Birdwatch Week-end - Humph !!

[WendyS]

Just completed our "Birdwatch Hour" and spotted fewer birds in our garden than at any other time. I'm beginning to wonder if half the country's population are participating in this event, throwing out food once a year and enticing all our regulars away. Has anybody else experienced this?

[Cetti]

For once I'm quite the opposite Wendy in the number of bird sightings, but your right in half the country participating as the RSPB site has thrown a wobbly so I cannot enter my count.

[Robinia]

Same here Wendy I don't have a true account at all. I usually have far more varieties than I saw in the hour I chose to do the count. I swear those that I did see were all swapping coats in the hedge & popping in and out to fool me!

note for Cetti - I did see 3 reed buntings which was lovely

[Cetti]

I wondered if they were still around Robinia. Glad they turned up at the right time just so you could enter 'other species'. Boooo.... ;-)

[gen2]

They don't have to be very unusual to go in the 'Other Species' box on the paper form. The humble feral pigeon / rock dove goes there as well. Apart from that, all the other 7 species present are on the main list. Finches conspicuous by their absence. Largest number was for a flock of 15 or more sparrows which are still common up here in Fife.

[paddy_36]

Was fearing the worst, but got most of the regular visitors in the hour I chose.

Gen2 - my parents live in Fife. They don't get too many varieties of bird in the garden, but my mum told me she had a large group of long-tailed tits visit the other day - she was delighted!

[mycatis]

ROFL at Robinia, sorry I've just got a picture in my head of all the birds getting changed really quickly in bushes! Like models backstage at a fashion show lol

[scubadiver]

I completed my hour this morning and while I saw nearly all the usual suspects, they were in far fewer numbers than usual. However, I did see a bullfinch, so I got to fill in an "other species".

[logman]

I feed and watch the birds in my garden every day but the one hour that i allocated was a bit of a flop. I put it down to a male sparrow hawk if seen hanging around..

[Jules001]

I said to my daughter, who I did the Birdwatch with, that I thought all the birds knew they weren't going to get any privacy this weekend with everyone watching them and had gone away for the weekend! I normally see more when washing up in the weekday mornings than we saw in the whole hour today.

[valsuey]

Well it was so windy where I live the poor little devils could hardly fly let alone land on the bird table.I have rarely seen so few garden birds.The only ones around were Seagulls,Magpies and some Wood pigeons!

[spudqueen]

It's just the same with me Wendy. Every time I do the birdwatch I see about 3 or 4 sparrows, a few starlings, a blackbird and a robin if I'm lucky, yet normally my garden has much more variety of birds. Someone who lives about 7 doors away did the birdwatch on Saturday though and saw a goldcrest!