It's all done for another year, at least for me. I got the usual suspects and no more, so I have I've awarded my star status to the Goldfinch - they came out in force for me, and I didn't get any last year. I got 8 species last year, 5 this year, and only 2 of these were on last year's list - interesting. Which species was the star for everyone else?
Annie
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
Einstein
Unknown said: my star- a red poll for the first time in 11 years at this house
my star- a red poll for the first time in 11 years at this house
11.30am to 12.30 All the usual suspects - some in abundance. 10 blue tits and 9 goldfinch all at once - my eyes were boggled counting them!
3 chaffinch - males, and 2 females came later in the hour so really 5? 2 great tit, 1 robin, 1 pied wagtail, 1 blackbird, 1 greenfinch, 2 sparrow, 1 green woodpecker eating old fallen apples and just at the end of my hour a male greater spotted woodpecker on the peanuts (just as I was saying to my husband that they hadn't been!)
No wren this time or long tailed tits but I have seen them in the past few weeks so know they are about.
We've also noticed more chaffinches here recently (Cumbria), but I think the star of the show for me was the lone goldfinch, the first sighting this year. We had up to 6 last year, including two juveniles, but no sightings at all since September, shortly after which we stopped putting out Nyjer seed. They also go for sunflower hearts, which is what this one was eating.
Also saw a pair of greenfinches, and our first spotting of a Great Tit of the year. Sadly no coal tits for a while; these were also quite abundant last year.
A surprise appearance was 3 jackdaws which fought over the fatball feeder. It was quite comical to see them trying to balance and screw their heads round for the food! They usually nest in nearby chimney pots, and these were part of a family of 5 from the last breeding season.
"Only two things are infinite - the universe and human stupidity. And I'm not too sure about the universe..." - Albert Einstein
Did the BGBW with my 9 year old daughter who has loved doing them this weekend, she helped Grandpa do his yesterday too. Our star spot were 3 Bullfinches (2 males and 1 female), we are in Leicestershire. Also had the usual Blue Tits and Great Tits, plus a Goldfinch, though not as many feathered guests compared to some days. We were missing our Field Fares, Wren and Robin, hopefully they were being counted somewhere nearby!
Got to give my star to my resident pair of blackbirds, beautiful couple, nest in garden every year.
bjbear
BJBEAR
Our stars shunned our red carpet this year! On Friday the Woodpecker and the pair of bullfinches were down, along with a tree creeper and over a dozen long tailed tits.....today....pphhh. It was cold here - but perhaps new birders were putting food out today so they didn't need us?
We also have a colony of 20-30 sparrows up here, although the maximum count was low at 9 yesterday. We have two separate nest sites, one box high up on the house wall and another one under the slates in the garage roof, and they usually raise two or three broods in each site every year, so we are bucking the national trend :-)
The resident pair of sparrowhawks hasn't been seen for some time. In fact we've never seen them catch any sparrows, which are very good at hiding in the dense and spiky pyracantha hedge, although they seem to have eaten most of our resident collared doves! Perhaps they have exhausted their food supply and moved on....
Generally it was a good morning. The hard frost brought many birds into the garden, and all the usual suspects turned up in roughly normal proportions. There's been a strange dearth of starlings since last summer though, with only small flocks of 20-30 flying over recently, and none landing, despite the peanuts and fatballs we always put out in cold weather.
Here are my star species (Cock Pheasant, Dunnock, Sparrow Hawk and Male Great Spotted Woodpecker):
http://www.flickr.com/photos/all_things_nautical/
Very interested to see how many people have had Redpolls for the first time this year. I had never seen them before (or even heard of them actually, had to look them up) but they started visiting us a few weeks ago and have become regular visitors. They squabble with the goldfinches for the Nyger seed. It will be interesting to see whether this is reflected in the BGBW results.
Fantastic pictures Birdwoman! We get the odd few pheasants in nearby farmland but none venture into the garden (it's enclosed). Never seen any woodpeckers, although we do hear them hammering away in the local park during the breeding season.