are now doing their newspaper review and Robin, Starling and Greenfich have been added. I cannot even guess how many Robins I have seen in my life – quite a few – but I take the opportunity to watch this one as it hops around and visits the mealworm feeder. What a lovely bird.
No Great Tit? Why no Great Tit?
No Wren – but they are rather infrequent visitors, or at least are skulking enough rarely for me to see them. But maybe one will appear in the last 10 minutes?
There is a Great Tit next door – but it refuses to cross the fence – or even to perch on it which would do!
No Blackcap – which often appears on this watch. No Reed Bunting or Brambling which are both occasional and rather rare visitors but more likely to be noticed during BGBW when every bird is examined more closely than usual. No Coal Tit – but they really are unusual.
Then two more regular species make a last few minutes appearance – Collared Dove and Jackdaw.
That makes 13 species and 24 individuals. Pretty average for my garden but no two BGBW are the same.
I enjoyed it.
Did you do BGBW? How was it for you?
And do remember to submit your observations at www.rspb.org.uk/birdwatch – sending in your records transforms the time you spent from ‘fun’ to ‘fun and quite useful’.
[registration_form]
Great spotted woodpecker (2, male and female), dunnock (4), blue tit (6), great tit (4), wren (1), pheasant (3), chaffinch (4), robin (2), blackbird (5), bullfinch (5)……….greetings from Calderdale… (grouse did a no show).
I have records back to 02 (latest first)
Some sample records…
Greenfinch – – – 1 1 1 2 1 3 7 10 7 8 16 12
The decline and fall due to trichomonosis.
House Sparrow – 10 13 8 7 3 1 – 1 3 3 2 3 3 11
In 2003, Railtrack cleared the Oxford – Bicester line. Local House Sparrow population suddenly crashed, and then s l o w l y recovered (as the shrubs and ivy grew) until… Network Rail cleared the track and another crash.
Collared Dove 9 5 10 5 3 4 2 4 1 2 2 4 3 2 1
A population success story.
Species 4 12 11 15 14 14 16 13 15 11 13 9 17 15 14
The Network Rail upgrading of the line has reduced my ‘window feeders’ to three species: I am inundated with Collared Doves and Jackdaws (over twenty of each, regularly), with Starlings now just hanging on (most simultaneous Starlings ever counted on my window feeders was 42 – all fledgelings)
I no longer bother with BGB because it is too depressing for me. You cannot fight the urbanisation of the suburbs and the loss of over one thousand mature trees.
I think it is important to do Birdwatch in accordance with the online FAQ, and consulted again before recording. I could not find anywhere where it said that birds have to be landed to count.
“Count the maximum number of each species you see at any one time.”
No mention of flying over being rejected as you seem to suggest.
Pedantic?
I confess.
Rule no.2 on the downloadable tally sheet or newsletter. Might be missing from online info?
Jamie – thanks – you beat me to it. I thought I hadn’t invented that rule…
Found it – at last.
Contrite.
Yes.
I expected to find that rule, but didn’t.
It’s nice to see Greenfinch making a comeback , from a 2 not long ago to 14 this time.
Yes, and it’s nice to hear its odd, not very musical song again – best heard on lazy summer days.
A Greenfinch sang here a few days ago – an active bird on a cold morning when everything was rather quiet. This one individual in the distance created warm sunny thoughts.
We need citizen science. It’s already helping but there’s much more for everyone to do.
We had a successful count this year, 17spp. and 50 total birds. Best for several years.
We also heard the Derek Niemannn interview, amazing. His Nazi grandfather, returning home after a day organising the logistics of the inmates in the Concentration Camps to spend a couple of hours working on his allotment, still in his SS uniform. Apparently Derek knew nothing of this when he wrote his book, Birds in a Cage, how four British soldiers survived a series of PoW camps by fastidiously recording migration and breeding birds around the camps.
Later these men were instrumental in setting up Bird Observatories in the UK and one became Director of the RSPB. They also knew the value of data collection and, I believe, how a disciplined mind can get you through terrible experiences.
I’m not sure if this is cheating, but I feel the need to confess. I sat down to watch on Saturday, but after 15 minutes the wind and rain seemed to be putting off any visitors. Tried again in the afternoon, but next door’s cat, and the dog whining about next doors cat, were unhelpful. So tried again Sunday morning for 10 minute, but remembered having promised to play Monopoly. Not many birds birds had turned up so it seemed the perfect excuse to postpone again (so 2 hours of money fuelled arguing followed, as I rapidly went down the bankruptcy route)! Final attempted yielded 12 species and 35 birds. But should I have carried on with that first attempt………..
Heather – we’ll probably let you off!
A watersoaker type of water pistol with a couple of drops of chili oil in it will take care of the neighbourhood cats, just give them a blast from it any time they come even close to being in range. They’ll soon stop bothering, you only need to soak them once or twice for them to get skittish. And soak away even if they dodge, because even if you miss they remember the attempt.
It’s a great scheme though the hard sell (bird food etc) is getting harder, and they’re collecting more and more info on participants which is a bit off putting for newbies. That said, we ran great hours in Kendal and Carlisle as informal training for new birders.
Rule no.2 on the tally sheet & member newsletter says only count those who land in your patch – otherwise we’d have had c.50 starlings, 200+ geese and even a low flying cormorant joining our garden lists. Great fun.
I agree on the data collection bit – even as a dedicated supporter, I found that I had to re-register, and that was off-putting
michael – yes, that’s what I thought too. It felt more of a job and it definitely felt as though the RSPB was more interested in my contact details than any birds I had seen. A bit unsubtle!
Jamie – yes, a harder sell.
A bit of a disappointing turnout from my lot. The usual Jackdaws, Crows, Collared Doves, and LTTs didn’t turn up in time and a Brambling who has been putting in the occasional appearance didn’t show till two hours later. Just to rub it in, I pressed “submit” before entering the 3 Blackcaps who did turn up.
Quite a useful reminder that I haven’t had a Wren or Dunnock in the garden for some time though.
michael – 3 Blackcaps! Wow! Flocks of them!
the “Starling-proof” mealworm feeder (its the Ark caged seed feeder) seems to really suit them – previously, they’ve been mobbed off by the Starlings but now they seem to be the dominant birds on it
I logged amongst others a Great Spotted Woodpecker and 5 female pheasants (which hoover up any bird seed dropped) but these weren’t accepted. Why is this? They were in my garden.
Carole – weren’t accepted? Seems odd. How do you mean?
Can’t remember the exact wording but something on the lines of these not being garden birds came up on screen.
I had 1 Pheasant in 2004, which was accepted! For a while it lived underneath my birdfeeders in Oxford.
Sparrowhawk perched on the feeder stand
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