I’ve been in my garden a lot in the last four weeks. I can make phone calls, read things and think – I can’t easily write – but I can also watch birds. And so I have 22 complete bird lists out of 28 days (they are complete in the sense that I made a list of every species I saw – not that I’m sure that I saw everything that entered the airspace!).
I’ve seen or heard 46 species altogether during lockdown with 29 species being the highest day count. Here’s the list with how many days (out of 22 complete lists) I have seen them, and the three species which were completely new for the garden list are picked out in red.
Woodpigeon 22
Collared Dove 22
Black-headed Gull 22
Jackdaw 22
Rook 22
Robin 22
Blue Tit 22
House Sparrow 22
Goldfinch 22
Greenfinch 22
Great Tit 21
Blackbird 21
Red Kite 21
Starling 21
Dunnock 21
Carrion Crow 20
Sparrowhawk 18
Buzzard 18
Chaffinch 17
Wren 17
Lesser Black-backed Gull 14
Stock Dove 13
Long-tailed Tit 12
Pheasant 10
Kestrel 8
Goldcrest 7
Blackcap 7
Pied Wagtail 7
Swallow 7
Peregrine 5
Raven 5
Common Gull 4
Magpie 4
Song Thrush 4
Cormorant 3
Grey Heron 2
House Martin 1
Gadwall 1
Mediterranean Gull 1
Fieldfare 1
Reed Bunting 1
Greylag Goose 1
Swift 1
Canada Goose 1
Green Woodpecker 1
Great Spotted Woodpecker 1
I’ve lived in this house for over 20 years but I’ve probably spent more time looking at birds in and from my garden in the last month than in the previous few years. Sitting in the garden has become the new normal. I often pop out around dawn to have a listen – partly because it’s a great way to start the day but also because it’s a good time to hear a distant calling Pheasant! Breakfast is taken some time around 0830 in our conservatory with bird feeders in sight. If work allows then the raptor hour (anything between 50 minutes and 2 hours) takes place between 1030 and 1230 – I’m disappointed if I haven’t seen Red Kite, Buzzard and Sparrowhawk in that time. And it was in ‘raptor hour’ that a Swift flew past on Sunday (the earliest in Northants this year apparently) and the adult Med. Gull flew past (and I think I saw one again yesterday too but it was too brief a view to be sure). Pied Wagtails are evening birds and if I haven’t seen a Lesser Black Back by 1800 then I probably will in the next half an hour.
But as well as identifying birds, I’ve spent a lot more time watching them – I must be a birdwatcher. I’ve watched Woodpigeons with a new interest and wondered what the Goldcrests, Blue Tits and Long-tailed Tits find to eat under leaves and petals. And I know where the Long-tailed Tits are nesting.
I can do this for a few more weeks – and I will, and I’ll tell you what other sightings I get. I’m waiting for that White-tailed Eagle sighting, or an Osprey or Marsh Harrier would do. Maybe a flock of Bee-eaters will fly over calling to remind me of my time studying them in the Camargue, or maybe one night I’ll hear the whistling of Common Scoters overhead.
We’ve got at least another two weeks of this and I’m pretty sure it will be longer. I know I am lucky to have the opportunity to sit and watch the sky when others are cooped up in small flats in big cities, but when Boris says I don’t have to do this anymore I might just decide that I enjoy it enough to build it into my future routine in some way.
And today has already started with singing Song Thrush (the first for about a week) and the largst ever flypast of Cormorant (two of them).
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Mark,
I am surprised that you see BH Gull every day. I presume that they nest nearby ( in the Nene valley?) perhaps.
Trevor – they do! they nest at Stanwick Lakes and at Summer Leys, and sometimes there is a Med Gull pair amongst them. Thank you for suggesting that I am lucky to see them each day – I hadn’t thought about that until your prompt. I like gulls, and I will like each Black-headed Gull a little bit more now you’ve made me appreciate them a little bit more.
Mark, My lockdown list is not of course just the garden but the surrounding fields of the local Montgomery wildlife trust reserve ( Llandinam Gravels) do not include Black Headed Gull at all, one sighting each of two birds of Lesser Black Backed and Herring Gull only. It might at first seem extraordinary but they don’t nest at all locally. Whilst they do occur not that far away I’ve never seen Common Gull here either. New birds in the last couple of days have been Linnet and Garden Warbler.
I don’t wish to lower the tone Mark, but on the subject of Woodpigeon behaviour, and obviously this is just from casual observations, is it the case that female Woodpigeons don’t enjoy sex very much?
It maybe just that I’m watching the behaviour of the same pair over the years, but while other birds – for example Buzzards, after a bit of calling and a classy display – will get right down to it on an attractive fence post or whatever – the female Woodpigeon seems completely unimpressed by the attentions of the male. While he bows and coos and sidles along the telegraph wire, she just moves along the wire keeping her distance and if he gets too close, she simply flies off. Clearly they do mate eventually as the species is not yet extinct and indeed they nest in the garden – but the females just don’t seem keen and it’s not something I’ve ever observed…
Francis – I’ve been watching exactly the same, and thinking the same, so thank you for unlocking these thoughts.
