How many different species of birds are in your garden?
How many different species of birds do you have in your garden? The latest BTO magazine for Garden Birdwatchers, Bird Table, lists 40 that were mainly reported by its readers during this year’s spring. Blackbirds occupy 94 per cent of the gardens with robins second at 92 per cent. These two are closely followed by blue tit, woodpigeon, great tit and dunnock. Right at the bottom of the list is the tree-creeper, found in three per cent of gardens.
About half of the species had declined slightly but half had increased slightly.
The biggest decreases over the last five years average are for greenfinch, stock dove, sparrowhawk and jay. But there were enormous increases of redwings and fieldfares.
These two thrushes breed in Scandinavia and were of course passing through, not breeding, but feeding on the garden hedgerow berries which are such a very useful life-saver at the end of winter for so many birds.
You could increase your chances of having many more birds in your garden if you plant hawthorn shrubs and let them grow into trees if possible. I have three such in my garden that I have nurtured over 50 years and they provided us with endless interest when winter flocks are roaming the countryside looking for tasty berries.
I even had 25 hawfinches a few winters back feeding on hawthorn pips right there in front of me. One of the rarest treats of all time, when these strange birds erupted out of the east and the beast which that wind brought.
My garden count this spring was just 27 species out of the 40 which the BTO regard as core species. This is a high number because my garden is just a clearing in the surrounding woodland. This number usually goes up to 40 with the arrival of summer migrants. But here we are just talking about late winter and early spring denizens.
I know I have increased the chances of hosting birds during this period by providing shallow water trays in old frying pans. Birds need to bathe on the coldest days and I have all sorts of winter visitors as a result. Small flocks of siskins and
redpolls know there is water here and will come from some distance to drink and bathe in the shortest days.
Siskins were found in 12 per cent of gardens this year. But redpolls were not reported in the garden birdwatch catalogue.
Song thrushes were found in only 16 per cent of gardens but up to 31 per cent in the breeding season.
They are the subject of a special article in the new BTO report which discusses their decline since 1960 to half of what it is now.
Apparently urban and sub-urban habitats have shown the greatest declines in song thrush numbers. This could mean that predators such as cats, magpies, and grey squirrels are threatening the future of this fine song bird.
I do not have any of those predators in my garden and the bird breeds happily, using the most dense ivy clumps that grow on trees.
However, there is also a drop in sightings of song thrushes because some birds disappear south for the winter.
I am very fortunate to have the rarest core species in my garden all-year round, the tree-creeper. A pair nest on the side of my larch-lap garage, squeezing in behind a half-rotten board.
This year I watched them feeding young there, flying in with a mouthful of spiders every five minutes and taking no notice of me at a distance of only five metres. That was a wonderful moment, one of many among what are my only neighbours.