Saturday 29 January 2011

birds of a feather

Got a spare hour?
Help the RSPB with their UK bird survey..
..it was actually quite interesting.
Here's what I spied this morning.
Fieldfare 1
Sparrow 9
Song thrush 1
Blackbird 3
Chaffinch 2
Greenfinch 1
Robin 1
Starling 1
Dunnock 1
Collared Dove 2
Coal tit 1
Blue tit 2
Redwing 1
Green Woodpecker 1
Thanks to all that took part this morning.
(especially to Mr Woodpecker
who popped up right at the end!)
It made eating my porridge that bit more exciting.

Its true:
Birds of a feather do indeed flock together!

edited
Most of the birds I saw are frequent visitors,
the fieldfare and redwing
are generally seen feeding in gardens
when the weather is particularly cold.
We had quite a few when there was snow
so now they've found a spot they like they keep returning.
The fieldfare has now been sat on our fence all day
feeding off fallen apples.

We don't feed the birds
(except when it snows)
because we have rodent issues.
I just try to garden for the wildlife
ie. plants/trees which have benefits like fruit or berries
and I don't cut down seed heads until February.

ps. The sparrow count is probably nearer 30
and starling count about 6
 I just didn't see them all today.
But I can hear them for sure!!

8 comments:

Gill said...

I'm counting too!!

{Love, Love, Love} said...

Wow....you are really lucky to have such a variety. All I seem to get these days are blackbirds, sparrows, wood pigeons, collared doves and starlings. x

Floss said...

Fantastic! The last time my inlaws did this they scored: sparowhawk 1, which of course meant all other birds, 0!

They were very disappointed.

The sparrows are already nesting in our roof - I heard them move back in during the first week of January. I think cold weather has stopped play since then but no doubt they'll be back!

Anonymous said...

Wow, you do get quite a variety of birds to your garden. We don't have woodpeckers here at all, I'd love to see one of those.
Vivienne x

Lyn said...

I am doing my watch tomorrow, hope it's not foggy!
love
Lyn
xxx

Simone said...

You have a wonderful range of birds visit your garden. I don't seem to have a great variety. Mainly I see magpies (loads of magpies), starlings, sparrows, robins, collared doves, wood pigeons, blue tits, blackbirds and I think that is it!!!

Anonymous said...

I also participated this morning - almost 30 blackbirds and about the same for sparrows. Apart from the usual suspects that you've mentioned I also managed a grey wagtail, a pied wagtail, a nuthatch and three wrens. Just waiting for April to come along now when the house martins will return to nest once again on the side of my house - great to watch!!

potterjotter said...

Green Woodpeckers are stunningly colourful aren't they? I always remember my first sighting of one. I just gasped!