Where were all the birds?

Hello. Yes we had a similar experience and on Sunday when I was looking out I estimated the sparrows that always seem to populate our Forsythia bush numbered a couple of dozen. But apart from that only a single magpie and a Pigeon viisited. However on the Saturday my wife counted a number of other birds like Blackbirds collar doves. Normally with 11 feeding stations we get loads of birds, including tits of various sorts, gold finches, chaffinches, a woodpecker, a jay and etc and earlier this month a female blackcap.

Hi all!

Thanks for your comments.  I would urge you if you haven't already done so, please do submit your results from the weekend - even if you didn't see as many birds as expected!  It's all really useful information, even if you feel it's not representative of what you get in your garden on a regular basis.  You have until 15th Feb to submit your results - just go to www.rspb.org.uk/birdwatch (or send us your results in the post).

Thanks to you all for taking part!  

Sarah

I was highly delighted with my results for the 2013 BGBW   .....our two occassional visitors [a wren & a semi-tame Pheasant] did'nt visit....but all the usual suspects turned up,except for the usual bunch of squabbling Starlings ......On the plus side,we had two rare visitors in the form of a pair of Chaffinches.

A totally better result than last year,when I saw only seven birds in the whole hour   ......and found a pile of what seemed to be Pigeon or Dove  feathers at the bottom of my garden the day after [I can only conclude that last year there was predator in vincinity]

T.

We have a small garden and we are the only house with a proper one in our street.  Usually we are awash with birds (sparrows, tits, starlings, pigeons, robins) but lately things have been a bit quiet.  We had a lot fewer house martins this year and the annual berry bombing our conservatory gets never happened!  We are surrounded by fields and there is a large piece of common land behind us.  There are no cats around either.  We like to keep our bird food fresh too.  What's happening?

Whew! Had begun to think it was just my garden the birds gave up on this week-end. The local robin only just scraped in during the hour. No sign of the long tailed/great/blue tits. Collared doves didn't appear either. Held my breath in case the field fare didn't show. First time I've had one in my garden. It had started coming to visit during the last 5 days or so of the bad weather. Medium sized garden in a village. About a mile from lakes and farmland.

I had a similar experience to you JoJo - no great or blue tits, and we normally have at least two of each. Only counted one coal tit this time, although to be fair they have been less common over the last couple of months than they used to be. Our greenfinch and goldfinch numbers have been down recently too, but I was surprised to record none at all when I did the birdwatch on Sunday. On the other hand, we had more chaffinches than usual on one of the sunflower heart feeders. As was also reported by someone, our one resident robin only just made it into the hour; and we had far less blackbirds than normal - just 4 recorded, and they normally number 8-9. We also got 3 jackdaws which we don't normally record, although they do nest in the area. That is probably due to putting out an extra fatball feeder well away from the kitchen window one which the sparrows monopolise.

It was a windy and rather wet day here, but we live in a suburban area with plenty of gardens round about, and not far from farmland, so we usually get more birds than this. We did notice more birds several days earlier in the snow, and a flock of about 6 long tailed tits visited briefly, and that is very rare here. Our wood pigeons and pair of collared doves did make it down though, and our resident sparrowhawk even made it in when he landed on the apple tree after a spectacular but unsuccessful aerial dogfight with one of our many house sparrows.

I think the weather has played a large part in making our counts here somewhat unrepresentative, and I do wonder how this will affect the overall results. I would be interested to know how the 'averaging out' actually works statistically.....

Most of mine were hiding in bushes and trees, singing their little socks off and pairing up, so I could hear them just not see them.  

Caroline in Jersey

Hi, Alan.  That sounds a reasonable explanation but the farm and the common have been there a long time.  The farmer isn't even bothering to use the land.  We've been in our home for over 5 years and only this year numbers have dropped.  Perhaps birds are like cats that often find a better table at someone else's house!?

I didn't see a bird all day Sat! Usually a couple of pigeons and a couple of magpies , but they must have known we were counting!

Likewise. This happens every year, not just 2013. I usually see at least 10 differing kinds of birds on a daily basis. Sat sat for an hour, zero birds, Sunday sat for another 3 hours, and total number was 1 sparrow, and 1 dunnock, decent weather, sunny and warm, but seemingly weather isn't that important, as last year very cold. Think the birds all know it is the annual census, so all go and hide. Usually do my bird count anytime within 10 days either side of the birdwatch w/end, and submit those results, which is more accurate, for my garden at least. Reside in West Dorset, on edge of a rural town.