Educational – Page 3 – Hoopoe

Gardening for Wildlife: Creating Habitat

In the first of our two-part series, Gardening for Wildlife: Providing Food, we looked at how to attract wildlife to your garden by including plants for pollinators and providing food for birds and mammals. In the second of our two-part ‘Gardening for Wildlife’ series, we look at how to create nesting or overwintering habitat effectively for the wildlife that visits your garden. Natural nesting sites for birds, insects and mammals have become rare in the broader landscape due to changes in farming, woodland management practices and building construction techniques. Wildlife-friendly gardens can provide fantastic habitat for invertebrates, birds, amphibians and mammals by making a few simple changes and by letting a bit of wildness back in.

Insects

It is easy to provide habitat for insects in your garden just by leaving the lawnmower in the shed. Setting aside a patch of grass to grow longer should encourage wildflowers to grow in your lawn, and will provide food and shelter for insects and small mammals. Creating a log pile in which beetles, woodlice and earwigs can shelter is also an easy way to increase garden wildlife habitat. You can provide additional nesting space for solitary bees or overwintering quarters for other insects by creating or installing an insect house. These can be homemade and constructed to your own design, or you can purchase purpose made houses. These are particularly important for solitary bees, who use tunnels in wood, mortar, plant stems or artificial houses to nest. They lay eggs and place a food source in a series of cells, and then block the entrance with materials such as mud, leaves or fine hair. Other nest sites can be provided by leaving dead wood and stems standing and leaving a patch of bare earth or mud bank for mining bees.

Bird Boxes

Providing bird boxes in your garden can be an excellent way of helping wildlife, as natural nest sites can be rare due to changes in house construction and woodland management techniques. There is a vast array of nest boxes available for many different species of birds, so it is worth knowing which bird species visit your garden before selecting a box. A good place to start is by providing a nest box with a 32mm entrance hole that is suitable for house sparrows or blue and great tits, who are enthusiastic occupiers of nest boxes. Most nest boxes are made of breathable materials such as wood or wood fibres mixed with concrete (Woodcrete or WoodStone). The advantage of Woodcrete and WoodStone nest boxes is that they are much more durable and can last for 10 years or more. Purpose-built nest boxes are available for many different species such as swifts, treecreepers and even robins. For more details on our most popular nest boxes, please see our series of blog posts on nest boxes suitable for different locations. For more details on where to hang your nest box, please see our blog post.

Mammals

Gardens are extremely important for hedgehogs and can provide excellent opportunities for foraging and hibernation. Leaving a pile of fallen leaves or a log pile can give them a place to shelter during the daytime or you can choose to invest in a hedgehog nest box. These can provide a safe place for hedgehogs to sleep or hibernate – there is even the option of installing a nest box camera so that you can watch footage of them using the box.

Hedgehogs can travel up to 2km each night, eating as they go. Allowing them to move freely between gardens is important to ensure that they can obtain enough food and find safe spaces to sleep. If you have a garden fence, cut a hole at the bottom measuring 13 x 13cm to allow hedgehogs to pass through on their nightly wanderings. You could also remove a brick from the bottom of a wall or dig a channel underneath.

Bats also use gardens for foraging, so increasing the number of invertebrates in your garden will help to attract them. Bats naturally roost in a variety of spaces including holes in trees. With natural cavities being rare, providing a bat box can be a great way of helping them and our series of blog posts on the top bat boxes for different locations, and our advice on where to hang your bat box is a great place to start. The best time to watch them is at dusk when you can sit in the garden and see them whizzing around catching mosquitoes. Alternatively, you can invest in a bat detector and identify the species visiting your garden. For both bats and hedgehogs, connectivity to other patches of suitable habitat is key. Hedgehogs use hedgerows or need access through fences to be able to visit multiple gardens, and bats use treelines and hedgerows when foraging.

Amphibians and Aquatic Invertebrates

The easiest way to help aquatic invertebrates and amphibians is by creating a pond or small body of water. Even if you have a small garden, you can create a mini pond with an old belfast sink or a washing up bowl. Choose a warm, sunny spot that will be good for dragonflies and tadpoles, consider planting a few native freshwater plants and wildlife such as pond skaters, damselflies and water beetles should soon find the spot. Please ensure that ponds are positioned with safety in mind if you have children, and that you include rocks or sloping edges so that wildlife can get in and out. There are fantastic guides to creating a pond available, such as the Wildlife Pond Book, and once your pond is up and running you can even try some pond dipping. It is not recommended to collect frogspawn from the wild, but you can encourage amphibians into your garden by providing damp areas such as log piles or a frog and toad house.

Watching Wildlife

Having attracted wildlife to your garden, there are several ways you can get fantastic views up close. Binoculars give you a great view of wildlife that is further away, but with close focus distances now much improved, they also offer a great way of magnifying insects and aquatic invertebrates. Read our blog post to find out how to choose a pair of binoculars. Alternatively, trail cameras can be used very effectively in gardens to record garden visitors such as hedgehogs and birds. These standalone weatherproof cameras use passive infrared to detect passing warm-bodied animals and take either still photographs or videos. For more information on trail cameras, see our blog post on how to choose a trail camera. For a really close-up insight into what the wildlife in your garden is doing, consider installing a nest box camera. See our guide on how to choose a nest box camera for advice on the different options. A hedgehog nest box camera can also give you really amazing footage of hedgehogs feeding and nesting.

