Nature News from RSPB Scotland
Keep up to date with what's going on in nature. Host Stephen Magee will have the latest news on wildlife, policy and what's going on on RSPB Scotland's amazing reserves. Get in touch @RSPBScotland on Twitter or podcast.scotland@RSPB.org.uk
Nature News from RSPB Scotland
EPISODE 19 Big Garden Birdwatch 2023
Stephen and Kate are joined by Katie O’Neill and David Hunt for a Big Garden Birdwatch. Join them in Kate’s “garden room” for some tips on how to take part in this important bit of citizen science. There’s also all the latest nature news and a very odd folk tale about goldcrests.
LINKS
Species Campaign
https://action.rspb.org.uk/page/117828/action/1
Mull Eagle Blog
Big Garden Birdwatch
https://www.rspb.org.uk/get-involved/activities/birdwatch/?from=hphero
How to Clean Feeders
Stephen Magee 0:34
Hello and welcome to our podcast nature news from RSPB Scotland. I'm Steven Magee. This is where we bring you stories about nature, from global news to the little things we're noticing every day.
Kate Kirkwood 0:45
And I'm Kate Kirkwood, there's never been a time when staying in touch with nature and acting to protect it has been more important.
Stephen Magee 0:51
We are keen to hear your nature news, whether it's the little moments you've experienced, or your thoughts on the big issues affecting the planet. You can contact us on Twitter @RSPBScotland or you can email us at podcast.scotland@rspb.org.uk.
Kate Kirkwood 1:05
And please do subscribe And leave us a review because it helps other people find us in the podcast jungle.
Stephen Magee 1:22
Hello, welcome to the podcast. We are in Kate's shed.
Kate Kirkwood 1:26
We are. It's a little bit more... it's a bit posher than a shed.
Stephen Magee 1:30
It's a very "East Lothian" shed.
Kate Kirkwood 1:32
Well, I have to call it by its proper name. It's the 'garden room' because I get told off for calling it the shed.
Stephen Magee 1:37
Okay, it is the garden room. It is lovely, right? But for the purposes of today we are joined in the shed, in this confined space by friends of the podcast Katie O'Neill, hello Katie.
Katie O'Neill 1:46
Hiya.
Stephen Magee 1:48
And also David Hunt.
David Hunt 1:49
Hello, how are we doing?
Stephen Magee 1:50
And the reason we're here, I'm gonna let you hear the reason we're here:
Various birds 1:53
*Bird noises*
Stephen Magee 2:00
That is all the birds on the feeders in Kate's garden, which we can see from the shed.
Kate Kirkwood 2:04
Yes, definitely. I have placed them in specific locations so that we have a really good view.
Stephen Magee 2:10
We've coaxed some in. And obviously the reason we're here, like, in your garden is to talk about Big Garden Birdwatch! And in fact, later on, we're going to do a bit of a Big Garden Birdwatch, right, and David is going to be a grown up and help us...
David Hunt 2:25
I will do my best.
Stephen Magee 2:26
/Tell us what we can see. But before we get on to that, as ever, we've got our nature news. And we're going to start with our with our own individual news news. I will start off mine is waxwings. I was really lucky. I managed to get out just after Christmas in a cold snap, and do a bit of filming of waxwings near me in west Edinburgh, and it was a gorgeous winter, sunny, frosty day, and they just looked really special. I'll put the video that came out of that trip in the podcast notes. But just brilliant to see and proper, proper light winter treat.
Kate Kirkwood 3:10
Really, really nice. There's quite a lot of birders that I follow on Twitter and the excitement. You can tell when someone's-
David Hunt 3:17
There are few birds that generate that kind of like "wow, waxwings!" kind of, that mythical, mythical status in it. And the good thing about waxwings is that they hang out in the most unlikely places for such a beautiful bird, like retail parks and the side of a road.
Stephen Magee 3:33
The ones that I - and I don't think I'm giving away any state secrets here- But if you're know Edinburgh, the ones that I went to see, there's a set of rowan bushes, or trees, really near the Jenners Depository, at Balgreen. And there they all were, it was amazing. So yeah, that was great. Kate?
