Every year in January I take part in the RSPB’s ‘Big Garden Birdwatch’, the world’s largest wildlife survey. Now in it’s 40th year, the Big Garden Birdwatch was originally meant to be a one-off event run by the RSPB to get children more engaged in wildlife watching during the Winter months, and so that they could work out what the ten most common garden birds were. Expecting only a few hundred forms to be returned, the RSPB were astonished to receive 34,000 back through the post and so the Big Garden Birdwatch has since been an annual event, with adults able to join in since 2001.
I’ve taken part each year since we moved here, and it’s been a great way to see how more and more visitors have arrived as the years have gone on and I’ve made the garden more wildlife friendly. The first year I took part we’d only been in the house for 3 months, I was in the midst of working full time and studying and so I’d done little but put up a feeder. I think only a couple of birds made an appearance that year, but it’s increased every year since and now most years I’m able to count at least our regular visitors. Of course our more special visitors such as Siskins and Long Tailed Tits always become shy during the hour I’m counting and never make an appearance!
It does make me think though about the garden I remember as a child, and how things have changed. Our garden used to be full of Sparrows and Starlings. I rarely see a Starling here – though last year the parent Starlings seemed to bring their babies to the garden when teaching them how to forage for food themselves! I figured it was probably a safer environment for learning than the supermarket car park in our local town centre where they seem to live now.
So what did I see?
We’re lucky though in that we have a large flock of House Sparrows in and around the garden. They have seen massive declines since the Big Garden Birdwatch started so I feel lucky to have them, and they are such little characters that they are always a treat to watch. A project for this year is to get some nestboxes up to encourage them to nest here too!
Both male and female Blackbirds put in an appearance. There is also a youngster that appears from time to time – there were two fledglings this year but sadly one was taken by a cat.
After disappearing in late Autumn the Dunnocks have returned with a vengeance, and spend their days in the hedging and patrolling the base of the feeders for fallen seeds. Also known as Hedge Sparrows from a distance they seem like a drab brown bird, but close up they have incredibly beautiful eyes and I find the mix of grey and brown colouring very striking.
No bird watch is complete without the Robin – they are in and around the garden a lot of the time, and have been spotted investigating a Robin nest box I put up last Autumn, so I am quietly hopeful that they may choose to nest here. Their song always cheers me in the dark Winter months, and it always gives me a lift seeing the flash of red alight on a perch in the garden.
Blue Tits visited frequently through the hour – including one particularly noisy individual who seemed to be on a one-bird mission to be a complete noise nuisance, only stopping calling to grab a mouthful of food.
Along with the Blue Tits came the Coal Tits. We had three in the garden at once, which is a record and I’m so pleased! I’ve only recently managed to get some decent photos of these tiny birds, more on this in a later blog post!
And just on cue as the hour was up came the Bullfinches. I love seeing these birds – they’ve been a regular visitor for the last couple of years and only seem to disappear during the early nesting period in the Spring and again for a few weeks during late Autumn, when food is easily available elsewhere. They are reasonably uncommon in gardens – I only saw my first one on a nature reserve in 2015 – so I’m very pleased to have them. We have two pairs visiting this Winter, I always hope that one day a pair will bring their fledglings along.
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