Garden/Yard List 2022 (1 Viewer)

Bismarck Honeyeater · Jan 18, 2022

The only things of note this morning were a few Redwings perched up and ~50 Fieldfare over, West.

Only one flyover Redwing and one flock of Fieldfare seen in January so far, I think the relative mildness has meant they are not needing to come into town to feed.

Grey Wagtail seen more frequently lately, maybe it’s checking out its breeding site.

Richard Prior · Jan 18, 2022

More fruitless scanning for Fieldfare just now, still at least the Bullfinch called loud enough for me to hear it!

38 Bullfinch

I think the Middle Spotted Woodpecker has finally left us and returned to lower altitude to set up territory after a stay of exactly 3 months, 12 October to 12 January. Now I’ll have to start listening out for Lesser Spotted, another uncommon non breeding occasional visitor that turned up in February last year and in 2020🤞

KenM · Jan 18, 2022

Richard Prior said:
More fruitless scanning for Fieldfare just now, still at least the Bullfinch called loud enough for me to hear it!

38 Bullfinch

I think the Middle Spotted Woodpecker has finally left us and returned to lower altitude to set up territory after a stay of exactly 3 months, 12 October to 12 January. Now I’ll have to start listening out for Lesser Spotted, another uncommon non breeding occasional visitor that turned up in February last year and in 2020🤞

Could be another “non bully” year for me looming up…..👍

Telephoto Paul · Jan 18, 2022

1 - House Sparrows.

I await with great excitement getting to 2.

My small garden exists in a greenery-free desert, and the local sparrows are the only birds to visit my feeders regularly. I'll get a few more if I pay attention to the visitors make use of the pooled water on the garage roof. My all-time list is a mere ten.... (plus a handful more of flyover sightings)

dantheman · Jan 18, 2022

Telephoto Paul said:
1 - House Sparrows.

I await with great excitement getting to 2.

My small garden exists in a greenery-free desert, and the local sparrows are the only birds to visit my feeders regularly. I'll get a few more if I pay attention to the visitors make use of the pooled water on the garage roof. My all-time list is a mere ten.... (plus a handful more of flyover sightings)

Most (all?) people on here count flyovers. You can bet that eyes to the skies and you could get a much more impressive list (especially in times of cold weather movement/spring and autumn and first hour or two of the day etc etc.

Congrats on your House Sparrow btw ;-)

Bismarck Honeyeater · Jan 18, 2022

dantheman said:
Most (all?) people on here count flyovers. You can bet that eyes to the skies and you could get a much more impressive list (especially in times of cold weather movement/spring and autumn and first hour or two of the day etc etc.

With ones garden being such a small patch (and different to County or Country ‘rules’) I have always ascribed to the count anything ‘over, in or from’ rule.

My old London garden/house list was 41% seen on the deck, 59% flyovers.

My current garden/house list is 69% seen on the deck, 31% flyovers.

My motto is “Always look up”

dantheman · Jan 18, 2022

Bismarck Honeyeater said:
With ones garden being such a small patch (and different to County or Country ‘rules’) I have always ascribed to the count anything ‘over, in or from’ rule.

My old London garden/house list was 41% seen on the deck, 59% flyovers.

My current garden/house list is 69% seen on the deck, 31% flyovers.

My motto is “Always look up”

Yes. You mentioned rushing in to tick a common bird earlier in this thread ... done that myself on occasion. Also Osprey once over Falmouth when going out to the car and managed to leg it back to the garden to get it on the list ;-)

Think any single 1km square in the UK will hold a decent % of the regular UK total over time ... just there's not usually anyone there to look up/listen!

(Not calculated % myself for garden, plus good sky views will help I guess.)

connorco · Jan 19, 2022

42. Hutton's Vireo - It's a year-round resident in the yard but is never particularly common. I woke up to one singing out the window.

Steve Lister · Jan 19, 2022

January 19th
41. Mute Swan - always on a pond about 500 yards away but not viewable from here, along with Tufted Ducks that I have yet to get on the home list.

Steve

Richard Prior · Jan 19, 2022

Steve Lister said:
January 19th
41. Mute Swan - always on a pond about 500 yards away but not viewable from here, along with Tufted Ducks that I have yet to get on the home list.

Steve

I’ve got the same problem with the nearby Dippers Steve, but unlike the Dipper at least you can hope for a flyover tuftie one day!

KenM · Jan 20, 2022

As I stared into a wall to wall blue this am,
I made a quick check of last years (today’s) date and found that I’m 8 species adrift on the day!…..I’m not bothered.😮😮😮😮😮😮😮

Telephoto Paul · Jan 20, 2022

dantheman said:
Most (all?) people on here count flyovers. You can bet that eyes to the skies and you could get a much more impressive list (especially in times of cold weather movement/spring and autumn and first hour or two of the day etc etc.

Congrats on your House Sparrow btw ;-)

I follow an interaction critera. I treat my garden as my own small nature reserve, so the whole fun from keeping the list is seeing what finds my bit of land interesting enough to visit. Whereas when a red kite flies overhead, I'm one hundred percent incidental to it being there.

Interestingly enough, I actually have more butterfly species than bird species on the list...

