RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch 2013

The RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch is something which brings much of Britain together and has really become an exciting weekend which so many people look forward to. There is always such an impressive number of people that take part, and I'm sure this year was no different. 

Having said this, I had originally thought 2013 would have been the only year for a while where I wouldn't take part, at least in my garden back home, with me being at university in Reading. However, I happened to be popping home this weekend anyway, which worked out very nicely indeed. I went home on the train on Friday evening (only about a 40 minute journey altogether), stayed at home on Saturday and came back to university in the evening. It really is convenient living so close to university and being able to do stuff like this. This allowed me and dad to do the big garden birdwatch together on Saturday morning. 

I woke up about 8ish on Saturday morning to pop outside and make sure all the feeders were as filled up as possible. They had been filled up on Friday morning, but I wanted to make sure everything was topped up. We then started the counting at 9:15, with the conditions cold but sunny, with the ground still partly covered with snow. The result? Probably the most disappointing big garden birdwatch we've ever done. We saw a total of just 10 species, which is the lowest we've ever seen. Everything about the conditions would suggest that the bird activity would have been high. Not only this, but just a couple of weeks ago, before I came back to reading after the Christmas break, we were seeing some incredibly busy activity at the feeders. On the 7th January, I tweeted this on my wildlife twitter feed:

So we really don't know what caused the quiet bird life yesterday morning, but that's all part of the exercise really. If everyone saw tons of birds in their garden, then it wouldn't really be a realistic demonstration on the populations of garden bird species. Anyway, without further adieu, here is the list that we saw. 

• Dunnock- 1
• Blackcap- 2
• Chaffinch- 3
• Robin- 1
• Blue tit- 3
• House sparrow- 2
• Wren- 1
• Magpie- 1
• Blackbird- 1
• Collared Dove- 2 

10 species

To be honest, it wasn't the lack of species diversity that was most apparent, but just that the numbers of birds around were generally very low- only 16 individual birds were seen throughout the course of the hour. Amazingly, Woodpigeon, Goldfinch, Greenfinch, Great Tit, Long-tailed Tit and Coal Tit all eluded us. These are all species we would probably expect to see on an average day. It was pleasing to see a Wren though- a species which is probably around the garden quite a bit but we only actually spot once every month or so. And it was good to see both a male and a female Blackcap- a species which tends to visit us all year round these days. 

I managed an average photo of the male Blackcap below. My 500D is still off for repairs, but I still had my 300mm lens at home, and I used Mum's 450D to take a few photos. All photos were taken through my bedroom window to avoid disturbing the birds, so the photos really aren't any good, but I wanted to get some photos up as a record of the day, and also simply because getting any photos to post on this blog at the moment is difficult.
 

And below, a photo of a rather smart looking Magpie:

The pair of Woodpigeons in the photo below very annoyingly decided to sit in the tree of the garden next door, not descending down into our garden to be counted...

... Only to fly down to the garden about 2 minutes after we finished counting the birds:

It wasn't all bad though. Throughout the whole morning, we actually saw a decent variety of birds in and around the garden, and flying overhead. The problem was, all of these other species decided not to visit during the hour we were recording in. There were times both before and after the counts where the feeders were busier, but nothing really close to what we were seeing a few weeks ago. 

One species that was particularly good to see was a Bullfinch (female), that landed in the trees at the end of the garden two doors down. Although it arrived during the hour, it was only seen in a nearby garden, and not our own, so couldn't be counted. A terrible record shot can be seen below:

Goldfinches, Greenfinches, Long-tailed Tits Woodpigeons, a Song Thrush and a Great Tit were all seen feeding in the garden outside of the hour that we were recording in. A Fieldfare was also seen at the top of a tree in our next door neighbour's garden, as well as flying overhead. A bad record shot of the Fieldfare can be seen below, just as it was flying off.

A number of birds were seen flying overhead throughout the morning. On 3 or 4 occasions, a small flock of Redwings could be seen flying over. Other birds flying overhead throughout the morning included Carrion Crow, Red Kite, Buzzard and Common Gull. So by the end of the morning, the number of species seen in and around the garden and flying overhead was 22- which really isn't too bad really. 

