National Garden Bird watch

[goosey]

A note for people in The Netherlands, it is our annual garden bird watch on the weekend of 21st & 22nd January. Just half an hour of your time is required - what can be nicer a good excuse to sit with a cuppa and watch the birds .

Vogelbescherming Nederland | Tuinvogeltelling

[Drosera]

Originally Posted by goosey

Just half an hour of your time is required - what can be nicer a good excuse to sit with a cuppa and watch the birds .

We have ours in Sweden - the last weekend in January. I'll just go and boil the kettle ready
Swedish bird count coming soon!

[paul m]

Ditto - last weekend - in UK
The RSPB: Big Garden Birdwatch

[Drosera]

I started early - a sort of practice run!

[goosey]

Originally Posted by Drosera

I started early - a sort of practice run!

Gorgeous images Drosera .
I won't see a nuthatch when its time for our count but I should see blue and great tits.

[Drosera]

I have nuthatches here throughout the year. Don't you have them in Holland?

[goosey]

Originally Posted by Drosera

I have nuthatches here throughout the year. Don't you have them in Holland?

Yep, but not in my garden .

[Drosera]

5 blackbirds in my garden yesterday!

[goosey]

Originally Posted by goosey

A note for people in The Netherlands, it is our annual garden bird watch on the weekend of 21st & 22nd January. Just half an hour of your time is required - what can be nicer a good excuse to sit with a cuppa and watch the birds .

Vogelbescherming Nederland | Tuinvogeltelling

A very busy day yesterday meant that I had no chance to settle down and take part in The Netherlands garden bird count so I did it this morning, 8.50 - 9.20am.
A miserable grey and drizzly morning. Nothing special was on the menu, just the normal seed, peanuts, fat balls in the hanging feeders and a mix for the ground feeding birds and apple.


Starling's 14
Sparrow's 10
Blue Tit's 3
Great tit 4
Black bird (Male) 1
Jackdaw's 2
Robin 1
Chaffinch (female) 1
Magpie's 2
Collared Doves 2
Pigeons 4
Dunnock's 2

There were no surprises, I could have almost have said in advance what and in what numbers I would expect to see, just that 18-22 sparrows are often around feeding or a Jay or two will put in an appearance first thing.

[goosey]

I have just been looking at the results of The Netherland garden bird count which took place last weekend.
33,000 people took part with 600,000 bird being counted.

In 83% of the gardens one or more blackbirds were seen, great tits being the second most well distributed of the birds. But although the house sparrow was the most counted bird and came out top of the survey they were seen in less than 50% of gardens but were in larger groups.

The mild winter has played a part in the results with Chiffchaffs being counted this year while none were included in last year's count, and Kingfisher numbers were double of last year but not one waxwing was spotted!

The top 10 garden birds are:-

1. House sparrow
2. Great tit
3. Blackbird
4. Blue tit
5. Jackdaw
6. Chaffinch
7. Collared dove
8. Woodpigeon
9. Starling
10. Magpie

[artdemole]

The Big garden bird watch for GB was over the weekend. It was cold and overcast.y count was low compared to last year.A lot of immigrant birds have not arrived.Some birds must be staying out in the fields.

Blackbird 1
Blue Tit 1
Chaffinch 16
Collared Dove 2
Goldfinch 1
Great Tit 1
Greenfinch 2
Magpie 1
Starling 25

After count along came Pied Wagtail and a flock of over 60 starlings.....

[lemars]

Just out of interest (I nearly didn't bother) I did the count, here in France.

I wish I'd started earlier because there were two wrens scrubbing about outside the window. Also, I found it well-nigh impossible to count the sparrows - we have about 300 or them around our garden and they're not wearing identification. Come to that - neither are the blue tits and great tits.

I can see two of the feeding stations from the conservatory and could only attempt counting near one at a time - with an occasional glimpse round the rest of the garden.

Nonethless:

Blackbird 5 (males 2 females 3)
Blue tit 9
Chaffinch 5 (males 1 females 4)
Collared dove 1 (what had he done with his partner for that hour ?)
Dunnock 2
Goldfinch 5
Great tit 2
House Sparrow 17 (males 5 females 12 - that was at only one feeder, though)
Robin 3
Starling 1

Nothing too startling there, then !

C

[goosey]

I was listening to BBC Radio Cumbria yesterday (the wonders of the internet ). They mentioned on the news reports that one of the findings coming from the British garden bird watch 2012 was that locally, in Cumbria, that starling numbers were a massive 40% down on the 2011 .

It seems tha the numbers are a staggeringly 80% down than 25 years ago!

The RSPB suggests that less insects and cranefly larvae inparticularly was a major contributor to the fall in numbers.

It is hard to imagine when starlings ususally hit the news because when roosts contain thousands if not hundreds of thousands birds and their mesmerising murmurations, that starlings are in decline.