Big Garden Birdwatch 2016: Homes & Shelters

The Hidden Gardens staff and volunteers had a lovely morning taking part in the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch on Saturday 30th January 2016. Our initial excitement at seeing a Sparrow hawk fly over the gardens was dampened when we realised that the silence meant all the wee birds had stopped singing and gone into hiding! However they […]

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Big Garden Birdwatch banner

The Hidden Gardens staff and volunteers had a lovely morning taking part in
the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch on Saturday 30th January 2016.

Our initial excitement at seeing a Sparrow hawk fly over the gardens was dampened when we realised that the silence meant all the wee birds had stopped singing and gone into hiding! However they did venture out again and we were very pleased with our ‘snapshot’ of the bird life in the gardens. Here’s what we saw during our hour:

blackbird x 2
bluetit x 4
crow x 3
chaffinch x 4
coaltit x 1
dunnock x 1
feral pigeon x 2
goldfinch x 1
great tit x 2
greenfinch x 1
magpie x 3
robin x 2
wood pigeon x 2
bullfinch x 3
sparrowhawk x 1

How many birds are in The Hidden Gardens?

Some days in the Gardens it seems there are only pigeons here, but we’re actually home to a lot of birds. Bird expert Mark came along to chart all the birds in the Gardens. How many of the following have you seen? Probable breeders within the gardens: Great tit Blue tit Goldfinch Greenfinch Blackbird Wren […]

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Great photo of some blue tits in the willow by Lesley McCue, volunteer and photographer extraordinaire!
Great photo of some blue tits in the willow by Lesley McCue, volunteer and photographer extraordinaire!

Some days in the Gardens it seems there are only pigeons here, but we’re actually home to a lot of birds. Bird expert Mark came along to chart all the birds in the Gardens. How many of the following have you seen?

Probable breeders within the gardens:

Great tit
Blue tit
Goldfinch
Greenfinch
Blackbird
Wren
Blackcap
Bullfinch
Robin
Willow warbler
Dunnock

Other birds recorded, but no evidence of breeding based on today’s visit:

Coal tit
Long-tailed tit
Lesser black-backed gull
Magpie
Feral pigeon
Starling

How many can you find? Let us know!

Here's a long tailed tit taken by Lesley.
Here’s a long tailed tit taken by Lesley.