Good Morning Wales! Big Garden Bird Watch 2014

It's half past five in the afternoon. I have now been on the go for twelve hours. It's been a while since I have had a day this long. I am a little weary, but it has been another awesome day!

As I said in yesterdays blip I was asked by RSPB Cymru to go on Radio Wales this morning to represent them. The results for the 2014 Big Garden Bird Watch were released this morning. I got a sneaky peak at them last night, making me one of the few members of the public to see them before they were released officially.

Originally I was doing the interview on the telephone. I was then asked to go into the studio. I was on at 6.50am, and I live half an hour from the studios in Cardiff, so I had to invoke the spirit of Clariant, and get up just after 5!

I got there for half past six, and was ushered into the production studio. It meant I got fifteen minutes seeing how a radio show is put together. I must admit it was fascinating. The co-presenter Oliver Hides came in to see me. My dad has been on the show a number of times. He said loads of nice things about dad, and what a brilliant broadcaster he is. Not only did it make me very proud of my dad, it also settled the few nerves I had. Oliver then surprised me even further by telling me he is a keen bird watcher himself, something nobody else in the room seemed to know until then.

Five minutes after I took this photo I was ushered into the studio proper. The first sentence is always the worse, I was asked about what I had seen recently. I stumbled out an answer, but then I was asked about how I got into bird watching .. I was on firm ground now .. and waffled on for the next few minutes. And before I knew it, that was my slot over and done with. Short but very sweet!

The results of this years Big Garden Bird Watch are interesting. The wet and mild winter has put the numbers of traditional garden birds down slightly. Blackbirds, Fieldfare and Redwings are down, but more because there was an abundance of natural food and they didn't need to top up at our feeders. Starlings continue to decline, but House Sparrows, the number one bird seen in gardens in Wales and the UK have levelled out. Which is good to know. If you are a regular reader of this blog, you will know I have championed the House Sparrow many times here.

One of the things that's excited me on the national results is that the Great Spotted Woodpecker has moved into the top twenty for the first time. If the hope of seeing one of these magnificent birds in your garden isn't enough to encourage you to put some fat cakes or suet balls out I don't know what is?!

I took one photo with the flash on so you could see the room better. I have put it on Flickr, so click here.

The show is on the Radio Wales website for the next seven days (until the 3rd), and you can listen to me by clicking the link below and sliding the time bar on the bottom forward to 53 minutes-ish

Good Morning Wales - BBC Radio Wales