As you can see from last years results, the top ten Big Garden Birdwatch birds are all well known and regular visitors to many gardens around the UK and provide all of us with hours of entertainment as they go about their daily lives alongside our own.
However, what we want to find out with this poll is which species is likely to make you jump out of your chair, spill your tea and drop your digestive biscuits with excitement! We have narrowed the list down to ten birds, which proved very difficult, that are seen regularly but are just a little bit out of the ordinary for various reasons. All you need to do is to pick the one that would give you the most pleasant of surprises if it arrives during the birdwatch hour.
If you can think of a species that we have missed from the list (those lucky enough to have red kites living locally should have something to say!) please tell us about it and why it should be included.
Happy voting!
Warden Intern at Otmoor.
Voting is now over for this poll, thank you for all of your votes and comments!
The waxwing came out as a conclusive winner, lets hope that all of your wishes come true and they turn up in gardens. Try to maximise your chances by providing sliced apples and pears on tree branches in your garden.
Second and third place went to the bullfinch and long-tailed tit respectively, two cracking species. Long-tailed tits are roving birds at this time of the year and could turn up anywhere as they busily move from place to place as they search for food. Suet feeders and peanuts seem very popular with these critters so be sure to provide some of these treats. Bullfinches may be harder to tempt for city dwellers but if you are close to open countryside, woodland edge and mature hedgerows you have a good chance, they will eat seed and fruit. The feeding stations at Old Moor attract lots of bullfinches, well worth paying a visit for these alone!
Poor fieldfares didn't get a single vote, but it is quite likely that these smart winter thrushes will turn up in numerous gardens across the UK this weekend if we have a big freeze, otherwise they are likely to stay in open country, orchards and hedgerows where they can feed on worms and windfall fruit.
Good luck this weekend and thank you for your interest.
mmm i want a bullfinch too
Izzy
I realise that I'm out of time but yes - I WOULD like to see a fieldfare in my garden rather than just high up in some of the bigger nearby trees. I don't think its very likely to happen - the local redwings do come down to street level sometimes but the fieldfares don't seem to.
I have just joined so have missed this poll :(.
I'll be doing my garden birdwatch tomorrow so hope my regular visitors will come during my count. I know what times are the busiest for feeding (is that cheating ?) so will do my count then.
Fingers crossed for a more unusual visitor.
Out of those on the list, I would love any one of them to visit during my count. I've had 7 out of the 10 in my garden.
I've not had Nuthatch, Blackcap or Waxwings in the garden. I have seen Waxwings locally though :)
I watched a non-mobile waxwing flock on the corner of Oakdale Road and Valley Road, Streatham (postcode area London SW16) for around an hour this afternoon, 30 January. They were perched in a tall ivy strewn tree and were regularly dropping down to feed - largely out of sight - on large red berries in the gardens below. Great views of them above me in the tree, close-up views were a little more difficult though they could intermittently be seen lower down from near the lock-up garages on Valley Road and from an entrance way (not marked as private) on Oakdale Road. Not easy to determine how many birds altogether - but probably more than 25.I got around 7 minutes of good video footage. And some still photos from my simple Sony camera without zoom. I found these waxwings not by random searching but by following up an internet report I saw late last night, referring to Oakdale Road, at http://londonbirders.wikia.com/wiki/LatestNews. I decided it was worth a go because the location is easy to get to by bus from where I live (near Penge), and because the sun also made a rare winter appearance around here today.
My second ever waxwing sighting, after one at Wallington (large flock but viewed in gloomy weather) on 25 January.
Pleased to see the new thread of 30 January - started by StorminNorm who has also had his first ever sighting of waxwings - in Hampshire.
PS Some photos below - though I'm afraid it's 'spot the waxwing'.