By providing food resources and suitable habitat for wildlife, you can ensure that your garden becomes a sanctuary for the animals around you and a spectacle of nature right on your doorstep.

Recommended Reading

The Wildlife Pond Book
#246688

This offers a fresh and unique perspective on ponds, encouraging readers of any budget to reach for the spade and do something positive to benefit their shared neighbourhood nature.

Guide to Garden Wildlife
#246618

Even the smallest garden can be an important haven for wildlife, and this authoritative guide enables everyone to explore this wealth on their back doorstep. It covers all the main animal groups – including pond life – likely to be found in a garden in Great Britain and Ireland.

Making Wildlife Ponds
#231864

This guide can help you create an aquatic habitat in your garden, home to stunning, brightly coloured damsel- and dragonflies with iridescent eyes, amphibians which choose to breed, and birds and mammals of many kinds that come to drink at such placid waters, including hedgehogs

Nestboxes: Your Complete Guide
#241181

Building your own nestbox and watching a pair of birds raise a successful brood will bring pleasure to the whole family, and this book provides all you need to know to get started. Written by Dave Cromack and drawing on the BTO’s expertise, this provides the perfect guide to building, erecting and monitoring nestboxes for a broad range of bird species.

FSC Freshwater Name Trail
#175156

Aimed at KS2 and above, this 8-page fold-out chart is a fully illustrated key to help users identify the main animal groups found in freshwater. None of the identification in the key goes beyond family level, and some of it stays at the phylum or class.

Recommended Garden Products

Bee Brick
#244140

BeePot Bee Hotel
#244760

Vivara Pro Seville 32mm WoodStone Nest Box
#234956

Brecon FSC Nest Box
#252721

Vivara Pro Barcelona WoodStone Open Nest Box
#234963

Hedgehog Nest Box
#179141

Large Multi-Chamber WoodStone Bat Box
#246918

Magenta Bat 5 Bat Detector
#171849

NHBS Pond Dipping Kit
#244947

Toads in the Roads

It is in the earliest months of the year, when the weather turns milder and deeply saturating rains arrive, that adult toads, frogs and newts begin to emerge from their wintering hibernacula and make their long-standing annual journeys to the waterways in which they breed. It’s an ancient way of life for amphibians and a behaviour that pre-dates humankind by millennia.

Close up of a Toad crossing a loose, stony road at night. — Toad – Oli Haines

Roads are a relatively new addition to the landscape by comparison. A blink of an eye in toad evolution. They frequently bisect the paths that amphibians must navigate in order to reach their ancestral ponds. Being relatively slow-moving, small, and cryptically coloured, amphibians are incredibly vulnerable on tarmac roads. As such, it is estimated that two tons of toads are killed on roads each year in the UK.

This February was one of the warmest and wettest on record in England, and it felt every bit of it. Despite the gloom of early darkness and torrential rain, I was thrilled to sign up and join an enthusiastic local volunteer group of Toad patrollers, deep in the Devon laneways, to learn what work is being done to mitigate our impact on the amphibians currently making these critical journeys.

The Toads on Roads project was spearheaded by the amphibian charity Froglife over twenty years ago. Volunteers that are involved in the project put in considerable effort each year to monitor known and established toad crossings around the country. These are the places where toads gather in their largest numbers and are at significant risk of being run over in their attempts to reach spawning ponds.

The group I joined have, for a number of years, been protecting an intersection where three roads meet beside a large pond. As we gather in high-vis vests at around half five in the evening, it’s already fully dark. We’re wearing latex-free gloves and bearing large white buckets. The pond is swelling up either side of the road, flooding the tree roots in a muddy soup. The rain falls intermittently and, sure enough, a proud collection of male toads is already eagerly lining the roads awaiting the females.

Toads crossing for 800 metres sign on the side of a road with a grassy verge, wildflowers and long grass. — Toads crossing sign in Stalisfield Road by Pam Fray, via geograph.org.

We walk along the lane counting the toads we find and placing markers near them that are more visible for passing cars than the toads themselves are. It’s not such a busy road, but it is narrow and steeply enclosed between old earthen hedgerows that cars and tractors have clipped away over time, resulting in an overhang that the toads are incapable of climbing. Often, they become trapped along the lane. Where we find them in a predicament, we watch to observe the direction of their travel, and if the cars come, we gently lift the toads off the tarmac and place them in the verge where they appear to be headed.

A few drivers who come by slow down and ask what we’re doing. Many seem intrigued by the response, often vowing to take care as they go on. I’m told this is an improvement. As awareness of toad crossings and the work being done to monitor them increases, people are more understanding, though I’m assured there’s still animosity from some drivers who feel inconvenienced.

During some of the evenings on the patrol we encountered beastly weather; driving rain and flooded roads; and I marvelled at the dedication of the volunteers and their care for the amphibians crossing the roads. I learned that more people are approaching Froglife to get involved and that, due to increased awareness and publicity, the plight of toads is reaching more and more would-be patrollers. There have also been successful cases of temporary road closures to divert traffic during the heights of toad migration in the UK this year.

Close up of two toads, one on the back of another, crossing a gravelly road at night. — Toads – Oli Haines

It’s a complex web of challenges that contribute to amphibian population declines – not just nationally but globally. Land-use intensification threatens our waterways with myriad pollutants and our roads and construction projects fragment vital habitats or obliterate them entirely. It’s heartening that awareness is building. It has been such an inspiration to me to learn there’s a network of enthusiastic and caring volunteers out there in the winter nights, working at limiting the damage to amphibian populations, championing these remarkable and charismatic animals, and building hopeful connections in local communities while doing so.

