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
Strangerachael: never seen a redpoll myself, here or anywhere else :-( Will be interesting to see the distribution across the country in the results.
"Only two things are infinite - the universe and human stupidity. And I'm not too sure about the universe..." - Albert Einstein
strangerachael said:Very interested to see how many people have had Redpolls for the first time this year
strangerachael said:It will be interesting to see whether this is reflected in the BGBW results.
It will indeed. I first had them during the very cold last two winters. However, they've turned up on my feeders again this winter which so far has been very mild. I'm beginning to wonder whether we are seeing a change in their behavior in the same way that Goldfinches have adapted to become garden birds.
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Tony
My Flickr Photostream
My redpolls were stars of the day today too! They didn't let me down - the biggest number I have had this winter is 42 and 37 turned up this morning! My garden will seem so empty when they go! I'd never seen a redpoll in the garden until this winter either so will also be interested to see the BGBW results.
My other little star was a LTT. I hardly ever get one, but a single one turned up today to be counted and then kept coming back intermittently throughout the whole day.
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i have been getting redpolls this winter too. never seen them before. Only one today though
Newbie here, and this was my first time taking part in a Big Garden Birdwatch. The stars of the hour for me were a wee flock of 4 long tailed tits who disappeared as suddenly as they appeared. I was so pleased they turned up as my mum had seen them in the garden once before, a few days ago, but it was my first time. They were so sweet. Also lovely to be able to include were 2 siskins. When they come, there's usually at least 3 or 4, but 2 was still great.
Biggest in number were 17 house sparrows. Unusually for an area which reported chaffinches being most numerous in 2011 (South Lanarkshire, Scotland), only 2 chaffinches came into the garden for a wee potter about. Great fun though.
I was absolutely thrilled to open the lounge curtains and find 5 long-tailed tits investigating the shrubbery just outside the window this morning! A great start to the BGB, having only heard them for the last week but not seen them come down from the trees!
A closed mouth gathers no foot.
Starlings! No shortage of them in this part of County Durham. I stopped counting at 62 with more arriving, and they stripped the bird table within seconds. A bit unnerving, if I'm honest, and sad to see the smaller birds leave.
some of my star species is a tree creeper looking for insects on the bark of my hawthorne tree it seems to be a regular visitor to my backgarden, a mainland european female blackcap, a song thrush tucking into some fat juicy worms which seem to be abundant in my back garden, a large gathering of jackdaws 20 of them, chaffinches came in force well over 20 of them at one point outnumbering the starlings even though it was raining and the weather was poor their seemed to be a feeding frenzy among the birds as it is getting colder over the next 7 days, but the one for me was a peregrine falcon swooping in and taking a starling
First timer and thought it was going to be a quiet day but usual visitors turned up in late morning. Surprise was the appearance of a buzzard in the oak tree in the back hedge row, which was set upon by a gull and a crow and a second gull helping to see him off. Few minutes later 1, 2, 3 .... 13 magpies gatecrashed the garden party before moving on. Decided I couldn't count more than 12 house sparrows. Little Bs wouldn't stay in one place long enough. Will do this again.
I was pleased that 4 LTT's chose my BGBW hour to turn up on my feeders, and relieved that my regular Grey Wagtail and Great Spotted Woodpecker also came to be counted.
No Redpolls here though
Best wishes Chris
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