Topic: Birdwatch 2006

[Paulines7]

Trixiebelle, even if you didn't see a dicky bird, ten out of ten for your posts.  ;D  ;D  ;D

Carol, could the birds have been playing a game with you?  I bet they saw you approaching the windows and then flew off to the other side of your house and did the same thing when you went there.   :(  :( :(

There are great bustards in Wiltshire but I haven't seen any yet.  No spotted ones as they have probably had the measles jab.  ;D

[Carol]

No Pauline, I have 2 feeding areas for the birds.  So it was quite a task going from one end of the house to the other.  I seem to get the bigger birds at the kitchen area  i.e.  pheasants, collared doves, jackdaws etc and at the t'other end of the house is the hanging area for the nuts, fat balls and filled coconut shell.  That is where the little uns hang out and way down in the far corner sits mrs Sparrowhawk for hours at a time.  Thank goodness she wasnt here long today, but she was around.  Bloomin' Long tailed tits hung around across the road today as well, cos I spotted them through my bins.   dam and blast....   ah well, it was good fun.

No surprises turned up though, except maybe the Mistle Thrush, he was perching ontop of a the faraway Weeping Willow which is more like a loo brush than a weeper, cos of the winds we get. 

 ;D ;D ;D

I had,   2 Pheasants, (M & F)  4 Blackbirds, 2 Wood Pigeons, 4 Collared Doves, 2 Jackdaws, 4 Rooks, 1 Mistle Thrush, 15 Chaffinches, 4 Greenfinches, 2 Coal Tits, 2 Great Tits, 3 Blue Tits, 2 Goldfinches  and 2 Dunnocks scuttering around at front of the house, but NO ROBIN..... where was Robin today???

[Juliet]

For about 5 years it has poured with rain every Birdwatch weekend and we've had NO birds - now I have gone on record as saying that every year they hide in the trees and laugh at us, it was blazingly sunny all weekend & we had so many birds in the garden yesterday we had trouble counting them all!  They are laughing again - I'm sure they are.  (Paranoid?  Me?!  ::) )  I'm sure the weather should be taken into consideration, Georgie - it must skew their figures if it isn't.  I mentioned to them last year that we never had anything like the number of birds we normally see in the garden because it was always raining on Birdwatch weekend and they said that would mean the birds were being counted elsewhere - but I don't really think that works - our local ones don't all fly off to Devon or something because it's raining all over East Anglia.

Anyway, this year we had 1 blackbird, 1 chaffinch, 3 collared doves, 1 dunnock, 4 greenfinches, 1 house sparrow, 2 robins, 33 starlings, and 1 woodpigeon.  Actually we had 2 blackbirds - could only submit 1 because you're supposed to say the highest number you see at any one time, but we know there were  2 because one was male and one was female!

We have trouble filling in the survey online because we're not quite suburban and not quite rural either (we're in a village north of Cambridge).  And how big exactly is a tennis court?!!  How on earth is anyone expected to know that?  Why don't they say a size?!  ???

[Georgie]

Hi Juliet.  Well, I'm glad to read that someone else was struggling with the 'how big is a tennis court' question.  What a stupid way to express it eh?  And why did we have to express our distance from farmland in kilometers?  I hope I was right in thinking that a kilometer is 0.7 of a mile otherwise I think I've lied!  ;)  Nice to know that you had all my starlings yesterday - you did well to count 33.  ;D

G xx

[grawrc]

Went out to clean out the shed today and thought I'd manage to spy on visiting birds, however after a wren, a robin and some blackbirds I got so involved in what I was doing that I forgot!  :-[ :'(

[Gardengirl]

Well I think the word went around the 'birdie telegraph' round our way that this stupid woman was trying to count them ;D  We didn't have nearly as many as we normally have. 

Anyway, my count was: 2 blackbird - only 1 blue tit - two chaffinch - 2 collared dove - 3 dunnock - 2 goldfinch - 4 greenfinch - 1 house sparrow - 1 magpie - 1 robin and 7 starlings.

[Carol]

Typical,  day after the bird count and at the same time I was doing the count yesterday, dozen Long Tailed Tits, plus 2 Bullfinches and for the first time this winter   a Sisken.   

I do like the Siskens but I now await the arrival of the other winter visitor the Brambling.  It usually comes along with a flock of Chaffinches.  They are similar but the Brambling has a more peachy tinge to its colours and more white down the wings. 

 ::) ::) ::) ::)

[Whippet]

The weather seems to have kept most of our birds away, today.
 :-\

Well, it's been very cold here today but bright.  I wonder why they don't ask about  the weather details.  Surely they have a bearing?  I had two collared doves flying about for the whole hour I did my watch which I've never seen before.  But would they land in my garden?  Would they 'eck!  Also spotted a seagull soaring on high a few times now that would have skewed the figures!   ;)

G xx

Our resident pair of Collared Doves didn't let me down.
I also saw two Blue Tits - we haven't had any of those about for a few weeks.
We always have lots of Seagulls flying around here - but they never land in our garden.

[Carol]

Just brought this to the attention of everyone again, cos the 2007 Birdwatch is this weekend.   Hope the birds don't do a disappearing act like last year and the year before.  Happy counting folks.. ;D ;D

[lorna]

Carol. Got my calendar marked with RED pen for 27th/28th so that I don't forget.

[MrsKP]

Last year it was teeming down all weekend.  Not sure if I saw a bird all weekend.  Not representative of my garden for the rest of the year, that's for sure.

My sparrowhawk wasn't in the area that day, I know that much.

Think I'm going to tick his box whether he turns up or not.  Tried to dive bomb me today !   :o