As usual there were far more chaffinches than anything else and counting them was difficult as they arrived in large flocks. I reckoned there were at least twenty at any one time. All the species were ones we see every day. Those we see often but not every week - long-tailed tits, goldfinches, siskins - didn't appear. Even so, doing the birdwatch was enjoyable, as it is every year. An hour spent watching birds is never wasted.
Here's what I saw this year:
Chaffinch 20
Blue Tit 4
Coal Tit 4
Greenfinch 4
Great Tit 3
Dunnock 2
Robin 2
Blackbird 2
Great Spotted Woodpecker 2
Gosh, that's a lot of chaffinches! Here are my observations (from 14.15-15.15 Saturday):
ReplyDeleteWood pigeon, 2
Robin, 2
Blackbird, 2
Blue tit, 2
Great tit, 1
Later in the day I saw a big flock of long-tailed tits, a dunnock, the wren (there only ever seems to be one), and a couple of chaffinches. Plus the usual wood pigeons, magpies and jackdaws, of course.
There are masses of chaffinches every day. Twenty is quite low! We occasionally have wood pigeons, jays and jackdaws - maybe once a month for each.
DeleteI had a disappointing count this year with only 7 species, my worst year ever:
ReplyDeleteBlue tit: 2
Great tit: 2
Robin: 1
Wood pigeon: 4
Jackdaw: 5
Magpie: 5
Green woodpecker: 1
Disappointing, because last year I counted 13 species. My top year was 16 species in 2016. This is in my (communal) garden in the deep south of England in the middle of a quite large city, but near a beautiful big park, which helps a lot.