Friday, March 11, 2022

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.