Big Garden Birdwatch

We always used to do it so we are getting in some practice to do it again in 2023 - the RSPB''s Big Garden Birdwatch.-

We always knew it as the 'big bird count' ('big' as in lots of people and cats taking part, not merely counting the big birds).  

And you don't need a big garden - or in fact any garden - you can do it in the park, or on a roadside or out in a paddock we guess.  Recording where you count the birds matters because it is 'doing science' about what kinds of birds there are, where they are living and how many of them there are.

This morning we had starlings.  We started with two a couple of weeks back and they have been inviting their friends so we are up to somewhere between 12 and 20.  If they carry on like this we won't be able to count them on bird count day.

They do formation flying which is quite cool.

Blackbirds are also out there - just one pair as they are territorial.  Robins are also territorial.  We have seen some terrific aerial robin battles as they settle disputes over who has this territory in our back yard.

Sparrows on the other hand are super communal and we can't count them either - more than 20 perhaps.  They fly out of the blackberry next door and sit on the fence taking turns to mob the feeders.  

Only when the sparrows have retired from the field do the tits appear - blue tits and common tits.  We have fewer of them, but about once a day (usually in the afternoon or early evening) a flock of long-tailed tits flies through, landing in the flowering apple tree to scour it for small insects and availing themselves of the suet balls in the feeders.

Mr B has seen a wren scuttling across the bark of the tree, pecking at small bugs, and we have previously reported on the woodpecker and the sparrowhawk that visit.

We've never seen this before.... it looked like one crow grooming the other one.

As far as BIG birds go we still have three crows, but we saw them chasing off another three crows last week.  They clearly have territorial issues as well.  Unfortunately the wood pigeons don't have territorial issues and our lawn sometimes hosts 8 or 10 of the voracious warblers, scavenging about for anything that falls from the feeders.  We had to 'pigeon-proof' the feeders otherwise they knock all the seed onto the ground and waste most of it.

A pair of magpies also flit in and dance around the crows from time to time trying to get a share of the suet pellets thrown out on the lawn for big birds that feed on the ground.

F and Mr B have developed a kind of tick that has them rushing out and flapping their arms when the squadrons of herring gulls turn up each morning.  They seem to use the crows as markers of where the food might be found on the ground and come mobbing in.  The crows chase off the magpies, and have aerial battles with any raptor that shows up but they don't seem to challenge the gulls these days, and haven't worked out that the humans with flapping arms only come out when the gulls arrive and are no threat to crows.

I remain calmly aloof, watching, counting, biding my time.  Mice sneak out of the warmth generated by the compost heap and dine on fallen seeds and morsels of suet.  When the weather warms up a bit I shall sit under the cotoneaster near the compost bin and wait..... patiently....

We have had to do a bit more squirrel proofing, but seem to have foiled the brazen thief at last and he was last seen doing barrel rolls under a passing car out the front before racing off up a tree on the other side of the lane.  To give squirrels credit, they can jump prodigious distances from trees on our side of the stream to trees on the other side and make their escape through the hedgerows on the other side into the parkland beyond.


Comments

  1. Wow your garden sure is different to the one you had in Greece. More birds and less cats
    A family of crows have come to live at our place and we haven’t seen the magpies much since. Maybe they won that battle for Territory here.

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    1. only one cat - he of the impossibly long legs (his white marking make him look like his legs go up to his throat) and he runs away if he sees a human in the dining room.

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  2. We've got a 1/4 acre section here so it's huge and has to be mown each week, luckily for the 4 cats we have cat tv outside in the form of a bird feeder. We've had to take 3 birds out of their mouths already. sigh.

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  3. Hari OM
    That's quite the bird count, right enough, Tigger mate. I am well impressed. Hugs and whiskeries, YAM-aunty xxx

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    1. We would love to see something exotic and rare, but my dim-eyed humans probably wouldn't recognize that it was a different kind of bird it the darned thing landed on them.

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  4. I love watching birds in the garden (and especially love seeing them bathing in the bird bath). Unfortunately for me, Millie and Mittens like bird watching too and the birds are not very enamoured with their obsession! :)

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    1. It's cat nature I am afraid. Some of us are ground hunters, and some are air hunters. I am a ground hunter and birds only come into it if they are stupid enough to be on terra firma. I have seen a cat trying to catch house-martens that were swooping past it's head. Quite remarkable but I would have through a chancy process if being able to eat depended on it.

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  5. How interesting to read the list of birds spotted in your garden. Most are also familiar visitors to my inner city plot in Aberdeen, although I don't recall ever seeing any long tailed tits here (plenty in Torridon). Herring gulls (of a special Aberdonian giant subspecies) are too well represented! Grey squirrels have been all but 'eliminated' in the city in an ongoing effort to prevent them encroaching on Deeside's fairly healthy red squirrel population. A red squirrel ran across the road just in front of me when I was out on the Thursday morning bike ride yesterday, just on the hedge of the city. (The bike ride was shortened because of icy roads, so we spent longer in the cafe than on the bicycles!)
    Chees, Gail.
    Cheers, Gail.

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    1. You can keep you subspecies of giant Aberdonian gulls; I am deeply reserved about the size of the local ones. F and Mr B went out on bicycles this week, but not as cold as where you are I suspect. F came home sans jacket - over heated from trying to keep up with Mr B on his 'assisted' bike.

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  6. So much for you to see now Tigger….never mind about the one day count if things continue like this you’ll fill your daily ‘bird spotter’s book’ no trouble at all.

    Now the young magpies have grown and are on their own we don’t see so many. The ground is drying out again making it different for them to dig around looking for tidbits in the grass/soil. - it’s amazing to think this is happening after the months of rain we’ve had over the past 3 years.

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    1. F has described downunder magpies to me and I am glad we don't have them here. She likes them, I'm not keen on birds bigger than a sparrow.

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  7. Underneath the cotoneaster near the compost bin waiting patiently. Only cat could have wrote that Tigger.

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    1. My humans call it 'fishing' Dave. As in: Tigger has gone fishing again.

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  8. Ooh, what a lot you've got!
    We used to take part in the Bird Count each year but not much around us now here apart from crows and magpies, although that may change now that P is putting out the feeders.

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  9. We don't have any birds to watch because we don't put food out for them and the only Birds we have seen are the buzzards that came to eat the Roadkill. But we have seen the squirrels do that famous role underneath the traffic and most of our entertainment is watching the squirrels that leap from tree to tree and limb to limb looking at our front window. They keep us laughing because they can jump from the tiniest little limb and cling to the other tiny little limb that is four or five feet away and some have jumped as much as 6 or 8 ft and they are quite amazing. We used to have Cardinals and Jay's and a few small birds but they're all gone and I forgot to mention the Hawks that live in the area may be the reason there are no birds. Every now and then we see a feral cat but mostly they stay away because we have a dog they don't know he would not hurt them

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