Monday 27 January 2020

RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch 2020


On the 26th January, the doors of the Rushy Common bird hide were once again opened to the public as we took part in the RSPB’s Big Garden Birdwatch. A mix of new and old faces took their places on the benches around the hide to count the birds across the reserve.



For an hour, the 20 participants noted the maximum number of each bird species, feeding back to their results to the coordinators who kept a record of what was being seen. This year was more challenging than previous ones, as many of the waterfowl on the lake had positioned themselves right at the far end of the reserves – fortunately we had some scopes on hand to spot the distant ducks.



The results are shown below, compared to the previous years;

Species2018 Count2019 Count2020 Count
Blackbird  1
Black-headed Gull 4 
Black Swan 1 
Blue tit333
Buzzard 1 
Canada goose266
Carrion crow214
Chaffinch 1 
Coal tit1  
Coot388531
Cormorant143112
Dunnock1 1
Gadwall488
Goldeneye2  
Goldcrest  1
Great crested grebe444
Great tit452
Grey Heron  1
Herring Gull 1 
Greylag goose2 1
Lesser black-backed gull8  
Kestrel  1
Lapwing  45
Long-tailed tit4  
Magpie315
Mallard 10112
Moorhen 1 
Pochard  8
Red-crested Pochard 52
Redwing 1 
Roe Deer 1 
Robin221
Shoveler 1913
Stock Dove 2 
Teal 1 
Tufted duck13516
Wigeon50443
Woodpigeon  2
Wren 1 
Total167195223
Species count192624

Although there were several species that we didn’t see from previous years, we saw several new birds including a blackbird and goldcrest on the feeders, and lapwing and pochard. Interesting no gulls were seen on the lake as with previous years, and the coot numbers were also significantly lower than those seen in 2019.

Our results have been submitted to the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch database – the results of this nationwide survey can be seen later this year on the RSPB website - https://www.rspb.org.uk/get-involved/activities/birdwatch/. Many thanks to volunteers from the RSPB for helping us run the event.

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