It’s that time of year again! The last of the turkey has been put in the freezer, ready for a turkey curry at some time in the future. The decorations have been put back up the attic for another year. The last few After Eight mints have been consumed over the weekend, and your body is readjusting to a normal diet again. Happy new year everyone!
One of the great things of each New Year is the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch comes along almost immediately. It’s time to log onto the RSPB website, pop along to: www.rspb.org.uk/birdwatch, click “Register Now” and get your starter pack.
This year the count is taking place over the weekend of the 24th and 25th of January. I thought I would take the time this week and next week to introduce you to some of the characters you may encounter, and where to look for them, if this is your first time doing the survey. This week I will be concentrating on the most likely visitors you may have, next week’s cast of characters will fall more under the “special guest appearance” bracket.
You have to start with what must be Britain’s most recognisable bird. The Robin has been adorning I would guess about half of the Christmas cards you have just recycled, so you won’t need me to give you any plumage descriptions. We won’t get started on my bug bear of it being an orange breast! Keep your eyes out for Robins beneath your feeding station; they love to pick at the scraps that the perching birds drop. Primarily ground feeders, but they will feed off bird tables. They will normally find a branch to perch on to check out the feeders before dropping down into your garden.
The other primarily ground feeder is the Dunnock. This small brown bird can be easily mistaken for a Wren when flitting in and out of the undergrowth and borders of your garden. It is much bigger than the Wren of course. It also has quite a bouncy gate as it searches for food. Wrens can be quickly recognised by their “tip tails” and they have a distinct eye stripe compared to the Dunnock. A trick I have learnt to attract Wrens into your garden is to put some grated mild cheddar cheese out on your bird table for them. The Wren is the most common bird in the country, hard to believe when you think how rarely we see them. They rarely break out into the open. So a real treat if you tick one off your list for the survey.
It is always a good idea to top your feeders up in the days before the survey. This time of year I keep mine stocked with peanuts and fat sticks, as well as the usual seed based mixes (usually the no mess sunflower mix from the RSPB shop). This will attract the perching birds such as Blue Tits, Great Tits, Coal Tits, Greenfinches, Goldfinches and House Sparrows. Of that list probably Coal Tits are the ones you will most likely overlook. This small tit is a bit of a “smash and grab” merchant. They tend to fly in, grab a seed, and then fly off to a nearby safe spot to eat it, or cache it for later. Coal Tits have a black cap and throat with white cheeks, it smaller than a Robin, and is, as I said, a flighty bird. Blue Tits tend to have the same habit of taking food off to eat in a safer place, so it always worth scanning the edges of your garden when doing your count. Great Tits are far more gregarious birds, and as the country’s biggest tit it tends to use its size to dominate the feeder. Great Tits always look like they are wearing a yellow waistcoat to me, with a black central stripe down the front of their chests. Finally Greenfinches come in a variety of greens and yellows, their great chunky bills should be a good way to confirm your ID of these birds. They tend towards the seed feeders and peanuts, using that beak to break open any sunflower seeds you may have out. They are another one that will congregate on the ground beneath your feeders picking up the scraps. If you see something that looks like a canary that has been working out, then you are probably looking at a Greenfinch!
One of my hopes for the results of the 2015 survey is that House Sparrow numbers will be up. All the anecdotal evidence I have for my local area here in Tonyrefail is that it was a good breeding year for House Sparrows. Of course, like last year, the results may be skewed by the mild winter we are having again. There appears to be enough natural food out in the wider environment at the moment, and my feeding station is very quiet. Don’t let this put you off doing the survey if this is the case for your garden at the moment. The trends of what is happening in your garden when tied in with weather patterns is a vital part of understanding our local ecosystems, and provides vital information for the RSPB and other groups that use this data.
Of the bigger birds you will hopefully see hoping around your lawn, there will be Blackbirds, Collared Doves, Magpies and Jackdaws. I will largely be counting Jackdaws this year I suspect. The roost around Tonyrefail has been fairly impressive this winter, and would give many a Starling murmuration a run for its money! The easiest way to ID a Jackdaw is have a close look at its eye; they are a stunning sapphire colour. The other “black birds” have heavier beaks and their eyes tend to be black.
I suspect most people can ID a Blackbird, but keep your eyes peeled for females who are a mottled brown. It will also be interesting how numbers of Collared Doves, Britain’s most common dove is faring. It has begun to look like numbers are stabilising now, even falling, and their rapid colonisation is complete.
In next week’s blog I will run through a few more of the more exotic species you may hope to spot in during your Big Garden Birdwatch.
All images © Anthony Walton