Not only this, but we noticed a Blue Tit pair check out the nestbox at the end of the garden for a good 5 or 10 minutes. Unfortunately, this nestbox currently has no camera in it, as the cable has become damaged again and needs replacing. Hopefully this should be sorted in time for the nesting season though, even though I won't be at home to watch what's going on! I'll have to get mum and dad to keep checking on the nestbox and sending me photos/videos if and when something happens.

Anyway, I think I'll stop rambling on about our garden birdwatch and start reading about what everyone else saw over the weekend (and entering our counts on the RSPB website). I hope you all had a great weekend of garden birdwatching, and saw some interesting species. Until next time, see you later :D  

Wales at New Year

As per usual, my New Year was spent on holiday with friends and family. This year, as with last year, we were in Wales, near Newtown (not too far from Welshpool). A good week was had by all, and I thought I would use this post as an opportunity to post some of the pictures I took throughout the week. I didn't take a huge amount but there were a few which are worth sharing. 

Luckily the weather we had throughout the week was actually not too bad for the most part, which is especially good considering the horrible weather we had in December. Even though the weather was generally decent when we were there, some of the fields in the surrounding area were flooded from the amount of rain prior to our visit. 

Luckily, the place we were staying in wasn't covered in water which was a nice bonus. The photo below shows the house that I was staying in. There was about 20 people in total, with 11 staying in this house, and the other 9 people split between two smaller houses across the road. 

And a picture of the house from the other side of the road where the other little cottages are:

The next set of photos were taken throughout the week on various different walks around the area we were staying. 

The next few photos were taken at a small local wildlife reserve. The site includes a wetlands area with reeds and a couple of islands, and some scrub/woodland in the surrounding area, with a couple of hides. We spent 2 or 3 hours walking around the reserve, popping into both of the hides for a while. In terms of wetland birds, it was actually pretty quiet and there wasn't a lot to be seen. It is only a small reserve, so it was always unlikely to attract huge numbers of wildfowl. 

Most of the bird activity, as is often the case at nature reserves, could be seen when walking between the hides in the scrub areas. All of the small common birds you would expect to see, we saw. There were a couple of unusual things to be seen though. I was very surprised by the number of Bullfinches in the area. We saw them 4 or 5 times when walking around the reserve, sometimes on their own, and more often than not, in a group with a couple of other individuals feeding on berries of various plants. 

Unfortunately, Bullfinches as I'm sure you're aware are relatively shy birds and it really is quite difficult to get close to them. This makes photographing them a bit of a pain, and as I was there, I was only really able to get a couple of record shots. Bullfinches aren't rare exactly, but it would have been nice to get some better photos of a bird that isn't seen all too often. Not only this, but I missed all the opportunities to take pictures of the male bird with its distinctive bright pink front. The photo below is the best I could manage of a female bird we encountered on our way to the first hide. 

Another bird we encountered was a friendly little Dunnock...

Once we had got into the first hide, there wasn't an awful lot to be seen. We did spot a Wren flitting around in the reeds though, which caught our attention for a while. They're such interesting birds to watch, but for something so common, they're surprisingly difficult to see. Even when you have spotted one, its often just for a few seconds or even less before it flies off into the undergrowth where it can't be seen. 

This particular bird stayed around a bit longer than normal, allowing a few pictures to be taken. Even though it stayed put, the bird was at quite a distance, and was obviously very small, so my 300mm lens really couldn't get particularly close to it. A very average cropped picture can be seen below.

We saw a Great Spotted Woodpecker on the way to the second hide, and a few other interesting species such as Teal and Great-crested Grebe could be seen from the second hide, but after a while we decided to head back. On the way back to the car though, we saw a tiny Goldcrest flitting through the scrub, a Jay, a Red Kite and a Kestrel. By the end of the day, we had seen a decent number of species for such a small reserve which was pleasing. Throughout the week, we saw other species such as Treecreeper, which was good to see. I've seen them a few times before, but its always fascinating to watch their unique behaviour as they climb up trees like mice. 

This reserve was just one of many in the local area around the house we were staying in. Wales generally really is a fantastic place to see birds, largely due to the fact that so much of the country has been left untouched. Pretty much every time I've been there I've ended up seeing an impressive range of species without really making an effort to go to many nature reserves. 

I think I'll leave today's post at that. I'm starting to run out of photos on my computer that I haven't posted yet so hopefully I'll have my SLR camera back from being repaired before too long. I also might try and add a couple of posts in 2012 to fill in the gaps I missed. Until then, have a great week :D