If you feel call to get involved, visit the Froglife website where you can learn more about local toad crossings. There’s also abundant information on ways that you can make any local green spaces or gardens more amphibian friendly, such as making ponds, allowing wilder patches and encouraging greater invertebrate diversity.

Read our two-part Gardening for Wildlife blog for more information.

The Big Garden Birdwatch: NHBS Staff Results 2023

We have reached the end of the 44th Big Garden Birdwatch, which took place between 27th and 29th January. Run by the RSPB, this is one of the largest citizen science surveys in the UK and encourages the public to observe and record the birds in their garden over a period of one hour. In 2022, more than 700,000 people took part recording over 11 million birds. This huge amount of data allows the RSPB to create a comprehensive picture of how our local birds are faring, and to examine changes in both abundance and distribution over time.

If you took part over the weekend, there’s still time to submit your results on the RSPB website. The final date to let them know what you saw is 19th February. Don’t forget, even if you didn’t see anything, it’s still useful information. (If you can’t submit your results online, you can print off the form from the free guide and send it by post).

Even though the Big Garden Birdwatch is over this year, there are still lots of important things you can do to make your garden attractive to birds and other wildlife. Private and public green spaces in the UK cover an area three times bigger than all of the RSPB nature reserves combined, so making these spaces wildlife-friendly is hugely important and significant. Remember to keep putting out fresh food and water for your garden birds, and always remember to keep your feeders, bird tables and bird baths free from disease by cleaning them weekly. See the RSPB website for some helpful information on preventing disease, and check out this great guide from the Wildlife Trusts on cleaning bird feeders and nest boxes.

As always, many of our staff got involved with the Big Garden Birdwatch this year. Scroll down to see what we found and to see some of our pictures. We’d also love to see what you’ve spotted if you took part – let us know in the comments below.

Results

Sabine saw:

Woodpigeon: 2
Robin: 2
Great Tit: 1
Chaffinch: 2
House Sparrow: 1
Magpie: 1
Common Pheasant (male): 1

Catherine saw:

Starlings: 6
Blackbird: 1

Elle saw:

Woodpigeon: 1
Robin: 1
Blackbird: 1

Oliver saw:

Woodpigeon: 2
Blackbird: 3
Dunnock: 1
Long-tailed tit: 1
Jackdaw: 1

Luanne saw:

House Sparrow: 5
Robin: 1
Blackbird: 2
Magpie: 2
Woodpigeon: 3

The RSPB

For more information on UK garden birds, the Big Garden Birdwatch and how you can help them, please visit www.rspb.org.uk. Here you will find a wealth of information to help you find and identify UK bird species.

The Big Butterfly Count: NHBS Staff Results 2022

Speckled Wood (Pararge aegeria) sunning on a hazel leaf – Sabine Lang

Butterfly Conservation opened the Big Butterfly Count between 15^th July and 7^th August this year. This annual initiative sees citizen scientists taking to their gardens, local parks and verges, or heading out into the countryside to spend fifteen minutes counting the butterflies and moths in their chosen patch.

At the time of writing (15^th August) the results on the 2022 Big Butterfly Count page state an accumulation of just shy of 95,000 counts recorded by approximately 63,400 participants. Most counts were submitted from the UK but there was a scattering of submissions from elsewhere in the world. It’s a lower participation count than last year, but there’s still time to submit any counts you took between 15^th July and 7^th August at: https://bigbutterflycount.butterfly-conservation.org/map

The results from the 2021 Big Butterfly Count suggested a continued decline of the overall number of butterflies across the UK and prompted some sobering thoughts on the diminishing appearances of these beautiful, remarkable and vital members of our ecosystem. “76% of butterflies have declined in abundance in distribution since 1976” heads one article on the Butterfly Conservation website, then goes on to state that “We may be the last generation to enjoy butterflies and moths in abundance.”

Some interesting results from the 2021 Big Butterfly Count were increases in the recorded numbers of some species such as Meadow Brown (Maniola jurtina) (33%), Ringlet (Aphantopus hyperantus) (81%) and Six-spot Burnet (Zygaena filipendulae) (42%) and a whopping increase of 213% from 2020 for the Marbled White (Melanargia galathea)!

It’s hard to imagine that 2022 has been more favourable for the UK’s Lepidoptera. A prolonged winter of record-breaking storms that rattled the country was followed by low temperatures through spring that gave way in a burst to record-breaking heat, parching the soil for weeks on end and plunging us into drought and sporadic wildfires by the time the Big Butterfly Count came around.

Town centre meadow of dried grasses in Totnes – Oliver Haines

For one of my counts I took a lunch break trip to a local parkland meadow under a heavy humid sky where the grasses, thistles and cow parsley flowers have been allowed to grow all summer long. Allotments run along one field edge and private gardens with a variety of growing styles along the other. In my allocated 15 minute count a single Large White (Pieris brassicae) slipped past in a hurry, over the wall and away.

A second count along a hedge by the local river bank was a little more fruitful, sporting three Gatekeepers (Pryonia tithonus), one Meadow Brown (Maniola jurtina) and five Ringlets (Aphantopus hyperantus) all skipping along the spent bramble flowers and sunning themselves on the leaves.

