UK Wildlife Blog

Carrying on from my last post, where I had just reached the actually RSPB reserve. We checked out most the hides and saw very little, nothing close enough to photograph. So we then head to far hide that was a fair old distance away. When we arrived we looked out over Windmill creek and there was a flock of Knots nearby

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I couple of weeks ago I popped up to Rye Meads reserve up in the Northern part of Lee Valley. There were plenty of gadwall about

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Well Im starting to catch up to the present now, Im only a week or so behind. Here are the photos from a visit to RSPB Rainham MArshes. Unfortunately all the photos have a blue hue/bias to them: this is because the white balance changed itself to 'tungsten' - probably while in my bag after I put the camera away while on auto off. It came as quite a relief when I found out as I thought the sensor/processor was broken in my camera!

Anyway, at Rainham some roach were swimming in one of the ditches

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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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Here a couple of videos I recorded Rainham marshes a couple of weeks ago. First up this water vole feeding on an apple

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