Kate Kirkwood 3:49
Oh, my nature news. It was my first spot of this bird actually. So I was wandering along the lane the other day, walking the dog, we were just out for a bit of a mooch. And she was busy sniffing all the sniffs, and out popped a goldcrest. And it was just hanging out on the hedge, and just like hopping around and I was like, Oh, hang on a minute. That has a little gold crest on his head. That's a goldcrest! Like I literally had one of those moments where I said out loud to the dog, who couldn't care less. "Oh, my goodness. That's a Goldcrest." And she was like "Uh huh. Right let's go home, Mother.". So I was very excited because that's the first one I've ever seen, like in the flesh, but it was literally from me to Dave at the moment which is like three, four feet away.
Stephen Magee 4:36
UK's smallest breeding bird I'm pretty sure.
David Hunt 4:39
We get loads across here from Scandinavia in the in the winter. Imagine that. Flying across the North Sea in October.
Kate Kirkwood 4:49
Don't they have a nickname? Is it like the Woodcock pilot or something? Is that the right?
David Hunt 4:53
Oh right, is it that because they travel at the same time back?
Kate Kirkwood 4:56
Yeah there was a myth that used to fly on the back of a woodcock.
David Hunt 5:00
I think yeah, because like if you see that bird like weighs less than a pound coin or whatever, probably even less, how is that gonna fly over? But they do it and I've seen like tired ones just like arrive at your feet on beaches before in the Autumn.
Stephen Magee 5:12
Cool bird. They do very occasionally turn up on oil rigs, like having a rest halfway across. Yeah, you get these falls of like goldcrests.
David Hunt 5:21
We might see one today.
Stephen Magee 5:23
Yeah! Katie, nature news?
Katie O'Neill 5:26
My nature news. So yesterday Kate and I were at Lochwinnoch nature reserve, which is the nature reserve 20 minutes outside of Glasgow, right beside the train station. And we were looking at the hide and we learned that the juvenile cormorant has got a white belly. So we all thought was a penguin to start with!
Everyone 5:43
*Laughing.*
Kate Kirkwood 5:44
Might I just add, experienced RSPB staff there, wondering what this was.
Stephen Magee 5:57
So once you've established it wasn't a bird from the South Atlantic, they're just amazing though aren't they. Proper dinosaur-y feel.
Katie O'Neill 6:08
Yeah when they stretch and everything.
Stephen Magee 6:11
Lovely. Dave?
David Hunt 6:14
Yeah, it's been cold this week. It's been cold. Yeah, I woke up earlier this week. And that kind of like, half asleep like, "What is that sound?". It was a blackbird singing out the back. And it was just that kind of feeling like, "Okay, we're back to birds singing again, that's great.". And went out for a little look and I'd thrown some apples out on the grass and it came down. And it was clearly The Blackbird. This is his his territory because I've not seen it all winter, and I've seen like different blackbirds in the garden. And now he'd come back and was singing. I just was like, well it's great to hear but like, where have you been? Where have you been? Like, now you're back. You're back to reclaim.
Stephen Magee 6:57
It's been riding around on the back of a woodcock.
David Hunt 6:58
Yeah. Just know is that it's really cold. It feels like it's kind of the heart of winter but the days are getting a little bit longer and the birds are singing again. Feel good?
Stephen Magee 7:08
Absolutely. Well, we don't just do our own nature news. We also do like wider nature news. A couple of things I want to let you know about. One is something that you can help with, which is we currently RSPB Scotland have a campaign ongoing about valuing the species that we have in Scotland, really special birds and other animals, but also what we can do to support and to help them and the Government action. That's really important. So you can select your favourite species and get in touch with your representatives and let them know that you want more action to protect and support them. We will put links in the show notes for that. The other bit of news I wanted to let folks know about was a bit of good news which is, over Christmas- There was a special Christmas visit on Mull. One of the white-tailed eagle chicks that- if anybody was watching the nest cams from the Cairngorms Connect area that were up on our website, on our YouTube channel. That was one of the chicks, a female chick, that fledged flew all the way over to Mull and was spotted alongside Skye and Frisa, the two long standing white-tailed eagles that have produced so many broods on Mull and have been on TV and are super famous. And this bird, it turns out, the birds that hatched in the nest over on the east coast was the great grandchild of Skye and Frisa. And Skye and Frisa date from right back from, you know, at the beginning of the kind of recolonisation of Scotland by these birds, and it's just a fantastic thing to think about these networks we now have, you know, of birds and how far we've come in actually a relatively short period of time, you know, getting to, you know, I think 150 breeding pairs now of white-tailed eagles you know from a standing start. Just fantastic.
