Back Garden Rarities

[Odonate]

My mind tends to wander on a monday morning walking into work and this morning was no different. I was thinking about rarities in back gardens of the birding and non birding public and seeing as we have Dark-eyed Junco and Two-barred Crossbill visiting gardens at the moment, I was wondering how many of these birds get missed as they turn up in areas where there are no birders or people interested enough to notice something different.

I have done a little calculation which is probably unsound both mathematically and ornithologically:

Let us say that there are 10,000 homes in Britain with a garden and good birder or an interested member of the non birding public who would report an odd bird. Let us also say that there are 5,000,000 homes with a garden that could hold birds.

Taking these two birds, that is 2 in 10,000 and scaling that to the 5,000,000 homes, we reach a number of 1000 rarities in English gardens at the moment! Obviously not true so we have to take into account that birds are mobile and visit say 10 gardens - that takes our number down to 100 rarities.

Clearly this is an overestimate of immense proportions and perhaps someone who knows something about maths might come up with a more sound and reasonable formula.

However, it shows that birds do turn up in suburban gardens and perhaps we should be checking such areas more. Loads of good birds in the past have turned up in birders gardens and it makes you wonder how many gems are tucked away right under our noses!!

[Harry Hussey]

This is an even more acute problem here in Ireland, given that the numbers of birders are so low, and, in addition, if any non-birders were interested enough to notice something out of the ordinary, they may not know anyone more knowledgable to contact, and the bird may never come to light.
Amazingly, despite our position to the west of Britain, and the relative regularity of both species there, there has never been a twitchable American Robin or Dark-eyed (Slate-coloured) Junco in Ireland, and I would hazard a guess that this has a lot to do with the penchant of both species for gardens when wintering...

[Alex Lees]

My mind tends to wander on a monday morning walking into work and this morning was no different. I was thinking about rarities in back gardens of the birding and non birding public and seeing as we have Dark-eyed Junco and Two-barred Crossbill visiting gardens at the moment, I was wondering how many of these birds get missed as they turn up in areas where there are no birders or people interested enough to notice something different.

I have done a little calculation which is probably unsound both mathematically and ornithologically:

Let us say that there are 10,000 homes in Britain with a garden and good birder or an interested member of the non birding public who would report an odd bird. Let us also say that there are 5,000,000 homes with a garden that could hold birds.

Taking these two birds, that is 2 in 10,000 and scaling that to the 5,000,000 homes, we reach a number of 1000 rarities in English gardens at the moment! Obviously not true so we have to take into account that birds are mobile and visit say 10 gardens - that takes our number down to 100 rarities.

Clearly this is an overestimate of immense proportions and perhaps someone who knows something about maths might come up with a more sound and reasonable formula.

However, it shows that birds do turn up in suburban gardens and perhaps we should be checking such areas more. Loads of good birds in the past have turned up in birders gardens and it makes you wonder how many gems are tucked away right under our noses!!

This is an interesting thought exercise. There are over 1 million members of the RSPB in the UK so generally interest in birds is a little higher than you have allowed for. Obviously most of those will not notice say a Rufous-tailed Robin skulking in the shrubbery but many will notice a Northern Oriole coming to the birdtable.

I have no idea what's in my garden at the moment (a wake up call in itself) so there are probably many other birders who haven't checked too. You also need to factor in suppression into the equation - a fair proportion of the rare birds found in people's gardens are kept quiet because of access difficulties etc.

So, where does that leave us? Probably a higher strike rate than you suggest for obvious things that visit birdtables like the Two-barred Crossbill but a much lower one for cryptic species (like Olive-backed Pipits) that don't. As you suggest garden vagrants must be massively underrecorded but the same is true for anything occuring on farmland practically anywhere. Who knows how many pipits, buntings and warblers are frollicking around in our hedgerows and stubblefields? One would expect a greater incidence of discovery this winter in the wake of Atlas fieldwork......

