Big Garden Bird watch

@ Rob, I also noticed like you that they didn't appear to ask for "other wildlife seen" as in previous years (when I used to write down 20 grey squirrels ! ) and the main list for submissions are not as extensive and I couldn't even find a Nuthatch on the additional drop down menu so added them in a separate blank box you can use for submissions.

Thanks. Also With Birdrack I do have bird track so I do submit sightings in there sometimes. I just didnt put it in the message. I think Its a good app for submiting your sightings. And Thanks for the ideas with submiting records.

Very poor showing in my part of the world, except for the young male sprawk who came and had a bath in the pond and kind of made it worthwhile.

I did my watch 2.30pm today. Would normally do this in the morning but we had horrendous weather yesterday, all day, winds upto70mph, rain and hail, only got the feeders back out around midday but nowt about until 2.30pm, grabbed the chance then, as from early morning and all day tomorrow, another storm is to hit us!

A poor count today compared to other years when I would have had more species and around 60 birds. Not a starling in sight today, normally 30 plus.

1 Blackbird, 3 Blue Tit, 16 Chaffinch, 1 Dunnock, 1 Goldfinch, 2 Great Tit, 2 Sparrow, 1 Robin, 1 Wood Pigeon
5 Pheasants.

I didn’t get a chance to do an hour unfortunately. I forgot to fill my bowl up so a blackbird didn’t look impressed and then just walked off and looked for worms or flew off. Every time I tryed to choose an hour it didn’t go according plan  for example when I went to the Orchard I didn’t realise the time and did it too close to sun down when the sun was very low in the sky rather than an hour before so ended up only being out for half an hour. I have kept track of the sun and made notes of the time and where it is in the sky since summer time. The sun used to go down at 10 then it went down at 8
And then 5 then 4:30 by December. I actually did it at 4 so should of done it an hour or half an hour earlier when the birds are more active. It was going to get dark soon when I went to the orchard so the birds were mainly doing there calls in the tree and flying about there was only 1 blackbird on the ground looking for food. The Robin was calling to another Robin when I was there. I mainly did wildlife photography since the time and place was good for that and only had half an hour. If I had an hour I would of chose an hour to do it there but didn’t realise it was 4. The birds are usualy doing there calls and getting ready to roost or are already ready at that time so wasnt a good time to do it for an hour. At least I saw some birds during the weekend even if they weren’t on the ground. I put 0 results in cause I didn’t want to make it inaccurate cause I didn’t have an hour to count. The birds were entertaining when it was windy even though I couldn’t an hour. And I got some sightings to submit on things like i
Naturalist I record and BirdTrack during the garden birdwatch and the half an hour I was at the Orchard aswell so that’s the good side. I drew lots of drawings cause I couldn’t do  an hour and I managed to
Get a funny video of the Starlings being flung off the tree onto the house and if it wasn’t that windy I wouldn’t of been able to film it but cause it was that windy I managed to film it so that’s a good thing aswell.
www.rspb.org.uk/.../

I found out the results of the Birdwatch is in April 

I done my hour around 1pm on Sunday. I had a reasonable range of birds, but disappointed with the number of them. On a normal day I can have 10+ yellowhammers and chaffinches but a lot less than that today. Hardly any starlings either, and a lot less sparrows (even though I suspect they were hiding in the bushes).
Maybe the sparrowhawk early on was an issue, as well as the cat late on.

My list is:-
1 Blue Tit
2 Coal Tit
4 Chaffinch
1 Siskin
3 Yellowhammer
1 Dunnock
6 House Sparrow
1 Robin
1 Sparrowhawk
2 Collared Dove
8 Wood Pigeon
1 Magpie
1 Jackdaw
3 Blackbird
4 Starling
3 Feral Pigeon

As a side note, I normally have lots of goldfinches, so much so that my hanging feeders could be filled twice a day. But, a couple of weeks ago I was ill and in bed for a few days (nothing serious or covid related) so I didn't fill the hanging feeders for a few days. Since then the goldfinches have all but disappeared. I hope they come back.

If I haven’t put any bird food out for a week or more I put the abit of the food from the feeder in a spot high up where they will notice it as they fly over or I put abit of the food from the feeder  in a certain spot every time I fill up my feeders then stop takeing abit of the food out and keep all of it in the feeder  after there first or 2nd or 3rd visit so that every time I run out they look at it and then take it as a sign the food has filled up again and then they go and check it out to see if it’s full. If I don’t do that it takes them longer to come back. But if you put the food out  then they usualy pick up on it eventualy anyway. I dont usualy seen sparrow hawks I tend to see Buzzards near my garden  in spring and summer.  I only seen a sparrow hawk once but that’s it. And never had one in the garden either. Since you saw a feral pigeon are you near a built up area?  I’m in a suburb and never get feral pigeons unless I go near Gloucester city.  I only ever see them very close to or in towns and citys. It looks like you had lots of Woodpigeons aswell. If I really really attract them I can  get up to 5 at the most but that’s rare for me.   I normaly only get 3.  I get lots of goldfinches aswell but they usualy use the Bird bath cause I don’t have there favourite seeds. I dont usualy see a coal tit and if I want to see one I need to be at the right place at the right time. Interesting enough I had a cold last week and only just finished my cold.  and my cold  wasnt covid related either. I think if your birds pick up on  that there’s more bird  food In your garden they they will come back.