The RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch has crept up on me fast this year; I can’t believe it is the end of January already! Maybe it is the mild weather that has fooled me into thinking we are not already one third of the way through winter!
As always I like to compare my results from previous years, I wasn’t surprised that bird numbers were low again this year; only 6 species again. We normally see some woodpigeon and feral pigeon but not today! What I do know is we have had an increased number of cats in the garden, in particular new young ones that sit under the feeder. I thought they sat there to attack the birds but today I noticed a wood mouse that appears from next doors garden to feed on the dropped food.
On the up side there have been blue tits looking in the nest boxes and I think they have been using them as roosts. Unfortunately we don’t have cameras in the boxes so I don’t know for sure. Fingers crossed they occupy both boxes again in Spring.
| 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | |
| Coal tit | 1 | 2 | 1 | ||
| Blue tit | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 3 |
| Great tit | 1 | 1 | |||
| Long-tailed Tit | 1 | ||||
| Blackbird | 3 | 4 | 7 | 4 | 2 |
| Woodpigeon | 4 | 4 | 2 | ||
| Goldfinch | 5 | 1 | 7 | 9 | 2 |
| Blackcap | 1 | 1 | |||
| Greenfinch | 1 | ||||
| Robin | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | |
| Collard dove | 2 | 3 | 1 | ||
| Starling | 3 | 1 | 1 | ||
| House sparrow | 2 | 3 | 1 | ||
| Dunnock | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |
| Pied wagtail | 1 | ||||
| Siskin | 2 | ||||
| Chaffinch | 1 | ||||
| Total no. of species | 6 | 6 | 13 | 11 | 11 |
| Total no. of birds | 15 | 12 | 35 | 28 | 16 |
| Weather | Light cloud, dry | Wind, rain |
In the garden throughout the year we have still had regular visits from hedgehogs and the fox, hopefully their visits will continue this year as well 🙂
I took a few photos through the kitchen window of this year’s Birdwatch attendees…
October 27th – I had a day off work so headed up to my patch. It was a lovely autumn day. No sooner as I walked into the field did I spot a single roe deer over by the copse. A rather good start 🙂 I walked along the top edge of the field being careful as you can’t see the rabbit holes because of all the stinging nettles! There is definitely a track through the hedgerow and into the field that’s being used by larger animals. I will at some point need to get the trail camera into the field to find out what is about after dark. Along the top hedgerow there were lots of small birds but most were too quick and nervous to hang around for me to see what they were. I did manage to identify a dunnock that sat for long enough to get the binoculars on it! There is also quite a lot of litter about, mainly from farming I would guess, like twine and black bags. 
Walking down the side of the field next to the copse there is occasional fruit still on the brambles, but most is now gone. I was surprised to see dragonflies darting around and also a red admiral. Just round the bend in the field is a nest of leaves in the tree, it looks like a dray, a little further on I heard a rustling, when I pin pointed it, I found a grey squirrel in the trees of the copse watching me just as intently as I watched it! There was more rustling in the copse, I knew it would be roe deer by the noise, I could see two through the hedgerow. Four woodpigeon were spooked and flew out of the copse. I’m not sure why or what they were doing but there was a collection of flies on a tree trunk. 
Down by the river the birds are very nervous, they really don’t see a lot of people. I thought or hoped I saw a bank vole, nope when I finally managed to keep it in sight it was a wren! I was surprised to see a little egret and two cormorants though! There was also rubbish in the river, not something I can do anything about as it is unreachable, in fact I couldn’t actually see where the edge of the bank is, it is so over grown. It does make me slightly nervous, it doesn’t help that I’m short and have to move close to the edge to be able to see in parts of the river! I heard a lot of noise and turned to see a red kite being mobbed by some carrion crows/rooks, it did drop something but I didn’t have the camera on them at that time to see what it was. I was very pleased to see a bullfinch in the trees, I haven’t seen one here before. 
Walking back up the field I saw a wren and came face to face with a roe deer. I had been walking in deer tracks, I guess I was on his path! We both just stopped and looked at each other. I wasn’t going to move, I thought I’d let him do what he wanted to. Of course I HAD to take a photo, but moved very slowly when I did. He decided that his best route away from the strange creature that was in his path was straight across the field. He moved a bit and stopped to check I wasn’t following and then ran off at full speed. I do worry that if he had come face to face with one of the deer cullers that he would have been a very easy target 🙁 At least he’s 100% safe in this field. In the distance I could see something on the floor – it was the squirrel 🙂
I spent a little time watching the garden birds: coal tit, blue tit, starling, chaffinch, great tit, goldfinch, dunnock, house sparrow, wren, magpie, long-tailed tit, robin and great spotted woodpecker. I haven’t seen the collard dove with the broken beak since July. Hopefully it is still doing well. I have however been told that a sparrowhawk has been seen in the garden on occasion during the day. I’m yet to see him. 
My lesson learnt for the day is ‘Remember to take the bird book even if you think you won’t need it!’… to the left of the hide there is a feeder that had been topped up that morning. I was fairly sure what I was watching was a Reed Bunting but I doubted myself as I had never actually seen one before. Seeing I had no phone signal I had no way of double checking either.
