big garden bird watch

[dustypuss]

Hi do you think watching birds for just one hour is a true representation of the state of the bird population !.I dont . I watched the birds for just 1 hr last week and all a saw in that hr was 8 blackbirds and 2 sparrows. so for one week now every time I've look out of my window I've noted the most birds i have seen at any one time. the list now reads .... 8 blackbirds .6 house sparrows .2 blue tits .2 greenfinch .14 long tail tits .10starlings .2 Robbins .2 wood pigeon .2 magpie .6 chaffinch . 4 collared dove. I thin 1 hr is not enough

[Robinia]

No, not really. I know some of the birdy people on here didn't bother submitting their forms last year as the results were so poor. A lot depends on weather conditions & most days I have a good assortment of wild birds although they do all seem to have a 'duvet day' occasionally....I think they did it on purpose last year!

[Whoever]

For the past two years virtually all the birds who normally visit our garden seem to have emigrated the moment Birdwatch week-end arrived ! We had a particularly poor showing last year - don't know whether it's because people who don't normally feed birds put out food that particular week-end so the bird population was more widely dispersed, or they were all sleeping off their hearty breakfasts and lunchs up in the trees somewhere.

[ruthann58]

i agree with you i also think it depends on what time of day you watch first thing in the morning and late afternoon we have loads but this time of day hardly any

[fredpuli47]

The hope must be that so many people make returns that the variations in time of day and other factors average out and the overall picture is near correct.

[Cetti]

I agree with Robinia, I swear the birds hear it in the hedgerows and trees when the BIG census is due - and then hop it!!

I stopped doing these counts a couple of years ago as there was nothing to submit - but I do write down sightings throughout the year and send them to my County Recorder as I believe this is perhaps a truer picture.

These Bird Counts do encourage children and anyone not into birdy stuff to be a bit more aware of how important it is to look after our wildlife, especially as there are so many common species on the danger list and what can be done to help them. It also gets families doing stuff together - plus it's great fun!

[shaneystar2]

Aha ..so I am not on my own then !
Mine emigrated just before Christmas and not a sign since in spite of the of all gourmet food I put out for the ungrateful little dears !
I won't be doing it this year :( Even the seagulls have deserted me !
Talking to my brother this afternoon he has no birds visiting either and he lives about ten minutes away from me . My neighbour has also remarked on the fact that there are no birds in the garden . My brothers theory is that as it has so far been a mild wet winter in our part of the world that they are finding enough to eat normally .Worms ..etc . He reckons if we get a cold snap they will be back.....I do hope so .
Either that or they are up to no good under the duvets !!

[smudge]

We've also noticed the lack of birds in our neck of the woods, so wasn't worth doing a count. Our youngest grandchildren were asked to do a count for school, but they didn't have much to report either (six miles from us).

Usually by this time of year, the bird feeders have been replenished a couple of times, but I haven't had to do that since well before Christmas!

Having said that, it's been really mild here today, so I've been out in the garden & clearing out the garage all afternoon. I've thoroughly enjoyed it too, as I noticed the tits back & forth in the nesting boxes - already!

[dustypuss]

I forgot to say 1 thrush . Has any one seen any Mistily thrush lately Unfortunate the last one I saw around here ( York ) was in my cats mouth 3yrs ago

[smudge]

The last Mistle Thrush we saw was in the autumn. Sorry that your one ended up being munched, poor thing.

Oh dear dusty, I have to admit that we were very reluctant to have another cat, being bird lovers. Milly (8 mths), caught a massive wood pigeon a couple of weeks ago. We wondered what the din was out there & she'd been trying to get it through the cat flap, but it was toooo big alongside her as well. There were feathers everywhere outside the door & it did make me feel quite sad that it was her first kill!

[smudge]

P.S. Milly hadn't attempted to eat the wood pigeon. She didn't quite know what to do with it - what a terrible waste of a life!

[Cugetit]

In the South and plenty of birds in the garden. In fact, quite expensive to feed them all, each with their own favourite foods. Innumerable blue tits, black caps, coal tits ... they love the sunflower hearts, the fat balls, the soft food which incorporates dried mealworms. Other visitors include the green woodpecker, lesser spotted woodpecker, nuthatch, chaffinch, greenfinch, hedge sparrow, 13 (today) wood pigeons, crow, magpie, jay, blackbirds and thrushes. I would like to finish with "partridge in a pear tree" but that would be untrue. However, about a year ago we had a moorhen visit the garden ... we have no pond and are not near the river. Since that time he/she has been with us on an almost daily basis. Her favourite is well soaked wholemeal bread which is thrown across the lawn every day in addition to several heaps of mixed wild bird food.

PS No starlings or sparrows!!

[shivvy]

I have loads visiting my garden too. Its hard to keep up with the greedy little mites!
I get a sense that a number of people aren't sending in their birdcount because there isn't a very large number of birds about in some areas. However I think that information on a low count is probably as useful as that which has high numbers. When the data is collated on a national and regional perspective, it might provide interesting findings. As fredpuli47 says, all of the variations make up a picture.
That said, I know that I always do my count when I know I am likely to see the most birds in the garden!!