Dear Readers, putting peanuts on the bird table was clearly not the best idea for the Big Garden Birdwatch this year: I have numerous very cute photos of grey squirrels (and one of a feral pigeon, a most unusual visitor) but none of the other birds could get a look in, though a very bold robin did have a go. Still, fortunately other feeders are available and so it wasn’t a complete washout. Clearly I’ll have to limit the seed and peanuts to the hanging feeders, which are a bit more of a challenge for the mammals.
So, we had a blackbird…
2 blue tits…
3 chaffinches (and at this point I feel like saying ‘and a partridge in a pear tree’, but I shall resist)…
1 collared dove (and no woodpigeons during the hour, probably too many squirrels…)
A dunnock, photographed through the back of a garden chair because s/he was very flighty and uncooperative…
Two very busy great tits, who I suspect are nesting nearby…
2 house sparrows, 2 magpies…
The magpies were in an altercation with the squirrels at one point – the birds seemed to be set on dismantling the remains of a drey in the whitebeam, probably for nesting material (it’s too early for baby squirrels), and the largest of the squirrels managed to drive them off.
Oh, and a robin…
and no less than fifteen starlings. At one point I thought that they might divebomb the squirrel, but those little dudes have very sharp teeth, so they thought better of it. There were so many of them that I thought I’d taken a photo, but this is the only one. Still, you get the general idea.
So, apart from the woodpigeon other no-shows were the goldfinches (where have they gone?), the ring-necked parakeets who’d popped in earlier, the blackcaps who are usually around, and the coal tit. But an hour isn’t very long in bird-time, and so I’m not unhappy – at least there’s something for the team at RSPB to punch into their computers. I shall be interested to see what effect, if any, the summer drought and the recent cold snaps have had on numbers. First winter survival is a key factor for the success of many garden birds.
Did you do the Big Garden Birdwatch? How did it turn out for you?
Shocking this year, some years I’ve had over 40 sparrows at a time, along with the usual assortment of our urban friends. This year 2 wood pigeons and a robin!
40 sparrows would be really something, I’m lucky to get 4 or 5. You must be doing something right!
Another sparrow no show here. If they come we get twenty or more, otherwise zilch. The goldfinches have been absent for a couple of weeks. No need to fill the sunflower kernel feeder it is still stuffed.
What fun to read about your Bird Count – can you choose the hour?
Yes you can, but which ever time you choose is likely to be when the birds are putting their feet up 🙂