Comments on Chris Townsend Outdoors: Big Garden Bird Watch

Actually predator-prey relationships have virtuall...

2010-03-29T16:04:09.018+01:00

Actually predator-prey relationships have virtually nothing to do with songbird decline. Scientists for the British Trust for Ornithology have studied this in depth and published a report of their findings:

http://www.bto.org/news/news2010/marapr/Are_predators_to_blame_for_songbird_declines.html

"Tthis robust study found that, for the majority of the songbird species examined, there is no evidence that increases in common avian predators and grey squirrels are associated with large-scale depression of prey abundance or population declines. It is also clear that, for the majority of declining species with unfavourable conservation status population, declines appear to be due to factors other than predation.

Other studies have suggested that over the period of this study, songbird population changes have been influenced by a range of other factors, most notably changes in farmland and woodland management."

Chaffinches down 27%, Starlings down 79%, Blackbir...

2010-03-29T15:38:00.862+01:00

Chaffinches down 27%, Starlings down 79%, Blackbirds down 18%, House Sparrows down 62% since 1979! I wonder what the perecentage increase for Birds of Prey is since 1979? It doesn't take a genius to work out where these birds are going. 26,000 nesting pairs of Sparrowhawks alone, need 52,000 songbirds a day that is close to 19 million a year! (Thats not even including the Peregrines, Goshawks and other birds of Prey. This is biggest reason these poor songbirds are being decimated. Several articles have appeared recently in National newspapers highlighting this and now the Garden Watch is providing the proof! We need to start opening our eyes otherwise the days of looking out of window at seeing blue tits, chaffinches and wrens will sadly be over!

Hawthorns, yes they do but not this winter so far....

2010-02-02T21:23:59.762Z

Hawthorns, yes they do but not this winter so far. One year we saw crested tits regularly. There have also been no red squirrels on the feeders this year, though we have seen one in the garden. For a few years we had red squirrels every day.

Chris, do the crested tits ever venture away from ...

2010-02-02T20:29:19.468Z

Chris, do the crested tits ever venture away from the forests and into the gardens if food becomes really scarce?

Interesting. Thanks for posting this Chris. Here i...

2010-02-01T19:56:24.829Z

Interesting. Thanks for posting this Chris. Here in Issaquah, Washington State, we have had a very mild winter, apart from a week of sub-zero temps at the beginning of December. At the moment we're having few visitors besides the ubiquitous chickadees, and nuthatches, and an occasional Anna's hummingbird. The interesting thing this year has been the flock of bushtits that descend on my feeders now and then - it's the first year they've come to them - usually they stay in the alders out front.

Great idea - such tiny animals to survive the cold...

2010-02-01T09:11:18.317Z

Great idea - such tiny animals to survive the cold.