RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch

These are my observations for this year's RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch. The record sheet for common garden visitors can be downloaded from the RSPB site HERE. It is just to help with recognition and recording. It does not have to be sent in. You do not have to use their record sheet, any piece of paper will do to note down your observations.



Some of the colours may look a bit peculiar as my printer is having a bad ink colour day.

The full results for birds landing in my garden during a one hour period today were:

Starling        9

House Sparrow   6

Blackbird       5

Chaffinch       3

Wood Pigeon     3

Tree Sparrow    2

Dunnock         2

Crow            2

Jackdaw         2

Pheasant        1

Blue Tit        1

Great Tit       1

Magpie          1

Robin           1

Greenfinch      1

Collared Dove   1

As ever, some of the birds which normally arrive in larger numbers stayed out of view and some I rarely see made an appearance.

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:



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

Not now dear, I've got a headache ....


I wonder what Blackbird tastes like ...


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.



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.

RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch 2009

In an hour watching the garden this morning the following birds were counted:

Blackbird 3
Blue Tit 1
Chaffinch 4
Coal Tit 1
Collared Dove 3
Dunnock 1
Great Tit 2
Greenfinch 3
House Sparrow 6
Magpie 1
Robin 1
Starling 6
Woodpigeon 2

Those which were feeding on the ground were skating about as the flooded part of the garden was frozen over and some of the scattered seed had landed on the ice.

A Greenfinch waiting its turn to go down to the bird table for its breakfast.

RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch

The RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch in the UK is on 24-25th January 2009. It takes just one hour on either of those dates to observe which birds actually visit your garden. It can be a rewarding pastime as you get to see which birds really do visit your garden (not those which fly over) and how many of each species there are. What is wanted is the largest number of each bird at any one time. Full details can be found on the RSPB site - link on the left side of this blog. Also they have a downloadable, printable sheet to help in identifying the common species and to mark their numbers.

A group of Greenfinches visiting the bird table - the mesh is to keep out the greedy larger birds such as collared doves, pigeons and rooks.