Big Garden Birdwatch

[toontra]

You are a lucky bunch - haven't seen mention of ring-necked parakeets (unless I missed it).

They are gradually dominating my (London N1) yard, emptying the squirrel-proof feeders before the great tits (who have nested here for decades) get a look-in, whilst shitting all over the patio.

I first saw one here 5 or 6 years ago.  They are now here, usually in pairs, every day.  I also hear them in the trees of every park, small or large, all over London.

If you don't have them in your garden yet, you will soon.  The population is rocketing and spreading UK-wide.

I would volunteer if a cull were proposed.

[Mrs Pingu]

Will a caged feeder not keep them out?
https://www.vinehousefarm.co.uk/the-joys-and-horrors-of-parakeets-on-bird-feeders

[toontra]

Will a caged feeder not keep them out?
https://www.vinehousefarm.co.uk/the-joys-and-horrors-of-parakeets-on-bird-feeders

I may have to resort to something like that eventually but they are expensive and I'm not convinced there is anything on the market that would 100% keep them out and is light enough to hang from the wire I have set up, not to mention the added difficulty in refiling them.

The sunflower seed feeders I have now have worked fine for decades and only attracted tits and jays.  As I say I feel an affinity with the great tits as they have nested here for multiple generations and it's one of the joys of spring/summer when they fledge.  It would be sad if they were shunted out.

Also it's not just my problem.  They are now everywhere in greater London, where they presumably will be causing the same problems.

It may already be too late for a widespread cull, but that should still be seriously considered IMO.

[perpetual dan]

I kept getting distracted by stuff that needed doing, so haven’t managed more than 10 minutes yet. A collared dove, a blackbird, and a mog that sits by the feeder looking intimidating.

[Wowbagger]

There have been small groups of ring-necked parakeets reported round here for a few months. I first saw them in Southend quite a few years ago, but then there was a gap of several years before I saw them again.

My Pal Terry Who Art In Sibton has been a keen birdwatcher, verging on twitcher, for many years. He told me quite a few years ago that he had recorded seeing 229 species in Suffolk in whatever year it was. He decided, randomly, to drive to Southwold to try to round the year off with a 230th species. He told me with some disgust that he did indeed see his 230th species and it was a ring-necked parakeet, in Southwold.

[SteveC]

Our list was much the same as usual. The brightest spot however was six greenfinches. When we moved here they were fairly common, although I don't remember seeing that many at once. They were then devastated by some disease and we didn't see them at all for several years.

[CrazyEnglishTriathlete]

I've hardly seen a greenfinch in the past two years.  Goldfinches are ten-a-penny.  Went with CET Junior to the RSPB reserve at Winterbourne Downs a few weeks ago and saw a flock of about thirty small birds flying over the grasslands, far away from any hedges.  Managed to get one focused shot with the trusty Toshiba mirror lens.  Goldfinches.  Perhaps they have benefited from the greenfinches demise.

[Wowbagger]

I haven't seen a greenfinch for ages. Compare that to one January day in 2005. I remember it well because I was still grieving for my mother, who had died the previous month. I had a walk around the park just as dusk was falling there was a flock of hundreds of greenfinches roosting in the treetops. At one point I saw a small group of 7 or 8 birds, whom I assumed to be alpha males, all fly off at once to see off a sparrowhawk that was hanging around.

Last summer, a walk to the same park involved seeing half a dozen goldfinches perched on television aerials, singing their hearts out.

[Pingu]

There are a lot more greenfinches here than in our old neighbourhood.

[Pingu]

So, we had ~10 on the feeders the other day.


IMG_5077_01 by The Pingus, on Flickr

[Salvatore]

In my garden this morning. It also spent some time on the stump where I'd set up my gopro, but the hour or so of battery life had already passed.

[Nuncio]

Blackbird - 1
Sparrow - 14
Blue tit - 2
Great tit - 1
Starling - 2
Robin - 1
Collared dove - 1

[SteveC]

We got 18 species, including a blackcap, which is the first for the year (and probably for some months before that).

[nicknack]

1 Wood pigeon
1 Dunnock
1 Robin
1 Magpie

Beats the 2 robins for the last two years.

It seems odd that they don't ask what time of day you did it. This was around lunchtime when the garden's usually empty. First thing in the morning I'd record loads.

[CrazyEnglishTriathlete]

Great Tit x3
Blackbird x2
Starling
Wood Pigeon
Carrion Crow
Jackdaw x2
Dunnock
Robin
Blue Tit

Also had flyovers of a Magpie and Collared Dove, both of which settled in next door's garden but not ours.

