The Big Garden Bird Watch 2022
The Big Garden Birdwatch helps the RSPB monitor how garden birds are faring. The UK has lost 38 million birds from UK skies in the last 50 years. We need to do all we can to support our birdlife.
At the Secret Campsite we are treated to daily bird visits. Our office is fully equipped with bird houses. These residencies include swift houses, sparrow hotels, swallow cups, robin nests and a starling box. Many of these were purchased from the RSPB shop. All are fully occupied.
We settled down for our annual bird count. It is calculated by the number of any bird species visible at any one time. Accompanied by coffee and a curious dog who is fascinated by all things feathered. But fortunately she prefers Bonios. We sharpened our pencils and sat and waited…..
I won’t go through each bird landing individually, but we scored the following.
- Sparrows 3
- Goldfinch 2
- Blue tits 2
- Great Tits 2
- Robin 2
- Great Spotted Woodpecker 1 (very greedy – kept returning)
- Jay 1
- Thrush 1
- Magpie 2
- Heron 1
- Crow 1
It’s a very simple and enjoyable activity. And you quickly up the ante on your spotting too. I hadn’t realised that the Elaeagnus shrub was in effect the “common room” for the sparrows and gold finches. Or that the Heron looks so spectacular flying overhead (sadly we couldn’t manage a photo of the Heron but sourced this beautiful one instead)
Try this link for other great birdwatching sites in East Sussex.
We were thrilled with our 2022 scores. You can compare them to last year’s score here.