This weekend was the time for the Great British Birdwatch where we were asked to note down all the birds that we see at one time, in the space of one hour. They came in two’s, three’s and more, it was much easier when there were 2 pairs of eyes watching, but I think I spotted them all. I was photographing them as well as counting them, some of them were so quick, dashing in and grabbing a seed before making a quick getaway.
Feeders filled, ready and waiting for my visitors. On the left was a fat ball with added dead insects – yummy! In the centre are Sunflower hearts which all the birds love and on the right, good old peanuts.
It didn’t take long, I think they were watching me filling the feeders. This is our lovely robin who loves the sunflower hearts.
Long tailed tits.
A Great tit.
Goldfinch on the left and a Greenfinch on the right.
Gt. tit and Bluetit
2 Goldfinches.
Caol tit on the left and a Bluetit.
Coal Tit.
A male sparrow, these are hardly ever seen here any more. unfortunately.
Male blackbird.
Chaffinch.
2 Wood Pigeons.
Female Blackbird.
2 Greenfinches.
Bluetit and Gt. Tit
No, you weren’t supposed to come!
Not taking any notice of me!
Oops, not a good landing!
Nuthatch.
Female Gt. Spotted Woodpecker, the male has red on the back of his head,
My list, which I will submit to the RSPB website later on, is as follows:-
Blackbird 3, Great Tit 2, Goldfinch 4, Blue tit 5, Wood Pigeon 2, Chaffinch 2, Robin 1, Dunnock 1, Long Tailed Tits 3, Greenfinch 3, Gt. Spotted Woodpecker 1, Nuthatch 2, Coal Tit 1, House Sparrow 1.
There were a few which didn’t appear, Wren, Bullfinch and Green Woodpecker, hopefully they were being counted in someone else’s garden. That was a lovely way to spend an hour on a Saturday morning.
Hi Pauline, a good total. I see all of those except greenfinches in my inner city Birmingham garden. We are lucky (for the wildlife anyway) to have many very large trees. However unfortunately the dominant birds here are magpies and crows. Sometimes up to a dozen when food is accessible to them. I try to feed the blackbirds and it’s difficult without magpies spotting food as soon as it’s on the ground. I think they’re more common in cities than the countryside these days.
Hi Rachel, good to hear from you! We hardly ever have magpies and crows, although we do have Jackdaws who like to eat the fat balls, but they didn’t put in an appearance all weekend! Large old trees are wonderful for bringing in many varieties of birds, we have a tiny bit of woodland which is the favourite part of my garden and we have farmland on the other side, but again, the pheasants were lying low so weren’t counted.
References to Arks seem perfectly appropriate at the moment!
I haven’t seen a sparrow since we moved down here, not in the garden at any rate.
Quite Jessica, when is it going to stop raining, we will be developing webs between our toes soon! We very occasionally get a couple of sparrows, but not very often unfortunately, when I was a child in the north west, they were everywhere along with starlings.
What great photos! I hope you enjoyed taking this count. We do something similar here in the U.S., it’s called the Great Backyard Bird Count. Your coal tit looks a lot like our chickadee.
I did enjoy it Alison, it was frustrating at times not being quick enough to take photos as well as note everything down, but I managed in the end. I think these bird counts are very important, we can learn a lot about our wildlife because of them.
I was amazed by all the long-tailed tits that descended – especially tasty fat balls this time !! That is a wonderful selection Pauline – well photographed 🙂
You can’t beat a tasty fat ball Rosemarie, especially one with dead insects in it! We usually have more long tailed tits, usually about 7 or 8, they fly around in large flocks, chattering to each other as they go. They seem to be coming more and more to garden feeders which is nice for us as well as them.
Good work Pauline and great images as well. I think this is such a good idea, although I worry (imagine) that some people add in birds they ‘usually’ see. I’m sure you don’t do that. My MIL used to participate; the birds in her garden gave her such a lot of pleasure.
Thank you Christina. I hope people don’t add birds that they usually see as that makes a mockery of the survey if they then get counted in someone else’s garden as well. That’s partly why I like to photograph them when they come. It’s only by doing this that the RSPB can monitor the numbers for each species. We normally get a lot more Gt. Tits, Long Tailed Tits and Greenfinches. In spite of only seeing one house sparrow, it is still Britains most common bird, I think they do far better in towns than in the countryside these days, due to the changes in farming methods.
Oh well done and what lovely photos. The birds seem to think spring is on its way, they have started singing here.
Thanks Chloris, yes, lots of singing is going on and pairing up taking place. Yesterday there were 5 male blackbirds all chasing just one female, soon I will have lots of babies to feed!
Great photos. All are wonderful but especially I love your little robin. Haven’t done a bird count in my garden in a long while–thanks for the nudge.
Thank you Susie, my little robin is very special, he keeps me company when I’m gardening! We have to just count the numbers seen at any one time otherwise it could be the same birds visiting over and over. Even though we usually have the same birds visiting each year, the numbers certainly fluctuate.
These are lovely photos Pauline and you did really well to photograph and record! I do love the goldfinches, but we don’t often see them here.
Thank you Denise, it was frustrating at times as they move so quickly, but with patience I got there eventually! The goldfinches are very greedy birds and tend to hog the feeder with sunflower hearts, staying for quite some time, eating so much and chasing all the other birds away at the same time.
Hi Pauline,
What a great way to check on the population of local birds! So many sweet looking birds….they all have their place in nature.
I’m afraid we have your House Sparrows.
I look forward to it each year Sally, even though I watch them every morning while eating my breakfast! I think sparrows here are mainly to be found in urban areas now, in the countryside where we are, they don’t appear very often, probably due to farming methods having changed so much.
What fun! I like your greenfinches and bluetits. Your robins are cuter than our North American ones, I think. But your squirrels are just as cheeky.
Our robins are gardeners friends Jason, they follow us round as we work, pouncing on any nasties that we turn up in the soil. They seem to think that we are there just to find food for them!
What a delightful way to spend an hour! I’m sorry to hear that that house sparrows are becoming a less frequent sight in your area; here they seem to be thriving. Beautiful birds all!
It was delightful Peter, I really enjoyed it! They seem to thrive in our towns and cities, but not in the countryside any more. Back in the “old days” farmers left seeds in the fields over winter, but now everything is ploughed up and re-planted straight away with the next crop, so nothing for the birds to feed on in the winter. It’s just as well that they have gardens to visit!
What a nice list for your morning, and they all seem very comfortable at the feeder… including your gray friend.
We had three of them around the feeder this morning. They are seed hogs but with our local hawks they don’t get too comfortable and are always scurrying up a tree at the first alarm.
We also have dozens of house sparrows each day and on occasion hundreds of starlings will descend upon the yard, more so on the lawn and sumac fruits though than feeder.
We have Sparrow Hawks in the area Frank and Buzzards too, but I’ve never known them to come and take a squirrel, I don’t think they have any predators here. I think all the sparrows and starlings have maybe moved to the towns and cities, we don’t see many of them any more, I can remember when I was young, many years ago! that was nearly all we had in our gardens. Times change.
Such a lovely array of birds coming to your garden. And interesting how different things are in different countries. In our garden we have a troop of house sparrows that bosses everybody else around, even though they are also declining in numbers here, but we hardly ever get long-tailed tits, very few goldfinches – one of my favourite birds. But at present we have resident hawfinch, seeing him is one of the highlights of the day.
We do have a good variety Helle, we are lucky that we live next to farmland and have the little woodland on the other side. Long Tailed Tits are my favourites at the moment, they are increasing here, but wow, I’m impressed with your Hawfinch!