RSPB Garden Birdwatch 2020

The RSPB Garden Birdwatch this year was over the weekend of 25th, 26th and 27th of January. I did mine on Saturday 25th between 12:15 and 13:15.
A total number of 33 birds and 10 different species were counted. These were as follows:

Blackbird	2
Blackcap	1
Black-headed Gull	1
Blue Tit	2
Dunnock	1
Jackdaw	1
Magpie	2
Robin	1
Starling	12
Wood Pigeon	10

This makes it roughly an average year for the total number seen and species (35.1 and 10.3).

However alarmingly there were no Finches or House Sparrows seen and the demise of these lovely birds in recent years can been seen from the bar chart below. Goldfinches and House Sparrows do occasionally turn up in the garden, but do seem to be shy when the birdwatch is being carried out.

 

In contrast, the number of Woodpigeons hit a record high (10).

Starlings seem to be holding there own as shown below.

New species this year were Black-headed Gull and Jackdaw.

Garden Moth Review 2019

Codling Moth (Cydia pomonella)

Batia lunaris

Burnished Brass (Diachrysia chrysitis)

2019 was by far the most successful year (since 2005) for moth trapping in my garden.

Total number of individuals caught = 562 (average = 357).

Total number of species caught = 111 (average = 88).

My MV Robinson trap was put out on 12 occasions usually once a month if possible.The exceptions to this were September when it was out for 2 nights to accommodate National Moth Night, and November which was unfortunately missed.

The best night this year was on 25th June when 253 individuals and 50 species were caught.

The most common species was Heart and Dart with 107 individuals followed by Dark Arches with 59.

Overall the Light Brown Apple Moth is the most common species recorded with 338 individuals since 2005 followed by Heart and Dart with 303.

There were 21 new species recorded in 2019, and 3 of these are shown above in the photographs.

My garden life list now stands at 299 and my overall life list at 384.