Saturday January 28

Well I did my duty today and spent an hour staring at the back-garden in order to take part in the RSPB's Big Garden Birdwatch.

I recorded a typical seven species; 2 House Sparrows, 2 Blue Tits, 2 Great Tits, 1 Robin, 3 Blackbirds, 2 Dunnocks, and 2 Long-tailed Tits.

The rules, as I understand them, are pretty strict. You can only count birds in your garden at any one time, so although I saw two females and a male House Sparrow during the hour I was obliged to record them as two birds because I never saw them all in the garden together.

Also, I saw Carrion Crow, Jackdaw, Woodpigeon, Feral Pigeon, and Grey Heron flying past during the hour, but couldn't count any of them as none landed in the garden.

Just after the hour I saw two Robins together, but they missed the cut.

Whether the other many thousands of observers are following these rules I cannot say, but the results suggest possibly not. Common Gull seems surprisingly frequently recorded in peoples gardens for instance.

Mind you, Patchwork Challenge now also gives the option of seeing what fellow competitors are scoring and while the majority look fine, a few make my eyebrows raise, such as putting Common Gull on every list but no other species of gull.

I also saw my first insect of the year, some kind of blowfly. I have no idea what it was so I am calling it a Common Fly. Roll on Insect Patchwork Challenge.