I keep glancing out of the window at the birds in the garden – many of them are on bird feeders and fat balls. There is often a good selection of Goldfinches, House Sparrows, Great and Blue Tits, Robins, Blackbirds and more. One of the ‘more’ at the moment is an occasionally-seen male Blackcap.
‘Pretty good’ I think to myself, and then I think ‘I wonder whether they’ll all turn up for Big Garden Birdwatch on 25-27 January‘.
Garden birds seem to have an uncanny knack of making themselves scarce just when you want to note their numbers down
But the scientist in me, lurking still, also thinks ‘Well, negative data, and small numbers of birds, are every much as valuable as huge flocks’ – and they are.
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The weather seems to be playing a huge part in reducing the bird numbers this year. Usually I get around 2-4 dozen Blackbirds…. this year?… 2! Just the local ones. Maybe they’ve heard about Brexit and decided not to risk coming this year!
Great Tit???? I’ve got more chance of getting a Gyr Falcon in my garden than a Great Tit!1
I’m just hoping that one of the recently released sea eagles will glide over the garden when doing my count.
Pete – that would be amazing wouldn’t it!
In my garden Nuthatch or Swift would make my day – White-tails are pretty regular! It just depends where you are.
On January 1 I saw 2 goldcrests on our garden for the first time. I wonder how many birds we’ve missed when not looking out through the windows.
I think I’ve found a 1 hour timeslot when the regulars (robin, blue tit, great tit, coal tit) visit the feeders, but of course they may change their mind next week.