Big Garden Birdwatch Results

Back in January, nearly half a million people counted 7.2 million birds over one weekend - counting the wildlife that counts on us. The numbers have been crunched by the RSPB scientists and we can now find out what we all saw.

This year in south-east England (my area) 92,000 people took part in Big Garden Birdwatch. The house sparrow remained the most commonly reported bird, with an average of three in each garden. Blue tits swooped in at number two, appearing in nearly three-quarters of all gardens, whilst the starling was the third most spotted bird.

The Top 10 birds seen in gardens this year were:

1. House Sparrow  2. Blue tit  3. Starling  4. Blackbird  5. Woodpigeon  6. Chaffinch  7. Goldfinch     8. Great tit  9. Collared dove 10. Robin

Starling

Female Blackbird

Goldfinches

Goldfinches have swooped into the number 7 spot. Before 2001 they were amber-listed. They are visiting our gardens more now and are particularly partial to nyjer seed.

For the first time in Birdwatch history the great spotted woodpecker has made it into the top 20.

Despite staying at number 1 spot the house sparrow is a red-listed species. Their numbers are down by 62% since the first Birdwatch.

Starling numbers have plummeted by 84% since the first Birdwatch in 1979. It is another red-listed species. The RSPB is urgently researching the reasons for the decline.

Song thrushes have declined by 81% since the Birdwatch began. They are currently in 21st place and like many of our favourite garden birds remain on the red list.

Some of the rarer garden visitors included Lapwing, Waxwing, Grey partridge, Barn owl and Chiffchaff and probably the rarest visitor in this Big Garden Birdwatch was a Yellow-rumped warbler!! 

Twitchers flock to see Great Spotted Cuckoo

A rare bird seen in Wales just three times since the 1800s has landed in Pembrokeshire. The Great Spotted Cuckoo has been photographed in Penally, causing hundreds of bird enthusiasts to flock to the area. Experts have said the bird normally migrates from Africa to southern Spain but the warm weather must have caused it to overshoot continental Europe.

A great spotted cuckoo was last seen on British shores in Norfolk in 2009.  Brian Egan of Rare Bird Alert said the bird arrived in Pembrokeshire last week. He said: “We don’t know if it’s male or female but it is a young bird and inexperienced, so he’s missed the mainland [of Europe] while migrating from Africa.”

The British Birds Rarities Committee says this type of cuckoo has been seen in Britain 46 times since records began but this is only the fourth time in Wales.

British farmland butterflies bounce back after 2013 summer

The warm and sunny summer of 2013 enabled British farmland butterflies to bounce back from a crash in numbers in 2012, a new survey has found. Results of the Wider Countryside Butterfly Survey (WCBS) show that the majority of farmland species have recovered after the worst year on record for butterflies in 2012, when 52 out of 56 British species monitored suffered declines as a result of miserably wet weather. Individual species that recorded an increase in 2013 included the brimstone, common blue, small and large skipper and small tortoiseshell.

The annual survey, conducted by a coalition of conservation agencies aiming to assess the health of butterfly populations across the wider countryside, counted butterflies in more than 850 areas of 1 square-km in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland during July and August.

Recorders saw an average of 85 butterflies of five species per survey during the two-month period – almost double the numbers recorded in 2012.

After a harsh winter and delayed spring, the summer of 2013 was among the 10 warmest summers since records began, with 588 hours of sunshine making it the seventh sunniest summer. A prolonged heatwave in the middle of July saw temperatures regularly passing 30C. In contrast, 2012 was the UK’s second wettest year on record, with downpours and flooding.

The small tortoiseshell, which has suffered an ongoing decline, recorded its best summer since the start of the survey, which began in 2009. More than 6,833 individuals were counted, with the butterfly seen in 80% of squares compared to just 40% in 2012.

Small Tortoiseshell

In 2012, numbers of the common blue plummeted by 60% but the species enjoyed a good year in 2013 with an average five-fold increase in abundance per square surveyed. The small copper and brimstone also thrived and were both more widespread and abundant than in the previous year.

The large white and small white butterflies, commonly known as “cabbage whites”, were also recorded in large numbers with more than twice the number of large whites counted per square and five times the number of small whites in 2013 than in 2012.

Butterflies play an important role in the ecosystem as pollinators and as prey in the food chain, and are considered good indicators of biodiversity.

Wonderful, Wonderful Copenhagen

Well, at least that's the way the song goes doesn't it? As sung by Danny Kaye many moons ago?  Friendly old girl of a town, it continues. Not sure about the 'old girl' connection but I do have wonderful memories of my visits here. So, I am delighted that my wife, Ros, has agreed to a holiday in Copenhagen to celebrate her birthday towards the end of April. Yes, of course I am going too - I'm paying!

I have booked accommodation at the delightful Hotel Alexandra http://www.hotelalexandra.dk/ where I have stayed before. I love this hotel situated right in the heart of Copenhagen and near to the Tivoli Gardens. And furnished with elegant and classic Danish furniture. It doesn't come cheap but then nothing does in this Danish capital.

Copenhagen also has my favourite antiquarian bookshop anywhere in Europe. Hours of blissful browsing...

Yes, I am looking forward to this trip.

Blue-tit Nesting - update

I saw our female Blue-tit enter the nest box at 6:15pm, well after sunset, and not reappear. I am curious to wonder if nest building has finished and if she is using the box as a roost. Not curious enough though to get up before sunrise to see if she comes out again...

