RMweb Premium dhjgreen Posted January 26, 2020 RMweb Premium Share Posted January 26, 2020 On 25/01/2020 at 12:23, dhjgreen said: Pair of bullfinch, 4 goldfinch and a dunnock amongst ours, sorry. Final list 19 species, including little and large; goldcrest and grey heron. 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Phil Bullock Posted January 28, 2020 RMweb Gold Share Posted January 28, 2020 Think the local avains knew their presence was required yesterday for appell - only Hedge sparrows, Blue & Great Tits, Starlings Blackbirds, Robins and wood pigeons to report. Within the 5 minutes after my hour finished jackdaws and magpies arrived - but where were the coal and long tailed tits, goldfinches, wrens and dunnocks that we usually see? Never mind - good to see that 66% of participants have reported seeing hedgehogs, ours are snuggled up for the winter 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
geoffers Posted January 29, 2020 Share Posted January 29, 2020 Biggest surprise for us during our hour was a male blackcap. The long-tailed tits decided to show up afterwards as did the greenfinch and goldfinches. As regards hedgehogs I think the tick was for during the year. We were often blessed by their company. 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium PhilJ W Posted January 30, 2020 RMweb Premium Share Posted January 30, 2020 A bit of a kerfuffel in my back garden this afternoon. I was alerted by a magpies cawing. When I looked out I saw a small brown bird, not sure what species possibly a sparrow cowering in the shrubbery. The magpie was sitting on next doors roof eyeing up the small bird. Once it was obvious the small bird wasn't coming out the magpie flew off. 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Phil Bullock Posted February 3, 2020 RMweb Gold Share Posted February 3, 2020 Sat eating breakfast yesterday with SWMBO when our favourite visitors arrived - the long tailed tits. They cavorted gracefully through the trees and shrubs for 10 minutes within 10 feet of the patio doors before leaving us. A special Sunday morning treat.... 5 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium dhjgreen Posted February 3, 2020 RMweb Premium Share Posted February 3, 2020 (edited) 6 hours ago, Phil Bullock said: Sat eating breakfast yesterday with SWMBO when our favourite visitors arrived - the long tailed tits. They cavorted gracefully through the trees and shrubs for 10 minutes within 10 feet of the patio doors before leaving us. A special Sunday morning treat.... We get daily visits by LTTs we have up to 10 on the fatballs, but being so skittish it is difficult to photograph them. If you do not have fatballs having them would probably increase your visits, the LTTs are not very interested in the seeds. Bullfinches too. Edited February 3, 2020 by dhjgreen 6 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
88D Posted February 3, 2020 Share Posted February 3, 2020 (edited) I do the RSPB birdwatcher hour, but am not a fan of the format. I reckon it would be more ‘scientific’ to record the highest number of any species seen at any one time during the course of the day. This will help reduce variation in wrong hour, bad weather, seeing the same bird twice in your hour, etc. What do you reckon? Edited February 3, 2020 by 88D Added a point 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Phil Bullock Posted February 5, 2020 RMweb Gold Share Posted February 5, 2020 Was having a lie in this morning when the window cleaners came. After they had gone could still hear clattering so went down stairs... to find this smart fella in the dining room. He was pretty exhausted so put him outside where he perched for a few minutes before flying off . But how on earth did he get it? No chimneys here... 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium dhjgreen Posted February 5, 2020 RMweb Premium Share Posted February 5, 2020 On 03/02/2020 at 21:16, 88D said: I do the RSPB birdwatcher hour, but am not a fan of the format. I reckon it would be more ‘scientific’ to record the highest number of any species seen at any one time during the course of the day. This will help reduce variation in wrong hour, bad weather, seeing the same bird twice in your hour, etc. What do you reckon? We are reqested to record the maximum number at any one time, so 1 then another 1 later is still 1. I think the 1 hour has a lot to do with modern attention spans. 3 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
88D Posted February 5, 2020 Share Posted February 5, 2020 5 hours ago, dhjgreen said: We are reqested to record the maximum number at any one time, so 1 then another 1 later is still 1. I think the 1 hour has a lot to do with modern attention spans. I think you’re probably right on the attention span, after all it is meant to attract people to do it. 2 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
34theletterbetweenB&D Posted February 6, 2020 Share Posted February 6, 2020 Todays' calm and sunny disposition has seen the ring necked parakeets out in force, warm enough for them to stray further from their server farm roost site... Rather more welcome, a green woodpecker making a thorough job of aerating the grass. First active bumble bee seen in 2020 too, got itself inside a sock from the washing hung out to dry 3 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Phil Bullock Posted February 6, 2020 RMweb Gold Share Posted February 6, 2020 Have seen bumbles in the cherry blossom most days this winter when the sun has shone.... a very welcome sight 2 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
hmrspaul Posted February 7, 2020 Share Posted February 7, 2020 On 06/02/2020 at 14:46, 34theletterbetweenB&D said: Todays' calm and sunny disposition has seen the ring necked parakeets out in force, warm enough for them to stray further from their server farm roost site... Rather more welcome, a green woodpecker making a thorough job of aerating the grass. First active bumble bee seen in 2020 too, got itself inside a sock from the washing hung out to dry I pay good money to go across the globe to see parrots, I'd adore having some Ringnecks in the garden FOC Fortunately just a few have been seen in a York suburb so perhaps, one day.... Paul 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Lurker Posted February 7, 2020 Share Posted February 7, 2020 They certainly brighten up the suburbs in SE London. I have seen the local avian predators after them too 3 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
34theletterbetweenB&D Posted February 7, 2020 Share Posted February 7, 2020 51 minutes ago, The Lurker said: They certainly brighten up the suburbs in SE London. I have seen the local avian predators after them too The shrieks go right up when a sparrowhawk is chasing them down. Hopefully the failure to save their breath means the sparrowhawk wins more frequently... 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
