I counted birds in my garden for an hour last Sunday – as usual. Numbers were a bit lower than usual and Chaffinch and Greenfinch didn’t turn up at all. There have been very few Greenfinches around this year and my only garden records for 2022 are a few fly-overs. House Sparrow numbers were low in the critical hour, although there are plenty around usually, but two Blackcaps (M & F) did make an appearance.
Do, please, remember, actually to submit the records to the RSPB rather than leave them scribbled on that envelope. I’ve just entered mine (and there was a Robin and a Jackdaw too):
… and got this interesting peak into the national results…
What’s a Starling?
I don’t put food out so when I came down for breakfast and saw 7 woodpigeons sitting in my birch tree I thought they were too good to miss and started the clock running. Collared dove, magpie and long-tailed tit pairs also appeared but only one jackdaw when there can be well into the teens feeding on the lawn. Also my robin, which has not yet paired up. I view that prospect with some trepidation as last year a neighbour’s cat killed the whole brood and at least one adult of a pair that had been keeping me company for weeks as I gardened. The cat in question is very fit, a most efficient bird killer and has defied all my attempts to exclude it from the garden, but more measures are in hand. And the neighbours are such nice people…
Yet another wildlife crime, murder of a wild creature by an invasive, illegitimate predator……but of course cats kill mostly sick and injured birds, don’t they? The RSPB say it, so it must be true.