Any UK members taking part in the big garden birdwatch this weekend? How did it go, any cool sightings? Link with info for anyone unfamiliar: Big Garden Birdwatch | The RSPB It's been my first time taking part from our flat in Liverpool city centre, which has definitely limited the species diversity. I did get to count two herring gulls fighting over a discarded pizza crust, though.
In Wirral - will either count later this afternoon or tomorrow morning; this morning would have been 2 robins and 4 magpies, whereas Thursday would have included 19 goldfinches, and Friday Great Spotted Woodpecker!
Just had great fun as a mixed flock went through; at least 12 Long-tailed Tits, 3 Blue Tits, 1 Great Tit, 1 Coal Tit, 1 Robin, 1 Great Spotted Woodpecker and 1 Goldcrest.
Yes, had the regulars at the feeder so that was cool; Starlings (5) Blue tits (2) Blackbird (2) Long tailed tits (c6-8 couldn't be sure so I went for 6) Sparrows (7) Greater spotted woodpecker (1) Robin (1) Woodpigeon (2) Really enjoy the woodpecker coming round! Though all of them are fun.
Hey Swampy, I live about 14 miles inland as the crow flies from you at Bickerstaffe, a rural location and we did the survey. Ironically 30 seconds in out resident lesser spotted woodpecker jumps on our nut feeder. The next hour was decent, Mrs P has the numbers but sp. we had in one hour below, often the same individuals popping in to feed and view... Lesser Spotted Woody Magpie (I will shoot you and your kin) Wood Pigeon (aka a Tippy) Colored dove Great Tit Blue Tit Robin Black Bird (both yellow and black beaked males) Starling Mr Chaffinch Pheasant - she hopped on our back fence Canadian geese (over head migrating in their 100's) Buzzards, 5 or 6 in the distance circling away doing their thing. That was it, the next day, first thing, about 7am, I saw my fav garden bird, Wren feeding. It (she I suspect) went on to feed all day on and off. I have watched this individual daily since well before the survey and possibly gained her confidence closer to the kitchen doors with some movement from me. What a bird wrens are, their nests are works of art too.
Lesser spotted woodpecker is an outstanding bird for a garden birdwatch! I've only seen the species twice, both quite brief, in Blean Woods in Kent. So small compared to their cousins! I did notice in one of the birding groups I'm in on Facebook that somebody, again in Kent I think, got a Peregrine falcon predating a ring-necked parakeet during their big garden birdwatch. Talk about timing!
I haven't seen a lesser spotted woodpecker. I didn't see any house sparrows or starlings in Barking Park yesterday, but I saw some yesterday.
As for LSW, best sighting in U.K. was in East Anglia, where I was watching nesting LSW and saw both other British species from the same spot!
It's certainly about luck and timing. This LSW is the only one we have visiting and its only been occasionally popping into ours and neighbours to feed on peanuts. We have Greater Spotted visiting on and off over the last decade of living here. The green ones are in the area, but I've not seen one in our garden. Whilst on the subject of rarities, we had a Goshawk kill a collared dove on the back lawn as I was looking at the garden from inside. It 'sat' on it for a few seconds then flew off with it with great ease. This would have been autumn. I'm no bird watcher, but since covid and working from home often, it has opened my eyes to what birds will come in to feed in the garden. I'm even going to buy a few small evergreens (Christmas tree miniatures) to provide a bit more shelter near to the main feeders for the small and lower flying birds. As typing this at the kitchen table the wren is toing and froing from a bush to the ground feeder.
I wonder if your Goshawk was actually a large female Sparrowhawk; Goshawk are exceptionally rare garden birds in the U.K. (unlike for example in Germany or Japan).
Most likely I think- when I had a large garden Sparrowhawk female would regularly kill collared doves but too big a prey for the males maybe.
There are about 10 houses in our row and around that lots of woodland and farm land. Barn Owls often fly past the back of the house at night and bats roost in our conifers, so not your average house or garden. This bird (in my opinion) was way too big for a sparrow hawk, (it was very much larger than a kestrel too which are common around us) and had the goshawk speckled chest. When I looked it up as a goshawk I admit that I was shocked as I didn't realise how rare they are when reading about them. A friend who knows his birds quite well said Goshawk straight away... I shall ask Mrs P if she got a photo of it on her phone and if so will put it here for you guys to look at it later on. In the past, the barn owl has been in the garden one evening, we get pheasants, partridges, kestrels hunt at the end of the garden quite regularly, so to be fair they are not garden birds either, but have been in ours at least once.
Ok... Good news, we have a short video of it. The Goshawk or V Large female Sparrowhawk. Bad news I cannot get it to play on my email let alone load it up here. If someone more IT savvy than me wants to explain how to do it, please do, or ideally pm me your mobile so I can WhatsApp the vid to you. If it is a Sparrowhawk in your opinions, you probably know better than me, but all I can say is it is a big one and the black and white markings are particularly clear, ..... like a Goshawk! I keep looking at the vid and online pictures. From photos it looks like a Goshawk to me, chest and inside of tail feathers match up as does the head for me and yellowish legs. However, I've just read that goshawk males are 600g upwards, which may make this one too small after all, still it is twice the size of the dove.
It was a female Sparrowhawk after all, and thanks to @Tetzoo Quizzer for a more experienced identification, helping out and letting me email him the vid, which neither of us can upload! Also thanks for the photo you sent me of a Goshawk, much appreciated.
It’s the annual RSPB bird watch time again so a bit of a thread bump! Hope people have seen good birds those year. In the garden here we had great luck with starling and sparrow fledglings last year and quite a few are still around so we had 15 sparrows and 7 starlings to report which was an increase. The uptick on spareows has been great all year since the last round. No woodpecker but we now have regular collared doves so that was nice to see.
I partook in two BGBs this year with one being at home and the other I did for a relative who I like to help monitor their birds. At home we had an influx of magpies 14 (!) at once about half an hour into the session. The other 12 species were all standard and nothing out of the ordinary but typically Ms Sparrowhawk and our resident pheasant arrived once the hour had passed. At the relative's garden I had 15 species with a nice visit from the GS woodpecker and some very passionate dunnocks. A nice flock of 6 Long-tailed tits also popped in for some winter sustenance. Overall a very standard year with nothing out of the question but it's always nice to see the GS woodpecker on the feeder
