Simon's Blog - It's Big Garden Birdwatch Time Again

Can it really be a year ago since 585,000 of us spotted 8,546,845 birds?

Yes the RSPB's Big Garden Birdwatch is happening all over again and it's on Saturday or Sunday that we're urged to spend an hour keeping track of the birds that visit our local areas.

The results will be out in March and the data will be used to help the RSPB decide which birds they need to focus their conservation work on in the future.

So if you fancy taking part in the world's largest wildlife survey, click here for more details.

Last year's survey showed an increase in most of the top 20 birds compared to the year before. The winners were the wren, with double the number of spottings compared to 2014, the numbers of blackbirds was also on the up with sightings in more than 90 percent of UK gardens and the robin also did well, with sightings at their highest level per garden since 2011.

But there was bad news too and the chaffinch, goldfinch and greenfinch numbers were all down.

Across the ITV Meridian region the house sparrow was number one for sightings in Buckinghamshire, Dorset, East Sussex, Essex, Kent, Oxfordshire, West Sussex, Wiltshire, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, whilst the blue tit was the most spotted bird in Berkshire and Surrey.

Speaking of blue tits and here's one that Trevor Cridlan spotted in Thame...

...with the added bonus of three long tailed tits into the bargain.

Other interesting bird sightings include a bearded tit feeding on the reeds at Farlington Marshes from John Evans in Winchester.

John also came across a short eared owl hunting.

Lynne Loveland in Ripple near Deal snapped a coconut loving Woodpecker.

Rod Stuart in Iden has a tin heron in his garden which seems to have attracted a real one to come and do a bit of fishing in his pond.

John Davison in Thorpe Bay in Essex has had a regular visit from this bird over the past couple of months.

He says It's bigger than a blackbird but smaller than a magpie and he wants to know what it is.

If you've got any idea, drop me an email to meridianweather@itv.com or tweet me @SimonParkinITV if you're on Twitter.

And Mick Allen came across a Robin so friendly...

...that he ended up having lunch with it!