Right, I've done my birdcount. In one hour this morning the most of any one species I saw were
Blackbirds 5
Robin 1
Greenfinch 2
Goldfinch 8
Bluetit 2
Gt tit 1
Woodpigeon 5
Feral pigeon 4
Housesparrows 3
Chaffinch 3
Starlings 8
There were crows, common gulls and herring gulls circling overhead
Regular visitors to this garden that I didn't see this morning are dunnock, wrens, jays, magpies, green woodpeckers, a sparrowhawk and a fairly frequent fly-overs from herons and buzzards.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
A couple of days ago I cleaned the feeders and put out fresh fat balls, mealy worm blocks and this morning I added the daily dose of loose seed. A bit later I started watching for the count and not a one so I pottered off to do something else. Tried again a couple of hours later and they've devoured half the wormy fat block and disappeared again. Needless to say they were plentiful while we sat and ate lunch - because I wasn't counting.
Maybe tomorrow then.
Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
"The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
If I stuck to the usual time I look, today would have seen nothing as the Sparrowhawk was about not that I saw it but that all birdsong stopped. My usual Dunnocks are a pair at each end of the garden seen at the same time ( my garden seems to be the boundary for two territories for these and the Robins) but this year the bottom of the garden pair are missing and this end has only one.
There us a bird count this weekend in Belgium so I'm going to do mine tomorrow morning.
We have had a lot of interest by great tits in the bird box we put out, they keep pecking at the edges of the entrance, but it's only 25cm meant for blue tits, got Mr Bijdezee to make it bigger and hopefully they might nest there.
Did mine from 2-3 today. Hardest part is working out how many you’ve seen at one time when they are darting about like mad things. Only got as far as counting a max of 3 (great, coal and blue tits) although there were probably more.
Every year I do it I am always surprised by what turns up - this year Mr & Mrs Bullfinch were the stars of the show ✨
46 birds of 11 species. Not the easiest of counts since my wife is ill and I've been in charge of keeping wildedgesjnr entertained all day. Some noticable missing birds too so hopefully I can have a more relaxed count tomorrow and they'll all turn up. I've counted 35 bird species in the 10 years since we made the garden so fingers crossed.
If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
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That was my understanding of the usefulness of recording the maximum number of one species seen at one particular time.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Maybe tomorrow then.
We have had a lot of interest by great tits in the bird box we put out, they keep pecking at the edges of the entrance, but it's only 25cm meant for blue tits, got Mr Bijdezee to make it bigger and hopefully they might nest there.
Every year I do it I am always surprised by what turns up - this year Mr & Mrs Bullfinch were the stars of the show ✨
6 rooks
1 wood pigeon
3 blue tits
2 great tits
6 long tailed tits
1 robin
2 blackbirds
3 goldfinches