The only slightly annoying thing for me was the fact that I was hoping for some tree sparrows. They were seen on Friday afternoon but failed to make an appearance over the weekend. Well, it's their loss, not mine...
The sparrowhawk was thrilling and the jackdaws made me laugh. My count will go into the database with everyone else's, and after a couple of months of analysis by RSPB boffins, the nationwide results will be revealed. What will this year's Top 15 look like?
I had a relatively disappointing birdwatch too. The regular goldfinch visitors in my garden have been conspicuous in their absence recently; so, instead of the 15 counted last year, I only had the 1 (happily they have since returned). Sadly, no sign of greenfinches or sparrows, either. The most surprising absence, however, was the blackbirds - usually very showy in my garden I saw hide nor hair (rump nor feather?) of them on the Sunday morning.
There were a few tits (great, blue and coal), a single chaffinch, a pair of dunnocks chasing each other around the garden, and one robin. A pair of collared doves spent almost the entire hour in the tree, but the star of the show had to be the surprise appearance of a grey wagtail on my neighbours roof - I have seen them before, usually by water, but this is the first time one has dropped by for a visit.
And then there was the wren...another rare sighting in my garden, it has made an appearance, as if on cue, for the last two Big Garden Birdwatches. I was about to give up on it this year, but there, in the final minute, I saw it skulking around in the dark undergrowth beneath the tree. It is probably always there, but the lure of being counted by the RSPB seems to be enough to draw it from its shy, retiring nature.
Ah, but that's cheating... surely?
I usually do my birdwatch in my semi rural Dorset garden, but this year I'm in the Florida Keys so I was lucky enough to see 4 x Osprey, ibis, cormorants, egrets, herons, northern cardinal, pelicans and turkey vultures.... not my normal birdfeeder visitors but very entertaining all the same. Jane
Jane AdamsPart of the www.gardenbioblitz.org team
In suburban Edgware I had 5 collared doves, 10 wood pigeons, 2 house sparrows, 1 chaffinch, 3 dunnocks, 1 blackbird, 2 blue tits, 3 green finches, 2 great tits, 3 robins (very briefly) 2 magpies and a greater spotted woodpecker between 07:50 and 08:50.
If I'd picked a later hour I'd have had fewer woodies (because I only fill my ground feeder once a day) but could have had 6 chaffinches instead. If I'd done my count on the Sunday morning instead of the Saturday, I could have had 12 woodies and more magpies.
I've been helping answer e-mails we've had about Big Garden Birdwatch and lots of people blamed the weather for lower-than-expected numbers of birds. The weather wasn't bad all over the UK so we think that effect will be balanced out (I was lucky - it was sunny for me!).
There are lots of reasons why birds might not be in your garden. We have some more details here: http://www.rspb.org.uk/advice/helpingbirds/decline/winter.asp
However, research continues into whether birds know it's Big Garden Birdwatch weekend and make themselves scarce...