We started counting yesterday morning at around five minutes past ten. Notebook and pen ready, cameras ready and warm mugs of coffee at hand as our conservatory can be quite cool in the mornings.
As usually happens when we sit down for the hour of bird counting the usual visitors don't appear. Where were the wood pigeons, rock doves and collard doves?
Total count over the hour was
Starlings - 16
Goldfinch - 9
Sparrow-6
Chaffinch - 6
Blackbird - 4
Robins - 2
Blue Tit -2
Dunnock -1
Great Tit - 1
Coal Tit - 1
Wood Pigeon -1
Collard Dove - 1
Crows and Magpies flew overhead but didn't land and only one of the four collard doves that usually visit together in the morning decided to land for a while. We saw all four of them later in the day.
When you enter your results on the RSPB's website they also ask what other wildlife you see regularly in the garden.
Squirrels visit during the day and from our outside wildlife camera (a Christmas present from us to us) we know we get night time visits from foxes and badgers.
Just behind the fox you can see a cat.
I think the badgers are one of the reasons we no longer get hedgehogs visiting. When we first came here over twenty years ago we often used to see hedgehogs in the garden.
There is still time to complete a count should you wish to join in. Details below:-
RSPB Big Garden Bird Watch
When you enter your results on the RSPB's website they also ask what other wildlife you see regularly in the garden.
Squirrels visit during the day and from our outside wildlife camera (a Christmas present from us to us) we know we get night time visits from foxes and badgers.
I think the badgers are one of the reasons we no longer get hedgehogs visiting. When we first came here over twenty years ago we often used to see hedgehogs in the garden.
There is still time to complete a count should you wish to join in. Details below:-
RSPB Big Garden Bird Watch
Goldfinches have disappeared for the last few weeks but plenty of blue tits and great tits and far too many sparrows - haven't seen a chaffinch for ages
ReplyDeleteThank you Sue, we have loads of goldfinches at the moment and sparrows too as we have quite a long run of hedge for them but they seemed to stay away during the count which is typical, although sometimes the starlings put them off. We've seen more chaffinches this year and it was quite unusual to see six all in one go:)
DeleteWhat a great haul of birds Rosie! Well done x
ReplyDeleteThank you Karen we were quite lucky to see as many birds as we did, there seemed to be a bit of a feeding frenzy halfway through the hour:)
DeleteAn outside wildlife camera!!!! We would love one of those.
ReplyDeleteI think we should look into, getting one!!!!
Thank you for the inspiration.
💖 💖 💖
Thank you WoW, we had been looking at the cameras for ages and decided to get one for a christmas treat, we've had some wonderful sightings from it. Mostly cats, foxes and badgers. It is quite a small, weatherproof camera which has to be strapped to a tree or post and then the photos or short videos can be downloaded onto the computer from the card:)
DeleteA great count for you Rosie.
ReplyDeleteI think our birds were having a day out, not many at all for us although there were 4 grey squirrels in the garden at the same time and 4 jackdaws scaring everyone off I think.
Thank you Julie, I'm sure the birds know we are waiting for them! Or it could be that if more people are feeding them than usual for the birdwatch that they have too much choice:)
DeleteWonderful sightings Rosie. And some great photos. I love the chaffinch one and the starlings. And impressive night visitors of course! X
ReplyDeleteThank you shazza. The camera has shown us that the badgers do visit quite often and not occasionally as we previously thought. It's great to have the chaffinches visiting:)
DeleteYou have a very rich garden Rosie. Lots of wildlife to see. B x
ReplyDeleteThank you Barbara, we are lucky to have the school nature reserve behind our hedge and Berryhill fields nature reserve just a couple of streets away, even though we are in the city we aren't far from green areas:)
DeleteI did mine Saturday morning and as you say the regulars decide not to be regulars still I saw a decent number of birds :) You got quite a good count!
ReplyDeleteThank you Pam, I thought we had quite a good count this year and even though some regulars stayed away we saw others. Glad you had a good day's recording too:)
DeleteA good count Rosie and lovely photos. I saw 10 species from memory - will do a blog post soon. How wonderful to have an outside wildlife camera to record what is in your garden at night. Have often wondered about one of those for our garden and it is a great idea for a joint present. You are so lucky to have badgers. Not sure whether they are to blame for lack of hedgehogs although they can be competition for each other as they both eat worms. Badgers will I think eat hedgehogs but only when they are desperate due to food shortages. Despite the useful suspects blaming badgers for the hedgehog decline I really can't see any evidence at all that this is the case and there is certainly no sound scientific evidence to show that hedgehog numbers increase where badgers have been massacred due to the slaughters. I do hope yours return.
ReplyDeleteHave a lovely week :)
Thank you RR. Glad you were able to do the count and that you spotted some different visitors. We'd been wondering about having a camera for ages. It's just a simple one that you strap to a tree or post and set up each time. The card then comes in to be dowloaded onto the computer it takes both stills and little video films. We've had lots of pleasure from it. Many houses up and down the crescent have fences now but us and next door still have hedges with ways through to the school reserve at the back so hedgehogs could get through on their travels. A few years ago we found a dead hedgehog under the trees - well just it's pelt so we assumed a badger had been at it, could be though that the arrival of badgers and the decline in hedgehogs is a coincidence and it's good to know about the hedgehogs in badger cull areas. I was searching for a photo of Max with a hedgehog we took years ago not long after we'd had the cats but I couldn't find it. He kept nosing the hedgehog and then jumping back when he was prickled, he was astounded as I don't think he'd ever seen one before. Hope you too have a good week:)
DeleteThanks Rosie for info on the camera. It sounds really good. A lot of gardens round here have fences too - we have a hedgehog size hole in ours but no good if no-one else has. We used to get them years ago but not for many years. Interesting and sad about the pelt it does sound like a badger :( That must have been so amusing to see Max's reaction :)
DeleteOur camera was from Aldi not the sort of thing we would normally think of from there, usually just vegetables and flowers, but it is a good sturdy camera and was just under £70 which we thought was a good price, it has been wonderful so far. As well as fences and tarmac or slabs people have also put down astro turf which is so bad for all the birds and animas that dig in lawns for worms and all the insects too who love the grass and other plants in there:( There are only a few of us left with what I'd call proper gardens. I must try harder to find that photo of Max:):)
DeleteThat's a good amount of birds Rosie. I've only seen a hedgehog twice in my life. One about 30 years ago when it was running along the pavement and then in my garden shortly after I started blogging. Never seen one since! Never seen a badger in the wild either! The thing that I commonly see are urban foxes. Funny but I hadn't seen a fox in all my childhood. :)
ReplyDeleteThank you Simone, we are lucky to have a lot of birds visit the garden. I hadn't seen a badger in the wild or a live badger until this year in our garden, we knew they were about but I'd never seen one - only squished at the side of the road or stuffed in a museum. I remember walking in Cornwall with Mum and Dad down a country lane near where we were staying and a fox came from a hedge just in front of us. I also remember coming back from the Isle of Wight and Dad stopping at traffic lights and a red squirrel ran across a fence and up into a tree - both early memories:)
DeleteThe fox is quite a sight.
ReplyDeleteThank you William, I love seeing the animals in the garden at night time:)
Delete