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Garden Tick Rules (2 Viewers)

What about dead birds, anyone else count those for their yard lists? Ditto for heard only? I wouldn’t count a dead or heard-only bird for my life list, but I would & have for the yard list which at the moment stands at 114 inclusive of Northern Saw-whet Owl (found dead on 3 separate occasions, twice on the ground & once in the claws of a Cooper’s Hawk) & Western Screech Owl (heard only once, shortly after we moved into the house many years ago before the surrounding area became so built-up). I’ve never seen live specimens of either of these 2 owls anywhere near my property but, as I’ve said, they both went on my yard list.

As far as I’m concerned, bird lists of all kinds are for fun & needn’t be taken any more seriously than one feels like. Personally, I treat my life list very seriously & won’t add to it unless.very strict criteria are satisfied, but for my yard list just about anything goes. But. . .as everybody keeps saying, to each his own etc etc.
 
What about dead birds, anyone else count those for their yard lists?

Definitely not me - on any list I keep.

As far as I’m concerned, bird lists of all kinds are for fun & needn’t be taken any more seriously than one feels like. Personally, I treat my life list very seriously & won’t add to it unless.very strict criteria are satisfied, but for my yard list just about anything goes. But. . .as everybody keeps saying, to each his own etc etc.

I have pretty much the same rules for all my lists. The only single difference I can think of is I wont count heard only on my life list, but heard only does count on all my other lists (then again I dont have any species that I have never seen but heard).

I know one guy who counts anything he sees if he can see his house whilst watching/listening to the bird. I wind him up cos living in the flatland of the fens, I can see my house from a small hill about five miles away, so for wind up purposes only I've added all sorts to my garden list using his rules!
 
What is the general thinking on this one? Obviously it is up to the individual, but what do most do? Only asking because this would add me Osprey and Red Kite;)

yeah Clive its a difficult one, I have a very similar situation with a couple of garden megas that I would dearly love to count that are often seen in the garden and have had me toying with the idea of actually counting the Racing pigeons and the Fantail Dove......

...... Your descision of Red Kite & Osprey must be equally taxing :-O

Dave
 
yeah Clive its a difficult one, I have a very similar situation with a couple of garden megas that I would dearly love to count that are often seen in the garden and have had me toying with the idea of actually counting the Racing pigeons and the Fantail Dove......

...... Your descision of Red Kite & Osprey must be equally taxing :-O

Dave

Hmm,does that mean i can count racing Pigeons too!:t:
The Osprey was annoying, I was about a mile up the road checking out a quarry when an Osprey flew over. I quickly rang the other half and said get out in the garden...she saw it!
The Red Kite..similar, I was walking the dog in the fields behind home,rushed back to the back garden..but no sign from there.:smoke:
 
If you're temporarily living in France at your parents you can get all sorts of good (and very good) things on your garden list ... ;)

Unfortunately my Falmouth garden list hasn't been so good. Small, overlooked (so don't spend any time in it), and been there about 15 months -

4 species if you go by the 'in it rules' -

Blackbird once
House Sparrow once
Meadow Pipit twice
Tawny Owl once (flew through the airspace about 20' up)

If you count the 'from' the garden or windows bit, and up to a mile or more distant, a lot more, must be 30 -40 or so.
 
I'm with everybody else on this. In fact, I’ve even been known to put birds on my yard list that I could have seen from my yard but didn’t because I wasn’t actually in the yard at the time.

Cheating IMO (unless it is seen to enter the property (but fence etc prevents you actually seeing it on your property), or overfly the airspace DIRECTLY above the property.)

What about dead birds, anyone else count those for their yard lists? Ditto for heard only?

Dead - no - how do you know it was naturally occurring there, or brought in by a predator from outside the 'garden'? (which could of course be unnatural)

(But I guess if the property is large enough you could count dead ones for the list though ...)

Heard - yes, as it is one of the 5 senses we use to id things - why should sight have precedence, since the bird clearly was in the vicinity?
 
I nearly had to do this with a Red-legged Partridge I spotted as I walked down the street but I sprinted back to the house in order to look back at it over the garden fence!

Graham

That sounds like that game we played in our street as kids Graham, called different things in different parts of the country, where you run back to touch the lamp post etc... I did the same for flyover Yellow Wags once meself:t:

yep, same garden tick rules for me too.
 
Cheating IMO (unless it is seen to enter the property (but fence etc prevents you actually seeing it on your property), or overfly the airspace DIRECTLY above the property.)

Dead - no - how do you know it was naturally occurring there, or brought in by a predator from outside the 'garden'? (which could of course be unnatural)

(But I guess if the property is large enough you could count dead ones for the list though ...)

The dead birds on my yard list were very unlikely to have been brought in by a predator & even if they had I would still be inclined to count them since they ended up in the yard by more or less natural means. My yard, BTW, is quite small, less than a quarter-acre.

Heard - yes, as it is one of the 5 senses we use to id things - why should sight have precedence, since the bird clearly was in the vicinity?

By “in the vicinity” I take it you mean “in the garden”. Or are you proposing a different standard for “heard” as opposed to visual “sightings” which you’ve just said have to be actually in the garden (or in the air space directly above it) to be countable?

But, once again, there’s no reason everybody has to follow the same rules.
 
