RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch 2021

Since 2012 we've taken part in the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch, which is held annually at the end of January. For one hour you must count the largest number of a species to be seen at any one time in your chosen spot, it doesn't have to be a garden. This year we chose to carry out our count between 9:00 and 10:00 on Saturday 30 January. This is the hour straight after Martyn has filled bird feeders and put food out on the bird table.  

My window

In the event it turned out to be the dullest morning of the three day period and it took a while before the birds started to appear. Usually birds are on the feeders when we open our curtains and the blackbirds are queuing waiting for Martyn to pop the daily ration of suet pellets onto the birds table. We were beginning to think the birds were up to their usual tricks and giving us a miss until the allotted hour passed.

Martyn's window

Eventually things got going and our count recorded the following number of visitors.  This year's totals are set against those of previous years to give some idea of how things have changed.

Other than in 2016 the total number of birds counted has stayed between thirty and fifty. It should be noted that this number isn't necessarily the total number of bird visitors during the hour. We only ever counted two blue tits present at any one time but this could have been two different pairs each visit. Some birds flock together whereas others prefer to keep their distance so it is likely that larger numbers of the more gregarious birds will be counted at the same time than the more solitary individuals.  We rarely see more than two robins or dunnocks at the same time. When counting blackbirds it is obvious that different individuals are visiting at one time as there may be two males and another time two females.

Click the image for a larger view

Goldfinches usually arrive in a flock and this year they seemed to all descend together. Even with two of us counting it was difficult to be accurate as goldfinches tend to flit about. We were sure of seventeen but there could have been more.

The number of house sparrows counted was down on previous years, however there seemed to be lots at the top of the garden flitting about amongst the dead annuals, probably browsing the seed heads. Again this made them difficult to count so there were likely to be more than the seven counted. Not all of our garden can be viewed from the two windows that we use. They cover the area to the side of the house where the feeders are located.

The solitary wood pigeon wasn't typical as they usually come at least as a pair and often we see four at the same time. 

We would have also have expected more starlings as they usually descend on the bird table in larger numbers but as some often wait in some shrubbery out of view from the windows there may have been some comings and goings. It didn't help that most of the suet pellets had gone by the time the starlings showed up.

One fairly regular species that failed to turn up was the greenfinch. These tend to be heard around the garden more often than they are seen but one or two tend to visit the feeders when the goldfinches turn up. I think they are operating on the idea that there is safety in numbers.

During the hour that we were counting a flock of black headed gulls were wheeling around but as they never land in the garden we assumed that we shouldn't count them. What would you have done?

Once our results are submitted you can compare your results with those nationwide. As the semi doughnut charts produced by the RSPB only show the first ten species, the wren that we spotted doesn't feature.

The range of species shown on the two charts are roughly comparable. One species missing from our chart is the magpie. We do get magpies in the garden. They visit the bird bath situated just outside of our window however, they are rather wary and don't like to come when we are close to the window. Missing from the RSPB chart is the dunnock which is quite a common bird. I wonder whether the omission is because people often think they are sparrows.

Although the range of species is almost the same the relative positions on the chart are quite different. The goldfinch was our top bird by quite a margin whereas it only managed seventh place on the national list.

For those of you unfamilar with the birds that I have mentioned I've added the collage below. The photos weren't taken during the count. Photographing and counting would have been far too taxing.

Copyright: Original post from Our Plot at Green Lane Allotments http://glallotments.blogspot.co.uk/ author S Garrett