Jan 28th Hadleigh

 

My brother's garden in Hadleigh

Day 2 of the RSPB's Big Garden Bird Watch 2018 and today I travelled to Suffolk with my family to visit my brother, Frazer and his family. When we arrived at their house in Hadleigh, Dad, my one year-old niece, Ava and I did the one hour long survey recording the birds in my brother's garden. We started the survey at 12:45pm, but when the hour ended, we only managed to record 2 dunnocks, a robin and a blackbird. However, as the afternoon went on, I began to notice that the bird activity was much more livelier than it was before. So, I decided to redo the survey (from 3pm-4pm) and was a lot more successful. 

Dunnock



Blackbird

Robin



Collard Dove

The result this time was; 2 dunnocks, 4 blackbirds, 1 robin, 4 house sparrows, 1 song thrush, 1 blue tit, 1 collard dove, 1 woodpigeon and 1 starling. In total, there I recorded 16 birds and 9 species, more than what I recorded at my aunt's and my parent's houses yesterday combined. There were also a flock of goldfinch in the trees on the other side of the garden's fence, but they never entered the garden itself, so I was unable to count them. But still, this was by far the best garden this weekend out of the three gardens I've surveyed. Even little Ava enjoyed helping me out spotting the birds.

Starling

Song Thrush

House Sparrow

Dunnock

Blue Tit

Woodpigeon

Goldfinch

Jan 27th Norwich

Only a Blackbird at Barbara's garden this morning

It is day one of the RSPB's annual Big Garden Bird Watch Weekend and this morning, I have been round my Aunt Barbara's and my parent's houses to do two separate surveys of the garden birds visiting their gardens. First up was my Aunt's garden. Unfortunately, it wasn't a very successful count. Within the hour of the survey (10am - 11am), only a single blackbird showed up. There were plenty of woodpigeons, jackdaws and blue and great tits around and I could hear robins, starlings and greenfinches, but I could not count any of them as they were just beyond the boundaries of the garden. It was a complete failure.








My Parent's garden was more successful

The first survey may have been a disappointment, but the morning wasn't over yet and I went round my parent's house to do the second survey. This second hour (starting at 11:15am) was quite an improvement to the one at Barbara's place. Mum and I managed to record 2 blackbirds, 2 blue tits, 2 great tits, 2 dunnocks, 1 robin and 1 woodpigeon. There could well have been more blue and great tits, but I was only able to count 2 of each visiting the garden at one given time. Compared to previous years, it appears the numbers have gone down and I was extremely surprised and slightly concerned on the lack of finches and sparrow today.


Blue Tit

Blackbird

Dunnock

Great Tit

Jan 24th Strumpshaw Fen



Wet and windy again!!

What is with Wednesdays and wet and windy weather lately? Throughout January this year, there has only been one relatively nice Wednesday morning at Strumpshaw so far. The rest have been either been raining, blowing a gale or both! This morning has been the latter, though most of the rain has came around lunch time with a short, but torrential downpour. For the most part, however, it has been rather blowy and mild. Unfortunately, this bad weather did mean that there wasn't an awful lot to see yet again. There was one surprising sighting, though, in the form of a brimstone butterfly fluttering by some snowdrops in front of Reception Hide briefly before the heavy rains arrived! It must be out of it's mind!

Snowdrops



Coot

Though the majority of the wildlife were wisely sheltering from the strong wind and rain, I did manage to see a flock of bullfinches in the wood, but because of the bad weather, they were not hanging around for a photo today. From Reception Hide, where I spent most of my time at this morning, about 6 marsh harriers were in the air at once, two of which with green tags on their wings. I also saw a sparrowhawk and the usual rafts of coots, mallards and gadwall, which were in good numbers this week and included a wigeon and a few flocks of teal visiting occasionally as well as a pair of mute swans, greylags and Cobber the black swan. I do hope its a nicer Wednesday next week. I'm getting sick of wind and rain!

Mallards and Gadwall

Mallards

Gadwall

Wigeon

Marsh Harriers