This year I am keeping a list of birds seen in or from my garden.
I did see a last Swift from the garden in September – on 3 September.
September added three species to the year list but no garden-lifers.
The three species are Great Spotted Woodpecker (two, together, flew high over the garden as though they were looking around rather than going anywhere in particular), a hooting Tawny Owl early one morning and a Chiffchaff which stayed for at least a week (or maybe there were loads of them really).
Here is the list, so far, for 2019;
- Robin
- House Sparrow
- Jackdaw
- Blackbird
- Woodpigeon
- Starling
- Black-headed Gull
- Great Tit
- Red Kite
- Carrion Crow
- Chaffinch
- Goldfinch
- Rook
- Collared Dove
- Dunnock
- Wren
- Long-tailed Tit
- Blue Tit
- Common Gull
- Redwing
- Fieldfare
- Reed Bunting
- Greenfinch
- Blackcap
- Song Thrush
- Herring Gull
- Lesser Black-backed Gull
- Buzzard
- Pied Wagtail
- Stock Dove
- Magpie
- Green Woodpecker
- Mallard
- Sparrowhawk
- Coal Tit
- Swallow
- Cormorant
- Yellowhammer
- Swift
- House Martin
- Kestrel
- Raven
- Hobby
- Peregrine
- Sand Martin
- Pheasant
- Great Spotted Woodpecker
- Chiffchaff
- Tawny Owl
And I asked you to guess what the garden list total (ever) would be by the end of the year – for fun. It started on 56 species and I’ve added four species (Herring Gull, Cormorant, Yellowhammer and Mallard) this year to bring the total so far to 60 species.
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A very creditable list Mark considering you don’t appear to have bird feeders – or do you?
In our garden the large elder which formerly drew so many warblers to its berries at this time of the year has seen better days and produced a very poor crop this year. Despite that we had both a lesser whitethroat and a couple of blackcaps in the bush last week, perhaps disappointed return visitors from a previous autumn when there were plenty of berries to be had.
And we still have three chiffchaffs – and still regularly chasing the blue tits seemingly for fun. Why on earth do they do that?
Agree, it’s a good list.
Chasing for fun? Nice to think so but surely it’s competition for the same food source? I seem to remember from your comment last autumn that Blue Tits were feasting on elderberries alongside Chiffchaffs.