On Sunday morning, we held our tenth annual RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch. Members of Friends of The Heath (FoTH) and the Knutsford Ornithological Society (KOS) combined to form three teams, each covering a different section of The Heath for one hour.
Most birds were elusive, except for Wood Pigeons and Jackdaws, but perseverance paid off and we recorded nineteen species in an hour.
We were especially delighted to see a tiny Goldcrest that flitted above us for several minutes. We also captured a photograph of a Tree Creeper darting around a tree trunk.
The table below presents our combined results from the session alongside those from the previous years.
| Species | ’17 | ’18 | ’19 | ’20 | ’21 | ’22 | ’23 | ’24 | ’25 | 2026 |
| Blackbird | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 1 |
| Black-headed Gull | 4 | 2 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 2 | 1 | ||
| Blue Tit | 4 | 4 | 4 | 6 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 |
| Bullfinch | 1 | 2 | ||||||||
| Buzzard | 3 | 1 | ||||||||
| Carrion Crow | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 2 |
| Chaffinch | 1 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | ||||
| Coal Tit | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
| Collared Dove | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |||||
| Dunnock | 1 | 1 | 1 | |||||||
| Feral Pigeon | 2 | 3 | ||||||||
| Goldcrest | 3 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | |||
| Goldfinch | 7 | 1 | 5 | 1 | 2 | |||||
| Great Spotted Woodpecker | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |||
| Great Tit | 2 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 3 |
| House Sparrow | 1 | |||||||||
| Jackdaw | 2 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 7 | 21 | 2 | 14 |
| Jay | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | |||
| Kestrel | 1 | |||||||||
| Long-tailed Tit | 4 | 3 | 8 | 11 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 6 | 3 |
| Magpie | 4 | 6 | 3 | 10 | 1 | 11 | 2 | 5 | 2 | 3 |
| Nuthatch | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| Pied Wagtail | 2 | |||||||||
| Redwing | 5 | 6 | ||||||||
| Robin | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 |
| Song Thrush | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |||
| Starling | 3 | |||||||||
| Treecreeper | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | ||||
| Waxwing | 2 | |||||||||
| Wood Pigeon | 4 | 4 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 5 | 7 | 12 | 8 | 7 |
| Wren | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||||
| Total individuals | 47 | 48 | 53 | 64 | 31 | 59 | 45 | 77 | 37 | 50 |
| Total species | 19 | 21 | 19 | 20 | 15 | 22 | 17 | 19 | 17 | 19 |
We are grateful to everyone who participated; your dedication has extended our long-term bird survey. The results will be sent to the RSPB to contribute to the national bird population data.
