Garden Birds

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AlanS
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Garden Birds

Post by AlanS »

Did anyone else take part in the RSPB Garden Birdwatch last weekend? We did, for the fourth year in a row. In terms of species, though, it was our worst yet. Only five species turned up during the one hour - Chaffinch, Greenfinch, Goldfinch, Robin and Reed Bunting. Very unusual to have that few species; we've had thirteen already today!

Still, the RSPB are probably more interested in the birds we don't see rather than the ones we do, so still useful data for their survey.
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Re: Garden Birds

Post by Thomas W-P »

We meant to, but failed. Sad, because my birthday present last year was an excellent bird feeder that has given us all a lot of pleasure. Believe it or not, I had no idea what a goldfinch looked like and had never seen one. We got some niger seed and they arrived within 24 hours. Amazing. Now there are six at the feeder every morning as we have breakfast. It is enchanting.

So few sparrows nowadays though. They used to be everywhere.
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Re: Garden Birds

Post by stumpy »

Thomas W-P wrote: So few sparrows nowadays though. They used to be everywhere.
Red status now
Yes there has been a shocking decline of over 50% since those days when they were every where as you say.
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AlanS
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Re: Garden Birds

Post by AlanS »

Thomas, I know what you mean about Goldfinches, delightfully colourful little birds. We had about 20 in the garden on Sunday, with similar numbers of Greenfinch and Chaffinch - utter mayhem on the feeders! :lol: Never used niger seed, though. They seem happy enough with sunflower hearts.

We get a sparrow in the garden very, very occasionally. Who'd have ever thought they'd be a rare garden visitor?

Was somewhat surprised to see a Goldcrest in the garden at the weekend. Britian's tiniest bird, but with such a striking head, it's impossible to miss it. That's species #35 for us, which is not bad for a suburban garden in a new housing estate.
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Re: Garden Birds

Post by plummy »

I'm not too familiar with things ornithalogical but we get buckets of sparrows in our back garden as there is a large nest in the hedge/tree at the back. My dad is only a mile away and he sees all the brightly coloured finches, and even a woodpecker from time to time - we never get anything more exotic than boring black and brown stuff - apart from this little beauty:
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AlanS
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Re: Garden Birds

Post by AlanS »

Sparrowhawks are stunning birds of prey. I guess if you have buckets of sparrows, you are likely to attract such predators.

I was in our garden a couple of years ago and a sparrowhawk came in from nowhere and took a sparrow. I can still remember the 'phump' as the wee bird was taken out the air.

Never had any birds nesting in our garden, so jealous of you having a large nest, plummy. There's just not enough cover for them yet, but we're working on it...
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Re: Garden Birds

Post by millie »

Gosh - I can't believe that sparrows are now much less common... I left the UK in 1997 (grew up in South Gloucestershire then lived 6 years in Yorkshire) and I just remember seeing them everywhere...Whenever I looked in the garden I'd always see some there. Why are they so less common now? Is there a reason?

We have a lot of noisy white cockatoos that frequent our garden - they travel in packs and are terrors on garbage collection day as they can open the lids of the bins and pull stuff out.. We also get kookaburras, but they are less common and are usually on their own on in very small groups. And rainbow lorrikeets that are beautiful, but noisy and again travel in large packs. Lots of fruit bats too, but they don't really fall into the category of 'garden bird'!

plummy what type of bird is the one in your photo? Don't recognise it at all.
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Thomas W-P
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Re: Garden Birds

Post by Thomas W-P »

millie wrote:plummy what type of bird is the one in your photo? Don't recognise it at all.
Me too. Some sort of very rare falcon?
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AlanS
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Re: Garden Birds

Post by AlanS »

plummy's photo is of a male sparrowhawk. Certainly not rare, just not one you get the chance to photograph in your garden very often.

With regards to sparrows, I don't think there's one single reason. Old housing stock being replaced by new houses without easy access to loft space reduces nesting opportunities; lack of insects means parent sparrows struggle to feed their young, etc.

Some info can be found here: http://www.bto.org/volunteer-surveys/gb ... s/sparrows

Just looked up Rainbow Lorikeets, millie - they are stunning birds. Kookaburras are noisy when they call out - they've got some at a local children's zoo. Always impresses just how loud they can be!
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Re: Garden Birds

Post by AlanS »

Was delighted to see a female Brambling visiting the garden over the weekend, our first for two years. The Brambling migrates from Scandinavia to spend the winter in this country, so it's always amazing to see such a small bird and consider the distances it has travelled and will travel again shortly.

That it was towards the end of March that it turned up says a lot about this bizarrely cold month!
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