My own garden is on a much smaller scale than that of the US Ambassador's residence but I settled down to do the annual BGBW this morning at just after 11 o'clock.
Starling and goldfinch turned up almost straight away.
I was really pleased, and a bit surprised, to see a blackcap (female - with a brown cap). Blackcaps are becoming commoner garden visitors these days in winter. They are warblers - and in the past all would have disappeared off to southern Europe and north Africa for the winter, but now German blackcaps come to our gardens in winter. This one fed on dried mealworms from our feeder and stayed for about 15 minutes to give me a good look. It has happened before on BGBW day - I never see blackcaps in the garden in the winter except when I sit down for BGBW and then they aren't that unusual.
The fourth species was blackbird, and then chaffinch and wren made brief appearances and brought the species total to six.
I almost had a new species for the garden but it was a new species from the garden - reed bunting. A male perched in our neighbours' garden for a few minutes before flying off in the 'wrong' direction! But it was interesting to see a species which is really a wetland species in this urban setting.
There were no tits, no robin or dunnock, and even more surprisingly, not a single house sparrow.
And then it was off to my mum's for lunch - and another BGBW!
Her total was 10 house sparrows (she has my share, obviously!), starling, blackbird, robin and dunnock.
I've seen a few comments on Facebook (where you can find me as Mark Ian Avery), Twitter (Mark Avery) and some emails which have the usual mixture of delight at unusual species and frustration that the 'usual' birds didn't turn up at the right time! That's part of the fun of it for an individual - and it all comes out in the wash, we assume, as far as the overal results are concerned.
And so far it looks as though participation has been high - maybe breaking previous records?
We'll be ready to tell you the initial results on Wednesday - will there be evidence of any cold weather impact on our garden birds?
My first Big Garden Birdwatch of the weekend was this morning at the residence of the American Ambassador in Regent's Park.
Ambassador Susman kindly allowed a group of us to count birds in his garden. We were a mixture of young and old, expert and learner and Brit and Yank. But the garden was plenty big enough for us to spread out and do our own counts!
The dusting of snow surprised us all but the sun was shining and the birds were active. Long-tailed tits appeared almost as if on cue, a wren sang, wood pigeons sat in the trees, great-spotted woodpeckers drummed, called and flew. Great tits sang, robins chased each other through the shrubs, a ring-necked parakeet called and flew past, magpies chattered and a fieldfare flew over, perched briefly and flew on.
We were given a very warm welcome by our American hosts and warm hot chocolate at the end of the count.
It was fun, we saw some birds, I met some nice people. A very sociable bird count.
Here, back in east Northants, there are lots of birds in my garden. I bet they'll have gone when I do my second BGBW tomorrow! But I hear from staff at The Lodge that BGBW forms are already coming to us through the internet in record numbers.
Last night in Brussels the European Landowners' Organisation and Birdlife International (of which the RSPB is the UK partner) had a very successful launch of an agreed document on reform of the Common Agricultural Policy.
It's worth listening to the piece on yesterday's Today programme and I was really pleased that the things that were said by the Country Land and Business Organisation could have been said by the RSPB and vice versa.
The main elements of the agreed position should not be too controversial - I paraphrase them here:
1. Appropriate land management is crucial for food production and the environment.
2. Sustainable land management needs farmers and landowners.
3. Livestock are an important part of delivering food and in land management terms.
4. Europe plays an important part in global food security.
5. European policies and budgets are justified as they will help landowners rise to the challenges of producing food and a a good environment.
6. Future CAP reform should therefore seek to deliver food and a good environment.
7. This will need measures and mechanisms rather like the current rural development and agri-environment measures rather than thefarm support measures.
The BBC seem surprised that land managers and conservationists agree. Not at all - it happens much more than people realise - and it's good when it does.
PS In my youth the ELO were something very different
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This weekend is the Big Garden Birdwatch weekend – an annual event where around half a million people count birds in their gardens for an hour and send in the counts.
We’ve run this scheme for over 30 years and it has taken off spectacularly in the last 10 or so – entering data online has helped with that (although the paper option is still available).
I usually do two counts over the weekend – one at our home and one at my Mum’s (it’s a good excuse to get invited for Sunday lunch!). This will be the first year for ages that neither of our children is home as they are now both at university - the BGBW has become a part of family life for us.
This year’s count will be very interesting as it follows a breeding season in 2009 which was thought to be very successful for many species and a prolonged winter freeze which only ended recently. Will bird numbers be up or down?
Maybe it’s time to stick my neck out! I think we will see declines in numbers in many species – but I might well be wrong. I’d be very surprised if numbers of long-tailed tits and wrens are not appreciably lower than last year. These are species which are known to suffer in cold weather – they are tiny after all and need to feed pretty continually through the day to have enough food to fuel their high metabolic rates and to keep them going through the long winter nights.
Other species where I think that there might be declines include dunnock and robin. But maybe redwing and fieldfare numbers will be up – they flooded into gardens from the frozen countryside a few weeks ago and it’s possible some of them remain thanks to the generosity of garden bird feeders.
But we’ll see! Or at least we will if you take part and send in your observations. It’s easy, it’s fun, you might see nothing (and we’d still like to hear from you if that’s the case) or you might see all sorts of interesting birds just by investing that hour!
We’ll have the first preliminary results on Wednesday next week although the data will come in for a long time after that. I’ll let you know what your observations have told us!
I wrote a blog back in the summer (22 July) where I disclosed that a pair of eagle owls was nesting on one of our nature reserves.
Now FERA is consulting on a risk assessment of the impacts of eagle owls on native wildlife. That seems quite a sensible thing for them to do.
The RSPB's position could be described as welcoming of wild eagle owls if they arrive back in the UK from Europe after an absence of 9000 years but a bit worried about large numbers of captive eagle owls escaping into the wild from captivity. Our position is on our website and was last updated back in the summer.
Despite this, there are some rumours circulating about eagle owls and the RSPB.
First, that eagle owls are known to have killed hen harriers on RSPB nature reserves – not true, though they are known to be capable of bumping off smaller birds of prey including buzzards and harriers so I wouldn't rule out the possibility.
Second, that there is proof that eagle owls have arrived from continental Europe under their own ‘steam’ – not true as far as I know.
Third, that FERA has applied for a licence to cull eagle owls in the UK – not true as far as I know.
Fourth, that the RSPB has come out in favour of culling - not true at all.
What I can tell you is that we have received the results of analysis of eagle owl pellets collected on our nature reserve in the second part of last summer. There were only 12 of these but nine of them contain rabbit remains. There are also pheasant feathers in at least one (maybe three) of the pellets and red grouse feathers in one of them. So, on that basis, these eagle owls seem to eat rabbits and a few gamebirds during the summer.
Spanish conservationists, and others that know the bird well, tell me there is little to worry about in terms of the impacts of eagle owls on our native wildlife. However, we've not had eagle owls in the UK since the last Ice Age and so there is always that nagging doubt as to what they might decide to eat – just as there is with white-tailed eagles! So we will be continuing to collect eagle owl pellets for analysis - I wonder what they eat at other times of year? This is a bird about which there is more to learn.
Given the unknowns, it seems to us right that FERA, on behalf of UK administrations, is assessing whether eagle owls might pose any risks to UK wildlife. Do, please, respond to the FERA consultation which is open until 6 February, but don’t believe the misinformation circulating on the subject. And do let me now what you think too.