Big Garden Birdwatch - Recent threads

Just watched NINE Waxwings! (Sheffield)

JonnyD — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 14:12:24 GMT

Beautiful display of nine Waxwings (from Scandanavia) here today in a Sheffield (S7) garden, hovering and feeding from a berry bush. We are the greenest city in Europe and we have lots of trees and fields near us so no wonder they found us! Pity I didn't get a photo or video but they were so beautiful. I will keep the camera ready next time!

My first post and great to be on board with this news.

Click here to read about Waxwings on the RSPB site.

http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdguide/name/w/waxwing/index.aspx

BEAUTIFUL BRIGHT YELLOW BIRD ??? I/D PLEASE

Bosley — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 18:30:50 GMT

Today there was a most beautiful bright yellow bird, slim and larger and longer than a sparrow. It was plain bright yellow on the underside with no other markings, but on top, including the back of the head it was brown striped like the markings on a sparrow. I have searched on Google and the RSPB identifier but cannot match it. It was definitely not a wagtail - too small and it had a short tail. It was not a siskin. Can anyone help please?

Also, there is a blackbird nest in my gutter with the female incubating eggs. I am hoping against hope that it does not rain because the gutter slopes down towards the nest. With the sorry state of my dry garden, I cant believe I am praying it does not rain.

Frogs, followed by toads have successfully laid spawn in my pond. The frog tadpoles have hatched and are a teeming mass. In spite of the fact that I am on a water meter, I am keeping the pond level topped up since the strong winds are evaporating the water!!

BIG GARDEN BIRDWATCH RESULTS!!

robin1966 — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 21:10:09 GMT

Hi everyone

I guess you are all aware received an email about the results of the big garden bird watch today!

The house sparrow tops the list again! Starlings are falling in numbers compared to last year!

I'm surprised as a newbie birdwatcher that I cant see anyone posting about the results!

I would have thought it was all the posts discussions etc?

Maybe not a tea room discussion?

Regards Micolo

BIRD SIGHTINGS SCARBOROUGH YO12

Bosley — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 15:47:54 GMT

I have several pairs of blackbirds fighting over nesting sites. A large feeding station attracts sparrows, dunnocks, coal tits, long tailed tits, great tits and blue tits. Suet blocks are feeding magpies. I have seen a pair of bullfinches (yes, bullfinches, not chaffinches) and greenfinches/goldfinches.

Have also seen several robins - two of which were fighting. There is a huge population of wood pigeons and collared doves. I have five nesting boxes, two of which are housing nesting sparrows (they were supposed to be for the blue tits, but no chance!). I have, sadly, only seen one Mistle Thrush. The birds of prey know where to come for easy pickings. I have seen sparrowhawks, gliding and hovering kestrels and a buzzard (eating a rabbit). There was also a bird of prey I did not recognize. Weirdly, it had orange legs rather than yellow and was very slender, about the size of a sparrowhawk. It landed on my shed and the thud woke me up. It was brown in colour and speckled. I regret I have no decent camera, so cannot take any photos. Last year I saw very few starlings.

Chiff Chaff or Garden Warbler?

Paula — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 18:12:01 GMT

I know it's not Big Garden Birdwatch time, but I figured this group could help. I saw my first Chiff Chaff or Garden Warbler in my garden yesterday (hopping about a rose bush that's just coming into leaf; in the middle of the day). I didn't hear it sing and I didn't get a photo - does anyone have a good photo of one or any practical tips for how I could tell the difference, please?

The results are out

doggie — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 15:56:13 GMT

I don't know if anyone has noticed Martin's Blog

http://www.rspb.org.uk/community/ourwork/b/martinharper/archive/2013/03/28/big-garden-birdwatch-results-lessons-for-all-of-us.aspx

Pereqrine Falcon Tate Modern London SE1.

Sandalfoot5 — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 20:26:24 GMT

Hi, I am fortunate to live a stones throw from the Tate. Has anyone heard or have news of the pereqrines return in the summer or likelyhood of a return or any news of their development?

big garden bird watch

scotty — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 20:40:40 GMT

hi can anyone tell me if the results have been uploaded for the big garden bird watch and where to see them thx regards scott....

