Every year, we ask a member of the team to show us their results from the RSPB’s Big Garden Birdwatch, and this time we have recruited Ranger Eloise to tell us how she got on.
The fantastic thing about this hour-long survey is that you can do it anywhere on your local patch – your garden, balcony or in your local park. So, Ranger Eloise pulled out her binoculars and scope, and set up a little hide in her home.
With a cup of tea in hand, read through the species she spotted.
Watching birds in the garden is always a bit like watching a soap drama.
Every year, when I sit down for my hour of Big Garden Birdwatching and assume nothing is around, I’m always taken by surprise at how busy birds’ lives can be. Speedy or laid back, quiet or boisterously announcing their presence: you discover a world of unique characters by just sitting and watching.
Firstly, you have the drama-stirrers. The bold and assertive birds that like to make themselves known to you in hopes of free food. In this case, my first customers to the Big Garden Birdwatch were the robins and, more tenaciously, the blackbirds.
Large, loud and lively – the males in particular are certainly a sight, sporting a black plumage, vibrant yellow bill and a yellow eye ring.
In the winter, we get an influx of blackbirds from continental Europe, and so it’s fascinating watching the males stand-off for territory.
In this case, I spotted two males, one very opportunistic, and a female.
Once the victorious blackbird had moved back to his spot at the top of the tree, singing proudly across the houses, my next visitors were the quiet and unassuming.
Firstly, a dunnock fleeting around pots and bushes in the hopes for seed dropped across the ground. A shy and secretive bird, letting me only get a glimpse for a few seconds before continuing the hunt in another garden.
Next, two blue tits flew cautiously onto the bird feeder, wasting no time to grab a singular sunflower heart before retreating back to the comfort of a protected tree.
Once the shy birds have had their turn on the feeder, there’s a sudden burst of energy from the big flock birds. Soap dramas often have a few family feuds, and it looks like it’s a similar story for siskins when they share a singular bird feeder.
The siskin is a small and energetic finch, and usually a species that spends the majority of the time feeding in trees such as pines and birches. In the winter, they are known to occasionally use bird feeders too.
The males, as pictured, don a beautiful yellow-green coat with black cap, whilst the females are more of a dull yellow.
Of course, the Big Garden Birdwatch wouldn’t be complete without the clean-up crew. Once the siskins had picked apart the entirety of the birdfeeder, dropping all sorts across the floor, we get the wood pigeons.
Lots of people think pigeons are boring, but they are perhaps some of my favourite birds in the garden, Sure, they’re round and clumsy, but there’s also a beauty to them.
With a pink and purple tinge to their feathers, pigeons will hoover up virtually anything other birds have dropped.
They are also another species that increases in numbers over autumn and winter, with birds flying from all over Europe to feast in gardens, parks and farmers fields.
So, after an hour of birdwatching, I recorded quite a mix of species. In total, I wrote down five siskins, three blackbirds, two blue tits, a robin, a great tit, a wood pigeon, a dunnock and a magpie. Not quite the twelve days of Christmas, but I’ll certainly take it after the awful weather we’ve been experiencing recently.
We hope that, if you also took part in RSPB’s Big Garden Birdwatch, you had just as much fun as Ranger Eloise.
If you haven’t done it, but would like to know more, follow the link to the RSPB page.
If you think you might have a caught the bug for birdwatching in your hour, have a glimpse through some of the birds we find on our coastline during the winter season.
