Thursday, February 4

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

26 comments:

  1. Well done, that's a good total, and it's always lovely to see a wren isn't it. I've noticed a lot of goldfinches here over the past few years, but I never see a greenfinch. When I was little I remember them descending en masse and clearing the bird table in minutes. They're a real rarity round here now.

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    1. When we first came to live here we had lots of greenfinches to CJ and never saw goldfinches. I think the finch disease badly affected the greenfinch population. Wrens are special.

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  2. Another year and I didn't do it, whereas once I enjoyed my hour on a Sunday in winter spent counting the birds.

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  3. What a good count, Sue. An average of between 30 and 40 every year you've been doing this is a great result too. 20 was a good result here and some years, I've only seen 9 - that's during my count of course. We both know how this day goes with fewer birds than usually seen in garden. Yes, I wasn't sure about the birds outside of the garden too. We had fly overs and we have some seriously mature trees in a street over our hedge and there are always birds (of every size) flitting between them. I didn't include them either. Your charts make interesting reading, a great idea.

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    1. Well done and I appreciate your pictures.

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    2. The count hour is often atypical, Shirley. I think more people put food out just so they can take part and the birds make the most of the extras whilst they’re available. No loyalty 🤔

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    3. Glad the photos helped, Lisa

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  4. You're lucky to see many birds Sue. Here are tits, jays and sparrows in the winter time.

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  5. Our goldfinches made themselves scarce - but the sparrows made up for it numerically. I agree that the dunnock is probably the most overlooked bird. As ever you charts are very impressive!

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    1. Isn’t that just typical, Mal. I thought that the same was going to happen here then even more than usual descended at once.

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  6. I appreciate the pictures too. So many of our birds have the same name but are clearly different. Others we don't have at all like the dunnock.

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    1. That is why I added the photos, tpals. The robin is a good example of this.

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  7. You got some good numbers there. I did our count at the allotment this year

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    1. Do you get many birds on your allotment, Margaret? I would guess that they are more difficult to count unless you have feeders there.

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  8. Ooh, I like your comparison across the years. All those goldfinches! I don’t remember seeing goldfinches when I was young whereas we used to see many greenfinches but it’s the other way round now.

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  9. You got a good count of Goldfinches.All mine were very run of the mill.No finches or Long Tailed Tits although there have been some around in January.Jackdaws are dominating at the moment,even managing to outnumber the Starlings which I've deliberately been attracting back into my garden after an almost complete absence for a few years in the early 2010s.Some of my House Sparrows might be Dunnocks? My Magpies arrive in half dozens.

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    1. The goldfinches did us proud, David but meant my block charts axes were messed up.
      Six magpies for gold isn’t it? We don’t get jackdaws and long tailed tits arrive at times, then we won’t see them for a while. Dunnocks never seem to be around in more than pairs and will usually be foraging on the ground like their bigger relatives the blackbirds.

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    2. Thanks for the tip Sue.Now when I study at ground level rather than the feeders I see Dunnocks occupying similar territory to Blackbirds and Robins and that they look quite different to House Sparrows.There seem to be a few pairs around.
      Now I need to sort out the Tree Sparrows!

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    3. David, if you follow this link
      tree sparrow I've written an article on how to tell similar birds apart.

      The dunnock is a memeber of the thrish family so related to blackbirds, robins and thrushes etc.
      We don't get tree sparrows in the garden but have seen them about. Females are much harder to tell apart but male tree sparrows have a brown rather than grey cap. The page that I've linked to has some photos.

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  10. What a fine turn out. We seem to get more goldfinches each year.xxx

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  11. For some reason the RSPB Birdwatch passed me by this year Sue although I do look out to see what birds are visiting here every day. It must be fascinating to have such detailed records to look back on. Sadly we rarely see any finches here these days. Wrens tend to visit the back garden but not the front 😄

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    1. I don't think that they advertised it as much this year, Dina

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