Birdwatch 2008 Results
13 April, 2008
Website: www.rspb.org.ukThe Big Garden Birwatch which took place over the weekend of January 26 and 27, when almost 400,000 people counted more than six million birds across 228,000 gardens.
Organised by the RSPB, members of the public are asked to watch their garden for an hour counting the birds and recording the highest number of each species seen at any one time.
The results are then analysed and help the charity keep an accurate record of the bird populations of the UK.
Top Three
With an average of 3.60 seen per garden, the house sparrow retained its top spot with starlings coming in second and blackbirds completing the top three.
Overall, the average number of birds seen in each garden has declined by a fifth since 2004, and house sparrows have decreased by almost two thirds since 1979, and starlings by three quarters over the same period.
Despite this, however, four species of finch, which spend the winter in the UK, were seen in increased numbers. Numbers of colourful finches visiting UK gardens over winter are at their highest levels for five years.
Striking Siskin
For the first time in the survey's 29-year history, the striking siskin made it into the top 20, and the scarcer brambling moved from 57 to 36 in the rankings.
This increase in bramblings and siskins (up by two thirds in the last five years), suggest that tree seed supplies have been poor this year and they've been forced into gardens to find food.
Along with siskin and brambling increases, redpoll numbers skyrocketed, being seen in twice as many gardens this year as last. Again this is probably due to poor supply of food. Goldfinches on the up.
With a third more birds recorded than in 2004, the colourful goldfinch made it in to the top 10 for the first time. Goldfinch numbers swell because our milder winters encourage them to stay here instead of going to southern Europe.
Local results
In Nottinghamshire, the results are as follows:
House sparrow 4.31
Starling 3.81
Blackbird 3.08
Blue tit 1.95
Woodpigeon 1.62
Collared dove 1.55
Chaffinch 1.43
Goldfinch 1.31
Robin 1.23
Great tit 1.15
