[goosey]

Seeing as there are a few people here from Holland I thought I would remind you that the coming weekend 26/27th January is the Vogelbescherming Nederland garden bird count.

Home - Tuinvogeltelling

[Pudding4brains]

Afraid my notorious bird-misdets wouldn't help much - but thanks anyway :P

[goosey]

This weekend is the garden bird count here in Holland. I took part today - there is nothing interesting to report - just the usuals showed up in the hour watch. It was disapointing as I know there are definitely more that come in on some days.

12 House Sparrows
6 Starlings
1 Robin
2 Collared Doves
2 pigeons
2 Blue Tits
2 Great Tits
1 Dunnock
1 Blackbird
1 Jackdaw

Last year I was able to add a Blackcap and chaffinch to the list, they have been replace by the pigeons - not a good swap really!

I notice that in Britain it was also the Big garden birdwatch" this weekend! Anybody taken part yet?

[goosey]

By 5pm yesterday afternoon 10,000 people had logged their sightings and 400,000 birds were reported.
House sparrows were the most reported sightings but are in decline, numbers have halved in the last 25 years.
Blackbirds , Great tits and Blue tits are the most widespread birds across The Netherlands.
More Chiffchaffs, Blackcaps and wagtails have stayed in country during the last few winters, probably down to warmer winters.

Here are the top 10 most seen garden birds in this weekend’s count. Last winters placing’s are in brackets.

1.House Sparrow (1)
2.Great Tit (2)
3. Blackbird (3)
4. Blue Tit (4)
5. Chaffinch (7)
6. Jackdaw (5)
7. Starling (6)
8. Collared Dove (8)
9. Wood Pigeon (9)
10. Tree Sparrow (12)

My own sightings correspond quite well with the National findings.

[paul m]

That's a lot of folks - should provide useful information.
I don't do it but I do the BTO garden birds survey which counts maximum numbers of birds by the week.
Yesterday was rather untypical:
4 blackbirds
2 great tits
2 blue tits
2 long-tailed tits
1 coal tit
1 robin.
First time for many a year that there have been more than two blackbirds (two of them were immature). Most days the first bird seen is a dunnock which didn't turn up at all yesterday and recently chaffinches and bullfinches have returned (only see them in the winter) but not yesterday. On the other hand these were the first long-tailed tits for many months (when they sometimes descend in a twittering mass). No crows and we seldom see a starling or hedge sparrow.

Originally Posted by goosey

By 5pm yesterday afternoon 10,000 people had logged their sightings and 400,000 birds were reported.
House sparrows were the most reported sightings but are in decline, numbers have halved in the last 25 years.
Blackbirds , Great tits and Blue tits are the most widespread birds across The Netherlands.
More Chiffchaffs, Blackcaps and wagtails have stayed in country during the last few winters, probably down to warmer winters.

Here are the top 10 most seen garden birds in this weekend’s count. Last winters placing’s are in brackets.

1.House Sparrow (1)
2.Great Tit (2)
3. Blackbird (3)
4. Blue Tit (4)
5. Chaffinch (7)
6. Jackdaw (5)
7. Starling (6)
8. Collared Dove (8)
9. Wood Pigeon (9)
10. Tree Sparrow (12)

My own sightings correspond quite well with the National findings.

[Guy F]

I took part in the count on Sunday, numbers of birds seemed to be quite low compared to what I'd been seeing over the last week, but still recorded most of the usuals. I didn't see any House Sparrows or Greenfinches which was a bit strange.

However, I was amazed that both a pair of Siskins and a Grey Wagtail chose this day to reappear in the garden. I hadn't seen the Siskins since mid summer and the Wagtail hadn't been around since early winter.
Guy

[paul m]

Yes, it's been a bit of an odd year up here too. I would, by now, expect the winter birds to appear but apart from the bullfinch nothing - no greenfinches, no siskins (they're always variable year on year), no thrushes of any kind, no magpies or jays since the start of the year.
Not only have these not appeared but the nuthatches which have long been one of the most consistent attenders haven't appeared for three weeks.
Too warm?

Originally Posted by Guy F

I took part in the count on Sunday, numbers of birds seemed to be quite low compared to what I'd been seeing over the last week, but still recorded most of the usuals. I didn't see any House Sparrows or Greenfinches which was a bit strange.

However, I was amazed that both a pair of Siskins and a Grey Wagtail chose this day to reappear in the garden. I hadn't seen the Siskins since mid summer and the Wagtail hadn't been around since early winter.
Guy

[goosey]

Originally Posted by Guy F

However, I was amazed that both a pair of Siskins and a Grey Wagtail chose this day to reappear in the garden. I hadn't seen the Siskins since mid summer and the Wagtail hadn't been around since early winter.
Guy

We use to have siskins regularly throughout the winter months, but last year they never arrived and nor again this year . Its such a shame as they were such tame little things and were never bothered by my presence as long as there were peanuts to be had.

Originally Posted by paul m

No crows and we seldom see a starling or hedge sparrow.

Did you mean House Sparrow, because you mentioned Dunnocks?
Hedge sparrows was another name for Dunnock (Prunella modularis). Although dunnocks are not actually members of the sparrow family at all, and are infact members of the Accentor family.The proper English name for them was Hedge Accentor before Dunnock became the new common name .

[paul m]

Originally Posted by goosey

.........Did you mean House Sparrow, because you mentioned Dunnocks?
Hedge sparrows was another name for Dunnock (Prunella modularis). Although dunnocks are not actually members of the sparrow family at all, and are infact members of the Accentor family.The proper English name for them was Hedge Accentor before Dunnock became the new common name .

This has come up elsewhere much to everyone's confusion. I have books over 80 years old and the term 'hedge accentor' is in none of them. It was called the hedge sparrow (wrongly, of course) but for the last forty years I've know it as a dunnock!

I think this name 'hedge accentor' has been invented to show its relationship to the 'alpine accentor' (Prunella collaris) which is common in Europe and elsewhere.
BTO BirdFacts - Alpine Accentor

So, yes, I meant house sparrows!

PS: I do wish they wouldn't give animals the same names of plants (Prunella - most confusing!

[ericrovve]

"the 'alpine accentor' (Prunella collaris) which is common in Europe and elsewhere."
Paul,
Common, that is if you live above the tree line

Eric

[paul m]

Yes, I should have written more accurately, 'widely distributed'!

Originally Posted by ericrovve

"the 'alpine accentor' (Prunella collaris) which is common in Europe and elsewhere."
Paul,
Common, that is if you live above the tree line

Eric

[frostfire]

Originally Posted by goosey

More Chiffchaffs, Blackcaps and wagtails have stayed in country during the last few winters, probably down to warmer winters.

These aren't the only differences in the results of the 'Vogeltelling 2008' caused by the warmer Dutch winters. This year there were also a lot more kingfishers counted in gardens than previously. It is thought that that is, because ponds nowadays are freezing less times during winter, so that the kingfishers can happily keep on fishing.