A Week on the Estate: Chilly Roofing, Stocky Finches & Citizen Science

We know that ChatGPT can’t compete with Jacqui, but here’s what it had to say about our BirdWeather statistics in December. We’ve edited out some of its more improbable conclusions, but we agree with the positive overall assessment. Heavy rain and strong winds also played havoc with our acoustic detectors on more than a few days last month, somewhat distorting figures in a few categories.

“Here are the observations and insights from December’s bird recording compared to November’s data:

– Most species show a significant reduction in recorded counts. For example, rook counts dropped from 31,011 in November to 17,347 in December. This may be due to weather changes, reduced daylight hours, or changes in bird behaviour during winter.

– Some rarer species, like Bohemian waxwing (two in both months) remained constant.

– Counts of migratory species, such as redwing (3,314 to 1,454) and fieldfare (114 to 335), changed significantly. Fieldfare counts increased, perhaps due to harsher conditions driving them into more hospitable areas like South Ormsby.

– Most owls, including tawny owl (3,995 to 1,962) and barn owl (406 to 194), show a drop in counts, possibly due to reduced vocal activity.

– Bittern: Despite lower numbers (77 to 43), their continued presence highlights the importance of wetland habitats in the area.

– Migratory birds like redwing and fieldfare are likely moving between areas based on weather and food.

– Common buzzard (1,277 to 837) and red kite (118 to 51) have seen reductions, which could reflect decreased prey availability during winter.

– Species like graylag goose (361 to 153) and mallard (416 to 218) also saw reductions, but the Estate still supports a good variety of waterbirds, indicating the importance of water bodies even in winter.

“The December data reflects seasonal patterns and highlights the Estate’s ongoing role in supporting biodiversity. It also reveals opportunities to further strengthen habitats for both resident and migratory species.”

If you missed last week’s blog, in which we discussed how and why we plan to boost our numbers of wild birds, you can catch up HERE. Josh Bryssau is in the process of setting up acoustic detectors close to some of our wild-bird winter-food plots so that we can improve detection rates for our more elusive farmland birds.

If you’ve read this far, there’s a good chance you care about wild birds as much as we do. Keep watching this space for more chances to get acquainted with our birdlife this spring and summer. In the meantime, we’d be grateful if you’d make time for two wonderful citizen-science projects that are coming very soon.

First up, the RSPB’s Big Garden Birdwatch runs between Friday 24^th and Sunday 26^th January. This is a great way to get the whole family involved in conservation, and you can take part at home with a brew. Click HERE to sign up and find out more.

For those of you who love to get out and about in our lovely countryside, the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust will be running its Big Farmland Bird Count between Friday 7^th and Sunday 23^rd February. Any data you submit will help nature-friendly British farmers to better protect and nurture our farmland birdlife. For full instructions, click HERE.

If you’d like to join the conversation, we’d love to hear from you. Just head to our Facebook page HERE and comment beneath the latest blog post. As ever, thanks for your support.

* Redwing image by Kev Chapman via Flickr CC