Hopeful for Nesting Blue-tits

Ros and I did a lot of work today in the garden and I was concerned about the disruptive influence on our nesting Blue-tits. No sign of them whilst we were at work. 10 minutes after we came indoors the female appeared with a beak full of nesting material and disappeared into the nest box. The next hour or so saw a flurry of activity as she worked too and fro with more nesting material, some of it larger than her! She often struggled to push items through the nest box hole but always accomplished the task after several attempts.

I have heard instances of Blue-tits nest building in nest boxes and then abandoning the project before egg laying. I hope that won't be the case with our birds.

Their clutch size is the largest among nidicolous species, laying typically 10 to 12 eggs. The eggs are laid at such a time that green caterpillars will be abundant when the chicks hatch. Second clutches are rare.

We have pretty much finished our garden work so I will be keeping a keen eye on events. Nest building usually takes about two weeks by the female and she has been at it now for eight days. Fingers crossed then that she completes her nest building and lays her eggs. The male bird is a constant companion although he doesn't do much! His work will start when she incubates the eggs; he will have to feed her.

Watch this space for further news...

I Never Told You

I was introduced to the vocalist Tina May by my brother @dmt155 (Twitter) and how right he is. She is the unsung hero(ine) of British Jazz and I purchased this mp3 album today: 'I Never Told You' and I cannot recommend this album highly enough, it is so beautifully crafted, thoughtful and eloquent.

Tina is accompanied with the immaculate piano playing of Nikki Iles and occasional touches of tenor saxophone from Karen Sharp. The album is a delight. Check it out. My favourite track is 'Si tu Partais' which Tina sings with a perfect French accent to a seductive Latin rhythm.

Well done Dave. Great recommendation!

Old Age and Machinations...

It is a fact that you never accept old age. Sinatra sang about 'The September of My Years' and I have always tried to discredit that as wistful humbug. You are as old as you feel, aren't you? But the mind can continue to convince you that physical endeavour is well within your bounds of capability when the reality is somewhat different...

Today the weather was perfect. Blue sky, sunshine and 18℃. Shirt sleeve weather. Time to continue the attack on 25 years of Forsythia growth in my garden. Bow saw, pruning saw, loppers and secateurs were mustered and I hacked away for 4½ hours. Still haven't finished but I'm getting there. Another two large bags of green waste were deposited at the local municipal tip with just enough time remaining to enjoy a large, builders cup of tea before collecting my wife from her place of work. Time to head home for a well deserved roast dinner, a couple of glasses of Cotes-du-Rhone and one or two single malts....

Relaxed and in good humour I sat back to watch one of my favourite TV programmes and enjoy the machinations of DCI Banks as he solved yet another unfathomable crime. I'm not sure that he did though as the young mind was overtaken by the old body and I succumbed to dozing off and missed, not only the entire episode, but most of News at Ten as well.

Mind you, I reckon this young mind in an older body will sleep well tonight...

Goodnight all...

 

Speaking Out Against Relaxation of Hunting Ban

This farmer gets a medal from me. Having the guts to speak out against a relaxation of the Hunting Ban. He makes it clear that he will never vote Conservative again if the hunting cronies get their way. He has my unequivocal support.

http://www.conservativesagainstfoxhunting.com/2014/03/farmer-speaks-out-against-relaxation-of-hunt-ban-march-2014/

Evoke D2 - Don't You Dare Call Me Cute

New study shows how bumblebees can be infected by honeybee diseases

A new study published in the Nature journal has shown that bumblebees are being infected by pathogens that are normally associated with honeybees.

The work, carried out by Matthias Furst, Mark Brown and colleagues, looked at bumblebees through Great Britain and the Isle of Man. They found that 11% of bumblebees sampled tested positive for Deformed Wing Virus (DWV). DWV reduces the life expectancy of infected bees, and can produce bees that have shrivelled wings.

The study also looked at another pathogen called Nosema ceranae. This is a microsporidian - a kind of fungus - that has been implicated in the decline of honeybees. It also does not normally occur in bumblebees and work is under way to understand how they become infected with it.

The study found clear links between the strains of the pathogens present in bumblebees and honeybees in some areas, indicating that the disease in bumblebees most likely comes from honeybees. However, more work is needed to fully determine the role that wild pollinators have in transmitting the pathogens among themselves.

The study recommends that tighter controls of imports of honeybees and more stringent hygiene checks are put in place. Beekeepers are also asked to control the diseases in their colonies - both for their own benefit, and that of the wider pollinator community. 

The Kid on Slapton Beach

My wife and I visited Tyneham Village, Dorset last summer, the village where all residents were given short notice to leave just before Christmas 1943 when the surrounding area was commandeered by the then War Office (now MoD) for use as firing ranges for training troops. 252 people were displaced...

When I read an introduction to The Kid on Slapton Beach by Felicity Fair Thompson there was an immediate resonance with what I knew about Tyneham: "War is hard enough when your dad is missing in action and even harder when you have to leave everything you know and love. Twelve year old Harry is one of three thousand people leaving the coast in Devon during the Second World War as US troops move into  the area, planning secret D-Day rehearsals on the beach there in April 1944. But what if your most treasured possession is left behind?...."

I suppose words like 'The Kid'... 'dad'... '12 year old'... should have been clues to the target audience of this book, definitely written for the younger reader!

Never mind though, I grudgingly admit that I am rather enjoying it....