Hmmm I've been counting my garden list ha ha !! I'll risk the shame and I'll write it out for all to see. Firstly to James I live in Pencoed which is just outside Bridgend in Mid Glamorgan. Secondly to Joanne, I do have a Nikon scope, but, as my garden is overlooked on all sides, I feel a bit awkward using it at home as the houses behind me are in another street, and. as such, I dont know the occupants and wouldn't want them to think I was a peeping tom :-( I overlook my estate though as my street is slightly elevated above the rest so I could have a few ticks if I did use it. Actually has anyone got into trouble using their scope in the garden ??
Right to the list, no flyovers ( as of yet ), all have actually landed in my garden
1- House Sparrow,
2 - Starling,
3 - Robin,
4 - Blackbird,
5 - Song Thrush,
6 - Magpie,
7 - Jackdaw
8 - Chaffinch,
9 - Greenfinch
10 - Goldfinch
11 - Blue Tit,
12 - Great Tit,
13 - Long Tailed Tit,
14 - Coal Tit,
15 - Treecreeper,
16 - Collard Dove,
17 - Carrion Crow,
18 - Sparrowhawk,
19 - Swallow,
20 - House martin,
21 - Pied Wagtail,
22 - Chiff Chaff
23 - Woodpigeon
24 - Errrrr Thats all I can positively think of off the top of my head thats landed within my property. I've seen Buzzard regularly overhead, heard a Great Spotted Woodpecker drumming along with a Green Woodpeckers yaffle. I haven't included any Gulls or other things for now which haven't actually landed !!
Thats even more rubbish than I thought it was going to be :-(
 
My garden list is a paltry 38 in over 4 years. It does include Indian Pitta, but I didn't see that myself |=(|

Ouch! What a grip! I wouldn't invite them back and leave them home alone again if I were you.

I'm still amazed at the frequency I'm adding new species to my garden list. I was looking at the rate I've added new species and it makes for interesting reading -
Nov-Dec 2002 = 50
2003 = 42
2004 = 11
2005 = 12
2006 = 6
2007 = 3
2008 = 2
2009 = 4
2010 = 3 (so far!)

I don't have any 'expected' species missing from my list. Long-eared Owl is probably the most annoying since it breeds within a mile of the house and I've seen it on the fen on occasions at dusk. Yellow-legged Gull must be another that flies over among the hundreds of gulls each evening to roost, but I've never picked one out yet.

Another oddity is escapes. I've recoded three species, but amazingly I've had Sudan Golden Sparrow twice! Cracking birds!
 
Long-eared Owl is probably the most annoying since it breeds within a mile of the house and I've seen it on the fen on occasions at dusk.!

Surely if it breeds within a mile you could hear it now and again? It's a very distinctive sound and would carry for some distance, no?............I'd love to be able to add LEO to my garden list!!
 
Surely if it breeds within a mile you could hear it now and again? It's a very distinctive sound and would carry for some distance, no?............I'd love to be able to add LEO to my garden list!!

Yes, I'm very familiar with LEO calls (both male, female and young - I've probably got min. 6+ prs within 5 miles of me which I get to see/hear often enough) but try as I might, I've never been able to hear them across the fen.
 
160 for me - but I do overlook an estuary. Like Steve we've been there since November 2002.
Yearlists are typically 120 plus (max 127). Currently on 122 this year. Only one addition to the list this year - black tern (after white-winged black!).

Rob
 
My criteria for my garden list is that I must have seen it from the property (in doors or out). In other houses I have been in I have been meticulous about the garden borders but ultimately I found it to frustrating and limiting. To that end I have a more relaxed attitude to my garden list. I count scope views and would count a bird if I heard it but didn’t see it. That hasn’t happened yet for me though. I don’t count birds that others have seen as it’s a personal list. I don’t count birds I see from up the road that I may have seen if I had been in the garden or flyovers when I wasn’t home. I lost a golden eagle like that a couple of years ago but never mind!. I think dead birds are quite dubious and wouldn’t count one if I found it. Some mega might well change that attitude though!! At the end of the day though its just a bit of interesting fun for me. I am not a fanatical or even competitive lister, I am not even a particularly good birder truth be told!!. Its just about the enjoyment of the birds and the crack. If I see a new one I whack it on the blog garden list with a happy smile…job done!
 
For others interested in Cambs garden lists look here for a slightly out of date list of some of the top Cambs garden listers. My garden list on here hasn't been updated since I originally submitted it in 2006 (note to self!). Note that Richard Porter in No. 1 spot hasn't lived in the county for some years yet his Grafham Water-based garden total still seems untouchable! Has any other inland garden lister got so many seabirds on their garden list!

Wow, that is out of date. Mine's now on 105 with Fulmar and Cattle Egret among those added since but no additions so far this year.

My rules are in line with the majority here.
 
Wow, that is out of date. Mine's now on 105 with Fulmar and Cattle Egret among those added since but no additions so far this year.

My rules are in line with the majority here.

I thought you'd be over 100 by now Brian (and congrats!). Some lists have been updated (the page is dated August 2010), but it would be nice to get them all updated.
 
Have been keeping a list of all the birds that have either fed from the peanut and seed feeders or have landed in the garden since I started bird watching just over a year ago now.
I only keep a list for my own records just as away to keep track as to which birds frequent our garden.
 
Have been keeping a list of all the birds that have either fed from the peanut and seed feeders or have landed in the garden since I started bird watching just over a year ago now.
I only keep a list for my own records just as away to keep track as to which birds frequent our garden.

Care to share since I bared all so to speak :eek!:
 
Good Evening h14nha

As requested.....

1.Collard Dove
2.Magpie
3.Wood Pigeon
4.Jackdaw
5.Crow
6.Black Bird
7.Starling
8.Blue Tit
9.Great Tit
10.Hedge Sparrow
11.Dunnock
12.Siskin
13.Chaffinch
14.Greenfinch
15.Goldfinch
16.Redwing
17.Thrush
18.Blackcap
19.Robin
20.Grey Wagtail
21.Wren
22.Greater Spotted Woodpecker (Male)
23.Greater Spotted Woodpecker (Female)
23.Long-Tailed Tit
24.Coal Tit
25.Heron (Landed on Shed Roof )
 
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