KINGFISHER

Marmite — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 21:07:54 GMT

I finally got a decent photo of the beautiful kingfisher. I took this today at Yarrow Valley Country Park

Our Big Urban Garden Birdwatch

Lizzie — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 11:48:11 GMT

We, being my fiance and Ilive in a one bedroom first floor flat tucked away behind the rest of the flats. There are 900 yards of Beech, Birch and other trees and woodland all the way up along our small council estate. We have no garden as such but our bedroom overlooks part of the woodland as the trees are about 12-15 feet away from the building and branches about 6-8 feet awy from our feeders up outside our bedroom windows. We have two main windows, the left window we have set up a seed feeder and water feeder and outside the right window we have set up a seed feeder, treat tray and hanging a coconut with fat & seeds. We have recycled two small magarine tubs which hung from the window latches, both filled with a High Energy Supreme Feeder Seed mix for the smallbirds, mixed with Bill Oddies Premium Garden Friendly blend with Dried Mealworms Sprikles! We have added some basics Museli in with the mix. As for the Treat Tray which is for their Treats, which a hand blended mix of RSPB Bugs n Bits: Dried Mealworms, Flies & River Shrimps. Mixed with Suet and dried fruit being Sultanas, Rasins & Currants, which woofdown, so to speak!! We reclceled an empty 2litres soda plastic bottle and made into awater feeder for drinking from. As you will see in pics we taken. In our Birdwatch we took part in on 26/27th January, andevery daysince, we have at least 10 to15 birds an hour and different times of the day. So far we have seen Blue Tits, Great Tits, Coal Tits & Longtail Tits, Robins, who have graced our feeders. Then this weekend a Blackcap and a beautiful Great Spotted Woodpecker came to feed. We also have seen a Mistle Thrush in the branches. Other from Colard Dove and Wood Pigeonand the Magpies too.Juvenile Blackbird, Male and Female came to the feeders to. We a wait the warmer weather to come as there are Conifer and diciduous Woodland which also attract other small birds Chafinches, Wrens etc.....We will keep up our updates every so often when newbirds find their way to our window feeders. Graced by our Feathered Friends. I will upload some photos shortly of our Big Garden Birdwatch. Enjoy!! Rainbow Lizzie in Stanmore, Winchester, Hampshire Uk.

Wagtails

keltic lady — Sun, 17 Feb 2013 14:18:44 GMT

We've been having a Pied wagtail visiting our garden and part taking of the meal worms we've been putting out then couple of weeks ago we've also seen a Grey wagtail in the garden at the same time and its becoming a regular visitor, but on reading up on wagtails it say that the Gray's are seldom found far from moving water we have a large garden pond and live three quarters of a mile from the river Severn. We are enjoying seeing them in our garden and was wondering if anyone else has them visiting their garden or could give us any more information

Happy bird watching

Kelticlady

We have the first frogs spawn, I`m sure that it`s earlier than usual!

White Cliffs of Dover — Sat, 16 Feb 2013 19:16:43 GMT

We live on the North Downs outside Folkestone.

How things change in ones garden: we had so many collared doves, until the sparrowhawks discovered what a satisfying meal they made, now our solitary bird has found a new mate and we have one pair. That has given the sparrows a chance to increase their numbers but they are often chased away and they missed being counted in the Garden Watch. We never saw chaffinches or long tailed tits but now they and goldfinches are occasional visitors to our feeders.

We saw the first jay in our garden recently and we have a very splendid squirrel who seems to have the pick of the peanuts in the neighbourhood, judging by his girth! It would seem that many pigeon fanciers have abandoned their lofts and they now all come to our gardens searching for food.

Hedgehogs are becoming scarce, is it true that the foxes eat them?

"Seagulls" - the biggest inaccuracy in the Big Garden Birdwatch?