Results

Elsewhere within the NHBS team, counts were taken by Hana, Catherine and Sabine who spotted the following species in their chosen locations:

Hana:

1 x Speckled Wood (Pararge aegeria)

1 x Red Admiral (Vanessa atalanta)

1 x Jersey Tiger Moth (Euplagia quadripunctaria)

Catherine:

7 x Large White (Pieris brassicae)

3 x Speckled Wood (Pararge aegeria)

2 x Red Admiral (Vanessa atalanta)

2 x Gatekeeper (Pryonia tithonus)

Red Admiral (Vanessa atalanta) – Catherine Mitson

Sabine:

1 x Holly Blue (Celastrina argiolus)

1 x Comma (Polygonia c-album)

2 x Small White (Pieris rapae)

2 x Small Copper (Lycaena phlaeas)

1 x Red Admiral (Vanessa atalanta)

Comma (Polygonia c-album) – Catherine Mitson

Butterfly Conservation

There’s some interesting reading on the Butterfly Conservation website on their strategy to save and support the UK’s butterfly and moth populations here and a useful guide to ways that you can directly get involved and help out here.

The current top 5 Butterflies recorded in the 2022 Big Butterfly Count are as follows:

Large White (Pieris brassicae)
Gatekeeper (Pryonia tithonus)
Small White (Pieris rapae)
Meadow Brown (Maniola jurtina)
Red Admiral (Vanessa atalanta)

Useful resources

NHBS sells a wide variety of helpful guides to assist in butterfly identification all around the world – some great ones to get you started in the UK include:

Britain’s Butterflies: A Field Guide to the Butterflies of Great Britain and Ireland
Flexibound | 2020
£12.50 ~~£17.99~~

Pocket Guide to the Butterflies of Great Britain and Ireland
Paperback | 2019
£8.99 ~~£11.99~~

Collins Butterfly Guide: The Most Complete Field Guide to the Butterflies of Britain and Europe
Paperback | 2009
£13.99 ~~£18.99~~

Guide to the Butterflies of Britain and Ireland
Unbound | 2019
£3.99

Guide to the Day-Flying Moths of Britain
Unbound | 2006
£3.75

Life Cycles of British & Irish Butterflies
Hardback | 2019
£34.99

The NHBS Guide to Swifts, Swallows and Martins Identification

Swifts, swallows and martins are migratory birds, spending the winters in Africa before flying around 3,400 miles to spend summer in the UK. While they are here they spend their days soaring high and feasting on the abundance of flying insects. Their arrival, for many of us, marks the end of winter and announces the arrival of spring and summer.

Although swifts, swallows and martins share some characteristics, they are, upon closer inspection, markedly different. They are roughly similar in size and shape, which can make them difficult to discern between, especially when flying high in the sky. However, as you begin to look closely at their appearance, flight, nesting behaviour and other key characteristics, it is relatively easy to distinguish between them.

Below we share our top tips for identifying swifts, swallows and martins. In this article we have focused on the below species as they are all common and widespread in the UK:

Common swift (Apus apus)
Barn swallow (Hirundo rustica)
Common house martin (Delichon urbicum)
Sand martin (Riparia riparia)

How to identify swifts

Swifts are amazing birds – they are the longest continually-flying species, spending up to 10 months in the air without landing. They eat, drink, sleep, and mate while flying, only landing to breed. They are almost never seen perching.

Key identification features:

Crescent-shaped, long, curving wings
Forked tail which is much shorter and stouter than the tail of a swallow
Dark brown all over with a small pale patch on their throat, but often appear black against the sky
Screaming piercing call

When to spot them in the UK: April to September

How to identify swallows

Image by Vincent van Zalinge via Unsplash

Swallows are small colourful birds. They are known for their agility as they feed on insects while on the wing. They can often be found flying low to the ground over farmland and open pastures, particularly near water where there are lots of insects. In late summer they can be spotted perching together on telephone wires and power lines, readying themselves to migrate to Africa for the winter.

Key identification features:

Glossy blue upper parts, creamy-white under parts
Red throat and dark red forehead, but from a distance their whole head may appear dark
Long forked tail
They tend to nest in barns, lean-tos and other outbuildings, where they build cup-shaped nests of mud
Chattering call
Can be seen perching on telephone wires or wire fencing

When to spot them in the UK: March to October

How to identify house martins

House martins are commonly found in towns and villages, as well as in agricultural areas. They are one of the last of our summer migrants to depart in the autumn. They only eat while on the wing, catching insects as they fly. Their mud cup nests are usually spotted below the eaves of buildings.

Key identification features:

Small birds with glossy blue-black upper parts and pure white under parts
Distinctive white rump, short forked tail and white feathers covering its legs and toes
Shorter wings than swifts or swallows

When to spot them in the UK: April to October

How to identify sand martins

Sand martins are the smallest of all the European hirundines and one of the first spring migrants to appear. They are agile fliers, feeding mainly over water. They breed in colonies of up to 1000 pairs. Unique to sand martins, these birds burrow holes into sandy, dry vertical banks in sand pits, gravel pits, riverbanks, lakes, streams, railway cuttings, and even in drainpipes in walls and holes in brickwork.

