Garden bird total reached 24 yesterday when a Stock Dove turned up, never sure on them due to feral pigeons being around but I had help in identification, thanks Ian.

On Thursday the Blackcap was back again for a short visit.

Tea time we see 400+ Jackdaw over in total each evening.

On Wednesday two Common Toads, one Signal Crayfish, one Treecreeper and a female Peregrine  put in an appearance whilst fishing however the most interesting observation was a drake Mallard diving in water five feet deep. I have witnessed Mallard dive previously but not to this depth normally three feet or less. 

Nearly three weeks since the last new bird arrived then finally at 12.52  today a familiar little figure appeared on the fat ball feeder, lo and behold a male Blackcap that has kept us waiting for weeks decided to make our day, week, month and lockdown.............this little bird is our holy grail bird maybe he will bring his wife along next time.    

Our roadmap is at hand and we are ready to go very soon now, some of the GM spots that have been out of reach for what seems an age will be visited.

A bat was sighted earlier in the week some bees have ween in flight, frogs have left the compost area and hopefully the hedgehogs will reappear....proper spring is on the way.

After a number of weeks of seeing nothing new around the garden something caught my eye high in the Silver Birch a reach for the binoculars revealed bird twenty two for the year and first for our garden a super female Lesser Redpoll had tagged along with two Blue Tits. 

Garden total 22

GM total 68

Our Garden birdwatch was hindered this morning by two local felines and work!

Fourteen species visited.

Wood Pigeon

Blue tit

Long tailed tit

Coal tit

Robin

Magpie

House Sparrow

Blackbird

Dunnock

Collared Dove

Goldfinch

Carrion Crow

Starling

Sparrowhawk and he was the last bird right at the end of the hour

Could the week have got any better after Tuesday? Well yes it did !

Wednesday lunch time we saw a single Redwing at the top of the Silver Birch at the bottom of the garden. They really have been a rare sight for us this winter around the garden and also very locally.

Late afternoon three Starlings over, again rare in the garden but just three hundred yards away at least two hundred in a flock in the Sycamores near the allotments.

Great to see the Collared Dove numbers up to three today.

One of the local felines managed to reduce our Wood Pigeon numbers by one.

Mr Sparrowhawk raced through this afternoon in flash, could he learn to take felines I wonder?

This week has started very well with a lovely Wren just a foot away from the patio doors before it flew into the Hawthorn hedge it gave me all of thirty seconds before disappearing. We do not get many of them in a year so it was most welcome as bird number twenty yesterday.

Bird number twenty one turned up this morning another rare visitor to us, a fabulous looking male Chaffinch in the top of the Cherry tree.

A male Blackbird has been busy turning over leaves looking for food under the Magnolia, there are lots of worms and slugs within the leaf matter.

Two Long Tailed Tits have been active most of the day on the feeders its nice to have them back.

Sat in the van this morning at the front of the house at 10.30 listening to Popmaster starting and a Kestrel was over hunting, giving us bird number nineteen.

Long Tailed tits are now regulars every day with up to ten birds.

Blackbird numbers increasing with eight at one go, equally split genders, one male is very distinctive with a little white mark on his left shoulder.

Numbers of House Sparrow also increasing with around forty in one flock raiding the feeders daily in spits and spurts.

No sign of the fox this week.

A pair of Feral Pigeon turned up today giving us bird number seventeen.

Number eighteen turned up in the form of a fly over Heron.

Our bird numbers normally level at 25ish give or take. Sadly missing the Blackaps this winter but you never know.

At around  16.30 a great looking fox was on the lawn looking for scraps. A healthy specimen no evidence of mange, not able to confirm its sex though.   

This morning just after 10.30 and clashing with Popmaster quiz on Radio 2 a fantastic male Sparrowhawk caught my attention on top of the Hawthorn hedge just twenty feet away. For a further four minutes he was trying to flush something from the hedge.....unsuccessfully. He made me miss several questions on the quiz, not that it made any difference to my score. This made it garden bird number sixteen for the year. 

Other birds around today were the usual visitors.

Another quiet afternoon but sat happily watching two Long-tailed tits feeding on the fatballs and staying longer than usual. Six Blackbirds very active in the borders and chasing each other around.

GM Year list up to 49 

A bit of a famine today with one Great Black-backed Gull over, five Blackbird, a lovely flock of eight Long-tailed Tit on the feeders for a short visit plus most of the usual birds already listed.

Somehow managed to lose Carrion Crow from yesterdays sightings.

Meagre offerings today just a small flock of Redwings c15 over  after I had gone for a walk to find some, which ended up being just one bird found at the allotments on Green Lane.

Had to break the ice from the bird bath, seventh day on the trot now.

Most of the birds from yesterday were sighted again today apart from Nuthatch.

May get to the River Tame (one mile away) tomorrow and increase the 2021 year list which is currently 46 all sightings within five miles from home. My occupation allows me to travel. 

Sat looking at the feeders for an hour at noonish today whilst lunching, birds that visited in no particular order were or numbers;

Blue tit

Great tit

Coal tit, one very scruffy individual ( not sure what he thinks of me)

Robin

Dunnock

Blackbird

Wood Pigeon

Collared Dove

Magpie

Nuthatch

House Sparrow

Goldfinch

Black Headed Gull over

Herring Gull over

Yesterday we had Jay and Ring necked Parakeets