On January 30th & 31st it was the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch - where the whole nation is encouraged to spend one hour in the garden (or local park) to identify and count the different birds that enter the garden.
On Saturday 30th January we took part in my boyfriend's house in Swansea. The weather was surprisingly calm and partial sunny. We feed the birds all the time and we topped up with mealworm, fatballs, suet filled coconut shells and suet pellets. We got our identifying sheet ready, got a cuppa and started our watch...
We started at 10:50am and within seconds we saw a jackdaw, followed by a robin. By 10:55am some common pigeons gatecrashed and were then chased off by a pair of magpies. At 11:03am three starlings showed up and one lonely male sparrow.
Throughout the hour we saw one or two jackdaws, starlings, sparrow, robin, common pigeons and magpies back and foe the feeders. Then all of a sudden the starlings went from three to twelve!
Check out some of the photos from our birdwatch...
Our regular robin red breast
Male starling enjoying the suet coconuts
Common pigeon gatecrashing the party
Starlings in the tree
Male sparrow enjoying the fat balls
Check out a video clip of some of the starlings that visited us :)
One for sorrow, two for JOY!
Starling
Jackdaw and pigeon arguing over food
Robin debating whether to eat suet pellets or mealworm
Jackdaw
Magpie stuffing it's face
Magpie in the tree
So we had a very successful hour of birdwatching and here are our results:
30th January 2016 - Swansea, South Wales
Starlings - 12
Jackdaws - 3
Magpies - 3
Common pigeon - 3
Sparrow - 1
Robin - 1
Total - 23
We loved doing the birdwatch so much we did it once again on the Sunday at my mum's house. the weather was completely different, rain, wind and dull - so we wasn't expecting too much - also we didn't start until 1:35pm.
We couldn't have been so wrong. Within minutes we were joined by a few starlings, that lead to about ten and then over 25 arrived! They were everywhere - on the feeder,on the roof, on the ariel, there was so many we counted 25 but could have been more. Many sparrows were around and I counted no less than 40 when they settle in the neighbors garden.
Sparrows in the neigbours garden - I have circled them - 17 in this pic...
...and 23 in this pic!
31st January 2016 - Briton Ferry, Neath Port Talbot
Starlings - 25
Sparrows - 40
Jackdaws - 2
Total - 67
What a fantastic weekend and so happy we have so much birdlife in the garden, we were a little disappointed a few of the regulars didnt show up like the wren, wood pigeons, collared doves and blackbirds...but happy with what we had in one hour.
We may make this a regular thing, say every other week and see how it changes throughout the year. If you have done it I would love to hear your results and don;t forget to submit your results at RSPB submit before the 22nd February.
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