tigerburnie Posted February 7, 2020 Share Posted February 7, 2020 Glad we don't have any 'keets, very destructive interlopers, not a gardeners friend. 1 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Joseph_Pestell Posted February 7, 2020 RMweb Gold Share Posted February 7, 2020 Where have my garden birds gone? Yesterday, down one of my four chimneys. It took me a while to work out what was going on but in the end opened up the ventilation grille in the bricked up fireplace. Amazingly, given that the bird had clearly been behind the grille for some time, once I opened the grille it did not fly out into the room but managed to get back up and out of the chimney. It's not the first to have ventured down that chimney. I found two corpses. 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Mallard60022 Posted February 7, 2020 RMweb Premium Share Posted February 7, 2020 On 05/02/2020 at 10:59, Phil Bullock said: Was having a lie in this morning when the window cleaners came. After they had gone could still hear clattering so went down stairs... to find this smart fella in the dining room. He was pretty exhausted so put him outside where he perched for a few minutes before flying off . But how on earth did he get it? No chimneys here... Could it have got in through your soffits/loft? P 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coppercap Posted February 7, 2020 Share Posted February 7, 2020 (edited) On 03/02/2020 at 21:16, 88D said: I do the RSPB birdwatcher hour, but am not a fan of the format. I reckon it would be more ‘scientific’ to record the highest number of any species seen at any one time during the course of the day. This will help reduce variation in wrong hour, bad weather, seeing the same bird twice in your hour, etc. What do you reckon? TBH, that's exactly what I've always done. I feel the '1 hour' thing is just to encourage people to do it. If it was 'do it for an hour or as long as you want during the day', I feel less people would bother. Having said that, for the last year or two we've had hardly any birds around to 'spot' anyway, whatever the time of year...this year's entry was blank! Edited February 7, 2020 by Coppercap 2 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
34theletterbetweenB&D Posted February 8, 2020 Share Posted February 8, 2020 On 03/02/2020 at 21:16, 88D said: I do the RSPB birdwatcher hour, but am not a fan of the format. I reckon it would be more ‘scientific’ to record the highest number of any species seen at any one time during the course of the day. This will help reduce variation in wrong hour, bad weather, seeing the same bird twice in your hour, etc. What do you reckon? Now, that would be superior in terms of picking up what's there, but... 10 hours ago, Coppercap said: TBH, that's exactly what I've always done. I feel the '1 hour' thing is just to encourage people to do it... An hour is practical for the general public, fitting it in amongst the kids sports, mum's threading, dad's need to see the inside of a pub, visit to granny, etc.. I stick to the scheme, exactly as requested. This stems from a significant amount of experience of trying to obtain reliable data from the reports of unsupervised knowlessmen. If everyone decides to 'do different', the data returned is of significantly less value. (To counter this I would slice off the tails of the inputs, to eliminate the outliers that may well result from significant deviation from the scheme.) 2 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coppercap Posted February 8, 2020 Share Posted February 8, 2020 3 hours ago, 34theletterbetweenB&D said: Now, that would be superior in terms of picking up what's there, but... An hour is practical for the general public, fitting it in amongst the kids sports, mum's threading, dad's need to see the inside of a pub, visit to granny, etc.. I stick to the scheme, exactly as requested. This stems from a significant amount of experience of trying to obtain reliable data from the reports of unsupervised knowlessmen. If everyone decides to 'do different', the data returned is of significantly less value. (To counter this I would slice off the tails of the inputs, to eliminate the outliers that may well result from significant deviation from the scheme.) In past years, sometimes my 'chosen' hour, whenever it is, saw only a tiny number of birds, yet at other times during the day, when I wasn't actually counting them, I could see a great many were coming and going (and do I know the object is to count the maximum number of each species at any one time). Had I chosen a different hour to spot, the results may well have been vastly different. In some years, on the day before, and the day after, there were a great many birds around. On the day itself (and usually on my chosen hour), the birds are elsewhere...no doubt somewhere where nobody's counting them. 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonny777 Posted February 8, 2020 Share Posted February 8, 2020 On 03/02/2020 at 21:16, 88D said: I do the RSPB birdwatcher hour, but am not a fan of the format. I reckon it would be more ‘scientific’ to record the highest number of any species seen at any one time during the course of the day. This will help reduce variation in wrong hour, bad weather, seeing the same bird twice in your hour, etc. What do you reckon? If you wish to partake in a more scientific study, you could join the BTO Garden Birdwatch scheme; but you need to do it every week for as much of the year as possible (holidays, illness, etc., permitting). https://bto.org/our-science/projects/gbw It began with just birds around 25 years ago, but now you can enter all manner of insects, amphibians, reptiles, mammals, and the amount and variety of foods that are put out each week. 2 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Lurker Posted February 8, 2020 Share Posted February 8, 2020 I didn’t have time over the chosen weekend to do it although I wax watching out of the window for a while. The previous week I had seen around ten different species; that week I saw 3 birds; a pair of magpies sitting moodily in the copper beech and a fat pigeon on the fence: no small birds at all. Today at least I have seen a wren pottering in the undergrowth and on the fence. 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sprintex Posted February 9, 2020 Share Posted February 9, 2020 "Where have all our garden birds gone?" After today's storm, probably about 300 miles away whether they wanted to or not! Paul 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium PhilJ W Posted February 9, 2020 RMweb Premium Share Posted February 9, 2020 At the height of the storm I saw a few gulls hovering on the wind. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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