Big Garden Bird watch

Im going to take part in the Big Garden Bird watch. Last time I took part I mostly took pictures of and counted how many pigeons blackbirds and tits I saw but I also saw  some that werent written down to record. Like a Raven and a Chaffinch and potentially Red wing I think. The bird watch isn’t far away.  Is any one else going to join the Big garden Bird watch too ?  

  • Zo if you are watching a site regularly it may be worth looking at putting sightings on the BTO BirdTrack which goes towards helping the national bird numbers. Also maybe find your local county recorder and send your sightings to him/her as regular sightings are a big part of their records even everyday birds like Tits and Finches.
  • Just as a link to the big garden bird watch, does it have to be in the garden or are you saying it can be pretty much anywhere?
  • Reading from the form in the members magazine it says in your garden,from your balcony or in your local park. Reading that I would say select ant decent spot, sit/stand for an hour and count what you can id
  • So I could, for example go to a field nearby and count from there?
    (I'm thinking mainly as I pretty much never get birds in the garden, unfortunately)
  • I think so. I think what its saying is that it must be somewhere local/nearby. And not somewhere that isn’t local.  For most people the local park is normaly easy to get to so is one of the popular places people go to bird watch. which is probably why the RSPB  say garden,  balcony or local park. so I think if its just a local nearby field then you would be able to go to a nearby field and count from there instead.

  • Thanks for the replies everyone
    Very helpful
  • Thats the way I read it Benji I think it has expanded in recent years,many people do not have a garden so local park or such is their green space.
  • I've changed from an acre woodland type garden to a large balcony but still signed up for BGBW as all data is valuable; even on our apartment balcony we had had visits from 13 different species including a Dunnock three days ago that I never expected to visit a balcony 3 storeys up. ! We have a water garden (pond area) below our balcony with Moorhen, Pied and Grey Wagtails, Kingfisher (occasionally), Mallards, G.Heron so may be able to include any of those that make an appearance and conifer to the sides which can have goldcrests although haven't seen them for a while. I can bank on a dozen tit birds; coal, blue and great so there will be something to report. !!
  • Cool. I saw a Goldcrest on Tuffley lane Gloucestershire onceI took a picture of it but cant find it at the moment even though it’s on my camara somewhere. and theres lots of trees but lots of cars go down there from the roundabout so I probably won’t be able to birdwatch there since its for an hour and cars will be going past sometimes. It’s abit further away from where I birdwatch more regularly and I never see a Goldcrest where I normaly birdwatch in my local area. So i probably wont be able to submit a Goldcrest. I have seen some lesser Redpolls for the first time in my life for a few days now. but as soon as the weather changed from really cold and cloudy to sunny and clear blue skys they disappeared from the tree. So I dont know weather I will be able to record them or not during the birdwatch but Im hopeing they will come back during the garden birdwatch so I can count them during the hour I count. There is moorhens nearby cause there’s lots of ponds and pond weeds locally. In fact one area had newts. I never been able to see them though. Theres geese and mallards nearby locally I also get lots of blue tits and woodpigeons blackbirds I don’t get great tits as often as blue tits but do show up every now and again. Theres the common yet declineing House sparrows and also very common but red listed Starlings and I get lots of black backed gulls flying around outside my house in fact I see them fly to there roost sight every day they start around 3 and often all have passed over by 4 or 4:30. I also get A local midnight Robin that wakes me up if he gets woken up by something. One day a fox howling woke him up at 2 so kept me up for a few hours calling once. Theres Buzzards that nest nearby but I dont usualy see them much until Spring and summer time. Pied wagtails are also likely cause they like walking around the local car park sometimes. I actually worry there going to get ran over cause they look so reckless walking in the middle of the road. But somehow manage not to get run over. I have seen 1 black cap locally once though haven’t seen it again yet. I get lots of Goldfinches. Im probably going to submit a lot of birds in the specific location I choose during the hour I count since there’s lots of Wildlife that visit the locatiom mostly cause I’m in a suburb and half an hour away from a canal and not far away from a Wildlife trust nature reserve and Wildlife friendly Orchard. I havnt listed all the birds but those are the most likely birds during the birdwatch.  So I guess we will both have lots of birds to report in the big garden Birdwatch. 

  • Sounds like you see a lot of different species of bird Zo so should have an interesting birdwatching hour. I would only count birds that actually land (not flying) and only count the maximum number of that species you see each time as some birds could be revisiting the area within the hour. It's a fun citizens science project to do which helps add data to the national study of birdwatch hour so enjoy and if you are outside, wrap up warm as you'll be sitting still for an hour and not moving !! It's not about getting the the greatest number of birds as even a sighting of none or 1 bird all helps to give a more accurate indication of numbers in general. Good luck.