December 2008

The December survey was undertaken mainly as a pilot project to evaluate roughly what birds were around and to experiment with ways of processing the data.

We have produced a couple of simple maps indicating where the reports came in from and also more specific on where some birds were seen or not seen. To produce maps for every bird would be too much of an undertaking so we have limited it to a few birds that seem to be very localised.

The survey returned a total of 19 forms - less than we would have hoped for but enough to give us an initial picture. Obviously, results will always vary according to location (town gardens can expect fewer species than rural ones), type of garden (mores shrubs or cover usually allows more birds), surroundings (wooded or shrubby corridors), disturbance levels and amount/type of artificial or natural feeding. It comes as no surprise that not one bird type was sighted every day in every garden.

The chart below shows the overall sightings over the 19 different gardens and a general summary. Further down you will find maps showing roughly where these gardens are located and the specific locations where some selected birds were seen.

Overall Sightings

The Tit family (Blue, Great & Coal), together with Blackbird, Robin Chaffinch & Dunnock are obviously very widespread and plentiful. House Sparrows are more sporadic, very common in some gardens, totally absent in others - even when close by. The Wren does not seem to be as prolific as we would have hoped but it can be a very secretive character so perhaps it it more common than these figures would suggest. Long-tailed Tits seem to be appearing more than usual. Two birds, the G.S.Woodpecker and the Collared Dove, were seen in better numbers than expected. The Heron is interesting in that they have been seen coming into gardens a lot during December, probably in search of food during the freezing weather. Apart from a few reports of Brambling, there are very few reports of our Winter visitors. Only one garden, up the Annan Water & ideal habitat, reported Willow Tit - but seen every day there! The sighting of a Yellowhammer, albeit a good few miles south of Moffat area, is a very welcome one of this increasingly rare bird. There were no recorded sightings of Song Thrush, Grey Wagtail, Redwing, Fieldfare or Goldcrest

From reports of 'Last bird seen', results are very varied but it seems that the Robin has the edge over the others.

 

You can change this map view to show the locations where some selected birds were seen and not seen. The symbols used are: reporting point sighting location for selected bird. The choice of display is from the following options - 1.All Reporting locations (the view you see initially) 2. Nuthatch 3. Collared Dove 4. House Sparrow 5. Siskin 6. Long-tailed Tit

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