Hey Birdy Where Are You?

The Big Garden Bird Watch

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Like hundreds of others this morning we were drinking tea and having breakfast staring out the window trying to look for birds. The reason for this was we wanted to join in the big garden bird watch. Basically you pick an hour of the day, count how many different species land in the garden and how many of them there are. A relaxing hour of toast munching and enjoying wildlife you would think. However in our back room it was a bit like bird papperazzi as our joint skills at the identification part were lacking. So bird book in one hand and camera in the other, we started our ornithological hour. Counting and taking photos is a whole new skill in itself.

Our knowledgeable neighbour Mary was in for a shock as photos were appearing in her inbox to solve our bird dilemmas. “I think it’s sparrow…no a tree sparrow!” Is there a difference I hear you ask apparently, yes…the stress.. “Could that be a dunnock or maybe a brambling?” Now I don’t know about you, but I am willing it to be a brambling just because I love the name. My better half is a regular bird wooer (of the feathered variety) with various feeders and an assortment of snacks and treats that would put many a high end wine bar to shame. However some of his regulars didn’t turn up, shock horror after the vast amounts of money spent on them! I could have told him birds were fickle creatures (especially black birds and woodpeckers it would seem).

It was good to stop and just look for a while. However as soon as we had left our bird spotting vantage point, I am sure when that’s all the action started. I can’t help thinking that there were rows of high kicking flamingos on the back lawn, not to mention the bird table packed with exotic birdies having afternoon tea with seed cake no doubt.

Just for the record we saw : pigeons, field fayre (they just looked brown birds… but Mary knows the proper names), blue tits (really annoying as they move a lot when counting), gold finches (my favourite), chaffinches, a robin (who owns the garden), a sparrow (the dilemma bird …brambling/ tree sparrow!!!), crows (don’t like them), great tits. Fun times!

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