Most people did and the RSPB’s Big Garden Birdwatch 2007 results, have confirmed their sightings.
Milder winter temperatures across Europe and bumper fruit crops in hedgerows and woodlands meant more birds did their feeding in the countryside and fewer visited gardens.
Songbirds are giving up on our gardens. Lower migration has resulted in a fall in the numbers of song thrushes by almost 65 per cent and blackbirds a 25 per cent respectively in a single year.
Ruth Davis, the RSPB’s head of climate change policy said:
As our climate changes the distribution of birds will change and they will adapt their behaviour. A snap shot in winter gives only part of the picture, but the varying birds visiting our gardens is one example of the impact climate change is having on the natural world.
Greenfinches in particular have dropped four places down the Birdwatch top 10, from sixth to tenth - declining in number by more than a quarter since 2006.
The house sparrow came out top with an average of 4.42 per garden, although its numbers have more than halved since 1979.
The starling remained in second place and the blue tit completed the top three, with average numbers of 3.67 and 2.82 per garden respectively.
Over the weekend of January 27-28 more than 400,000 people had counted more than 6.5 million birds across 236,000 gardens as part of the RSPB’s annual survey.
The only way we can hope that the song birds will come back to our gardens is by reducing the impact we have on the climate change in our everyday lives.
Source: Telegraph