RoyW — Sun, 10 Feb 2013 20:12:18 GMT

I have always felt that the position of Common Gull in the tables produced from data submitted for the BGBW is inaccurate, and have generally considered this to be due to misidentifications (largely due to inexperienced observers assuming that the "seagulls" in their garden are going to be the most common species, and that this must be the 'Common' Gull.

In the 2012 results tables, Common Gull appears at number 20 in the national table, with Black-headed Gull at number 32, and Herring Gull at number 37 - apparently with Common Gulls far exceeding the other two species combined both in terms of the number of gardens visited and in actual numbers.

The reality is that Black-headed Gull tend to far out number all other gull species inland (with Common Gulls the second most numerous species), and both Black-headed Gull and Herring Gull are generally at least as numerous as Common Gulls on the coast, if not more common.

The results for the BTOs Garden Birdwatch tends to have Black-headed Gull placed at around the 32-33 position (with around 5-6% of gardens reporting the species), while other gull species don't usually feature in the top 40 (the following are the results so far from the 1st quarter of 2013 - the "Avg Rep Rate" x 100 gives the percentage of gardens). NOTE - the BTO table is sorted by the number of gardens reporting the species, not by the numbers reported in each garden like the RSPB table:

So why does Common Gull feature so high in the tables from the RSPB results?

I would suggest that the BGBW is reinforcing the idea that a species named the 'Common' Gull must be the most common species of "seagull", and as a result the vast majority of observers who are uncertain of the identification of gulls visiting their gardens are recording them as "Common Gulls".

The "other species" section of the recording form specifically points observers towards Common Gull if they have recorded "seagulls":

It is possible for those taking part to click on the icon next to the species name to view a picture, but even if they try this it might not help because gulls will tend to snatch food and then leave immediately in all but the largest of gardens - so views are likely to be relatively brief.

I would suggest that the best option would be to indicate that Black-headed Gull was the most common species, perhaps also suggesting that Herring Gull and Common Gull should be checked.

Of course this won't affect the data for species other than gulls, so isn't of any major importance for the smaller species that are more typically thought of as 'garden birds'.

Crow Rescue!

JackieBrown — Sat, 09 Feb 2013 13:32:02 GMT

Spotted a crow, this morning, that had got itself trapped by the wing between the guttering and a pipe on the roof of the local chippy. What was amazing was that other crows were flocking and calling and some of them appeared to be trying to pull it free.

They gave up after a while and left the poor thing to its fate. The chippy owner arrived soon after so I lent them my ladders and they managed to get it free and it fluttered to the ground but obviously could not fly. Quite a crowd had gathered but none of them wanted to try to capture the poor bird. Spoke to the chippy owner who gave me a sturdy cotton apron and I followed after the crow and eventually managed to pick it up. My granddaughter fetched our old cat carrier (last used to house an injured racing pigeon which we managed to reunite with its owner) so I popped it inside and the chippy owner took the bird to the local vet.

All very exciting, just annoyed at myself that I didn't think to get any pictures! :-)

p.s. how does one get local help for these sorts of incidents? The RSPCA weren't interested as they said they were just a shelter. Surely they have numbers to call for assistance.

Big Garden Birdwatch

mina — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 21:04:09 GMT

I submitted my results from the bird count from the other Sunday.

It's a shame I couldn't do the count yesterday. I had more birds than ever. Chaffinches, Goldfinches, Starlings, Blue Tits, Coal Tits, Great Tits, House Sparrows, Black Birds Male and Female, Song Thrush, Robins, Wren, Collard Doves, Pigeons,

They all seem to hide on the day of the count.

I even had a green finch in my garden this morning. The first time ever. I haven't seen the long tailed tits for a while though. Will they ever come back again.

At the moment my bird table is out of action. I have to weather proof it. So I took all the feeders off and washed them all and refilled them and stuck them in my fruit trees and lilac. The birds are going to have to wait a few days for a treat of meal worms and dried fruit and the squirrel will have to wait until I put some more nuts out on the table for it to eat.

Quick question - two surveys for one garden?

battenburg88 — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 19:51:29 GMT

This year was the first time i've done the bird watch; really enjoyed it, albeit my identification skills were a little bit rusty!

