Big Garden Birdwatch 2016: My First Brambling!

A new house in a new town means new birds. I've been particularly looking forward to doing the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch this year for this very reason. It's given me an opportunity to get a really good idea of what birds we have visiting our new garden as, up until now, I've only really managed fleeting glances through the windows, although this technique has yielded some great spots already! I've been adding to a new patch list as each species has revealed itself and recently bullfinch, goldcrest and nuthatch have all been included.

When I woke up yesterday, the muted grey light told me that it wasn't the sunniest of mornings. It was drizzly, cloudy and typically British. I was already lacking in hope for many feathered visitors as our feeders have hardly been descended upon since moving here and I've had to change the food on more than one occasion because untouched peanuts have gone mouldy in the persistent rain. I just think that the mild temperatures have meant that there are still plenty of natural food sources out there, so the birds haven't found the need to visit the feeders as often as I'm used to. With that in mind, I wasn't expecting to see much.

The first quarter of an hour lived up to my expectations. The only activity going on came from three feisty robins bullying a lone blue tit, while three woodpigeons watched from the branches of the oak tree. I found it fascinating to see the robins using the feeders with ease as this behaviour is relatively new for this usually ground-feeding species. 

Without a doubt, the highlight of the hour for me was a visit from a brambling! I watched Friday's episode of Winterwatch which mentioned the possibility of seeing bramblings hidden in flocks of chaffinches and I couldn't believe it when I spotted one during my watch. It was an extremely fleeting visit, but it perched on a bush long enough for me to get a positive I.D. before flitting off over the fence. Actually the same thing happened with a bullfinch later in the hour so I was able to add those both to my list.

Image: John Harding/BTO

I rode the brambling high for the rest of the hour and actually quite a few of my favourite species made appearances, including a nuthatch, long-tailed tit and a great-spotted woodpecker. Whether the latter was the same one I'd hear drumming earlier in the morning, I don't know. I was also serenaded by a particularly enthusiastic song thrush on the top of the fence. Both of these would suggest we have an early Spring heading our way!

There was quite a lot going on in the area of trees behind the garden (of course). There is one I call the "starling tree" because it's usually bustling with them. However, they were replaced yesterday by a flock of 30 or so bullfinches and goldfinches. I could just about make out the bold, black heads and flashed of red although I could really have done with a scope at that point! One day, one day... I saw the brambling again, this time hanging upside down at the top of bare tree, pecking at the tiny branches. There were also a number of carrion crows fighting above me and a mix of gulls lazily circling the trees.

My total tally for the hour was as follows:

3 Woodpigeon

1 Blackbird (m)

3 Robins

2 Blue tits

1 Magpie

1 Coal tit

1 Song thrush

1 Brambling

1 Bullfinch

1 Jay

1 Great-spotted woodpecker

1 Dunnock

1 Long-tailed tit

I've put together a little table comparing my results from the past three years. Obviously two of the three counts were in Southwater but it will be interesting to see how the results vary at this new house over the next few years.

My Big Garden Birdwatch 2015

Getting out of a warm bed at 8am seemed like a crazy thing to be doing on a Saturday morning, particularly after a long and busy week. I had good reason for my crazy weekend behaviour of course; there were garden birds to be surveyed! I had checked the weather forecast the day before and although the high temperature was predicted to be a balmy 4°C, the sun promised to be out for most of the day. Knowing my birds though, I wanted to do the survey earlier in the day when I tend to see the majority of our regularly-visiting species.

By 8.30am, I was bundled up in several layers, a wooly hat and gloves, and headed out to the garden shed to dust off our camping chairs. I had to kindly ask three quite large wood spiders to remove themselves from the chairs I was trying to unload but I'm not too sure they were very happy to be disturbed; well, it was the weekend after all! Chairs dusted off, flasks of tea made, feeders topped up and notebook in hand-I'm old-fashioned and prefer paper and pen when recording birds-we were ready to go. My mum joined me for the watch and we settled in for an hour of birdwatching in the surprisingly mild January sun.

Our birds aren't shy by any means. I do think they have become used to us over the years we've lived in this house and of course they have worked out that we are the ones providing the medley of treats they enjoy everyday. Certain species, such as the robin and blue tits, have no issues with landing on the feeders when we are only a few feet away. In fact, once the ten minutes before we officially started the clock had passed, the robins, nuthatches, blue and great tits had all but forgotten we were there. The coal and marsh tits were slightly more wary but they eventually just got on with things. I will point out that we were not seated close at all; in fact, I moved us back another foot before we started as I didn't want to affect the number of birds visiting by our unnecessary proximity. I chose not to do the survey from our kitchen window as we have a reasonably large garden and it's quite tricky to count all of the birds by peering through one pane of glass. Plus, there's nothing like listening to the different songs and calls and we were not disappointed in that regard!

