small bird watch

I'm sitting here in my office watching great tits going in and out of a bay bush. I reckon they're thinking about nesting. They might be in for a bit of a shock over the next few days

Small birds in my garden have been getting very busy too with much chatter and flitting about but yesterday it turned cold and tried to snow so they're all busy stuffing themselves at the feeders and no more messing about for now.

Snow is predicted for Monday here. fairly cool now but colder to follow later in the week. Plenty of stuffing going on here as well

Hello nutcutlet

Are you taking part in the garden bird watch on 26- 27 January for RSPB, I did last year interesting to see how many of each bird you can count.  I will this year

Link below

www.rspb.org.uk/birdwatch

I have a few birds fighting over feeders today and flying around the garden, saw by watching out window.

Yes I've signed up. Never signed up in advance before but someone mentioned it on a thread last week. I think we get an ID chart. There are still anumber of little brown birds I can't get sorted. I'll have to try and ID them before the watch or there's not much point counting them.

That's good I have signed up, you get an ID chart which helps - may be some of the brown birds in your garden could be female birds like the female black bird is brown but not if smaller.

http://www.rspb.org.uk/Images/bgbw_sheet_2013_tcm9-325757.pdf

ID chart the birds may be on there

garden girl, thanks for the link, have just signed up. Am a bit nervous as I don't know that much about birds. I have loads of feeders hanging in the pear tree outside the kitchen window and several books on birds on the sill to look things up. So 5 years ago I could only name about 3 birds, now I can name a few more.

Hi gardengirl. It's the dunnock, linnet, and similar sized birds that I have difficulty with. I can recognise a reed bunting now. And we had bramblings one year, I can do those. Blue tit/ great tit and various finches. But i have gaps in my knowledge

I think its lovely to be able to Identify birds and to do this you need a good book but first it is often Identify the song/call of bird that will help you Identify a bird,yes its sounds odd ,but true,for instance if you know  the chiff-chaff has song that goes chiff caff etc when you do see it ,it is a small brownie /green bird which if you saw it first would think it to be a warbler.

A friend goes onto (I think) the RSPB site to hear various bird calls; some of them are v. weird/funny!

That's another thing I can't seem to do. Even the birds I hear all the time I have trouble with and I'm not deaf. I'll have to practice more. I always recognise when there's something different about though, both by eye and ear.

Had quite starling about today and collared doves the squirrels about and lots of small bird and even a Jay they like the monkey nut I put out for the squirrels. I can sometimes know the birds sounds - not all the times long tailed tits sound nice

In the summer I sometimes try to compete with the male blackbird on the chimney, by whistling. He listens to me and then launches into something staggeringly complicated and I have to admit defeat.

An interesting thought has occurred to me since we have had such a lot of snow the last few days. Those of us who regularly feed the garden birds will have noted a vast increase in the numbers attending the bird tables and feeders. Thinking of the forthcoming RSPB Bird Count, and seeing the great influx of chaffinches for instance, I assume the final count could be rather misleading.

Lots of starlings in my garden. I guess bird watch will be misleading with the cold weather. Don't want it to be this cold next week as have to try and count the birds for an hour outside as can't quite tell what they are from the house.

Can you count the birds from inside the house and tell what they are?

the birds are going to be concentrated around the food aren't they cowslip. I hadn't thought of that but I'm sure the RSPB have. There were 23 goldfinches round and under the niger feeder today.

I have a pair of binoculars gardengirl otherwise I can't distinguish all the little brownish birds from indoors.

I've definately noticed an increase in bird numbers now that the snow has arrived Thanks for the links garden girl, I've signed up. I've been using binoculars from inside as well, mine aren't the best but definately give a good view of all the bird activity that's going on

This watch will be done from the sitting room window. I've been practising counting them. They won't keep still.

Penine petal, I love the idea of the 2 sparrows shouting at each other like fish wives!