https://www.rspb.org.uk/whats-happening/big-garden-birdwatch
Friday 24th, Saturday 25th and Sunday 26th. Fourth time trying to post a new thread about this, if it doesn't work this time...
fifth time was the charm, apparently
Thank-you for your persistence I would have thrown my toy out of the pram after the third attempt 🙂
fifth time was the charm, apparently
Oh, very good! [img] 
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Ah it’s that time of year when all the birds we normally see in the garden suddenly disappear .
Oh, so you have that experience as well, then? I can guarantee at least a couple of very fat pigeons, perhaps half a dozen goldfinches, always a charming bunch of visitors, a couple of blackbirds, a couple of robins, and roughly a hundred or so starlings, or a squabble, as I choose to call them. Since the middle of December, they’ve gone through nearly 40kg of suet pellets… Three weeks ago I had five species of tits, a dunnock, a couple of goldcrests, and a chifchaff, which apparently shouldn’t even be in this country at this time of year!
Which reminds me, I’ve got to order another 12.75kg box, I’m down to about 4kg, which won’t last long.
Then there’s a 5kg bag of calci worms as well…
a chifchaff, which apparently shouldn’t even be in this country at this time of year
theres a fair few over-wintering now, especially in the SE
One Bird watch year I had one blackcap and a robin, when usually we get at least 10 species.
Went to top up the feeders.
Looks like last time I did it I left the lid off the bucket of fat balls and peanuts!
Mice have thought it was party time... D'oh!
Trying to get the (not my) camera set up on the tripod. Might need some help identifying some - so far:
Blackbirds
House sparrow
"Normal" sparrow maybe
Blue tits
Dunnocks
Carrion Crows
Magpie
Edit: + Greenfinch
Have recently seen chaffinches, yellow finches, bullfinches - hope they make an appearance. Less often - pie wagtail, woodpecker, sparrow hawk.
We had the normal suspects.
3 Blue tits
1 Wood Pidgeon
12 Goldfinches
1 male Blackbird
1 female Blackbird
2 Jackdaws
2 Starlings
4 Feral Pidgeons
1 male Great tit
1 Robin
1 Dunnock
3 male House Sparrows
1 female House Sparrow
1 female Ring neck Parrakeet
1 Male Blackcap
Lots of sparrows, blue tits out house hunting, a robin, I can hear the two black birds eating the sultanas and crushed fat ball and the two fat pigeons never far away
Yesterday out on a walk I'm sure it was a Wren I saw foraging but there is something similar just can't remember it's name it could have been
2 weeks ago at St Abbs harbour it was a hen harrier, I had to look it up as I'd got a reasonable pic on my phone
A week ago not a bird but an otter in Durham
Hard enough to find on the west coast of Scotland
Beyond being a nice way to spend a couple of hours entertaining the kids what is the point of this? It’s not as it it’s going to produce any meaningful research or further knowledge on anything as it’s far too random in its approach
Most people dont notice anything about wildlife as they walk around. If the bird watch does nothing else and gets people a little bit interested in wild life then thats great.
The survey has been running for 46 years so produces longtitudinal data and 600,000 people took part last year.
It's easy to be grumpy.
Beyond being a nice way to spend a couple of hours entertaining the kids what is the point of this? It’s not as it it’s going to produce any meaningful research or further knowledge on anything as it’s far too random in its approach
Having met the people that are actually doing that research, they'd disagree!
It’s easy to be grumpy.
It is and I’m quite good at it sometimes:-)
Having met the people that are actually doing that research, they’d disagree!
Im sure you’re right. It would be interesting to understand how they account for the huge range of variability in participation and geographic spread of that participation
It would be interesting to understand how they account for the huge range of variability in participation and geographic spread of that participation
Each report has a location so it's easy to address the geographic distribution of responses. Also there will be many people who have participated at the same location over a number of years so that subset of data will be able to yield additional information from analysis. There will also be a lot of pre processing of the data to clean it up eg removing reports from people who have apparently counted each sighting of each bird rather than the maximum seen, or entering wilfully spurious data eg 17 golden eagles. Data science is a wonderful thing, though not much fun at dinner parties.