David Hunt 9:05
Yeah, to an eagle, kind of, Scotland is is nothing really. We think about distances but there's now kind of eagles breeding across Scotland and yeah, a few a few flaps from one of those birds and they're on the West Coast and it's just crazy to think, isn't it, that there's that bird has been drawn towards there and Mull is like capital of eagle goings on and there you go.
Stephen Magee 9:28
Yeah brilliant.
Cloth on window 9:29
*Squeaking*
Stephen Magee 9:38
That is the sound of Kate wiping the windows so that we can see the birds here so let's let's do what we set out to do properly here. Yeah, I can see much better now, what's going on out of the garden room - not the shed!
David Hunt 9:51
Shed with a view.
Stephen Magee 9:53
So Big Garden Birdwatch. How does Big Garden Birdwatch work for a start, let people know that and then we'll work through what we can see here.
David Hunt 10:00
Big Garden Birdwatch season! So here we are, again it's the end of January. So this is the last weekend in January- 27th 28th 29th of January, and it is your chance to tell us and record what you've got in your garden- a chaffinch has just landed, it almost looks like it's had it's makeup done, like it's had a proper glow-up, hasn't it? Big Garden Birdwatch, you can obviously do it in your garden, you don't need to do it in your garden, you can do it in your local green space, your local park. If you do it away from your garden, you just need to pick an area basically. And you can map out your little area, you can walk it and you just have to select a place where you want to count the birds within. Super easy. Have a look on the RSPB website for what you need to do. You don't need to be an expert in birds. That's the great thing about Big Garden Birdwatch, isn't it?
Stephen Magee 10:58
I actually think on of the really nice things about it is, doing it with my kids when they were when they were smaller, is it's almost the opposite. You don't want to be an expert. It's a great way to engage with-
David Hunt 11:09
Experts welcome!
Stephen Magee 11:10
Yeah, no, that's fine. But it's a really good way to engage with the commoner birds that you might see, the materials that you get if you download them are like, make it really easy to do.
Kate Kirkwood 11:24
Nuthatch!
Stephen Magee 11:25
Oh have we just had a nuthatch!
David Hunt 11:28
And if we're talking makeup on birds, I mean, look at that.
Kate Kirkwood 11:33
They're beautiful. And I am so excited to have a nuthatch here. But also you're going to just find me shouting out bird names throughout the podcast.
Stephen Magee 11:40
That is absolutely fine. So just to describe a nuthatch. It has flown away now, but just to describe a nuthatch for people like bluey grey back, orange around the belly, orange around the face, and then that really pronounced black eye stripe.
Kate Kirkwood 11:54
Now, we were told the word for that eye stripe and I can't remember what it is. Can you remember?
Stephen Magee 11:58
Supercilium?
David Hunt 11:59
Yeah supercilium.
Kate Kirkwood 12:01
Oh well remembered! Brownie points for you.
David Hunt 12:04
Nuthatch - pretty new in Scotland sense as well, like, not been here for, kind of, that long and, kind of, slowly, kind of, creeping north. So if you are listening from North Scotland, look out for nuthatches, you might get lucky. So that would be "Nuthatch" And a "1" next to it for now on our Big Garden Birdwatch.
Stephen Magee 12:22
Yes. So just to go back to cover off the basics. You pick your place, whether it's your garden, or wherever else it is, you can do it out your window, anything like that. Take notes. And what you want to record is the largest number of each species that you see. Perched, landed, whatever not flying over, you know, stationary in front of you at any one time. So if, for example, three nuthatches, right, come in and a bit, and all perched on that fence, then our record would be three nuthatches for that purpose, if not, it's that one nuthatch. That's really the only rule you need. After that. It's like, you know, make sure you got you know, a warm drink with you because it's January and knock yourself out. See what you can see.
Kate Kirkwood 13:11
So long do we do it for, as well, that's another key point.
Stephen Magee 13:14
It's an hour. Yeah, so you do it for an hour. And as I say, record the largest number of birds you see at any one time over the span of that hour. So Kate, it's your garden. What do you commonly see in here and what can you see in front of you just now.
