Yet Another Cycling Forum
Random Musings => Miscellany => Where The Wild Things Are => Topic started by: andyoxon on 28 January, 2011, 09:09:45 am
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Anyone taking part Sat/Sun? The RSPB: Big Garden Birdwatch: How to take part (http://www.rspb.org.uk/birdwatch/takepart.aspx)
We're going to give it a go... and I've stocked up the feeders.
This years more 'unusual' birds...
grey wagtail
black cap
treecreeper
plus regulars...
red kite overhead
Earlier, two thrushes and a black bird 'taking turns' on ground suet pellets/meal worms...
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we shall
No baseline though, because we've moved house since last year.
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Probably not worth bothering for us. .
We have Fat Pigeon who eats all my vegetables despite my planting an impenetrable wall of marigolds around the vegetable patch, plus the odd Magpie, Robin and Parakeet.
Your typical london garden.
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Or shopwatch in some cases BBC News - Robin reliant on daily Co-op breakfast in Aberdeen (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-12276087)
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We're intending to, but I can safely predict that most of our sightings will be of squirrels, squirrels, and yet more squirrels >:(
(What are the natural predators of squirrels ? We're in need of some)
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Hungry hoomins
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Doing bird...BBC News - Birdwatching takes flight in Britain's prisons (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12310187)
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Probably not worth bothering for us. .
We have Fat Pigeon who eats all my vegetables despite my planting an impenetrable wall of marigolds around the vegetable patch, plus the odd Magpie, Robin and Parakeet.
Your typical london garden.
Might not be the most interesting collection but very useful to know what birds are actually surviving in our urban landscapes.
S
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Probably not worth bothering for us. .
We have Fat Pigeon who eats all my vegetables despite my planting an impenetrable wall of marigolds around the vegetable patch, plus the odd Magpie, Robin and Parakeet.
Your typical london garden.
I'd forgotten that there was a sizeable pop'n of parakeet in the SE.
The RSPB: Ring-necked parakeet (http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdguide/name/r/ringneckedparakeet/index.aspx)
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Just done my hour in EH13...blackbird, blue/great/coal tit, dunnock, robin, woodpigeon and gs woodpecker. A modest tally but an enjoyable hour nevertheless :)
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I saw,
Blackbird, blackcap, chaffinch, goldfinch, greenfinch, blue/great/LT-tit, sparrow, magpie, robin, thrush, woodpigeon and wren.
with a nice cup of espresso or two while doing so... :)
I'd not bothered with a bird bath before, but recently bought a large terracota style pot base, and put rock in middle. Have seen a number of birds drinking from it today. The (wildlife) pond is frozen, but is quite often covered with duck weed anyway.
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What are the natural predators of squirrels ? We're in need of some.
I don't know about natural, but Felis silvestris catus is likely to have an impact.
Talisker isn't all that big, but has caught squirrels, and the local squirrels make a hell of a racket when they spot a moggy nonchalantly ambling down the road.
Of course, this potentially may also have an effect on your wild birds. :-\
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Not done the RSPB birdwatch before, so just a question about the hour watching time... what happenes if sometime after the hour has finished, one sees say... three starlings that had not put in an appearance before, or, three goldfinches at once - instead of an earlier two. Does one exclude them from the count?
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I just logged in to remind everyone, & found it's been done. Keep up the good work!
Just done my count. Nothing unusual. I had to guess the number of chaffinches, because there were several fluttering around at once. They returned before the hour was up, accompanied by two greenfinches both times. A couple of robins (newcomers, from their caution in approaching the feeders), the resident blue it, a blackbird, feral pigeons & a great tit which arrived just before the hour was up.
andyoxon: officially, it's supposed to be within the hour. If you think you picked the wrong hour & choose to shift the start of it to include some latecomers, that's between you & your conscience.
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I didn't see anything v exciting, no sea eagles or lammergiers - how boring! ;)
My conclusions are that goldfinches are a PITA to count because they start flitting about before you've finished counting the group, feral pigeons are a bigger PITA cos when they spook, they make everything else take flight too. My juvenile/female bird identification skills are a bit crap - I saw lots of buff birds that i couldn't quite decide if they were female chaffinches or a junior something else. I'll not record what I've seen until Pingu's been home and validated it.
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Saw a bird in my garden today, I couldn't see it very clearly but it was about the size of a pigeon, predominantly brown, with black, white, and I think blue markings at the wing tips, black beak. Any ideas what it was?
