Susanna's Wildlife Watch - February
On 25 January, it was the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch. Six of us met in St John’s Gardens, holding coffee mugs and bird checklists and binoculars. The park was wet after overnight rain, and it was still drizzling at 8:30am when we began, but dried up whilst we were there. It was Sunday morning, there was pretty much no one in the park apart from us.
The aim of the Big Garden Birdwatch, which happens once a year in January, is to watch birds in your local patch for one hour, and record all the birds that land. Across the country, over half a million people send in their observations, giving a unique snapshot of how birds are doing across the UK.
Last year in St John’s Garden, we got nine species. So the question was how would things be today?
The first thing we saw when walking into the park was a soggy Feral Pigeon squatting alone on the ground by the benches, waiting for the rain to stop. Four more pigeons flew in and strolled around. Not terribly exciting! But we were off the mark! One species, five birds.
A male Blackbird then flew into one of the top cherry trees, and roosted quietly there. Good! Two species. A Woodpigeon then arrived in the high branches of one of the plane trees, and cooed as if in deepest Gloucestershire - well, that is what it sounds like to me! I love the sound, which makes me think of childhood holidays in the Cotswolds. Anyway, that brought us to three. Suddenly in the bare twigs of the callery pear tree, two Blue Tits appeared, near the nest box... So we watched carefully… and one of the Blue Tits popped inside the box! Checking out a possible nesting place! How lovely to see signs of spring! And that was species four. Immediately after that, a Great Tit appeared in the same tree, bringing us to five. Next, two Magpies arrived and strutted around near the benches at the top of the park, squawking to each other. They flew to the old nest in the top of the callery pear, and busily had a look at it, then reappeared a little later at the old nest in one of the bottom cherry trees. One of the Magpies was now carrying a twig in its beak, and it worked away, weaving the twig into the nest. Exciting! Magpies have not actually nested in the park as long as we have been recording. They build huge nests with domed roofs. The old nests we have in the park are relatively small. I googled Magpie stick-carrying later, and found out that when preparing for nesting, Magpies sometimes carry sticks “for practice” or for making a stash of good building material. Nice! Makes sense! And the Magpies brought us to six species. A pair of Crows flew into the high branches of one of the plane trees, cawing, bringing us to seven.
By now it was well past nine o'clock, and our coffee cups were empty, and we didn't have much time left of our one-hour survey. We'd heard the Robins singing, but they were surprisingly shy that morning, and no one had seen one yet. Then Seb and Violet spotted a Robin, and that made eight. Three Ring-necked Parakeets then appeared, which Violet watched through binoculars: two of the bright green birds clung vertically to a wall opposite the park, and peered into round hidey holes there, as if they were watching a peep show. We wondered what they were doing. The holes seemed too small for nesting. Anyway, that made nine species, which equalled our total last year. And then we suddenly heard a Wren, singing gorgeously and really loudly, somewhere in the Shrubbery area. It’s quite tricky to see birds in there even now, because there are quite a lot of leaves on those bushes, and Wrens are small! We could not find it, until finally Seb managed to spot it in the nick of time, and even take a photo, just before the hour was up. So we got ten species this year, and 20 individual birds. Many thanks to everyone who took part, and made it a great morning!
So what do our results this year show? Well, over the three years that we've taken part in this RSPB survey, the number of species we have seen has been stable, with 9 or 10 each year. So that is basically good. And how do we compare to everyone else’s patch? Well, we got more than the average number of Feral pigeons, unsurprisingly for central London (we got 5 vs average 1), and we also got more Ring-necked Parakeets than average (3 vs 0). The top birds nationally were House Sparrows, which in parts of London - including our patch - have disappeared completely. House Sparrows are down 64% nationally since the survey began in 1979, which is shocking, and so sad, one of many species struggling because of viruses, parasites, climate change, lack of food, habitat loss and pollution. The things we are doing in St John’s Garden and across the Clerkenwell Pollinator Pathway will hopefully make a difference. Every small bit helps. We are growing plants with more berries and seeds to provide “natural” bird food, and we’re improving the soil so there will be more worms, important for the Blackbirds, Robins and Wrens, and great too for Starlings and Mistle and Song Thrushes, which we don’t get, or very rarely, and it would be brilliant to see them return. The pond in St John’s Garden means there is water all year round so birds can drink and bathe, as well as more insects to eat. The dead hedges and leaf piles are home to a rich mix of all sorts of grubs and insects and spiders and snails, which are not only good in their own right, but also a larder of nutritious food for hungry birds. The nest boxes provide homes for raising young, and in time (quite a long time) the thicker hawthorn and holly hedging will also provide the natural nesting habitat that birds such as House Sparrows like. Over the long term, we hope we can keep the bird population stable, and perhaps encourage "new" bird species, such as House Sparrows, to move in… And meanwhile, in the short term, this spring - just around the corner now! - we hope there will be lots of baby birds and proud parents in St John’s Garden! That would be a joy to behold.
We monitor birdlife in St John’s Garden every week, and post what we see on the St John's Garden eBird Hotspot. Check out what’s been seen!