The day of the annual RSPB Big Garden birdwatch (BGBW) when tens of thousands of people across the Uk count the birds they see in one hour in their gardens and submit their results for analysis. Its a great project and gets lots of people involves in watching wildlife and survey work. Its like a one time snap shot of the regular garden wildlife survey which requires weekly entries over the whole year. And its usually one of my most frustrating birding days of the year! I think the birds know that its on and they all turn up the day before, or after, the count but on the day – they all stay away!
Today was bright and sunny and I decided to spilt my time into two periods – one first thing in the morning and one later in the day. The morning session started quite well with a Starling on the feeders. Although a common bird on the patch it has only been in the last couple of months that they have started to appear in the garden. Probably a garden first for the BGBW.
Starling
There are plenty of Blue Tits and at one point I count 5 individuals and Robins as wells.
Robin
A Blackbird puts in an appearance and there is a rather attractive variant on the Common Pigeon.
Common Pigeon
My second session added Magpie, Jackdaw and Ring-necked Parakeet, Which meant that I had seen 10 species in my alloted 60 minutes. My weekly bird list is usually 15-20 for the Garden wildlife survey.
So the curse of the Big Garden birdwatch strikes again – No finches (we regularly have 3 species); no woodpeckers (2 species); no Nuthatch; no Dunnock; not even a Great Tit.
Still I expect they will all be back tomorrow
