It is time for another blog post from Sarah
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The results from the annual Big Garden Birdwatch 2016 are in. This is an annual event the RSPB put on to measure the condition of bird species in the UK. It began back in 1979 as an activity for children to do in the winter in their back gardens. Since then it has grown massively and even invites the adults to join in the fun! The aim is for everyone to note down the highest number of each type of bird you see in your garden at the same time in an hour, to make sure no bird is counted twice. All this information is gathered and used to spot trends and see differences in population across the country. This research gives invaluable information on the state of species in the country, based on the findings of over half a million people and an incredible 8,262,662 birds. And that’s just across the UK on the 30 and 31 of January. Below is the overall top ten birds spotted during the Big Garden Birdwatch.
This year’s report has come up with some expected answers and a few that are quite surprising. Once again the house sparrow tops the list as the most spotted. Whilst they are still in decline, this seems to have slowed in recent years. The blackbird was the most commonly seen bird with 88% of people finding them in their gardens. After a mild winter the surprise entrant in the top ten was the long tailed tit, its first time in the top ten as well. Although they didn’t make it into the top ten there was also a rise in the number of coal tits found. There was a noticeable decline in the amount of finches seen in people’s gardens, though this is thought to be at least partly due to food being readily available in other places, meaning they were less reliant on bird feeders. Lincolnshire’s specific results followed similar rankings, though collared doves beat the long-tailed tit into the top ten. So that’s it for the Big Garden Birdwatch till next year, however results will be released for other wildlife found in a few weeks. In the meantime if you can to help provide water, food and a safe place for birds to live in your garden, especially in winter, this makes a lot of difference to our feathery friends!
Long-tailed tit (Neil Smith)
Reedbed, freshwater scrapes, saltmarsh and wet meadow. Frampton Marsh has it all! Come and pay us a visit soon.