Rain all day today, so not much going on. Had a few parakeets emptying the bazooka yesterday (1.5m long, 12 perches). And pigeons (and the dog) to clear up the mess. I have yet to install the video camera bird box that Mrs TiRed gave me for Christmas.
We serve Niger seed, shelled clean mix and suet fat packs. I think we have the fattest squirrels in the area.
Any scientific studies of nature are good indicators of what’s happening with our climate.
its Really important that we have these citizen science studies. And long may they continue.
Any scientific studies of nature are good indicators of what’s happening with our climate.
Just a point of order - climate change probably has less effect on bird populations in this country than our shameful complicity in allowing widescale pesticide use, pollution, and concreting of every possible wildlife refuge. While we allow our local councils to spray and cut every verge, and every weed from the pavement, and while we allow farmers to get their way in producing high yield monocultures at the expense of insects then we'll continue to see massively reduced bird (and other wildlife) numbers.
Just a point of order – climate change probably has less effect on bird populations in this country than our shameful complicity in allowing widescale pesticide use, pollution, and concreting of every possible wildlife refuge. While we allow our local councils to spray and cut every verge, and every weed from the pavement, and while we allow farmers to get their way in producing high yield monocultures at the expense of insects then we’ll continue to see massively reduced bird (and other wildlife) numbers.
And in our area, cats on top.
This autumn has seen one of the cats die and we've more birds than last year on the feeders. Sadly the other 7 cats are still here.
And in our area, cats on top.
This autumn has seen one of the cats die and we’ve more birds than last year on the feeders. Sadly the other 7 cats are still here.
Insects have declined in the UK by 60% in the last twenty years, leading to a decline in everything that feeds on them. It's probably not helping by blaming cats, as much as a pest they might be.
Pitiful turnout here 🙁 - 4 pigeons, 1 robin, 1 blue tit, 1 magpie, 1 woodpecker.
Sad observation, but I was back in the UK and went for a walk thro' some arable farmland in Cambridgeshire. The lack of birdlife was astonishing and very depressing
I'll proviso the above with 'generally' as I passed a few patches of woodland and one of brambles which had birds, but they were very, very isolated. There were more birds around town, but only for a select few species
Lots of birds I've seen recently and down the beach so many oyster catchers, shags, curlew and others I'd need to look up
Blue tits layed 6 eggs last year but they never hatched, I did read that was fairly common due to the lack of bugs to feed on
Wrens nested in a gas flue chip pan cage last year all flew the nest, hope they weren't affected by any stray fumes
Magpies and crows always never far away
The area that shocked me last summer was cycling over the upland parts of the Balmoral Estate. There was an absolute dearth of any sort of wildlife other than heather.
Someone needs to ask the owners some very hard questions.
Quite a few Robins, pigeons and magpies (that look beautiful, but are a bit nasty by all accounts), some Blackbirds and couple of Doves that would eat a bit, shag violently on the fence, then eat a bit more.
Even got Ready the younger (who's 24) involved so a good family hour spent together - nice.
We can all do something to help.
Having a wild area in your garden. Putting in a pond, planting a tree and best of all taking out a fence and planting a hedge in its place. Even something small such as having a ‘bug hotel’ will encourage wildlife especially birds. Having a bird bath.
planting scented flowers and bushes encourage moths that feed bats.
So many small changes can help nature.
theres a fair few over-wintering now, especially in the SE
I’m in North Wiltshire. As predicted, four pigeons, a blackbird, and the shrieking hoard of starlings. Oh, and one Robin. The dunnock has been around today, the grey wagtail has come back, the magpies were back yesterday, haven’t seen them for a week, and the great tits were back today.
The weather is supposed to get colder, so maybe more will be back on the feeders.
I had another box of suet pellets and a box of calci worms turn up yesterday, thankfully, supplies were getting very low.
