Great Garden Birdwatch 2009

The January 2009 birdwatch recorded 14 species (cf 2008 - 10 species, 2007 - 11 species). Three species -Greenfinch, Blue Tit and Great Tit- made an entrance together just two minutes before the end of the watch. Once again mallards made their first entrance of the year on Garden Birdwatch day. I also recorded moorhens, crows, rooks, magpies, blackbirds, wrens, wood pigeons, collared doves, starlings and chaffinches.
The next morning I glanced out the window and I could see robins, dunnocks, goldfinches and a pheasant but too late to be counted.
The Garden Watch is a brilliant scheme which is valuable both scientifically, from a communications perspective and in just involving people in birdwatching. The thing that it brings home to me is the lack of sparrows. I haven't recorded any in the last three years.

Goshawkor Sparrowhawk?

A friend who lives a few hundred metres away has had a Goshawk in the field next to their house and has seen it taking pigeons. I have often seen Sparrowhawks in the village and have seen one at close quarters eating a pigeon it had killed. I also reported on a 'Sparrowhawk' that took a pigeon from the lawn here in September 2007. I only caught a fleeting glance of the kill and I am now wondering whether it could have been a Goshawk. I have also come across a couple of piles of pigeon feathers (see blog August 2008), which I again thought might be from a Sparrowhawk kill, but again it is conceivable they could be from a Goshawk. Alternatively something else could have taken the pigeon such as a fox. The only point here is that the feathers have been in rough piles whereas when I used to come across pigeons that I knew had been taken by Sparrowhawks, the feathers were in more of a doughnut pattern. All in all I am out of my depth on this one and need some more evidence.........