Mini Merseyside Big Garden Birdwatch count 2020

This was our fifth mini Big Garden birdwatch, having started our recordings in 2016. This year 35 sites were observed in our count, mainly gardens with a few parks. A total of 966 individuals, and 40 different species were reported seen.

As our recording sites differ from year to year it can be difficult to ascertain changes in bird population but some things remain fairly constant and that is once again robin, blackbird and bluetit were the species most seen in our gardens; And those with the highest number of individuals seen at any one time were the flocks of goldfinches, starlings and in the last 3 yrs house sparrows. No Parakeets were recorded this year? some would say a good thing!  And no reports of rare birds dropping in, unlike last year’s lovely brambling.

It’s nice to see blackcaps are still being seen in our winter gardens, having been counted every year since 2016, with goldcrests 4 of 5yrs. Sadly our song and mistle thrushes are scarce, 2016 being the highest count for song thrush at 8 in 4 sites now down to 2 in 1 or 2 sites.  Red listed starlings appear to be on a downward trend, with 139 in 2016 and 91 this year.  Happily fellow red listed house sparrows appear to be on the up, year on year increases from 64 in 2016 to 110 this year.

RED, AMBER GREEN

 https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/bird-and-wildlife-guides/bird-guide/redliststory.aspx

Last year’s results:

http://liverpoolrspb.blogspot.com/2019/02/mini-merseyside-big-garden-birdwatch.html

For those of you who have enjoyed taking part in the Big Garden Birdwatch and would like to record more, please consider joining the BTO Garden BirdWatch , this will involve you recording your birds every week and uploading them to the BTO website. The count includes other nature sightings such as insects and  mammals and also records the type of food you put out, more recently they have included your sightings of diseased and dead specimens.

 http://www.bto.org/volunteer-surveys/gbw

Many thanks to all those who took part in our little survey, I hope you find it of interest. Please free to add your comments and observations, on our blog.

SPECIES	TOT No’s of birds seen	RANK By No’s seen	RANK By Gdns seen in	No’s of Gdns seen in
BLACKBIRD	62	6	2nd	28
WREN	9	16	14	8
BLUE TIT	83	4	3rd	27
GREAT TIT	56	7	4	25
COAL TIT	14	13	12	10
LNG TD TIT	43	10	11	12
ROBIN	49	9j	1st	29
BLACKCAP	2	20j	19j	2
STARLING     R	91	3rd	13j	9
DUNNOCK     A	28	12j	7	19
HOUSE SPARROW     R	110	2nd	10	13
FERAL PIGEON	65	5	13j	9
WOOD PIGEON	51	8	6	22
COLLD DOVE	37	11	9	14
GOLDFINCH	113	1st	8	17
CHAFFINCH	28	12j	11	12
GREENFINCH	12	14j	15	6
JAY	5	17j	18j	3
JACKDAW	11	15	16	5
MAGPIE	49	9j	5	23
CROW	5	17j	17j	4
GOLDCREST	3	19j	18j	3
NUTHATCH	12	14j	13j	9
SONG THRUSH        R	2	20j	20j	1
GREY WAGTAIL     R	1	21j	20j	1
SPARROWHAWK	2	20j	19j	2
GREAT SPOT WOODPECKR	4	18	17j	4
BULLFINCH	2	20j	20j	1
PIED WAGTAIL	3	19j	19j	2
REED BUNTING      A	3	19j	20j	1
MOORHEN	1	21j	20j	1
BLACK HEAD GULL             A	1	21j	20j	1
HERRING GULL             R	2	20j	20j	1
PHEASANT	1	21j	20j	1
REDWING	5	17j	20j	1
COMMON GULL	5	17j	20j	1
BUZZARD	3	19j	18j	3
GREY HERON	1	21j	20j	1
LSSR BLK BK GULL	1	21j	20j	1
MISTLE THRUSH	2	20j	20j	1