Key identification features:

Dark brown upper parts, with pale tipped feathers. Upper wings, tails and flight feathers are dark brown
Under parts are white with a distinctive brown band across the breast separating the white throat from the white belly
Breast band on young sand martins is less visible and their necks and chins are a reddish brown
Short legs and feet which are dark brown or black
Short forked tail
Tend to swirl and flap rather than glide, and can be found mainly over water

When to spot them in the UK: March to October

2021 Countryside Management Association Photo Competition

Countryside Management Association (CMA) is the largest organisation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland that supports the work of conservation, access and recreation professionals in the natural greenspace and countryside sector. They also have close ties to the Scottish Countryside Rangers Association (SCRA), Scotland’s own association.

Through networking, training and continuing professional development, CMA supports and champions the development of staff, students and volunteers that are involved in the management, interpretation and public enjoyment of natural greenspaces and the countryside. They promote the value and importance of these areas and their management to the general public, government and other organisations, while also providing organisations who are involved in management with helpful and relevant information.

Last year, the CMA ran a photo competition celebrating the work of professionals in the field and shared inspirational photos of staff and volunteers undertaking work to protect, enhance and interpret these important areas. Participants were encouraged to submit images of work involving anything from habitat management, estate work, and wildlife survey and monitoring to leading events and school visits, and engaging with visitors and volunteers. The competition ran from May 2021 to 7th January 2022. We teamed up with CMA to offer some fantastic prizes: a £100 voucher for first prize and £50 vouchers for two runners-up.

Results

The winning entry was taken by Robert Ballard, a ranger at Stover Country Park near Newton Abbot in Devon. His black and white image is a portrait of several volunteers undertaking some pond maintenance. Ponds and lakes are important habitats, supporting a wide range of species. Maintaining and enhancing them has a number of ecological benefits, including increasing wildlife diversity, improving water quality, reducing pond edge or lake shoreline erosion and creating better habitats for aquatic species.

First runner up was Jo Maddox’s image of conservation work with a city background. CMA liked this image as they are currently seeking to promote and represent greater diversity in their membership, and to highlight urban greenspace management in particular. Urban green spaces, such as gardens, parks and woodlands, provide a vital habitat for wildlife, as well as numerous benefits to people living in urban areas. The management of these areas can help to improve and maintain ecosystem health and biodiversity.

Second runner up was Aam Hersey’s socially distanced hedge workers, which CMA thought was of the moment. Hedgerows are dynamic and invaluable habitats, providing food, shelter and breeding sites for species such as yellowhammers, great tits and dunnocks. Hedgerows are made up of a wide range of flora groups, often thought as different layers, including the shrub layer, tree layer, base, margin and ditch. Woody species like hawthorn, blackthorn and hazel make up the tree layer. Smaller woody species, shrubs and climbers, for example bramble, honeysuckle and ivy, are part of the shrub layer, which can also include young trees. The base, margin or ditch parts of a hedgerow can be bare ground, grass or be occupied by wildflowers such as herb robert, wood sage and red campion or thick herbaceous vegetation like cow parsley and common hogweed. Each of these components can support different wildlife, therefore hedgerow management is vital to maintain and promote this biodiversity.

Countryside Management Association

For more information on Countryside Management Assocation, please visit https://countrysidemanagement.org.uk/. Here you will find information on membership, training and events.

The Big Garden Birdwatch: NHBS Staff Results

We have reached the end of the 43rd Big Garden Birdwatch, which took place between Friday 28th and Sunday 30th January. Run by the RSPB, it’s one of the largest citizen science surveys in the UK and encourages the public to record their garden birds and submit their results. Over a million people took part last year, recording over 17 million birds, helping the RSPB gain an accurate understanding of how bird populations are faring.

Great spotted woodpecker on a window feeder by Ian Watson-Loyd

There’s still time to submit your results if you took part over the weekend, the final date to let the RSPB know what you saw is 20th February. But don’t worry if you didn’t get to take part this year; it is an annual event, so make sure to look out for it next year! To take part, all you need to do is spend 1 hour counting the birds that land in your garden, balconies or outdoor spaces. It’s important to count the highest number of each species, rather than the total amount you see over the hour, otherwise, you might end up counting the same individual twice. You can submit your results online on the RSPB website. To help you identify certain species, take a look at our range of field guides, as well as our previous identification guide blog posts here.

Over a million people took part last year, recording over 17 million birds, helping the RSPB gain an accurate understanding of how bird populations are doing. They now have over four decades of data, showing the trends in UK bird populations, which helps them which species are faring ok and which are in decline. Both goldfinches and great tits have benefited from gardens, with goldfinch populations in gardens increasing by 50% over the last decade. However, the Big Garden Birdwatch has also shown that thrushes and greenfinches sightings have decreased, with greenfinch recordings down by 65% and thrushes by 78%. We hope that more people have taken part this year, and, as always, many of our staff got involved. Scroll down to see what we found.

We’d also love to see what you’ve spotted if you took part – let us know in the comments below.

