A Happy New Year to all. Apologies for the delay in writing this post, like many in the UK I was hit by first swine flu and then a chest infection over Christmas and only now in the second week of January am I beginning to resemble a human being again after taking such high levels of antibiotics I will be free of any disease for years to come. Sadly this meant no birdwatching at all for me, not even out the garden, far too much time spend lying in bed.
I see some results have come in for the Christmas Bird Competition, but I wonder how many more? If I work on a deadline of midnight this coming Friday for any submissions then I'll collect the results and post next Saturday (15th)
If you haven't already done so, please drop a comment on this posting with your results, please give some basic detail too as to where it took place - ie garden in Kent. Any highlights also fun to read.
Looking forward to writing this up in a weeks time. All the best, Andrew
So sorry to hear about your illness Andrew - hope your recovery is continuing and you will be 100 per cent asap.
ReplyDeleteHere's a list of the birds I saw over the Christmas period in my Warwickshire garden:
Robin
Great Spotted Woodpecker
Wood Pigeon
Coal Tit
Blue Tit
Blackbird
Dunnock
Magpie
Collared Dove
Black-headed Gull
Goldfinch
House Sparrow
Great Tit
Wren - roosting overnight in a hanging basket on the rear wall of the house
Redwing
Long-tailed Tit
Carrion Crow
Fieldfare - nice to see the two over-wintering thrushes
Redpoll (I am assuming they were Lesser Redpoll) It was a nice surprise to have a flock visiting the garden to feed on silver birch seeds although this species does visit most winters)
Wishing you a Happy New Year
Caroline
Hi Andrew, I too am sorry to hear you have been so ill. Like Caroline above, I also wish you a full recovery.
ReplyDeleteJust to say, you were around in true internet spirit over the hols as your photo decorated my blog sidebar with some info on your comp. Now… don’t cringe ;-)
Thanks to your comp I paid attention to what was in my garden on Christmas Day and saw 12 bird species which I was amazed by. A completely new sighting was courtesy of a Redwing on my neighbour’s cherry tree. No photos or video though, no further sightings either.
My garden is in a small town, in Perthshire, Scotland. Over the Christmas period I saw a respectable 18 bird species from my garden. In order of appearance they were:
Chaffinch (biggest numbers)
Blackbird (including partial albino)
Woodpigeon
Brambling
Redwing (first sighting, neighbour’s tree)
Blue tit
House Sparrow
Herring gull (flying over)
Starling
Buzzard (flying over)
Jackdaw (distant tree)
Robin
Goldfinch
Dunnock
Coal tit
Siskin
Sparrowhawk (low flight towards back door)
Interesting to see with all the finches visiting no Greenfinches were spotted. Maybe they were visiting and I missed them.
Even more interesting as a garden visitor (outside comp time) has been a Reed Bunting last Friday. That was a surprise. Captured a few shaky seconds of video footage as a record :-D
Best wishes, Shirley
Hi Andrew. Sorry to hear you have been unwell and trust the recovery is continuing.
ReplyDeleteAll my Christmas period sightings ( a total of 19) were from our tiny Surrey garden:
Sparrowhawk (very brief fly thro' visit)
Black-headed Gulls (20+ circling overhead)
Woodpigeon
Collared Dove
Ring-necked Parakeet (3)
Magpie
Carrion Crow
Coal Tit
Blue Tit
Great Tit
Blackcap (1m & 1f)
Starling
Blackbird
Robin
House Sparrow (8)
Dunnock
Chaffinch (1m & 1f) [A rarity in this garden]
Greenfinch (12 max)
Lesser Redpoll (5)
Best wishes, Frank.
So sorry to hear you haven't been well. I'm glad to hear you're much better now.
ReplyDeleteDid you receive my results ... I posted them on here on the 3rd Jan. If not, let me know and I'll post them again.
Sorry to hear you were so unwell. Wishing you a full recovery and a return of energy!
ReplyDeleteMy list isn't that extensive as I can't see the garden from the house. Garden (island of Graemsay, Orkney) is about 100 feet from the shore, enclosed by a wall but no gate so birds "wander" in. The snow was less deep in the garden and so "shore birds" wandered in too. Only one tree in garden which was recently renovated from a silage pit/sheep pen so garden birds don't know about it yet ;-)
House sparrow (lots!)
Blackbirds
Wren (2)
Starlings
Hooded Crows
"Ordinary" crows
Blackback gulls
Herring gulls
Fulmars
Snipe
Curlew
Pheasant
Lapwings (flying over)
Sorry to hear that you were so sick. Roger has been going through the same thing for over a month. Glad you're finally feeling better.
ReplyDelete