2011 Garden Birdwatch
This year records were supplied from 11 Woodcote gardens. The number of species recorded - 26 - was the same as in 2010, but one fewer than in 2009.
The Woodcote list is presented below as in the two previous years: i.e. the order is that of the number of gardens in which individual species were seen, with the total number of individual birds recorded across the village as a whole indicated in brackets after the species' name.
FIRST (seen in all 11 gardens)
Blue Tit (total of 55 individuals)
Chaffinch (46)
Woodpigeon (21)
Robin (16)
FIFTH EQUAL (10 gardens)
Blackbird (30)
Great Tit (22)
SEVENTH EQUAL (6 gardens)
House Sparrow (24)
Goldfinch (21)
Starling (17)
TENTH EQUAL (5 gardens)
Long-tailed Tit (20)
Coal Tit (7)
TWELFTH EQUAL (4 gardens)
Magpie (6)
Nuthatch (5)
Dunnock (5)
FIFTEENTH EQUAL (3 gardens)
Greenfinch (11)
Great-spotted Woodpecker (5)
Song Thrush (3)
EIGHTEENTH EQUAL (2 gardens)
Collared Dove (5)
Rook (4)
TWENTIETH EQUAL (1 garden)
Redpoll (c. 30)
Fieldfare (2)
Marsh Tit (2)
Bullfinch (2)
Brambling (2)
Carrion Crow (1)
Red Kite (1)
Changes from the last two years include a continuing increase in the reports of House Sparrows: in 2009 they were noted in only 2 gardens, with a total of 20 individuals; last year and this year they were noted in 6 gardens, with the overall number increasing from 11 to 24. Starling reports were also up: from just 2 gardens with 1 bird each in 2009, to 3 gardens with a total of 7 birds last year, and 6 gardens with a total of 17 birds this year. Our returns for Collared Doves remain well below the national average, with - as in the previous two years - only two gardens reporting them, though the total number of individual birds is up very slightly from 3 in 2009 and 2010 to 5 this year.
Notable returns this year included our first Red Kite actually in (as opposed to above) a garden; our first Marsh Tits and Bramblings; and a serendipitous sighting of a flock of about 30 Redpolls briefly foraging in the tree-tops in a garden on South Stoke Road (these could well have been the birds spotted at the edge of Dean Wood on the Winter Birdwalk on 15 January).