State of birds in Goathland

A report by RSPB and partners out today shows that 44million birds have been lost since 1966.  The numbers are frightening.
It was only this weekend that we were doing our usual quick garden bird count and were musing on how the population in our little patch has changed over the years.  We've been here since 1984, when we arrived the most numerous species was the house sparrow, dozens of them squabbling in the hedges and playing tag around the garden at high speed seemingly mixed in with an almost equal number of tree sparrows but few if any dunnocks, or hedge sparrows as my Gran called them. We had chaffinches and greenfinches too, lots of blue tits who stole the top of the milk from the doorstep in the mornings, a few great tits and the odd coal tit.  There were lots of blackbirds and thrushes as well as the resident robin and a wren or two.  Wood pigeons or doves were neither seen nor heard, I distinctly remember missing their gentle cooing which had been the background music to my childhood playtime in Whitby, along with the raucous gull screeching.
Changes
Without really realising the change was happening the number of house sparrows declined and the tree sparrows disappeared completely.  The chaffinch became the most populous bird for many years before greenfinches showed up in greater numbers, still as many chaffinches, just more greenfinches. We still have lots of chaffinches, I think their population has remained relatively steady but in the last few years the numbers of greenfinch have decreased and few sorry individuals have been seen with classic trichomoniasis symptoms.
Goldfinches
When the first goldfinches showed up on the road stripping the seeds from the thistle heads in the early 1990s it was worthy of noting, now goldfinches are the most numerous bird in the garden having over taken greenfinches in the last couple of years.  We have a family tale that when I was small enough to be in a pushchair Mum took me round Pannet Park in Whitby and was accosted by an excited birdwatcher who, she swears, told her there was a goldfish in the tree.  We think he meant goldfinch, but back then it was such a rarity he was so overcome he mangled his words (but then Mum thought her first guillemot was a penguin, easy mistake to make!).
The blackbirds have stayed through the years with slight fluctuations, thrush populations have waxed and waned currently holding steady with resident song thrushes and visiting mistles plus redwings in winter although we no longer seem to get the huge flocks in the field opposite.
Spuggies and long tails
We're fortunate in that we never lost our house sparrows, their numbers have waned in recent years with some years being better than others.  The tree sparrows disappeared over a few years and were absent for fifteen or more but three years ago one individual started visiting our feeding station in the winter, he was soon joined by another and this year they are garden residents once again, bringing their fledglings to feed in the late summer. Dunnock numbers have decreased a little over the past few years, their decline seemingly mirroring the tree sparrow increase.  The tit family have suffered varying fortunes.  The great tits almost disappeared with one year we had a single individual visiting, the blue tit numbers go up and down in a regular fashion. Coal tits are doing very well, this year outnumbering the great tits and nearly as numerous as the blues. Long tailed tits are regular visitors, their twittering pinkness arrived around ten years ago and now they are often heard tseeping away to each other before descending en-mass to devour the fat balls.
Tree creeper and nuthatch
We have some big cypress trees and opposite some over-tall larches (a few have had their tops sheared off in recent storms) which have been a draw for tree creepers, one or two each year for the last decade or so.  When they first arrived we double checked them in the big bird book marvelling at the colourful nutchatches, just like a garden kingfisher, on the next page.  A few years ago one of those 'kingfishers' was seen flitting through the garden and they have become increasingly regular visitors ever since with two individuals in residence this year.
The conifers also draw the occasional winter visitor of a gold crest or two, again they were absent in the early years here and have only been seen in the last five or so.
Migrants
The field is a big draw for the summer migrants of swifts, swallows and martins, originally both sand and house but the sand martins disappeared within a few years of us arriving as the bank where they nested was undercut by water. In the late eighties the house had close to thirty martin nests but one summer they were nearly all destroyed by what we thought at the time was a squirrel but I now wonder if it was an owl.  Since then we've only had a handful of nests, sometimes none were successful, this year there were three successful nests.  We always seem to have had a squadron of around a dozen swifts.
Cuckoos are a rarity now.  Years ago the first 'cuckoo' was welcomed but a few weeks later when over a dozen were 'cuckoo-ing' their heads off in the very early hours you couldn't wait for them to shut up again!  Now there are few, only one this year I think.  In contrast the chiff-chaff is a new arrival heard down the valley for the first time last year, this year there were a few more, some of which had a second singing season in the autumn, and I confess it's one I could do without, their constant chiff-chaff, chiff-chaff drives me to distraction!
One off visitors
Over the years 'rarities' have varied from the triple hoot of a little owl, to the rasping croak of a nightjar and the "little bit of bread and no cheese" of the canary-like yellowhammer, along with a wonderfully aerobatic spotted flycatcher, all seen and or heard once or for one year only.  And once a pheasant who mistaken strayed into the garden never to leave, having been dispatched very efficiently by a wolfhound!
Boom and bust
is a natural cycle in many populations. We've seen it in magpies (early nighties), jackdaws (late eighties), mallard ducks (although they had a little help, in the early 2000's) but the wood pigeons show no sign of busting.  Their coo was first heard here in the early nighties, initially it was a welcome noise, a reminder of times past.  Their numbers have slowly increased but in the past decade they have reached almost plague like proportions, huge numbers descending on gardens and devastating the veggie plot. The trees on the old railway line behind the house are perfect for them and they breed nearly all year, they don't seem bothered by the tawny owls or the growing rookery.
So what changed?
The field is still grass, cut for haylage rather than hay and grazed by sheep, no cattle any more.  The moor has lots more bracken and white moor, the heather is confined to a purple strip at the top.  The garden is still a mix of shrub, native hedging, a drystone wall, herbaceous, grass and what we can politely call wildlife garden (a tangle of weeds!).  Garden bird feed mixes have changed and peanuts are no longer the 'top nosh'.  Our avian dining table has a range of dry seeds and fat based products - no meal worms because no one eats them, live ones wander off or die and dried ones just sit festering - even the Labradors ignore those.
Maybe our increased quantity and range of bird food is drawing in more species and individuals, perhaps pressures elsewhere in the village are pushing them into our garden. Or like the report says, the precise reasons simply are not fully understood.
Read the report, and then think back about the birds you've seen, over your lifetime, in repeat visits to one site or like us in one location.  We're fortunate in that we've got nearly thirty years of records and memories of one location.