I have been a member of the RSPB for over 50 years and have taken part in their Big Garden Birdwatch (BGW) for as long as I can remember. It is a fascinating snapshot of what can be seen in our gardens in the last weekend of January. This is my set up:
I don’t use a bird table, too difficult to keep clean. There are two seed feeders filled with sunflower hearts, one peanut feeder, a fat ball feeder, a tray and an apple-shaped dispenser for meal worms plus a water bowl. They are kept clean and disinfected. For the record, I have not seen an obviously unwell bird in my garden for over three years.
Alongside this I have a number of trees: a long established aspen, two apple, one each of crab apple, flowering cherry, pear, plum, greengage, quince, hawthorn and holly; a wildflower border, a number of different shrubs, together with ivy and honeysuckle. Oh! and there is a decent wildlife pond with no fish allowed but it gets plenty of frogs, toads, newts, dragonflies (including Emperor) and damselflies, plus all of the other insects one would associate with the habitat. We are also lucky enough to have slow worms in our garden.
This year’s survey, carried out on Friday, 26th, and was pretty standard for recent birding in the garden. We saw: Blackbird, Blue Tit, Chaffinch, Dunnock, Goldfinch, Great Tit, Greenfinch, Jackdaw, Magpie, Robin and Woodpigeon, together with an over-flying Red Kite. One thing missing this year was House Sparrow. That is unusual, but we have noticed that they have become much less frequent in our back garden: we do still find them roosting in our, and our neighbour’s, loft and using the bushes at the side of the house, but they didn’t put in an appearance this year, for the first time ever.
The most frustrating experience I have had whilst doing the BGW was a flight of 15 Snipe that flew around and over the garden before disappearing into the fields three houses over, where I wandered around to, and had great views of them. My first GBW in this house (this is my twenty-sixth year here) started a bit quietly: which turned out to be a Sparrowhawk sitting in a plum tree. After it flew off I got to see my first Goldcrest for the garden.
Whatever good birds I have seen whilst doing the GBW pales into insignificance with what turned up in the garden of my ringing trainee, David. I am lucky to live in a rural location with a lot of fields and woodland around us. David lives in Moredon, Swindon. There is some greenery close by (a golf course, school playing fields). However, there are some species that prefer urban environments and this is what turned up in David’s garden (with David’s apologies for the quality of the photos: it was a toss up between grabbing some shots on his phone through the window or scaring the bird off opening the window or missing it going to get a proper camera):
Female Black Redstart, Phoenicurus ochruros
GBW is a valuable exercise for comparison over the years. However, it is a single snapshot in time and says nothing about the rest of the year. In 2003 I became aware of the BTO’s Garden Birdwatch scheme. I have been a member ever since. This is very different. It is a recording scheme for, not just birds, but all animal life in your garden. The recording period is from Sunday to Saturday inclusive, every week of the year.
So far I have recorded 60 species of bird in my garden. The commonest recorded are Woodpigeon (96%), Starling (88%); Goldfinch (84%); Blue Tit (82%) and Jackdaw (81%). We have had some real mind-blowers as well: Snipe, Yellowhammer, Reed Bunting, and even Skylark, on one occasion each. The raptors seen in the garden has also provided a pretty good listing: Hobby on two occasions, Kestrel, Buzzard, Sparrowhawk and Red Kite – which actually sat on the fence you can see in the photo. As you also might have noticed from the photo, I have my nets set up in the garden. I don’t ring in there very often: there seems to be a bit of a wind tunnel up the drive and through the gap into the back garden, but it does turn up some excellent results. So far, it is at 28 species, the most surprising being a Whitethroat in 2019 and a Stock Dove in 2020.
One of the clear benefits of a weekly survey is that you can see trends, and one of the best trends I have seen recently is the recovery of our local Greenfinches. Last week wee had our best observations of Greenfinch since 2009: with 13 being seen at one time in the back garden. The numbers have been growing quite consistently over the last couple of years, with no sign of Trichomonosis affected birds. (Trust me, I have seen enough of them to recognise the signs.)
Greenfinch, Chloris chloris (I know I have used this picture before but it is my favourite of the species)
So, finally, if you are not a contributor to the BTO’s Garden Birdwatch scheme, please consider joining. If you become a paying member you will receive a whole load of information and an excellent quarterly magazine. However, you can just become a non-paying contributor, with access to your own data. If you are interested, just follow this link:
Ringing In The Braydon Forest & Beyond 