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Science/nature/environment

RSPB Garden Birdwatch this weekend.

(28 Posts)
merlotgran Sun 26-Jan-20 10:21:38

Anyone else doing it?

We usually start at 11am. Nice sunny day for a change and just a light breeze. Hopefully we'll see our new visitor - a jay. We have never had one in our fenland garden before.

MiniMoon Tue 28-Jan-20 09:41:58

I had 9 jackdaws, 4 blackbirds, several house sparrows, 2 dunnocks, 3 collared doves, 3 robins, 1 chaffinch and 1 bluetit and 1 wren.
I had to enter the pheasant and woodpecker separately.
We usually have more bluetits and great tits, but they were mostly absent. I've seen them this morning though.

tiredoldwoman Tue 28-Jan-20 05:32:17

Last week when watching the birds at my feeder , I noticed a pair of blackbirds , hopping and flying and landing together , he was the usual very black with orange beak but the other was very black but with a black beak , not the usual brown plumage of a female . I looked up my book but couldn't identify it at all . They were very happy together .

Grandma2213 Tue 28-Jan-20 01:39:03

I did it with my 8 year old granddaughter. She was so excited as she had made a bird feeder at school. Sadly nothing landed on it as it was somewhat unstable. Nevertheless she did say, 'How come we have watched for an hour and it wasn't boring?!'

We saw 3 blackbirds (all male), 11 sparrows, 2 great tits, 2 magpies, 3 pigeons (one could have been a dove), one starling (we think), one seagull and our garden robin Bobby Bobkin.

We normally have lots of great tits, blue tits, a thrush and a woodpecker but they didn't turn up to order.

Sadly her bird feeder collapsed in the rain at night so I will have to repair with super glue when it has dried out!!

Quercus Mon 27-Jan-20 13:03:59

It sounds as though I was luckier than many: blue tits, great tits, coal tits, long tailed tits, dunnocks, blackbirds, robins, chaffinch, pigeons. For most of these I saw two individuals at any one time.

Newquay Sun 26-Jan-20 17:33:42

Huh! We had more birds til eccentric neighbour adopted FIVE cats and 3 dogs!

Nannytopsy Sun 26-Jan-20 15:53:45

Tits not tots!

Nannytopsy Sun 26-Jan-20 15:53:28

Doing mine tomorrow but our numbers are way down from December. Nearly all the tots have gone off on holiday I think!

gillyknits Sun 26-Jan-20 15:20:25

Did it between 11and 12 o’clock. It was a bit wet but loads of birds were visiting until next door’s cat camel in and chased a pigeon. It took ten minutes for the birds to come back but I think my results would be normal for an hour in my garden! (Cat visits most days!)

merlotgran Sun 26-Jan-20 15:15:00

Wot! No penguins? grin

Purpledaffodil Sun 26-Jan-20 15:11:11

Did it at between 1 pm and 2pm. Recorded mainly 10 starlings and 6 wood pigeons. Hardly exciting! Did have 3 parakeets which are common here but I had to enter them separately.
Much more fun when I used to do it as class activity with Year 2. The number of eagles they saw in suburban Surrey was hilarious. If there’d been enough space, I expect we’d have had flamingoes and vultures too. ?

NotAGran55 Sun 26-Jan-20 15:02:02

I’m going to do it tomorrow morning. I can only see one robin in the rain ? at the moment.

GrannyGravy13 Sun 26-Jan-20 14:53:52

I have got a garden full of seagulls, the sea must be rough!!
(joys of living close to Thames Estuary grin)

merlotgran Sun 26-Jan-20 14:09:02

It's important to record sparrows because they're in decline.

merlotgran Sun 26-Jan-20 14:07:36

DD has parakeets in her garden in North London.

Greyduster Sun 26-Jan-20 14:02:24

I could lie and record the five green ring necked parakeets I saw in a local park last week, but I don’t think I’d get away with it!

Greyduster Sun 26-Jan-20 13:57:48

I am not doing it this year; I’m fed up of recording the same forty nine sparrows and two wood pigeons!

MiniMoon Sun 26-Jan-20 13:26:28

We didn't get our usual RSPB pack this year. I had forgotten all about it. Thanks for the reminder, I see it's over three days, so I'll go online and do it tomorrow. Our bird feeders are almost empty. Looking out of the wi dow now though there is a Robin, a sparrow, several jackdaws and a cock pheasant. He comes every day and knocks on the patio doors if we don't go out with the seed.
And here he is!

merlotgran Sun 26-Jan-20 12:06:17

Just click on this link

And follow the instructions to sign up. You don't have to be an RSPB member.

BBbevan Sun 26-Jan-20 12:05:29

We have masses of seagulls, crows, magpies and ravens, But they never land in our garden .

gillybob Sun 26-Jan-20 12:02:51

Oh I wasn’t aware of this . Is it something you have to sign up for, or can anyone do it?

I have just hung a new coconut fat feeder on the tree and filled the bird table with sunflower seeds, mealworms and various other mixed seeds. Have sprinkled a few on the soil too for the ground feeders.

merlotgran Sun 26-Jan-20 11:51:42

We should have done it yesterday. DH was chopping logs and spotted our resident tawny owl sitting on a fence post. Never seen it in daylight before but it's noisy at night.

tanith Sun 26-Jan-20 11:45:27

This moment there’s a Red Kite hovering

tanith Sun 26-Jan-20 11:44:55

My hours nearly up and they’ve been teasing me by flying over but not landing ?

merlotgran Sun 26-Jan-20 11:35:38

Nothing here either. We reckon they've all had a good feed and b****red off for the day.

We'll postpone it until 3pm when hopefully they'll be back for another feed before dark.

tanith Sun 26-Jan-20 11:18:47

I’ve been sat at the kitchen table watching for 20mins so far and not one bird has landed. Could be because I’ve run out of seed for the feeders. ?