I just wanted to check...someone else in my house had already done it on the Saturday morning, whilst I did mine on the Sunday afternoon. Is it ok that there will be two sets of results for the same garden? I have not submitted the results yet.

Many thanks in advance.

Song Thrushes.

IanGoldsworthy — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 17:27:45 GMT

I heard a calling at dusk yesterday and two singing in our local wood this afternoon, wether or not its the same one from yesterday i'll keep my ears open,

Has anyone else heard any or recently?

The [Little] Garden Birdwatch

TheRedKite — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 15:17:09 GMT

Yes it was quite disappointing! Virtually every other day that week I'd seen Red Kites in/around the garden but of course on Saturday - nothing! I did see a Treecreeper though which was a treat.

Is the Big Garden Birdwatch a waste of our time?

Grhm — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 03:31:47 GMT

I heard about the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch on the radio, and it seemed like something useful that anybody could do to contribute to scientific knowledge of changing bird populations and thus help conservation efforts. So I put aside an hour the other weekend to gaze out of the window with my elderly father at his house. I have only just got round to entering the results on the web site.

I was surprised that two questions were not asked - the location where the bird watch was carried out and the time of day. Surely these are vital pieces of information if the data being collected are to be of any scientific value? (For example, you'd expect to see different numbers and types of birds in central London at midnight as compared with a cliff top in Pembrokeshire at nine in the morning.) But there was no facility to enter the time or location. Instead they wanted to know my age, postal address, phone number and E-mail address.

This suggests to me that this isn't a scientific endeavour at all, but just a marketing exercise.

May I suggest that for future similar surveys the RSPB do ask where and when the birdwatch was carried out, even if they have no intention of using the information. It would prevent them from appearing dishonest, and, you never know, the survey results may one day be of interest to scientists rather than just empty-headed suits with degrees in marketing.

Crow Or Jackdaw???

Honey — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 11:12:05 GMT

We have a lot of crows in this area but I have not seen one like this It made a sound like a crow but looked more like a jackdaw which ai have not seen at all in these parts

barn owl

wheres my glasses — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 09:44:42 GMT

I have been late for work everyday this week as a barn owl swoops through my garden and flies around looking for mice or something. it sits on the fence posts and once on the car. i cant possibly disturb it, so cant go to work until it has moved away!

It was flying around in bright sunlight this morning at about 9.15. Luckily, i dont work on wednesdays, or i wouldnt have made it in at all!

is this usual? i thought they hunted at night.

chaffinches

wheres my glasses — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 09:40:52 GMT

my garden is now filled with wall to wall chaffinches. they seem to have taken over the flower beds.

We didnt have a single one when we did the bird watch-typical!

Fieldfare

Plantsman — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 18:26:48 GMT

The most surprising and most welcome visitor was a fieldfare which spent a lot of time searching the winter debris in my mixed border. Great! The organic way of removing unwanted slugs and insect pests. Much tidier than my resident blackbirds when they search for food and toss the discarded leaves etc. all over the paths! All I supply for my birds is fresh water. They have to search for everything else, i.e. garden pests. I also grow shrubs with suitable berries and leave herbaceous plants unprunned until late winter so they have a supply of seeds to eat. Normally the garden is full of birds, but once again for birdwatch weekend most of them stayed away, including my resident sparrow family. Normally there are at least a dozen of them living in the top of the bay tree. I hope they had gone on a "day trip", rather than succumbed to the winter weather or worse still, been eaten by a sparrow hawk, which happened a couple of years ago.

Long-tailed tits - first time sighting

SparrowSW17 — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 11:53:39 GMT

Just seen two LTTs in my Tooting garden for the first time in 5 years. Charming little birds I don't think i've ever seen in London :)

Female blackcap

GP — Sun, 03 Feb 2013 11:33:11 GMT

I live in Newport , Gwent . For the past few weeks I have had a female Blackcap feeding in my garden. I've never noticed one of these before. She is very good at fighting the sparrows off lol