Alex

[Odonate]

Certainly my numbers are probably quite out and you are correct about skulking vs showy species. However, I wonder just how many RSPB members would report something out of the ordinary unless it was really striking? Would they just be happy to call it an unknown or would they put it down to some other species? For the latter, Phylloscs, drap buntings and pipits for example (I wonder if any Ovenbirds have been identified as Goldcrests as that was the closest thing in the book?). One other problem is that many birders who don't work at home don't get to see their garden in daylight from mid October untill March!!

[MichaelF]

but the same is true for anything occuring on farmland practically anywhere. Who knows how many pipits, buntings and warblers are frollicking around in our hedgerows and stubblefields?
Even more so for conifer plantations, particularly as they're mostly impenetrable past the first row of trees, and even where they are penetrable, impossible to see anything in the upper canopy from below. And there's two million hectares of them in Britain & Ireland!

[beltonbirder]

You say that RSPB members may all be Dudes and Robin strokers. yes you may be correct. two examples of Local group members "behaviour"
"Oh we had a Wryneck in our garden for two days" me, "Why dint you tell anyone?" them "We did not think you would be interested"

This has happened with Waxwings in or near gardens. A Long eared owl and a Snow Bunting.
But there are some RSPB members who are very good Birders, Two things put me off going on field trips. The coach left too late in the day and the coach returned too early in the afternoon
and when we got to a site. "Colin will lead us he is the Professional Birdwatcher" I will always remember how a Robin Sroker cleared a whole indoor meeting when he announced he had found a possible "Black wheatear" In those days c1982, Almost every member was an active Birdwatcher. The bird turned out to be a White Crowned Wheatear.

But going back to the thread. (Sorry) of the Garden bird watchers they or we must miss that elusive tick even if we only get up for a wee and miss that quick visit by a Baltimore Oriole or something.

[Derek Moore]

Another factor to take into account in this discussion is the claim the 12 million people feed birds in their garden. This figure comes from the bird food producers and if accurate shows that there are many more people attracting birds to their garden than we might realise.

Given basic competency in identifying common garden species they are all capable of noticing "something different".

We also ignore these people at their peril. I remember a lady telling a firend (sadly now departed) that she had an interesting bird in her garden and she describe a yellow passerine with dark head. The sadly departed friend wrote it off as an escaped Weaver sp. Months later the BBRC sent the Suffolk recorder a description and photograph of a male Black-headed Bunting.

[beltonbirder]

Welcome to the forum Derek. Glad to see you are still in the birding community. I remember the bird and the birder invloved but did the bird subsequently be relegated to the escaped list?

The White Crowned Black Wheatear could have been easily missed had the two members not informed us at that meeting. Fortunatly that area is reguraly watched nowadays.

[Derek Moore]

Yes you are right for reasons best known to the Great rare men it was subsequently thought of as an escape. Makes the story a little less interesting though:smile:

[MichaelF]

They probably rejected it to save your embarrassment over not having seeing it . . .

[Odonate]

[QUOTE=beltonbirder;10068]You say that RSPB members may all be Dudes and Robin strokers.

I didn't want to go quite that far and offend one in 60 of the population! Lucky that we tend to think of Robins as our classic garden birds and not Paridae really!

[beltonbirder]

Added Waxwing to my garden list today

[Colin Key]

Well done. Waxwing would be a "lifer" for me. For some reason I never went to see the flocks which used to occur in Tesco and Sainsbury carparks when I was back in the U.K. - just don't like supermarket carparks very much.

Colin

[MichaelF]

flocks which used to occur in Tesco and Sainsbury carparksThey don't around here - the supermarkets up here have a 'no trees' policy (or are too stingy to plant anything), so there's no berries for Waxwings. Around here, the rowans are usually beside busy A roads where your ears get busted when you watch the Waxwings.:hmpf:

just don't like supermarket carparks very much:laugh: