AnnMarie's Blog

Last weekend was the 2010 instalment of the RSPB’s “Big Garden Bird Watch”. The whole family took part on a day that was beautiful for the event, we were joined by a Robin who seemed to enjoy bird watching himself.

Chilly with a layer of snow on the ground there were sunny spells with occasional snow showers. I installed myself in the orchard hide for a few hours on both Saturday and Sunday. We took our count for the hour from midday on Saturday, which turned out to be a slightly slim period with no Siskin, Jay or Goldfinch turning up. The Siskins did arrive on Sunday, as did the Jay.

So who else was about? Well an abundance of Chaffinches as ever, 29 or more on Sunday morning; along with a solitary Greenfinch. Four species of Tits: Blue, Great, Coal and Marsh.

Song Thrush and Blackbird were represented too:

Various Great Spotted Woodpeckers visited, as did a few Nuthatches. In total we saw 13 species for our 1 hour count and a few  more over the whole weekend. Then of course there’s those on the rest of the farm that we can’t count because they didn’t land in the garden, like Crows & Buzzards.

The food that we had put out was just the normal fair that we offer:

• Black Sunflower
• Mixed Seed
• Grains
• Niger Seed
• Fat balls
• Peanuts
• Sultanas

We were out of meal worms so I’m afraid a few may have missed their favourite. This little Coal Tit seemed very happy to tackle the Sunflower seed:

Well that was it, a fun BGBW and looking forward to next year.