Garden bird diary opened with arrival of calendar spring
Photo Arne Ader
Translation Liis
Starling’s home
Dear garden bird friend!
The arrival of astronomical spring on Saturday, March 21st, also starts a new Summer Garden Bird Diary! On the familiar garden bird web page: LINK
all can create their own personal garden bird diaries and start to note the birds that are busy and breed in their garden.
The Summer Garden Bird Diary was created in order to collect information and improve the knowledge of the bird species that are busy and breed in our gardens, because we actually know surprisingly little about the fluctuations in their distribution and abundance. Thanks to hundreds of garden bird observers we already got the first results last year: LINK
But it is necessary to monitor trends in the data for many years.
A sincere thank you once more to all garden bird observers last year!
Innovations in the garden bird diary
Already last year mammals, amphibians and reptiles seen in the garden were noted in the diary in addition to birds. This year two new themes are added: the phenology of plants and insects, and bumblebees seen on flowers in the garden.
On the plants and insect phenology pages the date when flowers of wild and garden flowers opened and when the first insects appeared can be noted. Since these data are not collected systematically at present we try to help here. In addition to the given lists everyone can add their own favourite plants and insects. Unlike birds, vertebrates and bumblebees, the appearance of flowers and insects can be noted for a radius up to 1 km outside one’s own garden.
On the page for bumblebees observed on flowers which flowers different bumblebee species visit in your garden it can be noted. We look for new information on the distribution of bumblebee species in Estonia and the preferences of different bumblebee species regarding honey plants. The bumblebees are important pollinators of flowering plants, and garden plants are important sources of food for them. Identification help is available for determining the bumblebee species: LINK
but you can also note just the colour group.
At the moment in nature
The spring weather that has already lasted for more than a month has lured the first short-distance migrants here – skylarks, lapwings, starlings and many others too. For the weekend ”lark winter” is predicted. The weather will turn colder, snow and slush is promised. This makes the life of the early arrivals much more difficult, because food might not be available for catching and the insects that have been busily flying around disappear. It is certainly good to continue with extra feeding for small birds in the next few days because extra food is really needed now. Now it is also worthwhile to observe who visits your birdfeeder now, because the lark winter often attracts early arrivals and exotic birds who otherwise don’t much care for a birdfeeder. Nothing to be done – some springs favour early arrivals who occupy the best nesting places before the later comers. Another year however a too early arrival can cost dearly.
A rich garden
It is the last time to clean the nestboxes and put up new boxes for starlings, tits and sparrows. If you want to reserve nestboxes for a pied flycatcher or a swift they should not be put up until the beginning of May, otherwise someone else moves in.
When you prune apple trees, leave a decent stack of branches in a corner of the garden or in another out-of-the-way spot. Warblers may come to nest there, sometimes a hedgehog.
Presently owls are calling in the evening dusk and dark. On quiet dark evenings and nights it is worth to listen if perhaps the whistling of a pygmy owl or the hoots of an Ural owl can be heard from the forest or the calls of a tawny owl or the tooting of a long-eared owl. So a nice chance to get an owl into one’s garden bird list!
Recommendationa for using the diary
It is useful to look up the basic rules for the Summer garden bird diary again before starting the diary: LINK
How does the web diary work, and how should birds and the other groups be observed and noted?
Although the Summer Garden Bird Diary already covers many biological groups, it must be emphasized that the first priority is still the birds encountered in the garden and particularly those who nest there. Observations of bumblebees, vertebrates and plants and insects are simply extra options because on observing birds and moving about in the garden a nature friend will notice other signs in nature too. And so why not record them!
Exciting garden observations!
Meelis Uustal
Summer garden bird diary coordinator
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