RSPB Garden Birdwatch 2022

To take part in the Big Garden Birdwatch this year you had to simply choose an hour between the 28th and 30th of January. I did mine on Sunday the 30th between 08:00 and 09:00.

My peak counts gave me a total of 29 birds of 8 different species. Both these numbers were below the averages since my recording began in 2001 (34.7 and 10.4 respectively).

The list is as follows:

Starling (8) : Woodpigeon (7) : House Sparrow (5) : Black-headed Gull (3) : Blue Tit (2) : Blackbird (2) : Robin (1) : Pied Wagtail (1).

With the general decline in many bird species, it is sometimes difficult to find any positives. However, Starlings are just about holding on and are showing a slight upturn in numbers. Even better news is that House Sparrows have actually increased after a real slump between 2017 and 2020. See the attached graphs.

The finch situation looks pretty dire with no Goldfinches for the 3rd year running, even though a couple do turn up periodically. Chaffinch and Greenfinch have now completely disappeared.