Results

Beth saw the highest quantity of birds this year, at 32 individuals:

Woodpigeons: 4

Blackbirds: 4

Chaffinches: 6

Magpies: 1

Robins: 2

Starlings: 4

Chaffinch (Fringilla coelebs) by hedera.baltica via Flickr

Sparrows: 5

Jackdaws: 2

Blue tits: 3

Blackcaps: 1

Female blackcap (Sylvia atricapilla) by Mick Sway via Flickr

Over the weekend, Catherine was visited by a large flock of starlings, as well as the most blue tits of all our staff results this year. She also managed to spot a reed bunting, an amber listed bird in the UK:

Starlings: 9

Crows: 2

Blackbirds: 1

Magpies: 1

Blue tits: 7

Woodpigeons: 2

Goldfinches: 1

Great tits: 1

Reed bunting: 1

Ian managed to spot the largest number of species this year, including a wren (Troglodytes troglodytes), another amber listed species:

Starlings: 1

Blue tits: 2

Woodpigeons: 4

Blackbirds: 1

Robins: 1

Great tits: 2

Magpies: 2

Dunnocks: 1

Goldfinches: 2

Blackcaps: 1

Wrens: 1

Male house sparrow by Steve Colwell (Channel City Camera Club) via Flickr

Female house sparrow by hedera.baltica via Flickr

I completed my Big Garden Birdwatch in East Sussex:

Great tits: 2

Blue tits: 1

Sparrows: 4

Starling: 1

Woodpigeons: 2

Robins: 1

Blackbirds: 1

Notably, one of the woodpigeons picked up a stick from my garden and flew off with it, a potential sign of nest-building behaviour.

Sabine had the highest number of jackdaws, one of our most recorded species in 2021:

Jackdaws: 6

Woodpigeons: 3

Blue tits: 2

Dunnocks: 3

Robins: 2

Great tits: 1

Magpies: 1

She also managed to capture this beautiful footage of one of her Robin visitors:

Our total

In total, we saw 16 different species and 105 individuals across our 5 gardens. Our most common bird species were starlings (Sturnus vulgaris), blue tits (Cyanistes caeruleus) and woodpigeons (Columba palumbus). Last year, our most common were long-tailed tits (Aegithalos caudatus) and jackdaws (Corvus monedula), and in 2020 it was house sparrows (Passer domesticus), followed by great tits (Parus major). It will be interesting to see how our results compare to the overall results of this year’s Big Garden Birdwatch.

Percentage per species of overall total 2022

The RSPB

The Big Butterfly Count: NHBS Staff Results

We have reached the end of the Big Butterfly Count 2021, which took place between Friday 16th July and Sunday 8th August. It’s the world’s biggest survey of butterflies and is aimed at assessing the health of our environment by recording the number of our most common butterflies and day-flying moths.

But don’t worry if you didn’t get to take part this year; it is an annual event, so make sure to look out for it next year! To take part, all you need to do is spend 15 minutes counting butterflies on a sunny day. You can count from anywhere you like, such as in the garden or park, in the woods or fields or wherever you find yourself outdoors. You can submit your results online on the Big Butterfly Count website. For a list of handy butterfly ID guides as well as some tips on how to distinguish certain species, take a look at our previous blog post here.

This count is extremely important as butterflies are vital to the ecosystem, as pollinators and within the food chain. Populations have decreased significantly since the 1970s, therefore monitoring butterfly numbers is crucial. We hope that more people have taken part this year, and, as always, many of our staff got involved. Scroll down to see what we found.

We’d also love to see what you’ve spotted if you took part – why not let us know in the comments below.

Results

Catherine spotted all of these butterflies during her lunch break:

Small White: 10

Meadow Brown: 5

Gatekeeper: 9

Gemma found:

Large white: 2

Meadow brown: 2

Ringlet: 1

Red admiral: 1

Tonie did the butterfly count by the coast:

Meadow browns: 5

Red admiral: 2

Large white: 2

Small skipper: 2

Marbled white: 1

I managed to complete a butterfly count at the end of a hike on Dartmoor:

Small white: 1

Meadow brown: 4

Gatekeeper: 1

Red admiral: 1

Angeline completed her big butterfly count in Plymouth:

Ringlet: 3

Small skipper: 2

Silver-Washed Fritillary – by A. Rietveld

Oli spotted:

Gatekeeper: 2

Small tortoiseshell: 1

Red admiral: 1

Peacock: 1

Ringlet: 1

Meadow brown: 1

Butterfly Conservation

For more information on UK butterflies and how you can help them, please visit Butterfly Conservation.org. Here you will find a wealth of information to help you find and identify butterflies and moths.

The NHBS ID Guide to UK Garden Birds

In this addition to our UK Identification Guide series, we are taking a look at some of our most common garden birds.

Very little is required by way of equipment to watch birds. However, a decent pair of binoculars or scope and a good field guide can go a long way to enhancing the experience and improving your skills. (If you’re looking for suggestions, we’ve included a few of our most popular field guides at the end of this post.)

If you’d like to contribute to the understanding of birds and research into garden wildlife, why not take part in either the BTO’s Garden BirdWatch (all year round) or the RSPB’s Big Garden Birdwatch (annually in January).

Where and when to look for birds

One of the things that makes birdwatching such a great activity is that birds can be found all year round. Although their numbers may fluctuate at various times of year, due to the arrival and departure of various migrants, it is a rare day that you will venture outdoors and fail to see even one of our winged neighbours.

Autumn and winter are particularly good times for garden birdwatching, as this is the time that birds will benefit most from extra nuts and seeds provided in bird feeders; many will flock to gardens to take advantage of this additional source of food. A well positioned bird feeder also allows you to watch birds from the comfort of an armchair, accompanied by a hot cup of tea!

Twelve common garden birds to look for

Great Tit (Parus major)

Identification: The Great Tit is the UK’s largest tit species. It has a yellow breast with a central black stripe, a green back, black head and prominent white cheeks.

