NEW FOREST RSPB LOCAL GROUP
GARDEN BIRD SURVEY
April – June 2012
For this quarter the number of people submitting returns dropped slightly to 35; sadly a few long term contributors have passed away but we have had some new additions. Usually the occasional person missing out for a particular quarter makes no significant difference but this time one long time regular observer who gets very few birds in his small garden was unable to send in a return and we had six species seen in one hundred per cent of our gardens because he rarely gets some of the more common birds in his garden. This also contributed to some of the birdweeks figures being slightly higher. Another feature is the continued rise of the bullfinch in our gardens with it being recorded in over half of our garden on a fairly regular basis; on one occasion I had five in my garden at the same time!
I’m sorry to continue boasting but the rose coloured starling which stayed in Hordle for several weeks in the spring visited my garden at least twice, (a picture of it appears in our next group newsletter.) Several group members came to see this bird but I gather that one or two others dipped out! Another species which seems to be coming more abundant is the humble house sparrow which was seen in 89% of our gardens this spring; one lady from Milford recorded the first one in her garden since moving in fifteen years ago. Long-tailed tits also show an increase over the last two years which could be related to last winter being mild compared to the two previous years.
Concern has been expressed over the affect of the wet late spring and early summer on the breeding success of our birds and it is too early to come to any conclusions yet but I seem to be seeing quite a few late broods this summer. One or two people commented on failed breeding attempts of birds in their gardens whilst others noted breeding successes.
Some summer migrants were seen with swallows and garden warblers appearing in three gardens and willow warbler, whitethroat and a nightjar also being seen but only for a week or two. Stock doves appeared in six gardens and seem to be visiting our gardens more often. Green woodpecker sightings were down this quarter but there no other significant changes in the tables other than those I have already noted above. Birds flying over included house martins, swifts, several gull species, honey buzzard, kestrel, oystercatcher, Canada geese, shelduck, barn owl, cormorant and raven.
Other species reported were as follows: rook(9 gardens);siskin and goldcrest (8);pied wagtail and sparrowhawk (6); pheasant, and mallard (4);herring gull (3); willow warbler, marsh tit, tree creeper, tawny owl, feral pigeon, buzzard and whitethroat (2) reed bunting, nightjar, grey heron, willow titand rose coloured starling (1).
Table 1: Percent/BirdweeksTable 2: Percent/Birdgardens
1 / Blackbird / 99.6 / 12 / Blue tit / 96.5 / 4
3 / Wood pigeon / 96.3 / 2
4 / Robin / 95.5 / 3
5 / Dunnock / 95.0 / 5
6 / Great tit / 85.7 / 6
7 / Greenfinch / 76.5 / 7
8 / Goldfinch / 73.5 / 8
9 / Collared dove / 71.9 / 10
10 / House sparrow / 67.8 / 9
11 / Starling / 65.8 / 12
12 / Chaffinch / 65.2 / 13
13 / Magpie / 59.3 / 11
14 / Carrion crow / 45.7 / 15
15 / Great spotted woodpecker / 43.9 / 14
16 / Nuthatch / 34.2 / 16
17 / Coal tit / 31.4 / 17
18 / Jackdaw / 29.8 / 20
19 / Song thrush / 24.2 / 18
20 / Bullfinch / 22.6 / 23
21 / Wren / 21.7 / 19
22 / Long-tailed tit / 19.5 / -
23 / Green woodpecker / 13.3 / 22
24 / Jay / 13.2 / 25
25 / Black-headed gull / 11.6 / 24
1 / Blackbird / 100 / 1
1 / Blue tit / 100 / 1
1 / Wood pigeon / 100 / 4
1 / Robin / 100 / 1
1 / Great tit / 100 / 4
1 / Greenfinch / 100 / 7
7 / Dunnock / 97 / 6
8 / Collared dove / 94 / 8
9 / Chaffinch / 91 / 10
9 / Magpie / 91 / 10
11 / House sparrow / 89 / 12
12 / Goldfinch / 86 / 8
13 / Starling / 83 / 13
14 / Coal tit / 71 / 14
15 / Carrion crow / 69 / 15
15 / Nuthatch / 69 / 18
15 / Wren / 69 / 15
18 / Long-tailed tit / 66 / 21
19 / Great spotted woodpecker / 63 / 15
19 / Song thrush / 63 / 19
21 / Bullfinch / 54 / -
21 / Jackdaw / 46 / 21
23 / Jay / 40 / 23
24 / Blackcap / 31 / 25
25 / Green woodpecker / 29 / 20
The percentage figure in Table 1 is calculated by adding the percentage of weeks that each observer records any species and dividing by the number of observers. If an observer records a species for 9 weeks in a 12 week period this is 75% for that observer. If the total of all the percentages for 50 observers is 3000 this gives a percent/birdweeks figure of 60. If half of the observers each record a species for half of the weeks we would get 25% for the percent/birdweeks figure.
The percent/birdgardens figure is simply the number of gardens in which a species has been recorded divided by the number of recorders and multiplied by 100.
The last column in each table gives the corresponding rank position for the corresponding quarter of the previous year.
DR 280812