30 years of BTO GardenBirdWatch

The end of 2024 saw the completion of 30 years of data collection and analysis by the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) Garden BirdWatch (GBW).  It has up to 13,000 people submitting up to half million records each year and once a data set gets that big it starts to produce really interesting and valuable results.  I have been fortunate to be a member and to have been submitting data from my garden from the start in January 1995.  On the GBW website I can look back at my own data but perhaps it is more interesting to examine long-term trends in the North East or the whole country.  Two examples, chosen because of observations in my garden, are Rook and Ring-necked Parakeet which show contrasting fortunes.  When I moved here in 1989 there was a rookery in the small copse in my garden.  The rooks were great fun to have as neighbours but their numbers gradually dwindled from a peak of 44 nests to six nests in 2010.  A few birds turned up for a look round but didn't nest in 2011 and there have been none since.  The GBW data for gardens in the North East show a steady decline but some people are still fortunate to see them.

I can see from my GBW data that the first time I saw a ring-necked parakeet here was in week 12 (March) 2022.  I saw one or two birds until week 17 and then they disappeared.  The next record was in week 46 (November) 2022 and they have been here in numbers ever since, up to 15 at a time.  Here is the graph for gardens in the North East so this is a bird that is obviously here to stay.

Here they are seen through the kitchen window with the iPhone.  Note the three non-native mammals as well.  They are even more regular visitors than the parakeets.

Two finches, both very common here, also show contrasting fortunes.  Greenfinches have long been in decline nationally, probably mainly because of infection with trichomonosis.  In recent weeks here I have been seeing up to nine at a time but this is the national picture, first for presence, then abundance.

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In contrast, goldfinches, which commonly feed alongside greenfinches, are doing well.  They seem not to be affected by trichomonosis.

The BTO GBW data shows lots of other winners and losers over the past 30 years.  Birds in decline include spotted flycatchers, starlings and collared doves.  Those increasing in numbers include wood pigeons, great spotted woodpeckers and magpies.  One final comparison I have chosen is between our two sparrows.  First house sparrow (a very rare bird in my garden, only two sightings in 30 years),

and tree sparrow (a new arrival here about 13 years ago but scarce for the last two years).

The BTO Garden BirdWatch is one of the largest and most valuable citizen science projects in this country, providing important and fascinating insight into changes and trends in the fortunes of our garden birds.  As someone too lazy to keep lists I find it a great way to check on what has been happening in my own garden as well.

OtterCam on Winterwatch

I expect most of you will have had better things to do but a few may have seen Winterwatch on BBC2 last night.  This was quite a surreal experience for me and, as you might imagine, I was way out of my comfort zone.  The only benefit was that rather than one or two hundred people seeing my otter videos, two million might enjoy them.  It wasn't easy for me watching that shrivelled old man in the silly hat but, hey ho, you only live once.

The initial approach came from Andy Strong, a BBC researcher on "The Watches", via an introduction from Vivien Kent, our local otter expert.  It was closely followed by a Zoom call with Andy and Amy Young, my producer.  They had seen the otter videos on my blog and set up a filming day at Gosforth Nature Reserve in mid December.  We met before dawn at the reserve and were busy all day with no breaks.  Amy and Andy were there along with Simon Glass the camera man and Graham Smith doing sound recording.

I spent most of the morning walking up and down, being filmed from different directions with different lenses, outside the reserve, at the entrance, in the woods and on the boardwalk.  Simon then flew the drone while I was walking up and down the boardwalk and we eventually got in to where the trail cameras are.  More filming with me explaining where the cameras were, how they were set up and where the otters would be.  Then an interview, which I don't think I did very well. I guess part of the reason for all the other filming is to be able to cut away from me rabbiting on and to be able to shorten the audio.

After another drone flight we moved on to one of the hides in the afternoon but in mid December there usually isn't much to see and to no surprise but much to Amy's disappointment no otters appeared.  This is Simon flying the drone with Amy watching and Graham spotting.

By the time we finished it was getting dark so it was a relentless long day - a one off for me but that is what the team does every day.  Amy, Andy, Graham and Simon were all very supportive, very encouraging and seemed pleased with the way things went although I suspect they were just being polite.  Amy and Andy came back here to look through my otter videos, concentrating on the winter recordings and taking my edited versions plus all the original clips so they could re-edit them properly.

I think I had been waffling a lot in the interview because I then met up with Graham a couple of weeks ago to re-record the audio - I suspect some of my descriptions had been much longer than the videos but a lot of the re-recorded audio sounds a bit slow and "flat" to me, not really the way I speak in real life.