Measurements: Length 14cm, wingspan 24cm.

Preferred food: Insects, seeds, nuts.

Example call:

Blue Tit (Cyanistes caeruleus)

Identification: An incredibly colourful bird, the Blue Tit has a yellow breast, green back, blue wings and a blue patch on its head. The face is white and a slim black stripe runs horizontally through the eye.

Measurements: Length 12cm, wingspan 18cm.

Preferred food: Insects, caterpillars, seeds, nuts.

Example call:

Great Spotted Woodpecker (Dendrocopos major)

Great Spotted Woodpecker by Airwolfhound via Flickr

Identification: The Great Spotted Woodpecker has a striking black and white body and wings and is roughly the size of a blackbird. Males have a red patch on the back of the head, and juveniles also have a red crown. They fly with a distinctive swooping up and down style and can often be heard drumming while clinging to a tree trunk.

Measurements: Length 22-23cm, wingspan 34-39cm.

Preferred food: Insects, seeds, nuts.

Example of drumming sound:

Chaffinch (Fringilla coelebs)

Identification: The cheeks and breast of the Chaffinch are rust-red (male) or buff-grey (female) coloured and the wings have two distinctive white bars on a dark background. Although they don’t regularly feed openly on bird feeders, they can often be found on the ground beneath and elsewhere in the garden.

Measurements: Length 14.5cm, wingspan 24.5-28.5cm.

Preferred food: Insects, seeds.

Example call:

Nuthatch (Sitta europaea)

Identification: The Nuthatch has a blue-grey back, chestnut sides and a distinctive black eye stripe. It often perches head-down on feeders and tree trunks.

Measurements: Length 14cm, wingspan 22.5-27cm.

Preferred food: Insects, nuts, seeds.

Example call:

Goldfinch (Carduelis carduelis)

Identification: This brightly coloured finch has a vibrant red face and a yellow wing bar. The black tail has white spots and the rump (visible when in flight) is white.

Measurements: Length 12cm, wingspan 21-25.5cm.

Preferred food: Seeds, insects.

Example call:

House Sparrow (Passer domesticus)

Male House Sparrow by hedera.baltica via Flickr

Identification: A robust looking bird with a bushy plumage. Feathers are streaked brown and black. Male sparrows have a black bib and eye region and the bill is black during breeding. Females often have a buff-coloured ‘eyebrow’.

Measurements: Length 14-15cm, wingspan 21-25.5cm.

Preferred food: Seeds, scraps.

Example call:

Blackbird (Turdus merula)

Male Blackbird by hedera.baltica via Flickr

Identification: Male blackbirds are incredibly striking and have black feathers with a bright orange beak and eye ring. Females are brown and often have spots or streaks on their breast.

Measurements: Length 24-25cm, wingspan 34-38.5cm

Preferred food: Insects, worms, berries, fruit.

Example call:

Coal Tit (Periparus ater)

Identification: The Coal Tit has a black head, white cheek patches and a white wing bar. The back of the head features an oval white patch. Its back is blue-grey and the underside is buff in colour.

Measurements: Length 11.5cm, wingspan, 17-21cm.

Preferred food: Insects, seeds, nuts.

Example call:

Siskin (Carduelis spinus)

Identification: The Siskin is a small finch which has a black and yellow streaked body and a distinctly forked tail. The male has a black crown and a lot of black in the wing.

Measurements: Length 12cm, wingspan 20-23cm.

Preferred food: Seeds, insects.

Example call:

Dunnock (Prunella modularis)

Identification: Fairly similar to a House Sparrow, the Dunnock has brown, streaked upper parts and a blue-grey head and breast. This shy bird is often seen creeping around near cover such as bushes or flower beds.

Measurements: Length 14cm, wingspan 19-21cm.

Preferred food: Insects, spiders, worms, seeds.

Example call:

Sparrowhawk (Accipiter nisus)

Identification: This small raptor has short, broad wings and a long tail. Adult males are smaller than females and have grey upper parts and rust coloured cheeks and breast. The larger female has grey upper parts and greyish brown breast.

Measurements: Length 28-38cm, wingspan 55-70cm.

Preferred food: Small to medium birds, occasionally bats.

Example call:

Recommended field guides

Collins Bird Guide
#170498

Covering Britain and Europe, this beautifully illustrated book provides all the information needed to identify any species at any time of year, with detailed text on size, habitat, range, identification and voice.

Britain’s Birds
#248886

A bestselling guide since it was first published, Britain’s Birds has established itself as the go-to photographic identification guide to the birds of Great Britain and Ireland – the most comprehensive, up-to-date, practical and user-friendly book of its kind.

RSPB Handbook of British Birds
#250580

This revised and updated edition is the definitive guide to British and Irish birds, featuring comprehensive species accounts, stunning artwork, up-to-date distribution maps, and detailed conservation information for each species.

The RSPB Everyday Guide to British Birds
#262889

A beginner-friendly guide to 80 common British birds, featuring updated photos, distribution, conservation status, and tips for attracting birds to your garden. Discover fascinating facts about each species and learn what makes them unique, whether in your backyard or the countryside.

Winter Hibernation

What is hibernation?

During the winter months, cold temperatures and a lack of food can make survival challenging for many species. Some animals, particularly birds, solve this problem by migrating to a warmer location where food is more plentiful. Other animals utilise a different solution and enter a period of torpor or hibernation as a way of conserving energy throughout this time.