One thing I noticed in particular during the hour was the feisty behaviour of a bird I wouldn't normally expect it from. There was an individual blue tit who was determined to chase off each and every bird that landed remotely close to him. Not just his own species but the robins and great tits too; he even had an attempt at seeing off one of the nuthatches but that wasn't quite so successful. This blue tit had obviously decided that this year was his year to mate with the best females and he was quite convinced he would get rid of all the competition. This fiery behaviour kept up throughout the whole hour we were out there and well into the rest of the day that followed.

I have a few personal highlights from the count. My first was the appearance of a female woodpecker. The great spotted woodpeckers visit the garden daily when there is food provided; they are usually found hanging off the suet holder or the peanut feeder. Despite their regular visits, I never tire of seeing them feeding and, at such close range, being able to identify the male and female by the red spot on the back of the male's head. The female turned up during our watch and sat in a tree a little way back for a while, taking her time before deciding to venture on to the fat balls. She wasn't around for long but after she had flown off, I could hear a male drumming very close by. I had hoped that both of them would make an appearance together, as they did in last year's birdwatch, but it wasn't to be.

Another highlight was the very brief appearance of a vole. I say very brief because it was just that; just enough for my mum to spot it before it scurried back into the hedgerow. We were obviously too daunting to make the dash to the bottom of the feeding station worth it. There was a fairly frustrating moment during the survey where I spotted what I was convinced was a bullfinch. The trouble was, it was completely silhouetted by the sun and it was sat further back in the branches of the small tree where all of the other species were busy feeding. It was the stocky shape and short, wedge-like head that had me certain it was a bullfinch and, despite me hoping that it would come closer into the light, it hung back and dropped lower into the undergrowth. At one point, when I was distracted by birds further along the garden, my mum whispered that she was sure a bullfinch had just landed in the tree then flown off into the wood. Without seeing it myself and gaining 100% confirmation, I couldn't list it as a sighted species. Very gutting.

I was eager to compare this year's results to those from 2014, although I knew without looking that the species count was less this time around. Our wren didn't turn up and neither did we have a visit from the woodpigeon or carrion crow. In total this year we had a bird species count of 9 in contrast to 11 last year. However, with both the squirrel and a vole turning up this year, and a mammal count of 0 in 2014, the species count evens out to 11 both ways.

Incidentally, that's two years in row we have had sunshine for the survey and both years have given reasonable turnouts. I wonder what the results would show if we were to have a little of the famous British rain for next year's count? 

I wonder if perhaps I'll be watching from the window if we do!

Here's a few minutes of footage I captured during the watch, including a glimpse of the woodpecker and the cheeky grey squirrel helping himself!

The Illusive Jay

During the Autumn and Winter months of 2014/2015, I have endless sightings of jays on my local patch. Most frequently, I have seen them drop out of the trees or glide across the road as I have been driving down our country lanes. The flash of white on their rump and wings is unmistakable. They do often pay a visit to my garden and spend their time around the bottom of the feeding station, tidying up the discarded seeds normally tossed aside by the fussy nuthatch! On several occasions in the past months I have heard the jay's rasping call as well, which, for someone like me who only has a very basic knowledge of bird calls and songs, is an easily identifiable sound to hear. You'd be hard-pressed to confuse it with calls from any other fellow corvid family members; it is wonderfully distinct. You can listen to a sample of the jay's call here.

Any time I spot a jay in the garden, I instantly rush off to get my camera, which is, naturally, always at the farthest end of the house. As I'm hurrying back to the window, setting my camera to maximum zoom (I'm not fortunate enough to have a zoom lens for the SLR), I almost know without looking that the jay has already gone. It's as if they can sense what I'm doing and scarper before I have a chance of success. I can only assume they are not a fan of the paparazzi!

Nonetheless, I'm very glad to say I have managed to snap a couple of shots more recently. The trick is to move to the window very, very slowly as this bird as an uncanny ability to detect the tiniest movement, even from the upstairs bathroom window. Clever things. 

These are by no means good-quality shots (zooming and cropping were my best friends here) but certainly enough to satisfy my need to capture this beautiful bird on camera. I love the delicate, blue wing feathers. Today was a particularly good day for jays and was a first for me; I spotted three of them on the big lawn outside, all pecking away at the ground, presumably hunting for acorns buried by the squirrels! It made me laugh when I read a while ago that jays are known to follow the squirrels around in the Autumn, waiting patiently for the rodents to bury their hard-earned cache, then swooping in and promptly digging them back up again. Cheeky.

I managed to get a photo of the three jays together today but it isn't fantastic. I'm so pleased I spotted them though, as the most I've ever seen at one time is two and they generally don't hang around for long. These three, however, spent a decent amount of time foraging.   

Next weekend is the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch which I will of course be taking part in, to count and record the birds I see in my garden, but I'm not holding out much hope of adding even a single jay to my list this year; if a camera is enough to spook them normally, me sat outside with my notebook and flask of tea will certainly scare them off! 

**For more information about the Big Garden Birdwatch, visit the RSPB's website here: www.rspb.org.uk**