Binoculars, woolly hats and bird-spotting cards were the order of the day last Friday, when the grounds and gardens team were joined by staff and students taking part in the RSPB’s Big Garden Birdwatch for the second year in a row!
Data was collected from the same two sites; the garden at 68 Storey’s Way and the woodland ‘Copse’ behind the Chapel. A total of 60 birds and 17 different species were spotted across the two different locations, similar to 2023.
The top sighting in both locations was the Blue Tit, a change from last year’s top sighting of the Long-Tailed Tit. After a quiet start, the two environments yielded some very different findings and bird-watching experiences. Once again, the bird-feeder and fat balls in the garden at 68 Storey’s Way attracted a range of smaller common garden birds including Blackbirds, Long-tailed Tits, Great Tits and Robins, alongside the more unusual sighting of a Green Woodpecker. Top sightings in the woodland environment of the Copse included two majestic birds of prey; a Red Kite and a Sparrowhawk, as well as the rarer sighting of a Treecreeper, which was ranked 49 out of 80 in last year’s national Birdwatch results.
A massive thank you to everyone who took part, and a special thank you to our grounds and gardens team for leading on the project and taking time out of their day to make this happen. We plan to join the survey again next year, but in the meantime, if anyone spots any interesting wildlife on-site, please let us know and send pictures if you capture anything on camera!
It was great to spend some time with students in the garden and Copse, listening to all the different birdsong and recording which birds we have around us here at Churchill!
Kath (Team Leader – Gardens, Churchill College)
A short piece of video captured some of the sounds of birdsong heard in the garden of 60 Storey’s Way, including the song of a Robin and a Fieldfare.
Birdsong captured in the garden of 68 Storey’s Way:
Email your wildlife sightings and images to: comms.manager@chu.cam.ac.uk
