Jersey Great Garden Bird Watch 8th & 9th February 2014

By Mike Stentiford

This year’s garden bird watch (reported here) was held in February and the results have all been counted. Public response this time was slightly lower than in previous years – a little under 200 householders participated this year. Unfortunately the count coincided with some of the highest winds recorded during an already very windy start to the year.

Nevertheless, the results continue to give a reasonable snapshot of the wherewithal of the Island’s garden birds.

With thanks to Action for Wildlife’s co-ordinator Sheila Mallet, the top twenty species of the 13^th Jersey Garden Bird Watch were:

1 – House sparrow  1,109
2 – Chaffinch           503
3 – Starling              435
4 – Blue tit               383
5 – Great tit             342
6 – Magpie              282
7 – Collared dove    273
7 – Blackbird           273
9 – Goldfinch          263
10 – Wood pigeon  224

11 to 20 were robin (213), herring gull (159), long-tailed tit (150), dunnock (149), carrion crow (139),  greenfinch (127), pheasant (77), song thrush (51), wren (49) and blackcap (29).

Analysis of these annual counts shows some important trends that give us a good picture of what is happening to our environment. While, alarmingly, greenfinch continues to show no signs of recovery it is pleasing to report that house sparrow may be doing better than it was only a few years ago. While populations of some of our other garden birds remain fairly stable only wood pigeon is actually showing signs of increasing.

May we add a very big ‘thank you’ to everyone who kindly took part – assisting with this annual survey is both important and hugely appreciated.