wildlifebilly: Big Garden Birdwatch 2015

As I'm sure many of you know, over the weekend it was the Big Garden Birdwatch 2015 which is ran by the RSPB.

It is the world's largest wildlife survey, and it takes pace every year, providing millions of sets of data. This allows us to see whether species are declining, rising or staying the same. This year was the first year I have taken part! I spent 1 hour, from 8 till 9, recording the birds visiting the garden, and then recording them. For the BGBW you have to record the highest amount of birds you see at any one time. I did this and submitted the results, however I also conducted my own survey, counting the total number of birds visiting over the whole hour. Here are my results:

As you can see over 40% of the visits were by wood pigeons! They are easily my most common bird, due to the fact that there is a coniferous woodland at the end of the garden which provides a roosting area for loads of pigeons, probably over 100. It was therefore pretty inevitable not to get this biased result!

I then made a bar chart to compare the visits between the smaller garden birds & the less common visitors. The blue tit was my most common visitor to the bird feeders with 9 different individuals visiting over the hour. I had to take an educated guess whether they were the same or different individuals, by taking into account the direction they came from and then left in, and also there size and general build. I had 5 visits from both the Robin and the Blackbird, and 3 from the Great Tit and Collard Dove. The Carrion Crow, Magpie and Gull individuals were spotted in the trees around my garden, or flying overhead. Last but not least, the Dunnock with one visit. Below are a few photos taken during the birdwatch, and also the hours shortly after!