RSPB Birdwatch 24-26 January 2025

One bird was very obliging on the dog walk today. I've invited him to my garden, though he looks like he's finding plenty in his natural habitat.

Oh I love robins, they are so lovely. We get some tiny little birds here, not much more than an inch long. Like hummingbirds but not so brightly coloured. We get a lot of parrots because it is a bushy area but I have a few tame ravens who frighten them off. They knock at my back door with their beaks every morning until I give them water and a bit of food ( left over cat food !)

Nearly there. I would love to know which birds GNs see. No need for a detailed report.

Yesterday we had sparrows, seagulls, a thrush and a pair of blackbirds. Today, now I need to count them, there have been none this morning. I wonder if it’s because of the wind.

We do this every year.

Last year not one bird arrived within the hour

I did the birdwatch hour yesterday. Very disappointing, two wood pigeons, two magpies and one robin, all seen within the first ten minutes. Still, better than nothing I suppose.

I planned to do it today, but the weather put paid to that! The birds didn’t put in an appearance, unsurprisingly. They haven’t been down to feed today. Should have done it yesterday… 🤷‍♀️

Horrible weather for it here, especially today. Good job we did it yesterday! Very surprised not to have any starlings - there are usually at least half a dozen squabbling over the food but we haven't seen any for a few days.

Squiffy

Yes, but as above, the birds disappear as soon as I get organised to count them. We had a wren and a dunnock visit a couple of weeks ago, but I don’t suppose either of them will appear on the allotted day!

Same here.

I'm sure they know!

Today I have had about eight blackbirds, a few sparrows, one robin, not seen any blue tits today oh and one pied wagtail
Usually have blue tits and gold finches, but not so far today..
There has been a lot of heavy rain today, so maybe that’s the reason, the blackbirds don’t seem to mind. They just get on with it..
I have magpies at the bottom of my garden and have had for absolute years, but it’s very rare. I see them in my garden at all which is strange. I hear them a lot. 😁

Shinamae

Today I have had about eight blackbirds, a few sparrows, one robin, not seen any blue tits today oh and one pied wagtail
Usually have blue tits and gold finches, but not so far today..
There has been a lot of heavy rain today, so maybe that’s the reason, the blackbirds don’t seem to mind. They just get on with it..
I have magpies at the bottom of my garden and have had for absolute years, but it’s very rare. I see them in my garden at all which is strange. I hear them a lot. 😁

I put sunflower hearts out for the blue tits and goldfinches, the other food I put out is Suet balls,suet blocks and mealworms
And the occasional crust of bread on my lawn which some people have castigated me about, but I care not 🤓

The advice is not to count the same bird twice, I think, to avoid double counting.
The ones which visit here don't have name tags so I can't tell the difference between one male sparrow and another.

Shinamae

Today I have had about eight blackbirds, a few sparrows, one robin, not seen any blue tits today oh and one pied wagtail
Usually have blue tits and gold finches, but not so far today..
There has been a lot of heavy rain today, so maybe that’s the reason, the blackbirds don’t seem to mind. They just get on with it..
I have magpies at the bottom of my garden and have had for absolute years, but it’s very rare. I see them in my garden at all which is strange. I hear them a lot. 😁

Havent seen a wag tail fir a long time.

I think the rain brings the worms up nearer the surface so the blackbirds will come for them.

Hopeless today when I sat for my hour, windy and wet, a lone seagull being buffeted high in the sky, MrJ saw 4 wrens earlier this morning, but they didn’t appear for me.

Allira

Shinamae

Today I have had about eight blackbirds, a few sparrows, one robin, not seen any blue tits today oh and one pied wagtail
Usually have blue tits and gold finches, but not so far today..
There has been a lot of heavy rain today, so maybe that’s the reason, the blackbirds don’t seem to mind. They just get on with it..
I have magpies at the bottom of my garden and have had for absolute years, but it’s very rare. I see them in my garden at all which is strange. I hear them a lot. 😁

Havent seen a wag tail fir a long time.

I think the rain brings the worms up nearer the surface so the blackbirds will come for them.

The blackbirds have been very industrious today. I love to watch them hopping about…..
They are very territorial though and keep their distance from each other or sometimes scare each other off quite fascinating to watch

Sadly I wasnt well enough to be able to do it this year. Have done it for many years and it is depressing to not be able to do it this year. I have quite a good photo that my husband took of me on the birdwatch when we lived in ?richmond N yorks. so we used to sometimes doe well as I gardened with wild life in mind. I had a big garden on three levels and we were 3 down from open fields so you really saw the variation in the garden birds, where as the field had more farmland birds. Well on that day it was snow in the garden and i sat in a garden chair with a load of clothes and walking boots on and a hot water bottle under a blanket whilst I stuck it out for the hour noting the birds I saw. We had a wren in the front hedge and a different one down the back. Over time we also had a blackbird family and the young from the year before used to try and nest in the garden but the old bird would not let them stay and saw them off. I had a lovely rowan tree , but unfortunately , although there were several other rowans near by, the birds preferred mine for some reason and used to decimate the berries and leave the other trees alone!! Anyway do hope it all went well today. One of the things that I also did was on christmas day and on new years day, would walk round my garden in both directions and note what plants were flowering etc etc. As I am a galanthophile (Snowdrops to you) I used to have quite a ood winter garden, with many different hellebores, winter flowering jasmin and tinus bodnatense etc etc and also early primula and primroses, so there was quite a lot of nectar etc and used to get early butterflies occasionally. Sad I cant do it any more but again used to send the data in to harlow carr etc and the dates that things flowered were over 20 years in the same garden so theycould see the climate change etc. Well we can still enjoy the birds whether we count them or not. Hope you all saw something interesting

Absolutely hammering here in the South West for most of the day. No birds to be seen - I wasn’t to be seen outside either.

25Avalon

Absolutely hammering here in the South West for most of the day. No birds to be seen - I wasn’t to be seen outside either.

It rained and the wind blew on and off all day, but when it did rain it just threw it down!

Raining here today so definitely fewer birds than last year.
Two sparrows
One robin
One blackbird
One woodpigeon

25Avalon

Absolutely hammering here in the South West for most of the day. No birds to be seen - I wasn’t to be seen outside either.

Absolutely hammering down right now in North Devon.

I had 45 birds visit my garden in the hour. This was a low number for me, but I put it down to the wind and heavy rain. I too have a pied wagtail. He's been visiting for the past three years. Like the blackbirds, he's very territorial. Looks delicate, but he's bossy. Loves his mealworms.

There are significantly fewer birds in my garden this year compared to last. I missed the count as I had visitors.

We have to be careful with mealworms because, if they get spilled on the ground, hedgehogs may come along and eat them. They're bad for hedgehogs, apparently.

madeleine45
I am sorry you were unable to do birdwatch but I enjoyed reading your post.

Polly99

Raining here today so definitely fewer birds than last year.
Two sparrows
One robin
One blackbird
One woodpigeon

Mine was about the same but more sparrows and no robin, that was Saturday.

Yesterday I'd planned to try again but the weather was appalling.