I don’t have a garden. But what I do have is a graveyard. My Big Graveyard Birdwatch didn’t kick-off until half one, after spending a lazy morning fending off the cold in bed with a cuppa. I feel lucky living where I do, as I hear or see birds every morning without fail. Whether in the paddock opposite my front door or just by my shed, there’s always a chirp, so I was pretty confident that I could tick off some top birds during my hour.
True to form, just as I stepped out I could hear the paparazzi firing away from the yew tree that looms over the rear of my cottage. The distinctive clicking sound of fieldfares always reminds me of a camera shutter, and the small flock of 10 looked content as I made my way round the back to scale the graveyard wall.
My cottage and the graveyard share a wall – no ghost sightings yet
As I hauled myself up, two squirrels and a blackbird darted away into the far undergrowth as though I had interrupted a meeting of the occult. As the squirrels shoot up the tree, two woodpigeons clapped their wings together and took flight. The graveyard shift began, but I was off to a good start.
A roof with a view… of some birds hopefully
I’m not the sort of person who can sit still for long. I think I managed about 7 minutes before convincing myself there would be hundreds of birds just out of view beyond the far corner of the church. Could there be a mixed finch flock, just out of sight with one or two handsome bramblings among them? Or maybe some of those elusive waxwings everyone’s been talking about? I crept over to investigate.
Is the Holy Grail of Big Graveyard Birdwatch birds, the waxwing, just around that corner?
Sadly, there wasn’t a waxwing to be seen, but there was the resident graveyard robin skipping around and bringing a bit of cheer to the cold, damp stones. I pushed on, and hoped for the best, but I was pretty happy with everything I’d seen and had probably scared anything else off already.
Springtime already? These catkins think so
After I finished my lap of the graveyard, it was time to tot up:
10 fieldfares
2 woodpigeons
1 blackbird
1 robin
0 waxwings
Not a bad haul I thought. How did you do? Let us know in the comments below and be sure to submit your results if you haven’t already at the Big Garden Birdwatch webpage.
Jack