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Saw a bird in my garden today, I couldn't see it very clearly but it was about the size of a pigeon, predominantly brown, with black, white, and I think blue markings at the wing tips, black beak. Any ideas what it was?
"It's a jay" !
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*Googles images of "jay". Hmmm. Googles images of "jay bird". That's better.*
I thought jays were more predominantly blue. But yes, I believe you are right. I've never seen one before.
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I just tried google to find my favorite section from Bill Oddie's Little Black Bird Book, the bit where he helps someone identify a jay. Alas, google has failed me. If you ever come across it, it will explain my quote :)
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This identifier works quite well... The RSPB: Bird identifier: Identifier (http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdidentifier/form.aspx)
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I got 7 sparrows, and one each of blackbird, starling, wood pigeon, robin and bluetit.
Last year was 2 each sparrow, pigeon, blackbird and one each robin and starling. The big flock of sparrows definitely appreciate the seed feeders and aren't scared of the chickens. There's generally fewer ground feeding birds (no dunnock at all) since we got chickens, and the tits tend not to use the feeders in our garden but stop on the hedge when using next doors quieter feeder.
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Just done my hour. (In Brum)
Results:
Nothing.
At all. :(
Submitted it anyway.
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You had the same problem with goldfinches that I had with chaffinches. I spent a while checking small brown birds with binoculars (carefully - they can spook the birds), & every one I checked was a female chaffinch, I think, from the wings.
Speaking of which, there's one out there now. Plus a male, a robin, & a blue tit & blackbird have just dropped by.
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We got the same as last year (down to the same numbers of birds, not just the species) with the following exceptions:
This year there was a thrush
Last year there were magpies, a great tit and a green finch.
I've seen at least one magpie today, just not in the specific hour. Not seen a greenfinch or great tit in the garden this year.
S
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Results are in... The RSPB: Big Garden Birdwatch (http://www.rspb.org.uk/birdwatch/)
BBC - Earth News - British garden birds are bouncing back (http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_9441000/9441321.stm)
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Yeah. I got my e-mail.
It seems my garden bird selection is very very boringly average for Berkshire.
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Yeah. I got my e-mail.
It seems my garden bird selection is very very boringly average for Berkshire.
I've not received an e-mail. :(
Perhaps they didn't believe my count. Unfortunately, I was in Brum that w/e. My count for the hour was zero. :(
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Did you tick or untick (I've forgotten which way round it was) the box?
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No idea.
:facepalm:
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I wish they'd done it about 2 weeks later. On the day we managed a totally miserable total (albeit not quite as miserable as that achieved by Basil in Brum) but then about 2 weeks later suddenly the numbers of birds in the garden practically trebled overnight. Since then we've had waxwings, brambling, goldcrest, goldfinch and even a buzzard. But still no house sparrows. (There are plenty about, just not visiting us).
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Anyone doing this this year ?
A beautiful sunny morning here in EH13, temp about zero. My tally for the last hour -
blue tit 2
robin 2
chaffinch 2
bullfinch 4
siskin 3
collared dove 3
woodpigeon 3
great tit 1
coal tit 2
dunnock 2
magpie 1
gs woodpecker 1
jackdaw 4
redwing 1
(Numbers are max at any one time)
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We've had all the tits (great, blue, long-tailed and coal), the usual horde of greenfinches and chaffinches, seven goldfinches at a time, a small flock of redwings (!), a crow, a jackdaw, a magpie (common as muck here), lots of fat woodpigeons, a collared dove, a dunnock, a wren, some house sparrows, a few robins but no bullfinches today.
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Intending to do this today.
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The scores:
2 blackbirds
2 blue tits
1 crow
7 chaffinches
1 dunnock
10 feral pigeons
17 goldfinches
1 greenfinch
4 house sparrows
2 jackdaws
1 magpie
1 robin
1 woodpigeon
1 herring gull
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3 robins
2 magpies
5 bullfinches
4 great tits
6 blue tits
2 GS woodpeckers
1 pied wagtail
7 pheasants
3 buzzards
1 kestrel
1 treecreeper
Some goldfinches
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My score:
2 house sparrows
1 dunnock
3 magpies
5 jackdaw
6 blue tit
4 great tit
1 robin
3 blackbirds
2 redwing
12 long-tailed tits
4 woodpigeons
2 collared doves
3 feral pigeons
3 carrion crows
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And two pairs of bullfinches turned up today, after we'd done the count ::-)
At one point there was a clattering of 18 jackdaws out in the street; I think they'd decided to gerrymander the results by visiting every garden within an hour.
