It’s every birdwatchers favourite time of the year – the RSPB’s Big Garden Birdwatch. For the uninitiated, this is a national survey carried by people like you and me to see how many birds are in back gardens across the country. I decided to take part this year, and make use of the Wildlife Society Hide at the university.
Admittedly things didn’t go quite to plan. I strolled onto campus (late), ready and raring to watch some birds to discover that the place was locked. Great. I wandered around for a bit, cursing myself for not grabbing the hide keys while I was on campus the previous day. And frustratingly, there were loads of birds around but I wasn’t in a position to survey them. I’d just made the decision to go home and try again later when I realised that someone had arrived to open up. I dashed inside to grab the keys before they could change their mind.
I unlocked the hide, got settled in, and waited for the birds.
(Sometimes it's just you, your coat and a fluffy scarf against the cold.)
Now, the Big Garden Birdwatch is a great survey because you only have to record for an hour – which is very achievable for a busy person like myself. And I’m glad it was set at an hour, because I probably would have left after the first half an hour because of the lack of birds. I was witness to the same two or three blackbirds, blue tits and great tits for a long time. Not that they’re boring birds or anything, but there’s only so much excitement one can muster up seeing the same bird going to and from the same bird feeder.
After about forty minutes, however, everything kicked off. A flock of 15 or so house sparrows turned up, and they really brought the party with them. Suddenly there were birds everywhere. A dunnock appeared, a robin rocked up and even a woodpigeon decided to join in. This was much more exciting, even if I was struggling to ensure I didn’t count any birds twice.
As my hour was drawing to close, I was delighted to watch not one but two coals tits join in the feeding frenzy. Another great species for the list! And, after watching the house sparrows a bit closer, I realised that three tree sparrows had snuck into their midst. With their handsome chocolate cap, and little ‘sideburns’, I was happy to be able to tick that species off as well. The end of the survey was heralded by a large jackdaw, that ended up frightening a couple of the smaller species away.
But it wasn’t over yet. I locked up (a challenging task) and headed home. As I walked over the suspension bridge, I spotted a stock dove, which was very exciting – even if it couldn’t be counted for the survey. When I got home, I sat down and submitted my results to the RSPB website. They crunched my numbers and produced this exciting graph of the birds I’d seen. Not surprised to see that house sparrow took the top spot, but seeing tree sparrow at number five was an absolute delight – especially considering that they are a Red List species in the UK.
Thank you so much to the RSPB for organising this great survey; I’m looking forward to seeing the results!
Species List
Blackbird
Great Tit
Blue Tit
Chaffinch
Carrion Crow
House Sparrow
Dunnock
Robin
Woodpigeon
Tree Sparrow
Coal Tit
Jackdaw
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