RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch 2023

Birds in the Garden

As I sit here, writing at my computer, my feeders are once again attracting wild birds but, so far, not in the same numbers that I saw them last year, when they could be spotted waiting their turn in the bushes and trees in the garden. Right through the winter, so far, I have seen far fewer birds than last year and more singletons that don’t seem to be paired up yet. In fact, I have rarely needed to replenish the feeders. I am wondering if this is another symptom of the decline in our garden birds, or is it because, last summer, I stopped putting food out until the autumn. Did they find somewhere better to visit? Did some other neighbour put out tastier food? Did they just get out of the habit of visiting me?

Last weekend, I did the Big Garden Birdwatch again, for the RSPB. I chose to watch between 8:30 and 9:30am. I did have 15 species visit, including my regular visitor, Humphrey the pheasant, but last year, I had far more. The RSPB software only chooses to show ten varieties on the graph, so where only one of several species visited, there isn’t room to show them all. But all the birds you submit are counted and go towards the national “reckoning” of the numbers of birds around just now.

I haven’t set up my camera to photograph the birds at the moment, so the shots below are from previous sessions. I hope you enjoy them anyway.