There were greenfinches on the Common, but they didn't venture over, and heard house sparrows but they don't get past next door's bird feeder.

[Pingu]

2023 scores.

Blue tit	1
Blackbird	1
Robin	1
Dunnock	1
Magpie	3
Feral pigeon	1
Woodpigeon	6
Chaffinch	2
Greenfinch	3
Jackdaw	2
Starling	20
Goldfinch	1
Wren	1
Herring gull	1
Blackcap (m)	1
Carrion crow	1
Great tit	1
Coal tit	1

Also a sparrowhawk flew over but didn't land so doesn't count.

No sparrows.

[IanDG]

Blue Tit 2
Blackbird 1
Dunnock 2
House Sparrow 3
Robin 1
Great Tit 3

Starlings who have been hammering the mealworms/suet all week didn't show.

[pcolbeck]

Blackbird         3
Sparrow          7
Blue Tit            5
Great Tit          1
Coal Tit            1
Goldfinch         2
Greenfinch       2
Dunnock          1
Robin               1
Wood Pigeon   3
Collared Dove  4
Jackdaw           2

A very low number of blackbirds usually we have at least six in the garden. Also disappointed the long tailed tits didn't show up as they usually do at about the time I was counting. Strangely no chaffinches or bullfinches which we normally get every day. In general a low number of everything. I counted on Sunday. On Saturday there were about eight goldfinches at once on the feeders and a flock of about twenty sparrows lives in our hedge.
Mind you we went for a walk with the dog half an hour later and the whole countryside seemed very quite on the bird front. No idea why, maybe the weather it was cold and overcast.

[rogerzilla]

The starlings are nesting under my roof tiles again.  I like starlings but they don't half shit on the car during Spring - it's right under their flight path as they go to and fro with worms for the chicks.

[pcolbeck]

The starlings are nesting under my roof tiles again.  I like starlings but they don't half shit on the car during Spring - it's right under their flight path as they go to and fro with worms for the chicks.

We have a similar issue with wood pigeons. They like to sit on the apex of our roof just above the steps down to the patio and crap all over them and the patio doors.
Fixed it with a metre length of spikes epoxied to the roof ridge. I don't mind them perching on any of the rest of the roof.

[CrazyEnglishTriathlete]

Mind you we went for a walk with the dog half an hour later and the whole countryside seemed very quite on the bird front. No idea why, maybe the weather it was cold and overcast.

I went for a run in the afternoon after the birdwatch and saw lots - both herons and little egrets, red kits and buzzards, and a kestrel (it's harder to notice smaller birds when slogging through the mud on trails), despite being overcast, gloomy and the occasional mizzle.  I'm convinced it's as much luck of the draw as it is anything else.  Summed up by the fact that it is always someone else that sees the kingfishers in the Loddon valley and never me.

[geoff]

How's your Birdwatch 2024 going?

Here's ours (see piccy)
Good visibility
Garden 25m x 10m
Within 300 metres of farmland
Got trees, shrubs, flowers, wild area (oh do we have wild!) smol pond and a birdfeeder




Sent from my Pixel 6a using Tapatalk

[Nuncio]

An uninspiring

Sparrows - 7
Starlings - 3
Pigeon - 1
Great tits - 2
Blackbird - 1
Collared dove - 1

But I've just noticed I hadn't refilled the fat balls so there was a limited menu of peanuts and mixed seeds.

Some strange greater spotted woodpecker behaviour yesterday. It's an infrequent visitor but when it deigns to come it usually stays for a while, feeding at the peanuts and being particularly nasty to any other bird that comes close. Same yesterday, except that after a minute or two of feeding it just stopped, still, dangling in the breeze, for a few more minutes before flying off.

[SteveC]

Not one of our best years:

Great Tit   2
Blue Tit   1
Rook      1
Jackdaw      4
House Sparrow   13
Blackbird   2
Robin      2
Goldfinch   4
Collared Dove   1
Chaffinch   2
Wood Pigeon   1
Dunnock      1
Greenfinch   1
Black Cap   1

And an annoying great spotted woodpecker, which was there while I was cooking breakfast, and both MrsC and I have seen since we stopped the survey, but did not show during the actual hour.

[Peter]

Can't really do this because we have no window onto the garden and have to watch from the back yard, which makes some of the birds fly off as soon as they notice you.  It's a shame because here in an urban suburb of Rochdale, on a very busy main road we get lots of stuff.  In addition to the usual corvids, pigeon-types and LBJs we get all coal, great and blue tits, long-tailed non-tits but also nuthatches and bullfinches and the occasional GS woodpecker.  All pretty impressive, really.