Kate Kirkwood 13:29
Okay, so the regulars to the feeders, we've got lots and lots of blue tits, and we have fantastic numbers of house sparrows and tree sparrows. Now Dave has just taught me the difference between them so I'm keeping my eye out for them. We've got loads of great tits. There's three or four hanging about on the fence just now, loads of chaffinches. We get loads of blackbirds, we've got some fairly territorial blackbirds at the moment. I was in a meeting the other day and I had to mute myself because I had about six blackbirds having a scrap over one of the feeders.
Stephen Magee 14:04
Goldfinch on the feeder! Yeah, and then gone.
Kate Kirkwood 14:06
Yeah so goldfinches, we often get things like siskins and greenfinches coming through as well. We've got robins. Oh, gosh, what else can we see...
Stephen Magee 14:18
I can see a dunnock right down on the stumps there.
Kate Kirkwood 14:21
The dunnocks are one of my favourites. So, just to give you a bit of a visual picture for what we're talking about. I've got my desk in my office in the shed- in the garden room, sorry, I've got a window feeder. And I've got some feeders on like the washing line and things looking out back towards the house, and the birds are fairly messy about the feeders. So the dunnocks really love getting in and about by the glazed patio doors, by my desk, so often I can sit and just watch them. And they're fairly used to me being in here by now. So they don't really pay too much attention, but they often come quite close. So you get really, really close up views of the dunnocks just minding their own business, popping about And they're really beautiful birds, I really like them.
Stephen Magee 15:02
I think they're very- like because they're a little hedgey bird right, they kind of cut around in hedges and stuff, and I think they quite often- people can be, particularly birders can be a wee bit dismissive about them, like the word they always use in books is skulking, right skulking? And they're not skulking, they're just being careful, right? And actually, when you see them, particularly this time of year when their plumage is relatively fresh, right? The purple on their tummies. Lovely! It's quite subtle but it's really nice.
Kate Kirkwood 15:31
I love that kind of grey, purple colour.
David Hunt 15:32
They might skulk, but they're smart. I mean, look how mad the feeder is with like, comings and goings of the robin, you've got a coal tit there, chaffinch, and all the while, the dunnock is just doing its business underneath, and picking up all the kind of bits of food that have been dropped.
Katie O'Neill 15:48
Bobbing about - change the terminology.
Stephen Magee 15:51
And, you know, if a sparrowhawk comes in over, you know, through that hedge, which you never know it could do, right? It's not gonna be the dunnock that gets whacked. It's gonna be one of these blue tits or great tits that sitting out in the open.
David Hunt 16:04
Yes. Sitting on the washing line.
Stephen Magee 16:07
In defence of dunnocks! Yeah. So, like, Katie. One of the things that you have worked on quite a bit is our urban stuff like, you know, connecting to the nature in urban places, right. Big Garden Birdwatch is a really good opportunity for that, right? Because it's, it's pretty straight forward?
Katie O'Neill 16:24
Yeah, yeah. And just to reiterate the point about that, like, you really don't have to know anything about birds to be able to take part in it like, actually, one of the best ways that I identify birds is typing into Google their characteristics, and then you get loads of pictures up and you can see it from that. So just if you're out and about, and you're not able to download the really great RSPB resources that are on the website for the Big Garden Birdwatch, just Google it, and you'll be able to, like work out from that.
Kate Kirkwood 16:25
I think as well, like, if you're there for a wee bit of time, get some paints out, get some crayons out, get some felt tip pens out. And actually, just maybe try and like observe what the birds look like, I think that's a really good way for getting your eye in. You don't have to know what it's called, you don't have to know the name of something. But you can kind of connect with it by looking at it by observing it and really appreciating that connection about how it moves, what it feels like. And that kind of connection, I think is really important as well, when we talk about our connections to nature and feeling engaged with it.
Stephen Magee 17:22
I think one of the other things about it is it makes you focus on one thing and one place for a little period of time. And that's actually got, I mean, whatever you want to call it, whether you want to call it mindfulness, or whether you want to just call it paying attention, right?
Katie O'Neill 17:45
Giving your brain a break as well. Like we have so much information all the time, just actually staring at something for a while can make you feel quite happy.
Stephen Magee 17:51
Yeah, no, I think it is. And it's like taking you know, it's an hour out. It's a pleasure, you know, when you got, a three day span to do it in, whatever suits you, do it. So from a science point of view, I mean, all this data gets hoovered up. Is citizen science data like this, is it something we can work with? Is it something that's useful?