I’ve also seen what I guess are a couple of males apparently interacting – but I don’t know they are males, just guessing. They sit next to each other and lash out with just one wing to hit the other one. It looks more like aggression that courtship – but you never know with birds. One of these interactions went on for several minutes with lots of ‘blows’ exchanged. And both birds seemed to be panting hard at the end of it. I wondered what was going on. I don’t think Woodpigeons are territorial so what’s it all about?
Given that the Woodpigeons I am watching must be spending lots of time feeding on farmland the members of a pair must spend some time apart. So I wonder whether sometimes what you are watching is a ‘strange’ male displaying to a female. Male birds (let’s stick to birds) will mate with anyone (sometimes anything) and so maybe the female is trying to signal that she is very flattered by the attention (whether she is or not) but that although she is gagging for it ‘not with you mate’. It was I who lowered the tone.
And given that, it would be understandable if when a male returns to find another male hanging around, he does a bit of wing-thwacking!
I’ve been doing the same thing, Mark. It makes you wonder, when you see something for the first time if it’s new, or if you just hadn’t seen it before.
The garden firsts are cormorant and blackcap. We’ve also got curlew next door and I have no memory of seeing them here before (my lists are all in my head), but it’s over 30 years now, so I may be wrong.
The thing that’s shocked me about both the birds and me, is that we live 50 m. from two woods and both used to have rookeries. They have gone, and I didn’t notice….
A couple of weeks ago I joined the BTO’s Garden Bird Watch. I’d never done so before because I couldn’t be sure of being at home enough. It has rules – you can’t count birds flying over, or those just about heard in the distance – but you are contributing to a 25-year national project. And add butterflies, bees, hedgehogs as well, if you like.
I’ve had 28 bird species each week.
Hello David,
This is David White, one of the Garden BirdWatch Supporter Developement Officers at the BTO.
Thank you very much for your comment and we are glad to hear that you are taking part in BTO Garden BirdWatch. It is fantastic to hear that you have seen so many species in your garden!
Just in case anyone else that is reading this comment doesn’t know, we have made BTO Garden BirdWatch free during the lockdown to help to promote the enjoyment of garden birdwatching and to provide more information on garden birds to the BTO.
If you are interested in signing up to the scheme for free, which covers a year, you can find out how to do so here:
https://www.bto.org/our-science/projects/gbw/join-gbw;
Many thanks,
David White
We have a large rookery just across a field from us. It is fascinating at dusk to watch the birds streaming back from all directions. Then there is a terrible racket for quite a while then almost instantaneously (in under a minute) all noise stops – almost as if a switch has been flicked.
Is there a vocal communication for “stop talking and go to sleep”? Or is there a hierarchy and if the top rook goes silent all the rest copy? It’s definitely not a gradual reduction in noise it is a sudden cut-off, with just an occasional squawk afterwards.
Have you considered audio recording to find out what’s going on overnight?
De – I have. But I haven’t done anything about it yet. Bad me!
I have a pair of bluetits in the nest box on the fence, sparrows under next door’s guttering, and a blackbird and a robin who show up to fight each other nearly everyday. I wish they’d just kiss and get it over with. Seriously, this blackbird and robin are totally frenemies. It is not a great variety of birdlife here, but it is entertaining nonetheless.
I’ve had great fun watching the feral pigeons that have recently been attracted to my feeders. I realised that they were guzzling nearly all the sunflower seed and monopolising them so that the intended recipients couldn’t get a look in. They access the grain by balancing on the tray that catches spilled seed, so in an effort to deter them I removed the tray. The day afterwards I noticed about six of them perched on top of the feeder ‘tree’ and the fat ball cage looking very disgruntled and doing their best (it seemed) to make me feel guilty and relent. Day two saw a couple of them doing a ‘sit in’ under the feeder. They are now grabbing the base with their feet, hanging upside down and flapping their wings wildly as they try to gain access to the portholes. They appear to be getting better at it, but I can’t help thinking that the energy expended getting the seed far outweighs its calorific value. I’m sure they won’t starve, but I do feel rather sorry for them, and the woodies, which I have always been rather fond of, who are now missing out because of their greedier cousins. I suggested putting the tray back but my other half responded with a firm no. We’ll see what happens…
I see Thrapston had three Bee-eaters today, one wonders if they flew over Avery Towers seen or unseen.
If a lot of people are keeping lockdown lists, not just in their garden, but on their permitted daily exercise it would be interesting to see what percentage of British birds would be on a combined list. Maybe Mark could keep a list and get people to send in their sightings.