This year I have kept a closer eye on birds in and seen from, or heard from, my garden in east Northants. It has been fun for me. I’ve spent a bit more time in the garden as a result and recorded what I have seen with a bit more care (see note at bottom of this post).
We started the year with a garden list of 56 species on Birdtrack – entered since 2007. My friendly challenge to you was to predict back in January what it would be by the end of 2019.
Here is that original list.
| Greylag Goose |
| Grey Heron |
| Red Kite |
| Goshawk |
| Sparrowhawk |
| Buzzard |
| Golden Plover |
| Common Tern |
| Black-headed Gull |
| Common Gull |
| Lesser Black-backed Gull |
| Stock Dove |
| Woodpigeon |
| Collared Dove |
| Cuckoo |
| Tawny Owl |
| Swift |
| Green Woodpecker |
| Great Spotted Woodpecker |
| Kestrel |
| Merlin |
| Hobby |
| Peregrine |
| Magpie |
| Jackdaw |
| Rook |
| Carrion Crow |
| Raven |
| Blue Tit |
| Great Tit |
| Coal Tit |
| Skylark |
| Sand Martin |
| Swallow |
| House Martin |
| Long-tailed Tit |
| Chiffchaff |
| Blackcap |
| Wren |
| Starling |
| Blackbird |
| Fieldfare |
| Song Thrush |
| Redwing |
| Mistle Thrush |
| Robin |
| Dunnock |
| House Sparrow |
| Grey Wagtail |
| Pied Wagtail |
| Brambling |
| Chaffinch |
| Bullfinch |
| Greenfinch |
| Goldfinch |
| Siskin |
| Reed Bunting |
By the end of November I’d added seven species (Herring Gull, Cormorant, Yellowhammer, Mallard, Goldcrest, Jay and Linnet) this year to bring the total to 63 species.
As the light has faded on this garden for the last time in 2019 I’ve been looking out in the vain hope that an easily identifiable new bird species for the garden would come into sight, do a pirouette, take a bow and head off. What would have been nice? A Waxwing or 50 of them would have been great. A Lapwing, a Wigeon or a Little Egret surely wouldn’t have been out of the question, but none turned up. Even the generously filled niger feeder has only been feeding Goldfinches (lovely birds) but not attracting any Redpolls so far.
It’s been fun though. There was a Blackcap over the Christmas period which I guess is still around, and another sighting of a Goldcrest which wasn’t even on the garden list until October this year. And the bird feeders are full and will remain watched and refilled until well past the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch on 25-27 January.
The sting in the tail: so who won the friendly competition? Well, it would seem that 56 original species plus 7 new ones = 63 species now, which nobody guessed, but it’s not quite as simple as that. It’s not that simple because the original list (see above) had 57 species on it so I must have miscounted (silly me – sorry!). So 57+7=64 species and 64 species were the guesses , or carefully thought through estimates, of both Alan Cranston and Nick Bee. It’s a good job there wasn’t a large cash prize at stake, but to guess the right answer taking apparent subconscious account of my totalling error is impressive.
Happy birding – whether in a garden or not.
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An unexpected addition for us this year was a mute swan that flew over as I was being interviewed about the BGBW results for a local TV channel. A near miss was something stirring up the red kites and buzzards nearby which was very likely the white-tailed eagle that has moved to the county from the Isle of Wight.
Lyn – wow! I’m somewhat envious.
A carefully thought through estimate, naturally.
That’s a fair Raptor list for anywhere, beats me on Merlin, and Red Kite by about five minutes.
Ditto Alan….