Abington Big Garden Bird Watch results

The RSPB Big Garden Bird Watch took place over the last weekend of January (Friday 28th to Sunday 30th) and as always invited people to watch the birds in their gardens for an hour, and to record the maximum number of each species seen.  ANW members were also invited to send their results to Derek T, who has collated the results below. 

This year, a total of 17 reports were received, including 29 different bird species. This was similar to the Abington BGBW last year, when 20 reports received contained 30 species.

The most commonly reported species this year were Blue Tit (1st), Robin (2nd), Blackbird (3rd) and Great Tit and Woodpigeon (4th equal). Interestingly, these five species were also the top five species reported in last year's Abington BGBW, with Blue Tit topping the chart both years.

The table below shows the results for the 2022 Abington BGBW, indicating for each Species, the number of reports that included that species (Reports), the overall highest number of birds seen at any one time (Maximum Count), and the ranking based on the number of reports (Ranking).

Comparison of the results of the Abington BGBW from 2020, 2021 and 2022 perhaps indicate some interesting trends over this period.

In order to compare the results, for each species the number of reports including that species has been expressed as a percentage of the total number of reports received that year. For instance, in 2020 the Woodpigeon was included in 14 of the 15 reports received, which represents 93% of the total reports received. These 'normalised percentage' values allow the results for each year to be compared, and to show any trends. 

In the table below, the 'normalised percentage' of reports of each species each year are compared to the 2020 values. Percentages within 10% of the 2020 value are shown as green, those more than 10% higher or more than 20% higher than 2020 values are shown in light blue and dark blue, respectively, and values more than 10% lower or more than 20% lower than the 2020 values are shown in orange and red respectively. 

Interestingly, Blue Tit has been reported at much higher levels in recent years, whereas Collared Dove was reported much less frequently in 2021 and 2022 relative to 2020.  Other species, like Jackdaw and Great Tit, showed 'dips' in 2021 only to apparently recover again in 2022.

More subtly perhaps, Woodpigeon, House Sparrow, Chaffinch, Coal Tit, Wren, Song Thrush and Sparrowhawk all seem to be trending downwards over this period, whereas Robin, Blackbird, Goldfinch, Magpie and Jay may be trending upwards. 

Admittedly, the reporting period included here maybe somewhat short in order to draw any firm conclusions, and a more detailed analysis over a longer period would be needed to confirm these possible trends.

Andy  M