RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch 2022

With Storm Malik just passed and Storm Corrie on the way this year's Big Garden Birdwatch took place on a cold, windy, dark, overcast day with a temperature of 3C. When the clouds lifted slightly fresh snow was visible on the Cairngorms. 

Last year there was snow on the ground and it was sunny and calm and a little colder. For the birds this difference in the weather made no significant difference. We saw the same eight species in almost the same numbers. As last year the bird we've seen regularly in previous years that was missing was the greenfinch. We haven't seen any of these for several weeks. As usual coal tits and chaffinches had by far the highest numbers. In both cases I think these are underestimates. It's hard to count small birds quickly darting in and out.

Here's the full list of this year's birds.

Chaffinch       12

Coal tit           10

Great tit           5

Blue tit            4

Blackbird        3

Robin              3

Dunnock         2

Great Spotted Woodpecker     2