David Hunt 18:14
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I can't remember the number of years Big Garden Birdwatch has been going but it is a lot, it is one of the longest running citizen science projects, kind of, in the UK, of this nature. And this is our, kind of, annual snapshot of what's going on in people's gardens. And so RSPB will do breakdowns by country and who's the movers and shakers in the top ten. And that kind of thing. So yeah, it's a great way of kind of working with a wide range of people. And to show that, kind of, science is for everyone, and citizen science is such an important part of that engagement and also what the likes of RSPB do.
Stephen Magee 18:57
Oh nuthatch is back again. Oh, it's gone again. Sorry. Great tit scared it off.
David Hunt 19:01
Happy to be interrupted by that! And the good thing about Big Garden Birdwatch, and citizen science is, we're in a garden that's got lots of birds. You might do your Big Garden Birdwatch and not see much. That's still really important information to know.
Stephen Magee 19:20
Absence is a thing as much as presence.
David Hunt 19:20
Yeah, absolutely. So you can compare to other years. And it keeps that, kind of, just keep that dataset rolling on. So if you see one robin, in your hour that you spend, that one robin is contributing to something that's that's much greater.
Kate Kirkwood 19:39
Yeah, absolutely. I think that's definitely the thing, the whole point of citizen science is that the raw data is a little bit rough, a bit ready. And it's people kind of contributing to something bigger, but because of the mass number, the quantity of data that we gather from that- this is a bit sort of scientific and nerdy- but because we have so much data we get the the anomalies, the weird things that show up, it gets smoothed off a little bit. And so, kind of, when we're thinking about what whether we're 100% correct with our identification and things like that, well obviously there's opportunities for that to be smoothed out in the data, and you don't necessarily see those as much. But, I think, as you say, the idea of the absence is really important, too, because there are birds that have massively declined in our gardens. I lived in the city for a long, long time. And we had so few starlings where I lived, I never saw starlings in my garden, just because of where we were. Loads of other birds, but no starlings, so that to me, was just like actually, why is it that there's no starlings? You see the occasional one, but I'm not quite sure why I'm not seeing those birds.
Stephen Magee 20:47
Yeah, because as a child, like a starling would have been a very common bird for me to see. And now, I notice when I notice a starling, you know. I was out doing another bit of filming the other day, somewhere in Edinburgh. And there were four or five, you know, doing the classic thing that starlings do, along the ridge of a roof. Right? You know, just like chatting away and being really noisy. And it's like that used to be such a common sound. Whereas, like you said earlier on, like, so nuthatch. When I was a kid growing up in Fife, you would never have seen one. There were specific places in the south of Scotland, you could go to see an nuthatch, and everybody knew where they were. But it was a trip. Whereas now, they're all about.
David Hunt 21:37
Yeah, absolutely. And I think just to reiterate about the citizen science nature of this, this is your chance to get involved with what you see in your garden or your space. But going back to, like, the starling point, we don't just do this, because it's a nice thing to do every year, this does provide important data and indicators about the state of play with some of these species. And so over time, the more and more people that do it, we can start to, sort of, see those trends in terms of what's up what's down. Starlings, house sparrows, greenfinches in recent years, you've seen kind of declines with them across the UK. So yes, you're part of you're part of something bigger here. So join in and help out.
Katie O'Neill 22:21
And just remember as well, you don't have to have a garden to be able to take part, like you can treat your green space as a garden, or a local river or canal or borrow somebody else's garden, or go to allotments or something like that. That information is just as important as gardens.
Stephen Magee 22:36
It is. And thinking about an urban environment. There's quite a few flats I've lived in, right? Where if you sit at the back window and there's like tenement backs, out the back of it, you know, greens at the back of it, actually you do better than in a lot of gardens. I mean you've got like a nice field of view, and all that stuff. Get yourself a window feeder and stuff. I mean, that's maybe one thing actually we should also talk about as well. Like Kate has got an impressive array of feeders out here.
Kate Kirkwood 23:03
I had a bit of a shopping spree yesterday.
Stephen Magee 23:06
Talk us through what you've got, right.
Kate Kirkwood 23:09
So my everyday feeders that I've had up until recently, like since I updated them, I've got a little window feeder, iT's a little stick on one that's just on my window. It's full of just seed mix.
