Anyone doing the garden bird count?

purplerallim

Like I have for quite a few years now I will be doing the big garden bird count this weekend. It has always been something I love doing, watching garden birds, so this is a perfect excuse to spend time over the next few days totting up the numbers of each I see. Then in April seeing how things are doing over the country. Hope lots of people join in for a good excuse to sit and enjoy their gardens and those who visit it.😁

wild edges

I wish I could do it today, the birds are flocking in for food with all this snow.

LG_

Yes, I'll be doing it

Allotment Boy

We are due to visit friends in Wales for the weekend so I might have to cheat & do it on Friday instead. 

Lyn

I don’t send it in, but I do watch the birds constantly from my window. 
As Wild edge says, when you come to do the actual count, they’ve all cleared off! 

purplerallim

Well keep a record of what you see anyway, as its much easier now to count as they have expanded how many days you have to do it. This week's numbers matter as you never know what may happen on that weekend. One year someone chose that weekend to do work on their house and if it had been as it was at the beginning, only two days, I would have had nothing to report. So go for it @wild edges and @Lyn it still matters.

Lyn

Ah, that sounds better then.  I have so many different birds here, but to spot them all in one hour is pretty impossible, then it will be reported so an so is extinct on Dartmoor, when in actual fact, there’s plenty of them, just didn’t obliged in a single hour😀
 Of course, you couldn’t do that with tits, Starlings and sparrows you could be counting the same ones, but any slightly rarer birds, such as Jays and woodpeckers it’s worth the wait to name them. 

purplerallim

As long as you only put down the most of one species you saw at any one time, like I have the same group of 10 house sparrows coming every day, then the count is valid . I will be adding my Sparrowhawk even though it may not turn up on Sat/Sun, because I have seen it this week and know it will be around all winter as this is it's territory .😁

wild edges

The BTO garden birdwatch scheme accepts results all year round if you're doing it regularly but you have to pay a membership fee which I think puts people off a bit. Don't forget their calling tawny owl survey though.

I've got tons of sparrows this year and I've got no idea how I'm going to get an accurate count of them all. Last year I managed to take a picture when most of them were in one bush and counted 70 just from that one photo. I think we've got about half that this year without the Beast from the East to drive up numbers on the feeders.

We've got builders in next door at the moment too so hopefully they won't work on Sunday and I'll do my count then. They're not there today due to the snow and the redpolls have come back. I've moved the feeders to the opposite side of the garden but the shy birds are staying away.

Dovefromabove

I do it most years ... something happened last year (can't remember what) and I didn't do it ... that was the first time I'd missed, but yes, usually there are fewer birds around that weekend ... think folk who don't usually feed them put food out and my birds are seduced away ... fickle things

wild edges

Dovefromabove said:

think folk who don't usually feed them put food out and my birds are seduced away ... fickle things

The German lady up the road has stolen half my finches I'm sure. She's only a few doors away but her house backs onto the woods so she gets loads of birds that can't be bothered to fly down to see me now. I'm not bitter...