UKC

The RSPB Garden Birdwatch last weekend, what we're the best things you saw in "your" hour?

I wasn't at home, down in London at daughter's. They've only got a small square of grass so decided to go round the corner to the local park (surrounded by houses, long and thin - less than 50m across, has a large pond, loads of people dogwalking)

Highlights were:

• Brilliant views of a goldcrest by the path 
• Lone redwing sitting at top of very tall tree
• Red kite drifting over (not unusual in that suburban area - but still great to see)
• Female blackcap flitting past right at the end of the hour 

My list from the garden -

Coal tit 1

Robin 1

Blackbird 2

Greenfinch 4

Siskin 5

Goldfinch 6

Chaffinch 15

That was in the first half hour before a sparrowhawk made them dive for cover.

Dave

Highlights here in a south-manchester garden:

• Jay eating a massive grub/catterpillar
• Greater spotted woodpecker
• Long tailed tits

Frustratingly the nuthatch and treecreeper waited until the hour was up before they put in an appearance. 

Didn’t do it, but walking back to our house on Saturday saw a peregrine fly right over our house. Second one in eleven years. 

Nothing really of note. 9 Goldfinches was our top scorer.

The 2 herring gulls that nest on the flat roof of the house backing onto us put in a fly by appearance. (we’re 20 miles inland but I guess it’s really not unusual for gulls to nest inland)

We were a bit distracted but we rarely see more than our robin, our pair of blackbirds, a family of goldfinches, various pigeons (who seem to be thriving under local solar panels) and the jackdaw hunters. It not helped by hardly anyone in our estate seeming to have feeders.

The walking in our wider area is amazing for birds, especially the thousands of old gravel pits and coal slurry water systems, notably Attenborough and Netherfield lagoons. Highly recommended for anyone within an easy drive of Nottingham.

Didn't do the birdwatch but should have...

The local goldfinches are now coming into the garden because of the teezles. Very structural plants!

Robin (psychopathic), blackbirds (grumpy), collared doves, sparrow (squadron thereof), magpies (inevitable), wren, dunnock, blue tit, coal tit

Lots of starlings locally, but they don't come into our garden

Occasional long-tailed tits. Sparrowhawk does acrobatics between the houses sometimes.

Last week, my new neighbours took out a lot of mature shrubs and trees on their side of the boundary and erected a new fence. Consequently, not the best weekend for it because there was a lot of disruption and a lot of the cover has gone...but I did it anyway.

7 sparrows, 1 dunnock, 5 starlings, 2 robins, 2 blackbirds, 1 bluetit, 2 goldfinches, 3 jackdaws, 3 wood pigeons, 3 feral pigeons, 1 magpie.

I was a bit disappointed that my resident songthrush didn't make an appearance, but c'est la vie!

Just the usual suspects

• Goldfinch
• Greenfinch
• Blue tits
• Great tits
• Sparrows
• Wood Pigeon
• Blackbird
• Robin

At this time of year we rarely get any other visitors unless there's snow on the ground. 

Wood pigeons

Collared doves 

Sparrows

blackbird

Magpies

Crows

Raven

Bluetits

Terns

Barn owl

Kettleshulme....western peak.