RSPB Birdwatch

[tranquilcherub]

Hi Guys

I was wondering how many of you are taking part in this weekends birdwatch event.

Tc

[cactuschris]

Yes- have done for a number of years - it is actually quite fun though the weather is going to be a bit cold this weekend.

love
chris

[Kiga]

Me too - we do it every year as well

[ylangrose]

I'm doing it on Sunday. Just hope the weather isn't too bad. Are you putting food out to attract the birds? I haven't seem anything about doing that.

[Kiga]

We put food out all year round anyway, I don't know whether any advice is given for the survey.

[tranquilcherub]

I'm doing it tomorrow too, I also have food out all year round.

Perhaps we could share if we see anything different from those they list.

[Crowan]

Couldn't do it this year, as I've been teaching a workshop all weekend. I hope you all saw lots of wonderful birds!

[ylangrose]

I usually have food out but must admit I haven't been doing it every day over the last few weeks. I put a mixture of food out on Saturday morning and some more this morning. I have noticed there aren't many birds around now anyway.

The only birds which came in to the garden today were 1 blackbird, 1 robin, 1 wren, 2 collared doves, 1 house sparrow and 1 magpie. I did have a pair of blackbirds which produced 3 babies but, unfortunately only 1 baby survived. Usually, when I first put the food out, there are around 15 starlings, half a dozen sparrows and 3 or 4 doves.

How did everyone else get on?

[Kiga]

Well, I didn't see any birds which don't usually come into our garden, although living by the coast we get others not on the RSPC list. We have a large collared dove community round here (on the list, of course), several blackbirds and jackdaws and many varieties of tits and finches. We rarely see starlings in the garden any more, and today I didn't see one robin or wren in the hour. That could have been because the garden seems to be being targeted by a persistent sparrowhawk recently!

[tranquilcherub]

I didn't see much in my hour yesterday, it was very quiet.

1 Robin, 2 Blackbirds, 1 Great tit and 1 Blue tit.

I usually get a few Blue tits, the odd House sparrow, Magpie, Wood pigeon and ocassionally a Wren.

I did have a Pheasant come into the garden last year, it was that time of year and I think he was lost and confused

[Finalshine]

I live in quite an open village with not much greenery so we don't get many birds, going to try and change that this summer and get plenty shrubs and coverage in.

It's a shame as I used to live in the countryside and we had birds around us all day long

[Kiga]

Don't forget to set up a bird feeding station, Finalshine - word seems to spread like wildfire in the bird world when there's food on offer!

[Crowan]

When we moved into our present house (in 2007), we had many birds and many types of birds in the garden. We've put out food regularly since then, but the birds (both total number and number of species) has gone down drastically as neighbours have gradually cut down trees and large bushes in favour of lawns and bedding plants. Now all we get are the occasional great tit or blue tit and a regular pigeon!