We decided to do our bird count at lunch time on Saturday and thank goodness we did as Sunday was so cold and very windy. The trees were swaying at an alarming angle and branches were whipping around in a frenzy. The birds were sitting deep inside the hedges with just a few hardy souls - goldfinches - bouncing around on the swirling branches whilst making their minds up whether or not to fly down to the feeders.
We started the count on Saturday from about 1.45p.m and saw only little birds. The usual wood pigeons and collard doves didn't appear neither did any starlings and we only saw one blackbird. I was hoping that the pair of greenfinches we'd seen on the feeders earlier in the week would return but they didn't. Mostly we saw finches and tits flitting backwards and forwards between the bushes and the feeders. We did have a visit from a pair of long tailed tits which was lovely as they are one of my favourites.
Below is a list of what we spotted in the hour.
Goldfinch - 11
Long Tailed tit - 2
Chaffinch -4
Blue tit - 2
Sparrows - 8
Great tit - 2
Blackbird - 1
Dunnock - 1
Robin - 1
Did you take part in the Birdwatch and if so did you have lots of visitors or see anything unusual?
Amazing to see so many in one hour, Rosie. Lucky you.
ReplyDeleteAmalia
xo
Thank you Amalia, I tink the birds like our garden because we still have hedges and bushes for them to hide in:)
DeleteSadly we didn't register this year and as it happens due to high winds and rain we didn't see a bird at all in the garden.
ReplyDeleteIt wasn't the best weekend weatherwise for the count, I wish they would do a summer or late spring one too:)
DeleteA lovely selection Rosie :) I did it on Saturday too! and felt the same as you when I saw the winds on Sunday! Most of the regulars actually turned up here although some not so regular didn't appear! Highlight for me was a Goldcrest which I was pleased about :) Will do a blog post either tonight or tomorrow :)
ReplyDeleteThank you RR, Glad you got most of your regulars during your count. How wonderful to have a goldcrest visit, we get them in the conifer tree occasionally. Look forward to reading about your bird count:)
DeleteBeautiful. I did one at home and just got my regular starling, sparrows, bluetits and a blackbird. On Sunday I went to my sister's who lives in a rural area and saw a few more birds including a nuthatch, which was lovely. I'll get a post done this week.
ReplyDeleteI have never seen a greenfinch, so envious that you get them to your feeders. X
Thank you Shazza, I've just read about your bird counts you saw some lovely ones especially the nuthatch. When we first came here 20 years ago we had loads of greenfinches but we see them rarely now, I did manage to photograph one earlier last week - bottom left of my collage:)
DeleteHave never done a bird watch....
ReplyDeleteYes, you did have not-so-nice-weather over the weekend, as I am reading in other blogs.
Ours was more typical winter, here.
Thank you WoW, it was a strange weekend for us as regards the weather, I can see from you blog photos that you have lots of lovely snow - which is okay as long as you don't have to go out in it - and very seasonal too:)
DeleteApparently numbers of Starlings are on the decrease, I certainly don't see so many around here.
ReplyDeleteThat is a shame, all those lovely murmurations will become harder to find. We had a visit from about 15 of them this morning much to the annoyance of the doves and Bbackbirds who usually get first dibs on the suet sprinkles:)
DeleteIt’s too early for the birds here...Super cold temperatures , with another storm on the horizon..but come Spring we'll be out with cameras and counting ... normally we get robins, blackbirds, chickadees, wood peckers, gold finches to name a few... you get many birds that we don't ...LuckyYou ..ENJOY your week...Happy Birdwatching ...Hugs
ReplyDeleteThank you Zaa, I always like the sound of chickadees, I must look them up to see what they look like. Your robins are different to ours aren't they? Hope that storm you have coming isn't too bad:)
DeleteHow lovely. We don't do bird watches over here, but I get it now, with picking a time & counting what you see then. As you know from my blog, we do get quite a lot here, so it would be interesting doing a count. Thanks for sharing, take care & stay warm.
ReplyDeleteThank you Susan, the survey helps the RSPB spot which birds are in decline and in which part of the country there are more or less of them. Some of your bird visitors must be so different to ours:)
DeleteThat's a good result, much more than I would have counted. How does it compare with last year? We mainly have bluetits, long tailed tits, robins, blackbirds, jays, collared doves and goldfinches if we are lucky. No sparrows, starlings or chaffinches though. 😊
ReplyDeleteI was quite surprised at how many we saw as they usually hide away, we seem to have the same kinds of birds except jays, we only ever see them on our walks. We seem to have lots of sparrows as we still have lots of perimeter hedges. I've just looked back at last year's tally and we seemed to see far more this year:)
DeleteA nice selection of birds, we've had a few Long-tailed Tits recently but they didn't turn up for the Birdwatch!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Pam - I love to see the long tailed tits, in this weather they loo like little pom poms on sticks - they are so pretty:)
DeleteYou saw a good variety of garden birds. It was very windy here over the weekend. The birds stayed away, but are back again now that the weather is calmer.
ReplyDeleteThank you Linda, it was a bad weekend especially for the bird count, there must be a reason why the RSPB chose this time of year but we see more birds in Spring and early Summer. Glad the birds are back with you now the weather is calmer. Snow has been forecast for us over the next few days:)
DeleteThese are pretty!
ReplyDeleteWe have some lovely little birds visit the garden and use the feeders:)
DeleteThat is quite an impressive list Rosie. I didn't do the bird watch. I would like to do it in the future when I have put up some bird feeders. x
ReplyDeleteThank you Simone, we do see lots of birds here mainly beacuse of our hedges and the trees beyond in the small area of land between us and the school:)
DeleteDH and I took part, we did it on Sunday, but the weather was not so good. Not so many birds as usual... I had this vision of them hiding in the hedge laughing knowing that they were supposed to be visitng for the count. You did really well, we saw jackdaws.
ReplyDeleteThank you Julie, I'm glad we did the watch on Saturday because the weather on Sunday was really atrocious. I'm sure the birds do hide away or perhaps more people put food out so they are spoilt for choice and visit new bird cafes? By Tuesday all our normal birds were back again:)
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