The FCSBC Garden Birdwatch
Friday 29th January to Sunday 31st January 2021
From the various emails swishing about during last year’s lockdowns it occurred to me that several of us were keen bird spotters. I suggested that we might take part in the RSPB Great Garden Birdwatch weekend and share our findings.
We had 8 birdwatchers who sent me their results, 2 of which were from the same area. One person counted their birds on the Friday, 3 on Saturday and 4 on Sunday, and mostly in the mornings. The weather was pretty mixed but mainly cold, windy and some had sleet!
As you can see, the total number of birds vary from region to region within the Swansea area. And there’s considerable variety in which birds were spotted.
We can’t be very scientific with our results unlike the RSPB Garden Birdwatch which started in 1979, over 40 years ago, but it may be of interest.
The main highlights are that the Starling comes out top with 37, but then they do tend to go around in flocks. This was closely followed by the familiar Blackbird at 30, although I was surprised to note that as many as 16 were counted at one time.
The Robin was in everybody’s garden. The Blackbird was seen in all but 1, the Blue Tit was counted in all but 3, while the House Sparrow in all but 4.
The Collar Dove, Goldfinch, Jackdaw, Jay, and Wren and the flocks of Feral Pigeon and Starling were only counted in one garden, but not the same one!
I’m no expert but I suspect that the more rural the area, or the more bushes, shrubs and trees there are around in the garden and neighbourhood, the more variety of birds one is likely to find. There was a noticeably lower count of birds in the Uplands and Tycoch, if you ignore the flock of Magpies, leaving both areas with only 4 birds compared with 10 to 30 in others (if you don’t include the flocks). This may suggest that an urban environment has an impact but of course another hour or another day may disprove that entirely.
Annoyingly, as many of us commented, the birds always seem to disappear during the one hour we’ve chosen at random. It’s as if they know that there’s a bird count going on, like people avoiding the Census! I know for a fact that I have a Wren and a Coal Tit, as well as Seagulls and Magpies but they weren’t in my garden at the appointed hour. But it’s fun to do and perhaps we’ve encouraged a few more bird watchers to join in.
Amiel Price
F = Fforestfach S = Sketty
K1 = Killay T = Tycoch
K2 = Killay U = Uplands
L = Langland W = Waunarlwydd
Friends of Swansea Botanical Gardens
The Botanical Gardens, Singleton Park, Swansea, SA2 9DU, United Kingdom
FSBG is a registered charity No. 1052032
FCSBC : 2019
To help us provide you with the best browsing experience possible this site uses cookies Find out how you can manage and disable your cookies here