Saturday 25 January 2014

Big Garden Birdwatch - 2014

It's that time of year again. Time to do the RSPB's big garden birdwatch. Otherwise known as big migrations of birds to somewhere that is not my garden. The idea is to count the birds that land in the garden during a one hour period.

It was very damp and misty and, at first, I thought I wasn't going to get anything at all. I had heard some bird song when I left the house to fetch the paper but no sign of any birds landing in the garden.

While I was doing my birdwatch, I was amused by the starlings that perched just outside the garden. I wasn't so happy about the magpies that frightened the little birds off.



So here are my numbers for this and a few previous birdwatches.  This year, during a spell of record breaking wet weather, we had fewer species than previously but we had greater numbers of individuals thanks to our starlings boucing back from last year's poor showing.




2011
Saturday, 29 Jan
2012
Sunday, 29 Jan
2013
Saturday, 26 Jan
2014
Saturday, 25 Jan
Start time 8.45 am 8.45 am 9.07am 8.50 am
Weather dull, icy
cold, bright damp, misty
House Sparrow 3 4

Blue tit 3 3 2 3
Starling 8 9 2 8
Blackbird 2 2 3 3
Woodpigeon 1
1 2
Great tit
1

Chaffinch 2


Robin 1 1 1 2
Collared Dove 2 1 1
Magpie 2 2 2 2
Pied Wagtail 1 1 1
Song Thrush 2
1
Dunnock 3 1

Coal Tit
1

Goldfinch

1
No of species 12 11 10 6
No of individuals 30 26 15 20

If you are reading this on the weekend I wrote it, you can still fit your hour in. Just spend an hour noting the birds that land in your garden or other patch of ground and submit your results using the RSPB website.

No comments:

Post a Comment