Sunday 31 January 2010

RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch.

Taking a one hour snapshot of the bird visitors to the garden usually brings up some surprises. As I observe from day to day there is hardly a time when there isn't one or more of the tit families at the feeders. During the count I though there would be none right up to the last few minutes and no Coal Tits appeared though they had been frequent visitors for weeks. Normally I spot the odd Jackdaw from time to time so it was quite a surprise when four landed at the same time. Also there are usually quite a few Chaffinches but only three turned up in that hour.

The final results were:

RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch 2010

Of course I had the camera to hand, just in case.

Not now dear, I've got a headache ....
Can't Catch Me

I wonder what Blackbird tastes like ...
Jackdaws

It had been a beautiful sunny day, though cold, and the sky stayed clear into the night which gave me a chance to try to capture the full Moon.

Moon 004

A few days ago I mentioned that the Wood Pigeon on the feeder looked as though it needed pince nez to focus on the food. Well, Glo from Porcelain Rose took that as a challenge and the result can be seen here:

http://i987.photobucket.com/albums/ae351/les_0277/dove-pince-nez.gif

A great piece of animation from Glo. Brilliant.

10 comments:

  1. Impressive list John. Good to see so many Blackbirds there, along with a good variety of species, including the Tree Sparrow.
    I think the results this year will be very interesting once they've all been collected.

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  2. Hello Keith. I expect the cold weather may drive more birds into gardens for this count.

    With all the squabbling Blackbirds I was beginning to think the smaller birds had decided to go elsewhere.

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  3. Goodness John! I thought the 14 Blackbirds I saw in the snow was a lot but 18!!!

    A good count there, I was surprised, when I did mine, not to see any Great or Coal Tits and no Dunnocks, I expect if I was to do another they would turn up!

    Very nice Moon picture and I particularly liked the Jackdaw caption :)

    Yes, I spotted Glo's amusing contribution the other day, she is very clever.

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  4. Hello Jan. 14 is more than enough. Today there were over 20 of the greedy things for ever squabbling.

    I don't know what has happened to the Coal Tits - missing again today. Maybe they are using some of the Sunflower seeds they have been hoarding recently.

    It took quite a few goes to get one decent clean shot of the Moon. With the Jackdaws it was the way the nearest one was looking so intently at the Blackbird!

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  5. When I did my count this morning, there was only three Blue tits, lower than normal. Also I had only one of Great tit, Coal tit and Long-tailed tit. But the freezing temperatures bought other birds in for my count.

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  6. Hello Lynmiranda. It's almost as though some of the regulars know they are being counted and stay away. I have only seen the LTTs once so far this Winter.
    You have lovely photos of some of your visitors.

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  7. Great jackdaw shot and caption! And the moon is gorgeous.

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  8. Thank you Wilma. Although I see Jackdaws in the garden fairly often they usually disappear as soon as I grab the camera. It was great to get a decent shot of them and I couldn't resist the caption with that look in the Jackdaw's eye.

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  9. Hi there John, I agree with Jan… that’s some count on the Blackbirds! You got a good snapshot of visiting species too. I also agree, great photos and captions :-)

    My count ended up being too late in the day but my surprise was a very agitated Great tit which was the last visitor of the night :-o

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  10. Hello Shirl. That count of 18 Blackbirds was a low one for my garden these day. Yesterday morning there were 24 milling about on the lawn.

    Here the main bulk of visiting birds eating is done at breakfast, lunch and tea times so I was able to choose my time.

    The male Wood Pigeon spent ages following his beloved round the garden but she was having none of it. The way the Jackdaw was looking at the Blackbird caught my imagination.

    The Great Tits certainly let everyone know when they are not happy.

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Thank you for visiting. Hope you enjoyed the pictures. Any comment, or correction to any information or identification I get wrong, is most welcome. John

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