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Just a heads up for the RSPB garden birdwatch this w/e http://www.rspb.org.uk/birdwatch/
I need to stock up on some bird food.
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Where were all the birds today?
Our ever-reliable blackbird turned up, but bugger-all else.
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Missed it this year :(
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A very poor 1 blackbird, 2 wood pigeons and a robin. The long-tailed tits that were in abundance have disappeared since the cold snap. Warwick, CV34.
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My smallest and least varied collection to date on Saturday. 1 Blue Tit, 4 Woodpigeons, 4 Magpies & 6 Jackdaws.
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It's that time of year again :thumbsup: Unfortunately, I won't be around to take part this year.
Post your scores on the doors over the weekend.
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I shall do mine tomorrow before the deluge that will arrive on Sunday. This year we've had sparrows for the first time since we moved here and a couple of starlings as well as the usual suspects. Hopefully they will all appear.
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1 male, 1 female blackbird; 2 blue tits; 1 blackcap; 1 magpie; 1 robin; 1 house sparrow and one robbing git of a grey squirrel on borrowed time.
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This morning was sunny with lots of birds on the feeders.
Tomorrow will be wet and windy.
So we sat down this afternoon for our hour.
After twenty minutes MrsC calls downstairs (one of us watches from upstairs and one from downstairs to cover the whole garden) "is this worth it?"
By then I'd seen one jackdaw. We will try again tomorrow. I know 'nil' returns are equally valid, but wouldn't be a true reflection of the birds we get here.
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Didn't get round to doing mine today.
So will attempt it tomorrow, despite the yellow weather warning for snow and rain and ice :P
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For your diary: https://www.rspb.org.uk/birdwatch/
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I notice you can do it online now. My niger seeds didn't arrive on time, so the mealworms have been liberally put into feeders along with the ground up peanuts, raisins and bird seed mix. At least the blackbirds will be happy. I'll aim to put water into the baths, if frozen, and start early tomorrow.
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We've recently moved house and inherited a garden which was already equipped with a multitude of bird feeders. Since moving in I have filled the feeders with mealworms, black sunflower seeds, peanuts and suet balls and installed a new bird table in the flowerbed.
The only bird life we have had visit the feeders so far is one magpie, one wood pigeon, two collared doves and a squirrel. :facepalm:
How does this counting thing work? From my window I can see across a set of other gardens and an unmade road and usually count a robin, three blackbirds, a mistle thrush, another magpie and countless little things that love Number Nine's garden and never venture out of it. Can I count them?
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I think you're supposed to only count in your own garden, but the RSPB website will have more details.
But don't give up with the feeders. It can take several weeks for birds to find and feel comfortable enough to use a feeder and this winter has (until the past week) been so mild that there's still lots of food out in the natural environment and they're not using feeders as much as in other years.
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I don't think so, but check out the RSPB site. As for the lack of feeding action, how long have you been at the house?.Birds are creatures of habit. Tits in particular seem to flit from site to site on a fixed route. Sooner or later a scouting bird will find your feeders and the garden will teem with life.
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I got a text message from the RSPB this morning, reminding me.
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Done ours this morning. Species count was a bit up on last year (11 as opposed to 7) but individual numbers were down. E.g. starlings 1 as opposed to 14, goldfinches 2 as opposed to 5. Part of this maybe that we've not filled up the feeders in the last few days, but I suspect most is the mild winter as I mentioned above. If there is plenty of food in the 'wild' where there's less disturbance, the birds will stay there.
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In the middle of mine now. A bit thin on the ground, tbh. I can hear plenty of birds, but few are paying a visit so far. The big male blackbird is back and I'm hoping he attracts others in, just like the first customer in a porn shop in Amsterdam, DAHIKT.
Nearly over. The one blue tit that tucked into the mealworms failed to attract any more, unusually. We have large patio windows and a smallish garden, so I think I am repelling them, sitting here in my onesie! A good strategy might be to video the garden for an hour and then count the species. Next year, perhaps...
So, one wood pigeon, a male and female sparrow, a male blackbird, a robin and a blue tit. Three minutes to go...
And that was it. We'll be going out later and I know the garden will teem with birds. I can tell that by how fast the mealworms go down in the feeders.