During hibernation, the animal will slow their heart rate and breathing while at the same time lowering their metabolism and body temperature, all of which vastly reduce the amount of energy they require. Throughout the hibernation period, the animal may become active again briefly, either for a bathroom break, to eat some food, or if the temperature becomes too low for them to survive without moving. As preparation for a period of hibernation, as much food as possible will be consumed and a suitable refuge or hibernacula found (or built).

Which animals hibernate in the UK?

Dormice, along with bats and hedgehogs, spend the winter months in hibernation. Image by Bruce Detorres via Flickr.

Mammals

Although many small mammals, including mice, shrews, badgers and rabbits, enter short periods of torpor throughout the winter, the only mammals in the UK that truly hibernate are bats, dormice and hedgehogs. Bats utilise hollow trees, roof spaces, caves and bat boxes and will usually spend the entire winter, from November to April, in hibernation. Dormice choose the seemingly riskier solution of making a nest using natural items such as logs and leaves on the floor of forests and woodland. Hedgehogs build hibernacula using dead leaves, twigs, log stacks and compost heaps and, although evidence shows that they rouse several times during their hibernation, they rarely leave these nests. The only exception to this is when the temperature drops too low – at this point they may depart their existing nest and build a completely new one with better insulation! In general, hedgehogs hibernate from November to April, but depending on the temperature and weather, this can vary from year to year.

Reptiles and Amphibians

All reptiles in the UK hibernate. Typically this will begin in October in response to reduced daytime temperature and shorter day length, but it can vary depending on the year and species. In general reptiles will use dry and sheltered spots, often utilising tree roots, abandoned animal burrows or compost heaps.

All species of amphibian in the UK also hibernate, although not all individuals will do so on any given year. In mild winters newts may simply enter a state of low activity rather than complete hibernation. Most amphibians will choose a quiet location in the soil, a compost heap or rockery, or even a garden shed to spend their hibernation. A small number of frogs, however, will hibernate at the bottom of a pond.

Insects

Bumblebee colonies die off in the autumn with only the new queens surviving. To make it through the winter, these queens burrow into the soil where they are protected from the cold and weather for up to nine months! Honey bees use a different strategy and do not hibernate as such – instead they survive as a reduced-size colony which huddles together with the queen at the centre. The bees rotate their positions so that each takes its turn on the outside where the temperature is lowest.

Most butterflies spend the winter in larval form. Several species however, including Brimstone, Peacock and Comma will hibernate as adults, using either vegetation such as bramble and ivy, or outdoor structures such as garden sheds and barns.

Ladybirds survive the cold winter by hibernating in rotting logs, under leaf litter or even inside houses. They like to hibernate in colonies, often forming groups containing thousands of individuals.

Ladybirds emerging from hibernation. Image by Dr. Mary Gillham Archive Project via Flickr.

Climate change and hibernation

Most animals that hibernate rely on a combination of cues such as day length and temperature to know when it is the right time. As climate change continues to affect local and global temperatures and weather patterns, many animals are hibernating later in the year and becoming active again earlier in the spring, as temperatures during the winter are now often much warmer. Hibernating for a shorter period can put pressure on food availability and can cause a mismatch in the timing when animals require a resource and when that resource is available. For example, bees emerging from hibernation require a ready supply of nectar. If they emerge earlier than usual however, before flowering season, this food source may not be available to them.

Always make sure to check your bonfire for hibernating animals! Image by Ian Carroll via Flickr.

How can I help hibernating animals?

• Leaving some areas of your garden that are untidy and overgrown will provide plenty of space for animals to hibernate over the winter. Piles of logs, long grass and compost heaps all provide safe places for animals such as snakes, hedgehogs and other small mammals.

• If you’re celebrating bonfire night, don’t forget to check the bonfire for hibernating animals before you light it – particularly if you have built the structure several days or weeks before the big night.

• Providing artificial hibernacula in your garden, such as a bat box, hedgehog house, or insect box, will help to provide suitable hibernation spots for these species.

• If you find a butterfly that has chosen to hibernate inside your house, it’s best to gently relocate it to an unheated building outside, such as a shed or garage. (Central heating is extremely damaging to a hibernating butterfly and will desiccate their delicate wings and bodies).

• Don’t forget those animals that don’t hibernate over winter. Birds in particular will benefit from a variety of foods such as peanuts, mealworms, fat balls and seed.

Results

The RSPB

Results

Butterfly Conservation

Useful resources

How to identify swifts

Key identification features:

How to identify swallows

Key identification features:

How to identify house martins

Key identification features:

How to identify sand martins

Key identification features:

Recommended reading:

Results

Countryside Management Association

Results

Our total

The RSPB

Results

Butterfly Conservation

Where and when to look for birds

Twelve common garden birds to look for

Great Tit (Parus major)

Blue Tit (Cyanistes caeruleus)

Great Spotted Woodpecker (Dendrocopos major)

Chaffinch (Fringilla coelebs)

Nuthatch (Sitta europaea)

Goldfinch (Carduelis carduelis)

House Sparrow (Passer domesticus)

Blackbird (Turdus merula)

Coal Tit (Periparus ater)

Siskin (Carduelis spinus)

Dunnock (Prunella modularis)

Sparrowhawk (Accipiter nisus)

Recommended field guides

What is hibernation?

Which animals hibernate in the UK?

Climate change and hibernation

How can I help hibernating animals?