Thursday 30th January

What is it about the Great British Garden Birdwatch?

Every year I sit down for an hour at the back window for an hour, see very little and what I do see doesn't reflect what might typically appear on a normal day.

So last Sunday the only tit to turn up was the blue tit and its only rival for 'most frequent garden visitor', the jackdaw, just managed one very token appearance.  Instead a couple of starlings, which I almost never see, turned up to give the mistaken appearance that Britain's second most common garden bird is a regular with me too.

The next day of course all the usual tits turned up including the long-tailed tit, which has probably visited in the largest numbers over the past month. To 'cap' it all a female blackcap appeared on the feeders and turned up again yesterday, rather uncomfortably consuming something or other from the mahonia petals.

Female Blackcap

I've mentioned before that blackcaps are tending to overwinter more in the North.  Apparently there are also some birds from Germany and North Eastern Europe that have changed their migration patterns and appear as winter visitors. Obviously it isn't possible to judge which type this bird was.

The starlings have also come back and I am actually pleased as at least they are able to diminish the continuing glut of fatballs shunned by most of the other birds.

Otherwise I haven't been getting out much.  I've been having work done around the house and spending a lot of time on the computer.  A planned trip to Wallington Hall to see bramblings last Friday fell through when I ended up in bed with a heavy cold.