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|   | Subject: Bird Census
Posted Jan 26, 2007 by  KB | | Post: 1
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I know h2g2 seems to have a number of bird ogglers. Is anyone taking part in the bird survey this weekend?
Basically what you do is watch the birds in your garden for an hour and submit a headcount. You only count the highest number you see at once, to stop you from counting duplicates. 
There's a link if anyone's interested. http://www.rspb.org.uk/birdwatch/takepart/index.asp
Thanks for that, KB  . I hadn't realised it was that time of year again.
I would love to, and have wanted to for the last seven years except where my flat is positioned makes it difficult.
My bedroom window overlooks a car-park so bird count = 1 robin and four cats.
My lounge overlooks a main road, and the garden consists of a cherry tree, bird count 1 blue  or 1 great or maximum 12 long-tailed s.
Maybe, if my back is better, I'll go to my sister's down the road.
That will give me parakeets, goldfinch, greenfinch, robin, wren, pigeons, starlings and crows at the very least.
Sometimes, being a birder, living in a first floor flat overlooking the South Circular in London can be frustrating.
I guess I could cheat and visit Kew Gardens or the London Wetland Centre 
Happy Birding to all those taking part.
|  | Subject: Bird Census
Posted Jan 26, 2007 by pixel
This is a reply to this Posting.
| | Post: 4
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i usually get a letter prompting me to do this, missed out on that this year; so thanks for the heads up.
Hello, I'm new here.
I won't be participating because my balcony is in the wrong country.
Here in Dubai we have sparrers, trios of green parakeets, and hoopoes, and red- and yellow-rumped bulbuls; and I get woken by doves playing melancholy recorder tunes, just like in my mother's garden in England, and (last weekend, when I was trying to have a lie-in) desert partridges that blend with the sand but have the most piercing, prolonged, fingernails-down-a-blackboard-amplified-by-spiteful-deity, shriek.
When I miss English birds, I listen to a tape that came free with a wildlife magazine, or the blackbird singing in the background of George Harrison singing 'Blackbird'. Sigh.....
I love hoopoes!
Hi RS.
Interestingly I have an entry on Ruddy Shelducks in my UP at present.
Hopefully get it in in a couple of weeks,
As for the Hoopoe... As a pre-teen, I had thought it was a bird around the size of a Heron, and on the only occassion I was in an area where there was one, I dipped, because I hadn't realised it was only the size of a starling and so I missed it. Very  and 
The interesting thing I have found about birds is that the more attractive, elegant and beautiful they are, the more harsh their call, whereas the dull birds (like the ones in Britain) tend to be good singers and very melodic.
That's why I prefer listening to, and watching birds, in the UK to places like Australia etc.
You could still watch in Dubia, and maybe post your results here?
Maybe make this conversation space the HooToo Bird Census?
Could be interesting, especially if the area that the Census was taken is noted. I'm certainly up for it!
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Traveller in Time on his head
"< Welcome > to HooToo   
Well, lets just report here I am also not in the UK, I am 'somewhere'  .
As far as I know it is the idea to record the number and species of all the birds you see in/from 'your garden' during an hour.
I have a kind of balcony, and a part of the sky as view, that will have to do.  "
>>part of the sky as view<<
I'm on the Heathrow flight path, in an hour, I'd see 40 silver birds all heading west.
In my area, being right by the Thames, it'd be Cormorants, Herring, Black-Headed and Great Black-Backed gulls, Pigeons, Starlings, Teal, Mallard, Parakeets, Crows and Magpies in the air, but little land-based.
So what observations could we expect from you, TiT?
five robins. three in the trees, two on a fence.
| | Subject: Bird Census
Posted Jan 26, 2007 by KB
This is a reply to this Posting.
| | Post: 10
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The link above mentions that.
"Can I take part if I don't have a garden?
Yes. You don't have to have a garden, you can also choose to do your Birdwatch in a local park. Find a spot where you can sit quietly for an hour and record which birds you see."
| | Subject: Bird Census
Posted Jan 27, 2007 by U94986
This is a reply to this Posting.
| | Post: 11
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ooh, yes I'll do this. So it's not the total amount of birds in the garden over the whole hour, but the most of each species at any one time?
Should be simple, I usually only get three - sparrows, starlings and collared doves.
| | Subject: Bird Census
Posted Jan 27, 2007 by KB
This is a reply to this Posting.
| | Post: 12
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Mine's usually teaming with them, but when I got a spare hour today to give it a go, I didn't see one!
Traveller in Time behind the window
"For nearly half an hour not a single bird.
I have seen a magpie in the morning, but that was all birds to see outside. "
>> Here in Dubai we have sparrers, trios of green parakeets, and hoopoes, and red- and yellow-rumped bulbuls; <<
Sounds awful. </marvin>
RF
Oh Marvin, it be noizy in the countryzoid, loik! Be brave.
During the day, it's great. The trees, shrubs and rooflines are full of chatter and movement. In a city that is one huge construction site laced together with traffic jams, this is such a relief. Completely unsustainable, and I really want to get out before reality sets in, but that's that's another story. It's just the 6 a.m.partridge alarm shrieks that get me at the weekend, but then I just roll over and ignore them.
We also have geckos - completely silent darting presences - and crickets that may be the result of a GM steroid experiment gone wrong, turning bluegrass fiddlers into headbanging rockers. How else to explain how they can get onto a second floor balcony, and have the energy to rave all night? Bless.
Thank you King Bomba for the link to the RSPB. I didn't do the census, but I did load most of the bird pics into My Pictures, and set my screen saver to Gallery, so now I have every familiar childhood bird drifting across my screen, regardless of fluorescent lights and air-conditioning. (One for you, MazinMadFiddler?) And I may soon be able to tell a chaffinch from a bullfinch without squinting and reaching for the bird book. Yay! Thank you!
Results from yesterday:
1 Great Tit
2 Chaffinches
2 House Sparrows
2 Goldfinches
2 Robins
2 Blackbirds
1 Greenfinch
1 Woodpigeon
2 Feral Pigeons
5 White Doves
2 Magpies
1 Dunnock
1 Mistle Thrush
My survey took place between 14:30 and 15:30 today, at the Kew Steam Museum garden, where they have Bird Feeders, so thought it would be popular. The results?
Robin x 1
Hedge Accentor (aka Sparrow) x 1§
Great Tit x 1
Blue Tit x 1
Chaffinch x 1
Blackbird x 1
Starling x 3
Not a good result.
May try an unofficial watch at Kew Gardens tomorrow, as I must get out.
I've not seen any birdies today.
But I've seen much of
one calico 
one grey tuxedo 
one 
I assume those spottings somehow are connected 
Traveller in Time searching for a black headed gull
"Seen field covered white with them some days ago. Not a single bird again today.
Have seen several baby poecilididae (they are livebearing) in our aquarium . "
< F1694533?thread=745775&show=20&skip=2160#p45103611 > 'My Heart is still Thumping'
Our (live) Badger reporting Journal with a bird census special/
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