As has been the case for over forty years, the RSPB Big Garden Bird Watch took place over the last weekend of January, this year from Friday 29th to Sunday 31st.
ANW members once again sent their local Abington garden results to Derek, who collated the results below. An impressive total of 22 reports were received this year, up from 15 reports in 2020, and collectively a total of 30 bird species were seen this year!
'Top spots' of the 2021 BGBW were: 1st - Blue Tit; 2nd - Woodpigeon; 3rd - Robin; 4th - Blackbird.
Compared to the ANW BGBW in 2020, a few species were seen in 2021, but not in 2020: Fieldfare, Jay, Redwing, Reed Bunting and Stock Dove. Conversely, several species seen in 2020 were absent from this year's list: Black-headed Gull, Green Woodpecker, Kestrel and Nuthatch. In all instances, these species were only reported by 1 or 2 people, so whilst these species may have been around in both years, they are perhaps less common and so less likely to be seen during any given hour of watching.
More interestingly perhaps, is the relative percentage of reports that record each species, since this may be a better indicator of the general abundance of each species. Several species were seen less commonly this year, most noticeably: Chaffinch, Coal Tit, Collared Dove, Dunnock and Sparrowhawk. Some species however appear to have been seen much more often in 2021, including Blue Tit and Great Spotted Woodpecker.
Many thanks to everyone who took part. Some concerns were expressed that we saw fewer birds than normal this year, but hopefully everyone enjoyed taking part. Once the full results are published by the RSPB, it will be interesting to see how our our Abington results compare with those across the county and country this year.
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