UK Wildlife Blog

In January the RSPB's 2009 garden birdwatch survey took place, with over half a million people taking part which meant the survey, in its 30th year, is the biggest of it kind in the world. The good news is compared to the 2008 survey the numbers of the birds in the top ten, with the unfortunate exception of the starling, have increased (although the chaffinch appears to have dropped slightly, this does not appear to be pointed out as significant by the RSPB, so may just be a slight variation that probably occurs over the years).
The overall standings in the top ten are largely unchanged, with the top 7 as in the 2008 garden birdwatch and the great tit having jumped into 8th above the robin now in 9th. The biggest change is the entry of the long tailed tit into top 10 and replacing the goldfinch out of 10th down to 11th place. The long tailed tit has done well recently partly due to its early nesting season, which has left it less affected by the recent wet summers, but the RSPB have said there adaptation to feeding from bird feeders, milder winters and the greater variety of food provided by the peopel putting out food for birds. Other interesting differences to last year are the numbers of the winter migrants: Redwings and fieldfares occured in 3 times as many gardens and Waxwings leapt up from 72nd upto 59th.

I always like to look at the unusual garden birds reported and the RSPB provided a list of that included a marsh harrier, red kite, little owl, hawfinch, quail, red grouse, little egret, cormorant and a common crane!

In the 30 years the survey has been running there have been some birds the that have done well, the number of collared doves increasing by 414% and wood pigeons by 825%, but the top 3 species have declined greatly, with the number of house sparrows dropping by 63%, starlings by 79% and the blackbird having also decreased significantly since 1979.



Anyway on to the list for 2009, the numbers below the species are the average number per garden

The top 10 species were:

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When is a fly not a fly? Many insects are referred to as ‘flies’ but technically any insect that doesn’t belong to the Order Diptera, is not a true fly. Below is a brief summary of the groups found in Britain that are referred to as flies:

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The results for the ‘RSPB Big garden bird watch’ 2008 came out a while back and I’ve been meaning to put them on here for a while, so I thought I’d put them up to compliment yesterday’s Britains commonest bird post. This survey is the result for a one hour bird watch by almost 400,000 people, over the weekend of 26 and 27 January 2008, which counted more than six million birds across 228,000 gardens. The numbers below the species are the average number per garden

The top 10 species were:

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Although they are native to North America, Red eared terrapins have now become a fairly common sight in urban park ponds in the UK, especially in London. This one is in Round Pond, in Kensington Gardens, London

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I thought I would start the series with some thing many people in the UK may not have heard of, unless of course you’re an angler, the Pumpkinseed fish.Some of the American readers may recognise it as it is native to Southern Canada and the USA.

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