I completed the second survey for my second BBS square the other day. Very few birds on this visit – amazingly few actually. Even few Carrion Crows and few Wood Pigeons. And yet I added a new species to the site (this was my 14th year of surveys here) – a very topical Raven. Maybe the Raven ate all the other birds whilst I was away?
That’s two new species for this site in Year 14 – Grey Partridge on the first visit and Raven on the second. Yellow Wagtails are just hanging on here but I haven’t seen a Reed Bunting in the last four years.
I’ve recorded 53 species here over those 14 years – between 24 and 33 in any single year – and this year the total was 30 species.
Without the BBS I would never visit this patch of farmland even though I often drive near it. I would never keep a note of its birds and I would not, now, have a small but standardised and quantified window into the changes in farmland bird numbers. Of course, my observations are little more than standardised anecdotes, but when added to thousands more they make a good picture – no, let’s be fair, an excellent picture of annual changes in bird numbers and distributions.
I’m now looking forward to the report on 2018’s results and also to getting out and counting ‘my’ two BBS squares again next spring.
There are suspiciously few sheep in those photos. I can only conclude that the raven has wiped them out. A cull is clearly demanded 🙂
Jonathan – crikey! You’re right!
All the Reed Buntings are at RSPB St Aiden’s near Leeds. As is a huge machine that was used to scrape coal off the surface at tgat site as it was an open cast mine. Worth a visit.