Great excitement just now - but alas too late for the Birdwatch, just seen a Great Spotted Woodpecker on our bird feeder! Never seen one before so had to look it up in our Bird book.
The birds in my garden seem to adhere to calling in for breakfast, lunch and/or afternoon tea so judging a good survey time is easier.
My submitted list included:
Blackbird Blackcap Chaffinch Collared dove Dunnock Goldfinch Greenfinch Robin Wood pigeon
It’s good to see the greenfinch and chaffinch back as they have been AWOL from my garden in the last year or two having previously been present in numbers.
How do you get the birds to turn up in alphabetical order? I'm impressed.
Our submission was a bit disappointing this year too. Last year we had Jays and a Green Woodpecker which I was so excited about. This year we had blue tits, coal tits, blackbirds, crows and robins and lots of them but not the others. I feel as though I've done something wrong to not still have them here. To be fair last year the garden was completely overgrown and undisturbed and had been so for years so that might explain it. But still disappointing.
I was missing any finches ,gulls or jackdaws in this years count. And would you believe it but 55 starlings landed in the big tree at the bottom of the garden the next day!
I do think a system of most seen over a week would give a much clearer picture of numbers of each bird species at this time of year, presently it's very hit and miss to be accurate as seen above, even my house sparrows numbers would have increased to 11 from the 9 I submitted.
I agree with you @purplerallim, it seems a waste of time to restrict the period to an hour. Recording birds you see in your garden over a week would give a more accurate picture. One thing that's always puzzled me is what happens if your NDN is also recording 'their' birds?
I agree with you @purplerallim, it seems a waste of time to restrict the period to an hour. Recording birds you see in your garden over a week would give a more accurate picture. One thing that's always puzzled me is what happens if your NDN is also recording 'their' birds?
I often feel the same, but they have been using this format for many years I guess the data is comparable year to year.
I'm not sure if I've already posted this on this thread - but it only occurred to me when you lot started talking about the RSPB birdwatch, that there might be a similar thing running here. There is! Between December and February, you keep count of the highest number of each bird species visiting your garden each week, for the three months. That's obviously a much bigger commitment, but maybe gives a more realistic result.
Since 2019 I've lived in east Clare, in the west of Ireland.
That does sound better @Liriodendron , but maybe a bit long, as I get different birds in November than I do in January, and any later would include the returning migrants. It has made me wonder if the RSPB is more interested in funding than the actual count.
Have had a couple of annoying incidents with charity stalls at agricultural shows last year. Worst one was the dogs trust. The man insisted we could afford to give more, even though my friend raises alot of money via the WI. And I said I have my own charities I support, he said we we were not doing enough! It just makes you a bit jaded and suspicious of charities in general when they make more of the fundraising than the event/cause.
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I do think a system of most seen over a week would give a much clearer picture of numbers of each bird species at this time of year, presently it's very hit and miss to be accurate as seen above, even my house sparrows numbers would have increased to 11 from the 9 I submitted.
Have had a couple of annoying incidents with charity stalls at agricultural shows last year. Worst one was the dogs trust. The man insisted we could afford to give more, even though my friend raises alot of money via the WI. And I said I have my own charities I support, he said we we were not doing enough! It just makes you a bit jaded and suspicious of charities in general when they make more of the fundraising than the event/cause.