Big Garden Birdwatch results

On 31st January we took part in a back garden birdwatch for the RSPB.  We had to watch the birds for 1 hour and then record the highest number of each species we saw at any one time.  We decided to watch for the hour after lunchtime - around 1.30 pm - 2.30 pm.  It was a bitterly cold day, but we had made sure all the bird feeders were well stocked up and the water dishes filled earlier that morning.  Business was slow, to say the least.  It was well into the first 15 minutes before we even saw a single bird, and you might have thought the little feathered ones knew what I was up to - sitting there, in the conservatory,  with my notepad, camera, and cup of tea - and stayed away on purpose.  Still, there were one or two flurries, so here are the results of our birdwatch.

Sparrows  - 7

Starlings  -   2

Blue Tits  -  1

Great Tits -   2

Blackbirds  - 3

Robin      -    1

 Dunnock   -   1 

The usual supsects really. - but nice to see them nonetheless.  Interesting that there were 2 male and 1 female blackbirds around, and I wondered if the males were plying their suit, as it were.  In any case, I noticed a lot of  to-ing and fro-ing  of blackbirds in one of the front hedges this morning!

The numbers were a bit lower than normal.  There is a pair of robins, at least 4 great tits and what seems like a whole flock of starlings usually swinging off those feeders.  I guess they had other commitments, it being Sunday and all.  Another interesting  wee fact - the word for starling in the Scottish Gaelic is druid!

Happy birding.