It may only be the 3 December but we're already gearing up for the next Big Garden Birdwatch, it's really not that far away!!!
Registering now makes submitting your results in January quicker and easier plus when you register you'll get a £5 off discount code to use in the RSPB online shop!
Once you have registered we will send you some reminder e-mails leading up to the big weekend to help you prepare and get the most out of your Birdwatch hour.
Go to www.rspb.org.uk/birdwatch to register.
We want to make this years survey bigger and better than ever before, so tell your friends, family and neighbours as well!
Warden Intern at Otmoor.
Hi Alan so excited today as the one bird I didn't think visited my garden the long tailed tit was here today with all his family and friends. I think the insects are hatching in the apple tree and that is what they are getting excited about.
All registered, something to look forward too.
www.saltwells.blogspot.com
www.flickr.com/photos/saltwells
I've registered too :) I'll be at The Newport Wetlands volunteering on the Saturday so I'm hoping that Mat or Jenna or Lisa will be working, it's a HUGE garden so they can do the counting and I'll just write down what they say :D
Oh, and I posted about it on my Facebook page too so hopefully more people will join in this year :)
"We, as humans, are the same...it's just that we all see the world from different angles"
AndyW
EDIT already answered I must be going nuts !!
Pete
Birding is for everyone no matter how good or bad we are at it,enjoy it while you can
ive registered, but it wont let me access it now, will i have to wait until the 26th ?
ive registered hope i see what all the birds as normal
twokoi
Yes I've registered. Hoping for a nice sunny day next weekend so that I can get some good photos and hopefully some nice visitors to my garden.
Sue - Leek
Registerd and looking forward to it
Well I thought I'd got myself all organised... but I'm now confused again having received the reminder and link back to the web site.
Are we only supposed to be counting the birds listed on the counting sheet? I thought it was all birds in your garden but the video clip on the Big Garden Birdwatch page has caused me to doubt that because he very specifically says " very common birds blah blah and we're noting the highest number we see of each of those species in that hour"
Help...... Can someone please clarify for me???
I've been practicing for the count this week and even got 2 others organised to help me! Might sound overkill but we seriously have a heck of a lot of birds here! Had over 30 siskens and over 40 finches just at one moment! Currently got 17 pheasants, 4 thrush, 8 black birds, 3 robins, 2 blue tits, 2 coal tits, 8 starlings, 9 siskins, 1 brambling and 11 chaffinch and more tree sparrows then I can count because they won't stay still! and at just at one feeder! I've got 5 feed stations in the garden in total but will count just 3 this weekend. 2 of the stations are more obscured from view.... in a wooded part of the garden some distance away from the house so I'll leave those.
A bird in the hand can make an awful mess!
Calm down ---- We have a similar problem, though the variety of birds in your space is amazing.
For the count we are resorting to technology. Digital cameras are pointed at the key areas of the garden and can be triggered simultaneously (or nearly so). Our idea is to count the birds on the images in support of our on-the-spot observations.
We tested it last weekend and discovered only a few problems:
1. Light levels must be sufficient to ensure good colour capture and sufficient 'depth of field' to bring as much of the image in to focus as possible. A marginally out of focus Chaffinch can look too much like a similarly positioned Brambling
2. The resolution of the digital camera must enable distinguishing between species. The back of a Robin is pretty similar to the back of a Dunnock at low pixel numbers
3. Positioning the cameras to cover as much garden as possible, including a small overlap is essential to ensure nothing is missed and/or double counted. This proved difficult with only three cameras (mine and those of two of my sons). We succeeded after much trial and error, though we had to exclude areas we decided were 'non-key'
4. Use the images to support the on-the-spot data --- confirming sightings rather than making the sighting.
We have decided to make a day of it. Breakfast at my house with an hour in my rural garden, Lunch with son number one at his town centre apartment and afternoon tea with son number three in his urban garden.