What birds (are you/have you been) watching? What birds have been watching you?

[Serial_Apologist]

Flippin' pheasants everywhere round here.

I thought they were phased out with the rise of the proletariat!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I thought they were phased out with the rise of the proletariat!

The "phroletariat", perhaps?

[Serial_Apologist]

The "phroletariat", perhaps?

Pffffff - as eighth would say!

[Richard Tarleton]

Shooting pheasants is one step up from shooting domestic poultry, they're often about as tame. And it's only possible by making pheasants do what they instinctively don't want to, i.e. fly - with the help of beaters, trip wires along rides, etc. - a pheasant prefers to run into cover and hide. In the wild of course they'll roost in trees to avoid ground predators, but that only works if the predators don't have guns.

Shooting peasants reprehensible at all times, of course.

[Stanfordian]

By the Irish Sea in West Lancashire apart from the inevitable herring and black-headed gulls there are increasing clatterings of 0jackdaws that I hardly in my youth saw. The thrushes and sparrows that were the most common, I now see them far less often.

[Anna]

It's that time of year again! The RSPB Garden Birdwatch is next weekend 30th-31st so make a note on the kitchen calendar. I recall last year was dreadful weather, hope it's better this year. Just had a quick look at last year's results - seems the sparrow was Top Bird.

http://www.rspb.org.uk/discoverandenjoynature/discoverandlearn/birdwatch/results.aspx

[Dave2002]

Yes, harems of 2 or more hens common. They're in pretty much every tetrad in England, except for urban centres. A lot are of course captive-reared and then released.

A couple of stats for you, courtesy of the BTO Atlas: releases for shooting have increased 5-fold since the 1960s. Around 35 million are released each year for shooting, and around 15 million are actually shot. Obviously huge numbers are hit by cars, taken by foxes, etc.

Have now seen two of the female pheasants in our garden at the same time, which is not conclusive evidence of a harem, but consistent with that.

[Padraig]

From pheasants to partridges -

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-35425121

[Richard Tarleton]

From pheasants to partridges

Thanks Padraig. I see from the Atlas that apart from a cluster of dots on Co Offaly (where there is an Irish Grey Partridge Conservation Trust project), the grey partridge is otherwise more or less absent from Ireland (and Wales) so he's got an uphill struggle. 91% decline in the UK 1967-2010. 100,000 captive-bred birds are released annually to be shot - this masks some local extinctions in the wild. The abundance map indicates densities are decreasing in areas where they are still present....Not altogether clear whether this chap shoots....shootists describe themselves as conservationists.....

[Dave2002]

Did anyone bother with the RSPB bird watch this year? We didn't.

I feel that the number and variety of birds which come into our garden is proportional to the amount, type and frequency of my putting out food in bird feeders, so is not at all independent of our activity.

There was no food out over the weekend, so hardly any birds.

I do feel that the bird watch initiatives are hardly scientific, as there can be so many variables. Also, counting birds is hard if there are a lot. When we have a lot of birds, the traffic is intense.

Mostly round here the birds seem to like peanuts. If there's a full menu, then we get jackdaws, pigeons, tits (various), robins, jays, magpies, pheasants, parakeets, woodpeckers and maybe a few other ground feeders occasionally. We still hardly ever see goldfinches - though there is food which they are supposed to like. Sparrows, thrushes, starlings, and blackbirds are fairly rare, though for most of my life they were the most common birds in our gardens.

[Richard Tarleton]

I feel that the number and variety of birds which come into our garden is proportional to the amount, type and frequency of my putting out food in bird feeders, so is not at all independent of our activity.

Agreed it's not very scientific, but as to being dependent on the food you put out, that is really the point - the clue is in the title! They know from other surveys how many birds nest, and winter in, the country (I keep referring to the BTO Atlas) - what this provides is a snapshot of the numbers and proportion of wintering birds using gardens!. It's useful to know if species in danger are disproportionately reliant on gardens, for example.

But yes, it's also a valuable awareness-raising exercise, and none the worse for that.

There is of course a scientific garden bird survey, the BTO's Garden Bird Survey, which is 40 years old. By asking questions about the size and type of garden, and how you feed birds, they can calibrate the information received. And being a long term study it yields important results over time.

I did it - several species seen here which don't feature on the list of target species (e.g. goldcrest, nuthatch, grey wagtail, corvid species...) but then we do have a garden list (species seen in, over or from) of 80 species! Luckily we have an estuary not far away.

[doversoul1]

A dozen of yellow hammers seem to have settled for the spring / summer (I have not seen them in winter). One of my visitors thought I kept a colony of canaries in the garden.

[Richard Tarleton]

A dozen of yellow hammers seem to have settled for the spring / summer (I have not seen them in winter). One of my visitors thought I kept a colony of canaries in the garden.

That's quite unusual ds - forgive me for asking but is your i/d 100%? They certainly won't be there for the spring and summer, winter is when they are apt to form small flocks but generally only in arable farmland, not a garden bird as a general rule.... No chance they're siskins? Feel free to be very rude if you know for certain they are yellowhammers!

[gradus]

A couple of pairs of grebes on the local reservoir yesterday afternoon, they cover quite a distance underwater popping up 40 or 50 feet from their diving spot.

[doversoul1]

That's quite unusual ds - forgive me for asking but is your i/d 100%? They certainly won't be there for the spring and summer, winter is when they are apt to form small flocks but generally only in arable farmland, not a garden bird as a general rule.... No chance they're siskins? Feel free to be very rude if you know for certain they are yellowhammers!

Seeing the RED circle on the RSPB site, I have wondered if they were something else but the birds in my garden don’t fit in with any other description; the body is not as compact as siskin’s but longish and it’s sparrow-like brown. The head is plain yellow that can be seen from quite a long way away.

A pair appeared late spring a few years ago and left in mid- summer as a family of (I think) five. This pattern continued for a few years but last spring they came as a small group and left as a larger group in mid-summer (I think). This year, one came in early January and now there are about a dozen. Although I don’t think I saw them today. I wonder if they have moved on.

They are happily mixing with chaffinches and feeding form the ground and the table.