Sunday 29th January - Big Garden Birdwatch

The annual event to boost bird food sales. About 8.30 I went outside to let the Ducks and Chickens out and to top up the bird feeders, and had a Crossbill flyover calling and a Goldcrest singing in a Holly. The birds slowly arrived and over the next hour I recorded a decent list as below. Because the bird feeders are positioned in a bit of a corridor between the house and the hedge (not ideal but practically because it's the only viewpoint from the kitchen) I spent the last 10 minutes wandering outside, where I found a Firecrest (but as you can see it was so active and almost impossible to get a picture of) and a Sparrowhawk flew over.

The rest of the list is as follows with a total of 26 species recorded compared to last year at Greyhound where it was 28.

                                 2012             2011
Blue Tit                       6                  (21)
Great Tit                      5                 (5)
Coal Tit                       1                 (1)
Robin                          1                 (2)
Blackbird                    3                 (6)
Dunnock                     2                 (1)
Redwing                      3                 (1)
Chaffinch                    13                (27)
Nuthatch                      2                 (2)
Pheasant                      1                 (1)
Goldfinch                     3                 (9)
Bullfinch                       1                 (1)
Great Sp Woodpecker 2                 (2)
Siskin                           3                 (1)
Greenfinch                   1                  (15)
Woodpigeon                1                 (3)
Jackdaw                      2                 (4)
Carrion Crow              1                 (1)
Magpie                        1                 (2)
Sparrowhawk              1                 (1)
Redpoll                       3                  (-)
Starling                        5                 (-)
Goldcrest                     1                 (-)
Firecrest                      1                 (-)
Stock Dove                  2                 (-)
Crossbill                      1                  (-)
Marsh Tit                     -                  (1)
Wren                            -                 (1)
Song Thrush                 -                  (1)
Mistle Thrush                 -                 (1)
Pied Wagtail                 -                 (2)
House Sparrow             -                (24)
Yellowhammer              -                 (1)
Buzzard                        -                 (1)

The surprises were the Firecrest and Crossbill, without doubts the highlight. With the Lesser Redpoll, Siskin and Bullfinch being pleasing records. Some birds just didn't appear on the day, such as Marsh Tit (seen yesterday), Song Thrush, Wren, Pied Wagtail and House Sparrow are around although none of which have been near the feeding area this year. The biggest difference is the number of finches - only one Greenfinch (and that only turned up in the last couple of minutes). All the pictures are a bit dark - because it was !

Off to Reading for a family 60th. have seen that a Parrot Crossbill has turned up on Black Down - only 5 minutes from here - Will hope that it stays around until next weekend. Last of these birds I saw was many years ago in Norfolk.

Set up and ready - Bird feeding zone.

Pheasant was in early.

Siskin

Nuthatch

Starling

It wouldn't sit still - failed miserably in attempts to get a recognisable shot of this Firecrest