We were delighted to hold an RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch event on Sunday morning after missing last year due to the Covid restrictions. We split into three groups for an hour and covered all parts of The Heath, with members of the Knutsford Ornithological Society (KOS) providing their expertise.
In my group, Alan supplied the bird identities while Tom recorded the counts and Nick took the opportunity to collect litter we found along the way.
The combined records from the three groups surpassed those from previous years. We spotted Starlings for the first time, making a total of twenty-two species.
A Sparrowhawk looked spectacular as it circled in the bright open sky, hunting over The Heath, but we didn’t count it as it didn’t land.
The counts for this event and the previous ones are below.
| Species | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 |
| Blackbird | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| Blackheaded Gull | 4 | 2 | 6 | 1 | 1 | |
| Blue Tit | 4 | 4 | 4 | 6 | 5 | 3 |
| Bullfinch | 1 | 2 | ||||
| Buzzard | 3 | 1 | ||||
| Carrion Crow | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 2 |
| Chaffinch | 1 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Coal Tit | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | ||
| Collared Dove | 1 | 1 | 1 | |||
| Dunnock | 1 | 1 | ||||
| Feral Pigeon | 2 | |||||
| Goldcrest | 3 | 1 | 2 | |||
| Goldfinch | 7 | 1 | 5 | 1 | ||
| Great Spotted Woodpecker | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |
| Great Tit | 2 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 1 | 3 |
| Jackdaw | 2 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 2 |
| Jay | 1 | 1 | 1 | |||
| Kestrel | 1 | |||||
| Long-tailed Tit | 4 | 3 | 8 | 11 | 1 | 4 |
| Magpie | 4 | 6 | 3 | 10 | 1 | 11 |
| Nuthatch | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 |
| Pied Wagtail | 2 | |||||
| Redwing | 5 | 6 | ||||
| Robin | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Song Thrush | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | ||
| Starling | 3 | |||||
| Treecreeper | 1 | 1 | 1 | |||
| Waxwing | 2 | |||||
| Wood Pigeon | 4 | 4 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 5 |
| Wren | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
| Total | 47 | 48 | 53 | 64 | 31 | 59 |
Thanks to all who took part.
Kevin Griffiths
This article was amended on 1st February, following guidance from KOS on counting. The numbers were revised down by strictly adhering to the BGB rules, which state:
• Please only include those birds that land, not those flying over.
• Count the highest number of each bird species that you see at any one time, otherwise you could count the same bird twice.
