The 7th Winter Garden Bird Count

During the last days of January the 7th Winter Garden Bird Count took place. More than 58 000 birds from 64 species were noted according to the results. Almost 2800 birdwatchers from 2000 locations were participating, while a whole quarter of this people was participating the very first time. Only 75 participants have been participating  every time. 95% of the watching was done in the gardens, 5% in parks and 7 people were counting birds in grave-yards. The result is remarkable in several ways. It is the highest count of all the 7 years, although the relative number was unexpectedly low. The average number of birds per location was 20-25 % lower than usual. The most probable reason was the thaw after a prolonged period of frost, that made the birds move around and seek for food on their own. In a way it's a good news and shows that the birds are not depending on our mercy totally, but able and willing to live their own life.

The most numerous species was once more the Bird of the Year - the Great Tit, that made up more than 26% of the total number of observed birds. As in previous years among the five most abundant species were also the Greenfinch, the Tree Sparrow, the House Sparrow and the Blue Tit. 

Many usual species were met in about 10% lower numbers, e.g. the Bullfinch and the Blackbird, while the Nuthatch, the Magpie and the Jay had increased about 2-4 % 
Among the “interesting” species this year there were seen the Great Grey Shrike (12 specimen), the Wren (4) and the Redwing (1). Birds of prey were also there, as usual the Sparrowhawk (38), the Goshawk (9), the Common Buzzard (13) and the Pygmy Owl (3), but also 2 specimen of the Rough-legged Buzzard and a Kestrel. Maybe the cherry on the cake was this year the Green Woodpecker.

The counts of the birds together with the number of counting sites are given in the Table 1.