I cut up some apples today and popped then out on protruding twigs and within 30secs the male Blackcap appeared!! I can't claim the credit thogh as he was back and forth to a swinging tray feeder with suet pellets in which he fed on. He popped back onother couple of times too! The Chaffinches though are starting to use the apples

In our garden now the max. counts are at least 2 Greenfinches, 9 Chaffinches and 6 Reed Buntings (all counts of birds all together at once so bound to be more) but best of all this afternoon our first ever garden Brambling, a female, with the Chaffinches.

In my Moulton garden the wild-ing is paying dividends, even in our tiny plot. We planted 4 Hawthorns several years ago and these are now large and full of berries. At least 3 large hollies have berries too as well as pyracantha and cotoneaster providing yet more berries. The berries are attracting stuff currently, not the Waxwings (down) yet but who knows?! Today I recorded 8 Blackbirds and 2 Redwings feeding, the latter being a garden rarity and we have never had 8 Blackbirds at once. Just 2 days ago a Mistle Thrush was in one of the holly bushes feeding too, a garden tick. As I say, just the Waxwings to go now, or a Fieldfare perhaps, everything is crossed!

A new species was seen in our Moulton garden this ween, in the tiny back garden too. A Common Whitethroat was in the large elder that is dripping with berries, lots of them ripe and being fed on by a range of species. It was a brief view but long enough for me to get Carys on it too, which pleased her especially as she is recording birds weekly and submitting to the BTO Garden Bird Study.

Wee update, still at least 1 male Reed Bunting visiting the hanging peanut tray in our back garden today (20th March). So now recorded for 51 days, thought it was worth celebrating the half century

Another garden surprise today when 2 male Reed Buntings turned up together in the garden

So in total we have had 2 males and 1 female Reed Bunting and had 25 consecutive days that at least 1 Reed Bunting has visited our garden feeders!! As I've said before, all this after no records of this species in our garden in 22 years before!!

Following on from Fridays male Reed Bunting in our Moulton garden, it spent nearly the whole of Saturday 30th in the garden again. It therefore guaranteed its addition to the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch sheet!! Today it returned this morning and then this afternoon it came back with a female Reed Bunting!! So like buses we wait 22 years and they start to turn up in multiples

A bit late due to Lockdown, but a walk to get real milk from our local farm let me add Swallow to my yearlist. A single bird was seen but the farmer told me that a pair were back on his farm. Also on the walk we had Oystercatcher and Lapwing on a flooded field. Also on the flood were Moorhen and Coot, with a Grey Heron nearby. Further down the farm lane we had 1 or 2 Greenfinches, a real rarity here these days (could have been 1 bird moving or 2 birds in seperate areas!).

Had what may be a first for our garden in Moulton, a Chiffchaff, briefly in the back garden. Also present, as they have been for a fortnight or so, a pair of Goldcrests displaying.

An even bigger surprise in our village today with news of 30 Waxwings just round the corner from our house, and with the bonus of me being at home A great find by young local birder Finlay Wilde

I hot-footed it round the corner and was soon watching the birds feeding on berries and flycatching. The kind man whose garden they were in invited the four observers in and we had fabulous views and managed a few piccies between us too. As we were watching I noticed a bird flyover and shouted Swallow A yeartick for all assembled there (8 folk at that stage!!).

Later I received a call that suggested 2 flocks may be in the vicinity. Brilliant bird illustrator, Dave Quinn, who lives near me too, rang to say he had had 2 flocks in widely spaced locations this morning. One is probably the flock I saw, the other flew off towards Whitegate (and nearer to my Newchurch patch!!). He also told me of two adult Mediterranean Gulls in field by the village the other day.

In the past week the male Blackcap has been seen again and possibly a female was briefly in the same tree but not seen by Carys well enough. Goldcrests are regular in the garden too, roll on the day that one of the crests is a Firecrest!!

Just been messages by my wife to say that there's a male Blackcap in our front garden in Moulton. Miffed to be missing it & miffed it missed the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch by a day or two 

For a long time now we have had a mini Starling roost in our Leylandii in the garden, probably never numbering more than 50, but still nice to have & great to hear in the dark, all that chuntering & murmuring!! But on a larger scale tonight I saw a mini murmuration over our village of 400-500 Starlings, at 5.10pm. I'm not sure where they ended up as I lost sight of them over the houses but wonder whether they headed towards Northwich for the Neumann's/Ashton's/Marbury roost.