Big Garden Bird Watch

[jamie_from-kent]

I know the big garden bird watch is coming up and i am going to take part this year.

Can someone please tell me exactly how to do it. I know you have to write down all the birds that you see at any one time in an hour. But sometimes in my garden there will be 15 house sparrow in my tree then they will all go away for an hour or so, so what if the hour I count the birds in they are all gone wouldnt that mean that it is not very accurate.

Please leave any comments or advice about it. Cheers

[Kayleigh]

If you go to the RSPB web site there is a form you can fill in. I just sit for 1 hour with a note pad and a list of the most common birds I'm likely to see in my garden. Then I just write in the number of birds at the same time in my garden. Like if there are two blackbirds at the same time I write 2. Although throughout the day their may be lots come and go. you only count the number you see at once. Then I go onto the web site with my list and fill it in on-line.
There are full details on the site if you need any more help.

[naturelover]

you can also print off a sheet with pictures of all the most common birds.

[JeffH]

Jamie

You can choose any one hour period over the weekend of the 26/27th January to do your count - so if you feel that House Sparrows are the most common birds in your garden and you really want to include them, why not start your one hour period at at time when they're in your tree?

Jeff

[zharca]

...and if you do the online return, try to resist the temptation to put:
"2 x penguins, possible Great Auk"
in the "other" box.

I think I got away with it OK last year Well, it was a bit chilly that week.

[Elizabeth B]

Originally Posted by jamie_from-kent

I know the big garden bird watch is coming up and i am going to take part this year.

Can someone please tell me exactly how to do it. I know you have to write down all the birds that you see at any one time in an hour. But sometimes in my garden there will be 15 house sparrow in my tree then they will all go away for an hour or so, so what if the hour I count the birds in they are all gone wouldnt that mean that it is not very accurate.

Please leave any comments or advice about it. Cheers

The birds in my garden always seem to do a disappearing trick when I take part in the BGBW, but according to the RSPB the information provided is still useful to them.

If you want to take part in a more regular survey, try this: homepage

I've been doing the Garden BirdWatchfor over 12 years now, and I can view all my records on the BTO website, which is very useful. I can look at the records for any week or whole quarter of the year, compare the results in any two different weeks, and also see the count for any bird in every week when I've submitted results (a facility I've only just discovered).

You don't have to watch for an hour, as with the RSPB survey - just when convenient, so long as you're reasonably consistent from week to week. I keep a weekly list on the dining room window sill, as well as one on the bedroom window sill, and whenever either of us notices any birds in the garden, we just note them down, to be collated at the end of the week and submitted.

Obviously the RSPB will get a huge number of people taking part in their scheme - but I feel that the regular weekly records submitted by the 16,500 or so participants of the BTO scheme will provide a much better overview of how garden bird numbers are varying.

[jamie_from-kent]

OK cheers for the info, im looking forward to doing it and on the RSPB site it says dont worry about the wheather because I was wandering about that if it was raining and windy there would be hardly any birds whereas sometimes I get up early when it is a clear sunny day and there are dozens of birds in my garden but they said it is fair just to count them whatever the wheather.

By the way is that the correct way to spell wheather in that context?

[cjnelson]

You're right that even 'negative records' - ie, sending in your Big Garden Birdwatch results with not a lot of records on it - is very useful to the RSPB, because it helps show where birds aren't. The survey has been running for over 25 years, so comparing results this year to those from last year, and to ten years ago etc helps to highlight the downward trends of some birds - like house sparrows, for instance.

And don't worry if you don't see all the birds you usually do - perhaps your neighbours are recording them? And if you're not sure, why not try and get them involved!

I think my best result was when a squirrel arrived in the garden five minutes into my Garden Birdwatch hour, and spent 45mins trashing my feeder... I resorted to hurling potatoes out of the window at it... I'm still ashamed!

[Elizabeth B]

Originally Posted by jamie_from-kent

OK cheers for the info, im looking forward to doing it and on the RSPB site it says dont worry about the wheather because I was wandering about that if it was raining and windy there would be hardly any birds whereas sometimes I get up early when it is a clear sunny day and there are dozens of birds in my garden but they said it is fair just to count them whatever the wheather.

By the way is that the correct way to spell wheather in that context?

Afraid not, it should be spelt - weather.

[jamie_from-kent]

I done my garden bird watch today as I will not be able to do it on the weekend. And these are my results:

Blackbird: 3
Blue Tit: 1
Collared Dove: 2
Dunnock: 1
House Sparrow: 8
Starling: 11
Woodpigeon: 2

The biggest let down for me was not seeing a Robin as normaly I see one every day on my feeders, also a great tit and I have magpies normaly but not today. There were more birds a couple of gardens away but just not in my garden at the same time. For example I could see 7 woodpigeons at 1 time but some were on the roof of the people that live opposite me.

And 1 more thing, when I saw a dunnock feeding off the ground there was something else behind it, I thought it might be another dunnock but it looked too small so I thought it may be a wren, then i looked through my binoculars and saw it was a small mouse. Then i kept on seeing it, it crawls through a tiny hole in the fence and it was eating some of the fatball that was on the floor then it would quickly do a little jump and crawl back under.