How was the Birdwatch for you?

I was interested by your list Katie.  Mine was similar but alas my local sparrowhawk did not show.  This year I and my 5 year old son did the watch together.  Unlike last year he managed to stay interested the whole hour helping me count.  A recent Niger seed feeder has attracted Goldfinch to my garden for this year’s watch, (the recent Siskin didn't show).  Great fun and look forward to results.

Adrian Morris-Young

We didn't see many birds in our garden during the Big Garden Birdwatch - probably because it was very windy.

The highlight was a pair of bullfinches. They've been regular visitors since the start of the year.

I want to know how the birds know that I am doing my birdwatch.

We have a regular pattern of visitors to our garden, but when the appointed hour arrives, the regulars either turn up in much smaller numbers, or abandon us altogether.

On the other hand our rarely seen Reed Bunting came in to be counted and a unique visit to our seed feeder by a passing Racing Pigeon had to be recorded.

The Tree Sparrows and Long Tail Tits did not appear, nor did the fairly regular Sparrowhawk. The 100 or so Starlings, which regularly invade, all decided to stay in the adjoining fields. The two dozen Jackdaws, than normally live in the field all made an appearance in the garden.

I wonder if the RSPB would be better asking for typical bird populations rather than the, (probably more scientific), hour long survey.

John, Staffordshire.

I had a very disappointing birdwatch.  All week the finches and tits were on the feeders, I normally see Robin, Thrush, Wrens and all the other normal garden birds, but come Sat and Sun they were gone,  for 40mins all I saw was 1 Blackbird and 1 Robin, then 2 Woodpigeon 2 Collared Doves and a Dunnock turned up, and that was it. My garden was well stocked with food and water and I managed to keep it 'cat free' as well. Monday morning they all seemed to return. Strange! Janet

Is it past already?  Burns night celebrations wiped out last weekend for us and perhaps some other Scots.  No count from me this year I'm afraid.  Never mind, Garden BirdWatch goes on and will naturally give a good flavour of our wee postage stamp patch of moss!!

Alan, Kinlochleven

I too had a disappointing hour.  In the days leading up to it, I saw a pair of long-tailed tits, a pair of greenfinches and a house sparrow but they all steered clear on Saturday morning, so did all the collared doves - there's usually a few of them knocking around but they too were a no-show.  I saw one each of blue tit, robin, coal tit, blackbird and dunnock (again, I'd seen most of these with partners in the week leading up to it).  The biggest surprise, though, was that neither the starlings nor the wood pigeons flocked in their usual numbers - only 4 starlings as opposed to 7 or more at other times, and two wood pigeons.

I had hoped for better as I put lots of different foods out, plus two dishes of water and I kept the cats indoors and shut out of the sitting room where I was watching from until afterwards (and were they going mad by the end or what!).  Maybe it was the weather (although I've seen more birds in worse before), or I did wonder whether loads of my neighbours had also put extra food out and all the birds had already had their fill before they got to mine! :-)

In suburban Edgware I had 5 collared doves, 10 wood pigeons, 2 house sparrows, 1 chaffinch, 3 dunnocks, 1 blackbird, 2 blue tits, 3 green finches, 2 great tits, 3 robins (very briefly) 2 magpies and a greater spotted woodpecker between 07:50 and 08:50.

If I'd picked a later hour I'd have had fewer woodies (because I only fill my ground feeder once a day) but could have had 6 chaffinches instead. If I'd done my count on the Sunday morning instead of the Saturday, I could have had 12 woodies and more magpies.

I usually do my birdwatch in my semi rural Dorset garden, but this year I'm in the Florida Keys so I was lucky enough to see 4 x Osprey, ibis, cormorants, egrets, herons, northern cardinal, pelicans and turkey vultures.... not my normal birdfeeder visitors but very entertaining all the same. Jane

I had a relatively disappointing birdwatch too.  The regular goldfinch visitors in my garden have been conspicuous in their absence recently; so, instead of the 15 counted last year, I only had the 1 (happily they have since returned).  Sadly, no sign of greenfinches or sparrows, either.  The most surprising absence, however, was the blackbirds - usually very showy in my garden I saw hide nor hair (rump nor feather?) of them on the Sunday morning.

There were a few tits (great, blue and coal), a single chaffinch, a pair of dunnocks chasing each other around the garden, and one robin.  A pair of collared doves spent almost the entire hour in the tree, but the star of the show had to be the surprise appearance of a grey wagtail on my neighbours roof - I have seen them before, usually by water, but this is the first time one has dropped by for a visit.

And then there was the wren...another rare sighting in my garden, it has made an appearance, as if on cue, for the last two Big Garden Birdwatches.  I was about to give up on it this year, but there, in the final minute, I saw it skulking around in the dark undergrowth beneath the tree.  It is probably always there, but the lure of being counted by the RSPB seems to be enough to draw it from its shy, retiring nature.