Katie O'Neill 23:26
Do they visit that? Mine get scared of the window feeder I think.
Kate Kirkwood 23:29
They do, I think possibly because I'm usually so still in my seat, they kind of pop up and down. The blue tits are pretty big on that. It is different food in it today, so they may be less interested.
David Hunt 23:39
Ther is also a six foot five person stood right next to it.
Stephen Magee 23:43
Yeah to be fair Dave is hanging about right on top of that. It'll get some use later on.
Kate Kirkwood 23:49
Yeah, and I've got a really nice peanut feeder on the washing line. It's just on the metal pole ot the washing line, which is usually absolutely covered in various different birds. We've got some sunflower seed mix, in a kind of like a hopper bird feeder. It's got tray in the bottom so it just kind of fills up.
Stephen Magee 24:10
Coal tits seem to really like that one.
David Hunt 24:12
And it looks like- I'm just just watching it now - they have to work for that to get it out. You have to see how different birds cling on to it. The nuthatch was hanging on to the bracket on the fence post. Whereas the coal tit was almost like, squatting on it.
Everyone 24:25
*Briefly spotting the nuthatch then losing it*
David Hunt 24:26
Nuthatch excitiment is the shed is high today!
Kate Kirkwood 24:38
I've got one for peanuts and what we call "buggy nibbles", which are suet with lots of little insects in them, which is like a mesh, which is hanging in a tree, and then I've got another kind of tall, long feeder as well that's sort of just the sort of feeder mix that you get from the RSPB. And that's got a mix of different things like loads of sunflower seeds in and various different other seeds that the birds really love.
Katie O'Neill 25:05
Just to say now, in the winter, the birds are more looking for fat. So your fat balls and your suet is more what they're looking for, because it's cool. But in the summer, it's the protein and the seeds and things like that.
David Hunt 25:15
This week it got down to I think it was about minus four, minus five last night. So this has been a hard week, if you are a tiny songbird.
Stephen Magee 25:25
Yeah, yeah. And the other thing as ever, with feeders, as we should be clear, is it's really important to keep them clean, right? There's trichomoniasis- I'm probably pronouncing that wrong- which is a disease which has really seriously affected finch populations, particularly greenfinch. There's obviously bird flu, Avian Influenza, around as well. It's like clean them once a week. If you do have a specialist detergent do it. If not then just like, you know, hot soapy water, get a brush to get rid of all the food residue. I've done a video about it, I'll stick it in the show notes. It shows how to do it but you know, get a brush. Get everything off it, get it good and clean, dry it off, fill it up, stick it out. Just make a routine.
Kate Kirkwood 26:12
Yeah, absolutely. It's a bit like, you don't leave the dog bowl full of scraps and stuff, like, you make sure that that's clean. It's just basic good animal husbandry - you wouldn't eat off a really monkey plate that loads of other people have been eating off as well. Well you might do. I'm not going to comment on anyone else's eating habits.
Stephen Magee 26:33
There have been times. But I've never got trichomoniasis.
Kate Kirkwood 26:38
Exactly. But yeah, just keep it nice, hygienic, and also for yourself when you're topping up as well. Just make sure your hands, you're washing in between as well.
Stephen Magee 26:46
Oh yeah and the other thing I should have said, and it's in the video, but wear gloves when you're cleaning the feeders, like just rubber gloves. Rubber gloves is fine, but you know, just just absolutely looking after yourself and looking after the birds as well. I want to come back just as we're finishing up here to one bird, which Kate is very lucky to have in here garden. Right. Which might not be on everybody's Big Garden Birdwatch list but I was excited to see today, which is tree sparrows. Right? So chat us through how we know that tree sparrows for a start.
David Hunt 27:18
These actually are in a tree, as well but that's not that's not a good-
Stephen Magee 27:26
Senior Conservation Officer David Hunt had made it official, any sparrow you see in a tree is a tree sparrow.
David Hunt 27:33
Okay, trees sparrows, right. So lots of people will be familiar with house sparrows, kind of classic urban bird.
Stephen Magee 27:42
There's one feeder right in front of us, by the way.
