Garden birdwatch 2010

Time for the annual RSPB Garden Birdwatch; this year’s results may show the effects of the recent cold weather on garden bird populations. Here, I think it’s the Year of the Woodpigeon:

- at one point today there were ten in the garden, though only 6 during the hour’s count.
These goldfinches arrived after I’d finished counting:

but there was plenty else to count, including a wren, a song thrush, a low-flying red kite and this bluetit:

Here’s my list, with last year’s for comparison.

	2009	2010
Blackbird	2	2
Bluetit	1	2
Chaffinch	2	2
Collared dove	2	1
Dunnock	2	1
Great tit	2	2
Goldfinch	0	0
Greenfinch	2	0
House sparrow	7	7
Jackdaw	1	2
Red kite	0	1
Robin	2	2
Rook	1	4
Song thrush	1	1
Starling	2	1
Woodpigeon	3	6
Wren	0	1

Birds in the snow

After overnight snowfall the bird-table was busy all day:

Song thrushes still here

Despite – or perhaps because of – the sub-zero conditions of the last few days, the garden was full of common birds today: all the usual species (robins, blackbirds, starlings, house sparrows, chaffinches…) and overhead there were red kites, buzzards and herring gulls. It was good to see that there were song thrushes, too – still on the RSPB red list because of their recent decline in numbers. I hope they survive the winter to feast on the spring crop of snails.

Winter is approaching…

…and the bugs are preparing to hibernate. Here’s a green shield bug – now in its dark brown winter colours

Hiding in the leaf-litter

The recent stormy weather meant plenty of leaves to rake up, and with them a profusion of small creatures that fell with the leaves. Here are some that were new to me:




Meawhile, someone took a look to see if there was anything edible among the leaves

Mushrooms and midges

A warm damp autumn has extended the bug season and produced interesting crops of fungi:

Hedgehopping kite

Red kites can be quite alarming when they hop over the hedge and look at you.

More “finds”

Here are a few things I’ve encountered for the first time in the last few days:
The caterpillar of the Grey Dagger Moth – along with a photo from last year of the moth itself. The moth could be a Grey Dagger or Dark Dagger – they are almost indistinguishable, but the caterpillars are very different.

A caterpillar of the Bright-line brown-eye moth (and a photo of the moth from earlier in the year)

A Hazel leaf-roller weevil – if you like numbers, after “09/09/09″, this is the 333rd species I’ve identified. It doesn’t seem to have done any harm, as the hedge is full of ripe hazel nuts: I’m just expecting a plague of grey squirrels soon!

09/09/09

Not a lot in the garden last night (except the usual spiders, slugs, snails…) – but I couldn’t miss such a supposedly-auspicious date, so here’s what I found in the moonlight:

Shield bugs

I like shield bugs, and I’m pretty sure most of them are harmless (though I haven’t tried picking any of them up, just in case!). Recently there seem to be lots of Forest Bugs around, but over the last few weeks the local patch has produced several others:

Forest Bug

Some more Forest Bugs (lots more, soon)

A Parent Bug – which apparently gets its name from the fact that the nymphs stay with the adult for a few weeks after hatching

A nymph of the common Green Shield Bug

and a procession of what I think are Hawthorn Shield Bug nymphs