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Katie Fuller
Greenfinch. Photo by Steve RoundOver the weekend, I was one of the hundreds of thousands of people in the UK who sat down for an hour, grabbed a cup of tea and a biscuit, and watched the birds in my garden. Were you?

My bird-feeding strategy paid off reasonably well. Here's what I saw on Saturday morning:
  • Greenfinches: 12 at once, wolfing down sunflower seeds we'd scattered on the ground
  • Chaffinches: 7, doing the same thing
  • Jackdaws: 7. These are my favourite garden birds at the moment. Watching them hanging off the peanut feeder and trundling around the lawn together is very entertaining
  • Great tit: 4
  • Blue tit: 3
  • Robin: 3. One singing, one with a broken leg (these two are regular) and one interloper, which didn't stay for long...
  • Dunnock: 2
  • Coal tit: 1
  • Sparrowhawk: 1. As I expected, one turned up 15 minutes in and all the other birds scattered. It sat on the garden fence and waited. Fortunately, it cleared off after another quarter of an hour and peace was duly restored
  • Wren: 1
  • Great spotted woodpecker: 1. It made short work of some peanuts I'd put out with it in mind
  • Blackbird: 1

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?

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Parents

  • 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.

Comment

  • 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.

Children
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