Charts
are difficult to read as they have had to be reduced in size
to fit on screen. You can, however, click on any chart (not
the maps) and the chart will reload in a new page at full size
and be much clearer. Further charts are available, follow the
links to see them in the same way.
March
2009
Yet another
drop in the number of reports received - a very disappointing
nine. This is not really sufficient to give us a decent picture.
March would
be expected to show a significant change in what we see in our
gardens, with winter visitors leaving us and our residents dispersing
to nest. Summer migrants are not yet here, of course. The small
number of reports can allow us only a 'best guess' but they
do indeed seem to show this trend.
Blue Tits
remain about the same but there does seem to be a small drop
in Great Tit and Coal Tit. Chaffinch and Robin are steady. Dunnock
and House Sparrow are fairly steady, perhaps up a little bit.
Blackbirds are similar to before but the Song Thrush has made
a strong appearance and Greenfinch, Goldfinch and Wrens seem
to be up. Siskins are also well up - they should peak next month.
Long-tailed Tits have all but vanished (where still seen would
tend to indicate a nest in the vicinity). There seems little
real change in other birds but the low number of reports makes
this unreliable.
Overall
Sightings
The same
information in a different form -
All
reports by location
Once again
the Tit family (Blue, Great & Coal), together with Blackbird,
Robin Chaffinch & Dunnock, are obviously very widespread
and plentiful. House Sparrows are very sporadic, common in some
gardens, totally absent in others. There are still fairly few
reports of Wren. Long-tailed Tits seem down a bit on last month
but they are still being seen regularly in some gardens. Greater-spotted.Woodpecker
and Collared Doves are still being recorded but only in a few
locations. Heron sightings are down, better weather is probably
allowing them to feed elsewhere now. Brambling continue to be
reported in a few isolated gardens, they are certainly not widespread
this winter. Again, there were no recorded sightings of Song
Thrush, Grey Wagtail, Redwing, Fieldfare or Goldcrest. There
are some new ones, though. One record of a Tawny Owl, one of
a Rook, one garden reporting daily Tree Sparrow. Two more are
thought to be mistaken identity (and we all get it wrong sometimes),
one of Garden Warbler and one of Pied Flycatcher. These are
regarded as summer birds although there are reliable reports
of Garden Warbler over-wintering. Pied Flycatchers are very
unlikely but, who knows, perhaps there is one still around.
We have still included these two birds on our list.
Now the
maps. We have again included only selected species. If anyone
out there would like to see more species listed, please get
in touch and we will see what we can do.
You can
change this map view to show the locations where some selected
birds were seen and not seen. The symbols used are:
|
reporting point
|
sighting location for selected bird.
|
The choice
of display is from the following options -
To give
an indication of how common all these birds are, here are some
more charts. Follow the links to open each in a new browser
window.
Birds
seen daily - the commonest birds
Birds seen on three-quarters
of days or more - very common
Birds seen on between
half and three-quarters of days - fairly common
Birds seen on between
one quarter and three-quarters of days - less common
Birds seen on one quarter
of days or less - least common/ occasional
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