David Hunt 27:45
Tree sparrow right there. So there we go. So that looks very similar to a male house sparrow, but has that kind of really prominent like black cheek, and most importantly, kind of an all brown cap. Unlike the kind of grey of the house sparrow. Slimmer bird, and the males and females look alike. Unlike the house sparrows. One of the big differences, although you will get house sparrows out in farmland, they are a kind of a classic farmland bird. You get them in sort of more rural locations. And they hang about with other cool farmland species like yellowhammers. So you won't see them if you are doing this Big Garden Birdwatch, in the middle of Glasgow, or Falkirk or wherever, you're unlikely to see a tree sparrow, unless you're kind of out on the edge somewhere. But here, the place is absolutely hoaching with them to be honest. And they are a declining bird, tree sparrows, lots of our farmland birds in Scotland have had massive declines. So tree sparrows are a great thing to look out for. And their presence is a really good thing to record, but they're just a really nice looking bird.
Stephen Magee 28:53
Yeah, look, we're not in ranking birds necessarily. It's a bit unkind. But... tree sparrow with that little black rosette on their cheek with the contrast to the white- because that's what really helped me actually, more than the different colour in the head. It's like that spot, although there is a bit of black on the house sparrows as well, the spot really pops on a tree sparrow. And it's a subtler kind of brown on the back as well. It's just all round, it's just a clean looking bird.
David Hunt 29:29
I think today because there's snow on the ground. So the kind of contrast with those kinds of colours is really quite stark, but they are very snazzy looking bird a tree sparrow.
Stephen Magee 29:40
They are pretty snazzy, right? So our time here is about done and also these windows are getting really steamed up. So what have we seen today?
Katie O'Neill 29:50
Well, I'm gonna say one thing that I've seen, and throw in a wee challenge with it if that's okay, so I just saw a female goldfinch. So my challenge is to also think about the female birds because there's a lot of focus even on ID cards on the males because they're easier to identify and it makes sense that kind of thing. But actually, there's so many female birds that we just call little brown birds. And so that's what I'm going to challenge myself on this year for the Big Garden Birdwatch is looking at the female birds, and not call the wee brown birds!
Stephen Magee 30:18
I think that's good, because like there's female chaffinches around here. And actually they're not little brown birds. There's quite subtle coloration on them. And the males are, well the males are literally showy. That's why the males have that coloration. It's because, you know, they are literally showing off, right, but the kind of russetty, kind of, you know, quite subtle coloration on a female chaffinch is absolutely lovely.
Kate Kirkwood 30:48
There's one just here.
Stephen Magee 30:50
At that point that chaffinch like walked up to the glass here and was like "Yeah, you're talking about me are you?".
David Hunt 30:58
They actually really stand out because most, not all, but most of the birds we're looking at right now, the sexes are similar. So we've got lots of similar looking birds, blue tits, great tits, robins, whereas the chaffinches- males and females obviously very different and they actually really stand out. So it's a good point, look out for your female chaffinches.
Stephen Magee 31:21
Kate, thanks for the use of the garden room.
Kate Kirkwood 31:23
Thank you for coming to visit.
Stephen Magee 31:25
It's been brilliant. And we've seen so much and, like really close, and getting a sense of the personality, I think that's one of the things with feeders is you get sense the personality of birds a bit as well don't you.
David Hunt 31:38
You do, and that's one of the cool things about Big Garden Birdwatch. Recording how many you see is obviously the most important thing, but you get an hour with the birds, just to kind of hang out, and they don't mind us here. I mean, it's cold, they're hungry. But yeah, just spend an hour seeing what you can see and just kind of watching them, like they are totally full of character like this chaffinch hopping about down here our feet, but yeah, enjoy it.
Stephen Magee 32:03
Anyway. Thank you, Kate.
David Hunt 32:05
Thank you.
Stephen Magee 32:05
The message is it is very easy to do the Big Garden Birdwatch, wherever you are, whatever space you've got access to. Just have a go at it. See how you get on. And you can let us know.
Kate Kirkwood 32:18
Yes, please do.
Stephen Magee 32:19
Please do let us know how you get on, or anything else that you want us to talk about or any thoughts about the podcast @RSPBScotland on Twitter or podcast.Scotland@rspb.org.uk.
Kate Kirkwood 32:27
And as always, please do like, subscribe and share with your friends. It really does help us find new listeners but also for others to find us in the podcast jungle.
Stephen Magee 32:41
Absolutely. Anyway, we're gonna have we're gonna finish our tea, and maybe have a bun. Thanks for listening and goodbye.