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The RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch was 30-31st January 2010. Everyone was asked to note the largest number of birds of each type spotted at any one time over the space of an hour.
We were staying at Granny and Grandad’s house in Ashburnham near Battle, East Sussex, where we were house-sitting for the weekend. They are very lucky as their house backs on to fields and their are no near neighbours.
We did our birdwatch between 11.30 and 12.30 on the 31st. We know the house well, so knew which birds were likely to turn up, and I took some photos to go with it. The photo’s were taken through the glass of the kitchen window, on maximum zoom, so not ideal conditions. When I’ve got some time I might crop the photographs down a bit.
Anyway here is a list of what we spotted:
1nuthatch (he put in an appearance right at the last minute, and we were glad he did because he is a regular visitor to the garden.)
1 great spotted woodpecker
1 female blackcap (we had quite a lot of trouble identifying it as it was not something we had come across before, and the name is misleading because the females cap is ginger!)
3 blackbirds
11 blue tits
2 chaffinches
2 dunnocks
2 great tits
2 greenfinches / siskins?
3 house sparrows
3 robins
1 song thrush
1 starling
Plus 2 possible goldfinches. This is a bit of a mystery as I was confident I had 2 greenfinches (see above, plus photo sitting on branch). But when I uploaded the photo’s I see I have a decidedly gold-looking pair on one of the birdfeeders. I had already filled in my RSPB online form by then, so they didn’t get included in the list!
The kids were blase about the whole thing, which I was a bit disappointed about, but they did perk up when two of the robins started fighting!
I received a birdsong identification CD for Christmas, but it will take many listens before I can differentiate anything!
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