Here are Amy and Andy the producers.

Simon camera.

Graham sound.

While I was explaining about the trail cameras they were still recording so here is a brief camera's eye view of the process.

Having watched the final result last night I am amazed how good a job Amy and her team did pulling it together and the response from friends and family has been very encouraging and very positive.  It has caused a lot of excitement in and around the reserve so I am very pleased I got involved.  Looking back I can think of lots of things I could or should have done better (two hours in makeup would have helped), not that I want to have another go.  Believe me it is much more difficult than David Attenborough makes it look, but then he does have 70 odd years' experience. His job is safe for now.

I am grateful to Brian Rutter for these photos and to Clare Freeman, the NHSN director, for approval for the whole project.  The recording of the programme is available on the BBC iPlayer here for over a year - my section starts at 45:00 if you don't want to watch the whole thing.  It was also previewed on BBC Look North and I was interviewed on BBC Radio Newcastle so it has been quite a week!  You can find out more about Gosforth Nature Reserve and the Natural History Society of Northumbria on their website here.

Catching up with OtterCam

The otters-on-ice videos in the recent cold snap weren't as good as I had hoped, or as good as last year, but there are a few videos to catch up with.  Just before Christmas the mother and cubs showed up at the water's edge and spent a couple of minutes grooming and scent-marking before moving on.  As before, the use of several cameras gives much better lighting than just one.

A few nights later the dog otter turned up looking very relaxed (and healthy) and indulged in a bit of rolling and grooming before trotting up the bank.

Around the same time an unknown otter appeared - one that I didn't recognise.  The first time was in daylight and I didn't know if it was just one of the three with the other two staying in the water.  However, on a couple of subsequent nights it was back and looked very uncertain and wary, hurrying past the cameras without stopping to sniff like all the others do.  It was clearly on its own so I wondered it if might be a dispersing youngster from elsewhere or an older otter that had been displaced from its territory.  Here it is compared with the resident dog otter (top), so it is smaller, presumably female, and looks thin.

A sick or injured otter was subsequently seen nearby and captured by Blyth Wildlife Rescue but when it was taken to the vet it was in very poor condition and had to be put down.  It was confirmed as female and may have been suffering from a canine distemper virus infection but the results of tests are awaited.

Confirmation that our resident otters are OK came with the appearance of the three together. This video is interesting at the start because it shows the third otter swimming under the ice, searching for the exit hole.

Here is a half speed slow-motion of the under-ice swimming.

Finally, there was one brief view of the dog otter testing the ice.  He immediately decided it wasn't strong enough to bear his weight so he plunged straight through and swam off underneath.  Brrr.

ShrewCam

It seems that shrews are like London buses - you wait ages for one and then three come along all at once.  WeaselCam is mainly seeing wood mice at the moment but a few nights ago there were three shrews.  First a pygmy shrew, which has been appearing from time to time, then a common shrew, which hasn't been common recently, and last a water shrew, the first I have seen since September.

This has happened twice before.  In 2020 I set a camera hoping to find a water vole up near Wark Forest and found three shrew species in one night.  And a few weeks ago I saw three within an hour near Riding Mill.  I don't know if these episodes have just been coincidence or whether the shrews could be following each other around or interacting in some way.  Either way it seems odd.  I posted the video on the Mammal Society Facebook page asking the same question but didn't get a reply, just lots of "likes".  If you have any thoughts please leave a comment.

WeaselCam in December

The camera in the weasel box is there all the time, mostly recording wood mice.  Last month there were five weasel visits, two each from two different animals and the fifth I can't tell.  A male weasel I call weasel 4 was here on the 3rd and the 5th.  The first time he was having a very good look round, probably able to smell the wood mice.

The next time he was dashing about more but I can still manage to identify him on freeze frames. There is a space behind the camera with a few spare bits of wood that he seemed to find very interesting.

The second weasel was a female, the same one who was first here in November.  She also spent a lot of time behind the camera (I have edited most of it out) and it was interesting to see her scent-marking.

She was back a week later for another look round.  I am really hoping she'll stick around and perhaps even move into the weasel wall.

A male weasel dashed in and out so fast on 31st that I can't be sure which it was - my best guess is weasel 4 again.  Otherwise the camera mainly records wood mice, bank voles, the odd American grey squirrel, wrens and great tits.

The voles are interesting.  Almost always I have been seeing bank voles but then this one turned up one night.  It is large with a fairly short tail so it must be a field vole.

One very pleasing visitor was a pygmy shrew who has been in a few times, once in daylight.

I am hoping for many more weasel visits in 2025 and perhaps even a few stoats as well.