Richard Prior · Jan 20, 2022

Telephoto Paul said:
I follow an interaction critera. I treat my garden as my own small nature reserve, so the whole fun from keeping the list is seeing what finds my bit of land interesting enough to visit. Whereas when a red kite flies overhead, I'm one hundred percent incidental to it being there.

Interestingly enough, I actually have more butterfly species than bird species on the list...

Good stuff Paul, I think most of us taking part in this thread have an ‘in garden’ total as well as the combined ‘in, over and from’ that makes up the Garden/Yard list, it certainly makes things more interesting when nothing seems to come and really visit!
I could imagine the Middle Spotted Woodpecker saying “Hah, the report of my death was an exaggeration“ when it reappeared on the feeder yesterday and again this morning , so much for my theory about it bobbying on off to set up territory elsewhere

Mammal news: confirmed that we have White-toothed Shrew this morning when I found one trapped, also 3 Roe Deer grazing across the valley from us and a pure white Stoat at the top of the field this morning!
The anticyclone that most of Europe is experiencing looks set to continue for a good while, so Ken’s wall to wall blue is not likely to change much……..

dantheman · Jan 20, 2022

Telephoto Paul said:
I follow an interaction critera. I treat my garden as my own small nature reserve, so the whole fun from keeping the list is seeing what finds my bit of land interesting enough to visit. Whereas when a red kite flies overhead, I'm one hundred percent incidental to it being there.

Interestingly enough, I actually have more butterfly species than bird species on the list...

Indeed, you can approach your own garden listing however you like - there are no rules! (Unless of course if taking part in a 'league', competition or comparison you do need 'rules' to be fair and compare with others).

One approach to 'in the garden' is to include the column of air directly above the garden, otherwise you are somewhat arbitrarily choosing between eg a Sparrowhawk flying at 10 feet above and a Red Kite 100 feet above. (Of course once birds get to a certain height, it may be hard to know if they were directly above or slightly to one side!) Or would you not count a low level flythrough?

With regard to solely recording birds actually in the garden - for many people this would be pretty same-ish after the initial regular garden visitors are recorded. We could nature reserve our small garden more (and will) but with 4 regular local cats to contend with ... I guess counting flyovers etc is much more of a 'leveller' as it opens the playing field up more to the diversity around.

Interesting ... and I do need to work out my current 'in garden' list!! (and compare it to the butterfly list! ;-) )

(btw - when a Red Kite flies overhead - it probably is interacting with your garden as it looks for food ... )

SueO · Jan 20, 2022

20. Cooper's Hawk

Bismarck Honeyeater · Jan 20, 2022

Pheasant for #56 this afternoon. I’d checked the feeders 10 minutes earlier but it just suddenly appeared. The first in the garden for 7 months. A strange absence, as they were seen virtually daily before that, up to 4 individuals.

56 species in January is a new record, and with 11 days to go it could yet be broken.

KenM · Jan 20, 2022

SueO said:
20. Cooper's Hawk

Many years since I last saw one Sue!
At my daughter’s local park (Portland, Oregon), stumbled across 3 imm.birds sitting on a branch, one bird markedly bigger than the other two, suddenly swooping down on an unsuspecting Grey Squirrel (smaller than ours) and despatched it summararily on the spot!😮

SueO · Jan 20, 2022

KenM said:
Many years since I last saw one Sue!
At my daughter’s local park (Portland, Oregon), stumbled across 3 imm.birds sitting on a branch, one bird markedly bigger than the other two, suddenly swooping down on an unsuspecting Grey Squirrel (smaller than ours) and despatched it summararily on the spot!😮

On the day I moved into this apartment, I saw a littering of feathers under the macadamia nut tree in the front. A few days later, I saw the Cooper's perched in the tree. I have seen it quite often since then (assuming it's the same bird). Once, my budgie was sunbathing on the window ledge and BOOM, the Cooper's banged into the window and fell into the garden. My budgie was terrified. I got him calmed and went out. The Cooper's was still lying on the dirt in the garden, but flew off as I opened the door. He flew to the top of a nearby lamp post where he made angry squawks for a few minutes, as if saying, "Damn, can't believe I fell for the old Budgie in the window trick." I could almost see the little balloon over his head with a #&*#1 in it. I felt bad for the guy because he was obviously still a bit stunned. There was a screen in front of the window and I was surprised he would attempt to go through it. Funny that the Red-shouldered I got on this list was perched on that same lamp post.

connorco · Jan 21, 2022

43. Pygmy Nuthatch
Don't usually get into the yard at this time of year, but one was calling down the hillside this morning.

KenM · Jan 21, 2022

Got the UK’s commonest bird this am no.41 Wren….the last one was on Xmas day, just a month between sightings!!!😮

Garden/Yard List 2022 (1 Viewer)

Barely known member

Halfway up an Alp

Well-known member

Well-known member

Bah humbug

Barely known member

Bah humbug

Well-known member

Senior Birder, ex County Recorder, Garden Moths.

Halfway up an Alp

Well-known member

Well-known member

Halfway up an Alp

Attachments

Bah humbug

Well-known member

Barely known member

Attachments

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Similar threads

Users who are viewing this thread